Midnight's just around the corner. Let's Play Persona 3 FES!

Next we'll be heading down to Paulownia Mall for a quick diversion...



Yep, it's time to head out on a date with Elizabeth!

Elizabeth's date requests are unique to FES, by the way, added in along 50-odd other missions to round it out at around 99. The best thing about them is that they're there just for fun; you can complete them anytime during the day before the deadline, they don't take up any time at all during the afternoon and they're absolutely hilarious. Out of all the changes made between the vanilla version and FES, the Elizabeth dates rank right near the top.

For our first date will be held in Paulownia Mall, as you may have figured out. So let's get to it.



Elizabeth is a little... um, "naive". Since she spends most of her time cooped up in the Velvet Room, she's not used to the things we take for granted day to day. This leads to some rather strange scenes with her, as you can imagine.



Hmm? Oh, sure. Toss in a few coins and we'll move on.



W-WHAT!?



NO DON'T

I COULD USE THAT



How did you fit all of them in there anyway!?

Our next stop on our trip is to the Police Station. Elizabeth checks out the wanted posters on the windows...



...and comes to the completely wrong conclusion.



I'mma gonna have to say "no" here. The last thing I want is for you to track these guys down, kill them and drag their severed heads back to the station.



Oh man, not the club.



Whew, saved by the bell. Last thing I want is to be embarrassed in a crowded-



No! Stop that! This isn't the place for that!



Let's see... there's either the Karaoke bar or the Arcade. Let's go to the Karaoke place, since almost no one books there during weekdays.



Aaaand now I see I've made a huge mistake.



Er, okay?

Oh geez, now she's going to be dumping several pounds more worth of coins into the fountains.



At this point she goes a little crazy with the fountains...



And the date's now over. It was actually kinda fun, in a nervewracking sort of way.



I would pay good money to bring back Nameless and Belladona. Man, Igor doesn't know what he's missing.



I don't think wishes work that way Elizabeth...



Oh well, at least we get a key item out of it.

For some of Elizabeth's requests, you can get a key item that let's you fuse a Persona that is normally locked off, as meeting the requirements without it would punt you over to the nearest persona of that arcana. The Small Cheongsam, for example, let's us fuse Hua Po, a level 25 Magician Persona.



Anyway, that's it for Elizabeth for now. Let's head over to Student Council and get our work ethic on.



I honestly don't see the point. I mean, they're just uniforms.



Hey, hey now. Don't lecture me, I was agreeing with you!



Sure.



And... rank up already? That's it?

Hmm, you know, it has been a while since we've gone to Tartarus. Sure, why not?



Last we left off, we had a mid-boss to take care of, didn't we Let's save our game and head up there right now.



Music - Master of Tartarus

Best song in the game, really.

Anyway, the three Venus Eagles are our first real boss of the game so far, having much more HP than your average enemy and hitting quite a fair bit harder. Worse yet, scanning them doesn't reveal any weaknesses! What do we do?



The first thing you should do when fighting a master of Tartarus is to hunt for weaknesses. Most of them have some weakness to exploit so narrowing down your options is key to winning some fights. Note that it doesn't really matter if you win or lose while figuring out a boss - since you (should have) saved before a boss, you can just do a test run to work out a strategy before giving the battle a real shot next time.

For the Venus Eagles, they're weak spot is to Pierce attacks. There aren't many attacks at this point that use the Pierce element (or even at all, I think), however you should have picked up an extra Bow for your MC at this point so just slap one on and go to town.



Yukari's aces in the battle here thanks to her high Wind resist* and Bow attack. Note that you have to scan the enemy first in order for Yukari and the others to catch on to weaknesses; because of how the AI works on the normal setting, they'll only work on knocking down enemies once Mitsuru (and later Fuuka) relays the information to them via scan.

*I forgot to mention, but the elemental resists Yukari and Junpei have are actually much stronger than normal, reducing every attack down to single digits instead of halving it like normal. Effectively speaking, they may as well be immune to them.



Thumbs up for victory!



For our troubles, we win three Empress's Masks and a Bead Chain from them. The Masks are mostly items to be sold for cash (and lots of it), but the Bead Chain is extremely valuable, acting as a party full-heal in case of emergencies. It's very good indeed.



Mitsuru lies. There's only one or two new enemies here, and the rest are the same as before.

The only new guy we encounter here is the Obsessed Cupid. There's not much to say about them, as all they do is cast Garu from time to time and deal weak damage. Later Cupids also start incorporating Charm attacks into their repertoire, which makes them significantly more dangerous since a Charm character turns against you (and a charmed MC is uncontrollable).



Speaking of status effects, Emcee's weapon can apparently inflict poison from time to time. Poison's much more potent here than in other RPGs, shaving off a huge chunk of health whenever an enemy or ally inflicted with it makes an attack. It's also the only status effect not blocked by the ability Unshaken Will, which is the best source of status protection in the game.

The other status effects are much nastier though. The aforementioned Panic can shut down a party member completely until it wears off, preventing them from using their strongest attacks. Fear can sometimes prevent an ally from fighting and even force them to run away, Distress greatly increases the chance of getting hit my a critical attack, Enrage forces an ally to attack endlessly while greatly cutting their defenses at the expense of attack and Charm turns an ally against you completely. Needless to say, you'll want to be able to counter all of these at the drop of the hat or risk getting wiped out when they start getting used against you.

Along our way up through the tower we come across a rare enemy! Wealth Hands have no offensive ability whatsoever, however they drop incredibly rare items and can run away at any given turn. Taking them out is essentially a crapshoot, but the coins you can sell from them as well as the void weapons you can use in weapon fusion (more on that later) are far too valuable to pass up. Long story short, kill them on sight whenever you can.



Emcee manages to pick up a few good Personas while climbing the tower, so let's take a look at what he's got.



I can't believe I kept forgetting to post Pixie's stats. And I even made a note about it when I was doing last week's write-up too. >_>

Anyway, as far as early game Personas go, Pixie's fantastic. She doesn't have any weaknesses, resists Zio attacks, and can heal with Dia. In addition to that, she also learns Rakunda, an ability that cuts one enemy's defenses, Pulinpa, a spell that inflicts Panic, which prevents one enemy from using any attacks, and Trafuri, a guaranteed escape spell. All in all, she's a solid persona and worth having on any team at this point.



Next up is Apsaras. She's our first Ice persona from the Priestess arcana and she's... okay, I guess. An ice resist is always nice, but that Slash weakness makes her very suspect since it's probably the most common physical type. She can cast Bufu to round out our arsenal though, and can heal poison and lower an enemy's hit/evasion thanks to Posumundi and Sukunda. The biggest draw for her, however, is that she completes the second half of Orpheus's Fusion Spell, Candenza, a powerful healing ability that restores everyone's HP by 50% and boost their hit/evasion rate. Not bad for a level 3 persona.



Lastly we've aquired Angel during our climb today, and she's pretty good. Her resistances don't really offer much since Light and Dark attacks won't becoming into play for a little while, but she can cast Garu, adding a third element to our arsenal. In addition to that she can heal mental status such as Fear, Panic and Distress thanks to Patra, can raise an ally's hit/evasion rate with Sukukaja, heal charm status with Charmdi and even instantly kill some enemies with Hama, the first light spell in the game.



Anyway, we reach the next checkpoint without too much fuss, however MC and Yukari get tired during the climb and we have to turn back since taking on a boss without saving is tantamount to suicide. Besides, MC and the team should be fine before tomorrow, right?



...Uh-oh.



When lunch comes around, Kazushi tries to rope us into Kendo again, but we've got bigger plans.



You guys wanted Chihiro, and here she is. And all it took was three passes at her.



Chihiro is such a shrinking violet at first, having trouble even making the most casual conversation with others and stuttering with every other word. I guess it's this level of MOEness that makes people fall for her.

A short walk later and we're already back at the dorm. But it turns out her home is in the other direction! Oops.



She's quick to apologize though. Man, I'm surprised no one's criticized her as being a moe-blob to the extreme yet.



And that's part one of the Justice S. Link.



Sheeeit. Looks like we might have some trouble with the bosses tonight; with Yukari out of comission and Emcee weakened, we'll be severely underpowered for tonight's Tartarus romp. Still, we can pull this off - we still have two more Elizabeth requests to finish before the end of tonight after all.



God, I hope so.



The second set of bosses we have to face are the Dancing Hands, which are a pain in the butt. Their only weakness is to strike attacks and the only one who can pull those off are Emcee. In addition to that, they have a wide repertoire of attacks to hurt you with and Orpheus's resistances aren't exactly optimal for the fight.



The first battle goes terribly, as you can imagine; Orpheus misses twice in a row and Emcee quickly gets mowed down from high-powered attacks. Now, let's think on this and figure out what went wrong, shall we?

Mistake #1: I put off Tartarus for too long. If you're aiming to complete all the requests in the game on-time, it's generally a good rule-of-thumb to do them as soon as you possibly can. Putting them off to the last minute like I did is asking for all sorts of trouble to happen.

Mistake #2: I let Yukari get tired the night before. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you're aiming for a more offensive strategy in a battle, having a secondary healer on hand is a MUST. If I simply charged my way to the top the night before and left her in good health, she'd still be available to shore up my defenses for the fight.

Mistake #3: I didn't savescum for good health at the bathroom earlier. There's a savepoint and a bathroom in the lobby for a reason, after all. If I remembered to save and kept trying until Emcee was in better condition, he'd be more resiliant to attacks and might've survived to land a successful hit.




Yep. Sucks, doesn't it?

That said, the battle's far from unbeatable just yet and the second fight goes much more smoothly. Orpheus doesn't miss a single time, so having Junpei on standby while Emcee keeps them knocked down ends up sweeping the entire battle.



For our troubles, we get a Mazio Gem (an in-battle item that casts the electric-elemental Zio spell on all targets) and a couple of Chewing Souls to restore our SP with. Not bad! We'll definitely need a few of those later on.



First things first, we save before we continue the climb. If Junpei ever gets tired or Emcee dies, it'd be nice to not have to redo that entire fight.



Along the way up Tartarus, we run into a Grave Beetle. These guys are crazy strong and resiliant, but thankfully only appear solo instead of groups. That said, you'll want to keep them on perpetual knock down just so they don't turn on you and one-shot a weakened MC.



We win a Beetle Shell for our troubles, completing one of the last two requests we have left for Elizabeth this month. Hooray!



We also run into another new enemy, the Trance twins. These guys are wimps and I actually had trouble grabbing a screenshot of their status, since Junpei kept killing them before Mitsuru finished the scan.



Since we do NOT want Junpei to get tired and run off before we beat the next boss, the climb through the next section is very cautious. Virtually every fight is ran from, and shadows for the most part are avoided completely. I do fight a few Wealth Hands though.



The next boss fight only has a single enemy, but that means he's going to hit a lot harder as a result to make up for lack of numbers. Emcee makes a quick jump back to the foyer to heal and save...



...and quickly gets demolished. Hoo boy.

However, you know what they say: when the going gets tough, the tough finds a new persona to use.



Even though we had to fuse Angel and (I think) Nekomata to get him, Ara Mitama is perfect for the next fight. He resists the Strike attacks that the next boss likes to throw around, can boost Emcee's and Junpei's defenses with Rakukaja while lowering the boss's with Rakunda, and is basically our ace in the hole for the next fight. He starts with Bash and Agi for attacks and also inherits Patra from Angel, adding on a little more support to his arsenal for us to take advantage of.

Further down the line, he also picks up Sukukaja as well as Sharp Student, a passive ability that lowers the chance of a critical hit landing on him. All in all, not bad!



First off, the nitty-gritty about the boss. Even though you can't tell here, he's immune to Slash attacks and resists Fire, making Junpei's job at working the offensive a bit of a pain. Still, his stats are fairly low all-around and we have Rakunda on-hand to boost the damage we deal so it's not all bad news.



With both Ara Mitama boosting Emcee's defenses and Cadenza healing and boosting his evasion, Emcee can now survive any attack Rampage Drive can throw at him (provided none of them go critical, of course). With these boosted defenses, the battle goes much better as Emcee keeps the team buffed while Junpei goes on the offensive.



The evasion boost from Cadenza also comes in handy, giving Emcee a lot of dodges and freeing up extra turns to batter the boss with. Nice, huh?



Eventually Rampage Drive goes down for the count on our third try, and we claim a few Balms of Life (full revive to an ally) from his rotting corpse. Try and end my Tartarus run, will you?



We also claim a bunch more healing items afterwards, the big one being the Soma. Somas are, quite frankly, the single best item in the game, refreshing the entire party's HP and SP in one fell swoop. Often you won't really need that kind of overkill, but stocking up on a bunch beforehand makes a certain optional boss a cinch as we'll see later.



Eventually we reach the barracade at the top! Hooray!



And finally we grab the Old Document at the top, finishing the last of Elizabeth's temporary requests.

Uh... huh. That's great Elizabeth, really.



We get a crapton of cash from the Beetle Shell though, which is hella nice.



I'll take a look at it, thanks. /Leon



As a reward for retrieving the Old Document on time, Elizabeth hands us another one of those Godly Bead Chains for our troubles, further increasing our healing stock. As for casting Cadenza, we get a bunch of Agilao Gems, basically a higher power version of the Agi spells Emcee and Junpei have been using so far.



Hmm... might as well finish this one up, too.



Elizabeth is truly a renaissance woman, willing to explore even the most trivial curiosities.



She hands over a few revival beads as thanks, though we could already buy a bunch from the Pharmacy. Oh well, it saves us money at least.



Trying to grind for EXP now is suicide, so Emcee calls it a night for now.



Oh geez, not you too. Look, Emcee'll come when he wants too, okay Hidetoshi?



Besides, he's got Kendo practice today so nyeh.

Pfft. What's wrong, getting tired already Kaz- What the Christ!?



Liar. Where's your puffer then, hmm?



"I love you."





No, not really. Woulda been pretty interesting though.



That's the spirit. Wreck that knee until you can't walk again!



Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time. Still, I want to see some serious tendonitis here.



Don't worry, Mum's the word.



Oh, hey. Wanna head for a walk?



...!

I guess pick-up lines really don't work. Huh.

Yikes, sounds pretty annoying. They seriously have you clean their stuff for them?



Weight loss in the form of menial chores, huh? Doesn't seem like a very good trade-off to me.



Oh, it's fine. Convincing Kazushi to wreck his knee is always a blast.



Hell yeah, you know it. Take a look at these guns!



Okie-doke.



The Strength arcana's probably my favourite design out of the bunch. There's just something... mystical, I guess? About it that I can't help but like.



Everyone's healthy huh? Guess it's back to Tartarus for some last-minute levelling.



My goal for the first full moon is usually to hit level seven, just for that extra security in health. Technically it's possible to do it at the levels we're at now, but there's no reason not to level a bit while you still can.



I also fuse a few more personas at the Velvet Room to expand Emcee's arsenal a bit more. Omoikane here is fantastic. His only weakness is to an attack we won't be seeing for a while yet, making him much more resiliant than he looks. In addition to that, he's our first Zio user, giving us an electric attack that nothing can resist just yet, as well as Dia. Later on he picks up Enradi and Me Patra to cure Rage and other mental status effects with, as well as the passive ability Auto-Rakukaja, which does exactly what it says on the tin. He's probably the best early game persona available and worth fusing right away.



We also fuse Forneus while we're add it, who has a resistance to Ice that will most certainly come in handy for the coming fight (though the fire weakness is a little suspect). His starting abilities are pretty decent, Bufu and Bash giving him the standard attack arsenal, though it's Tarukaja that's particularly helpful since it buffs the amount of damage can deal by a considerable amount. Since we fused Ara Mitama to get him, he ends up inheriting Rakukaja and Rakunda from the bead, and later on picks up Auto-Sukukaja, Posumundi and our first Poison-inflicting ability of the game, Poisma, rounding out Emcee's support arsenal quite nicely.



And I think I'll end it there for today. While I'm eager to get on with the next story event, I think I've covered just about enough for tonight don't you think?

Next time: There's no getting offa this train we're on.

I don't think I even started her S-Link until my third playthrough. Lord, what an irritating archetype.


Could you take screenshots of the Old Documents' text? They end up having some fun information about one of the NPCs.

Sure. I'll grab a few shots when I record the next part.

"Cup of Knight"? Really?

It was an honorable piece of equipment, used when your fair lady found out what you were doing with those damsels in distress you rescued.

And it's made of stacked school desks. It's enough to make you wonder what happens to all the stuff in the school when it transforms.

I can't believe I didn't notice that! Good eye.

Anyway, part 5's been recorded and I should be able to get to work on the write-up tonight. I think I've gotten back into the swing of things so expect an update soon!

Which explains all the dead rabbits in the Sumaru metropolitan area.

I kept the Toy Bow throughout the whole game for the explicit purpose of hunting these down. Bows allow me to sneak up behind them at a distance, so they don't run away when I ambush them, and the Toy Bow has excellent accuracy to nullify the Wealth Hands' ridiculous Evasion.

Elizabeth's dates are awesome, especially because of the voice acting. She's so unbelievably alien, but she also provides a hilarious way to show the audience how our games and culture could baffle an unfamiliar observer. I started chuckling at the "makes sport of water" line, but my stomach hurt with laughter by the end of the date.

Well now you know why she charges so much for the Compendium.

I think she watched The Matrix: Reloaded.

I spent about 95% of the game reading that as "Revival Bread." I always wondered how dead allies ate it... until I remembered Pan de Muerto.

"Aww, man! I left my lunchbox in my desk again! Oh, well, school's closed till tomorrow, I'm sure it'll be okay."

No wonder the damn thing's so strong. All this time, Kenji's been feeding it! That's it, he's off the list.

Number 3 is the most important rule: No matter how much they cry, no matter how much they beg... never, ever, feed them after midnight.

I know I'm cutting it pretty close to the deadline, but I say you accept the things you cannot change and take him up on his offer.

Oh hey, this thing.

No promises, but with a new computer, work finally slowing down and the next update already partly done, I might be able to pick things up soon. Stay tuned.

Too late mang, we're on autopilot until graduation. BTW, I think we're going to have a kareoke party after the ceremony, you should come along!

Yay karaoke! Anyone want to veg out after?

It's a full moon tonight.

Screenshots have been taken, editing has begun, and I finally have enough days off in a row to get things started again. Expect an update this week.

Hello, my name's Emcee Escher and I guess I'll be your MC for tonight. PapillonReel was too "preoccupied" (his words, not mine) to write up tonight's update, so he's slated me to take over for him for tonight's full moon. Not exactly the most exciting thing in the world but hey, it beats the reading material Mr. Ekoda keeps giving us.



Anyway, starting off I'll jump back and show off the Old Document as liquid requested. It doesn't really give us that much information about 5 W's/1 H of the events 10 years ago, but I'm guessing the rest of the series will make up for it.




First thing in the morning, Akihiko pays us a visit. I'll be honest, it'll be nice having Akihiko on the team because keeping Junpei and Yukari from tearing into each other is getting harder by the day.



Papillon mentioned earlier that today, along with two others, you have the entire day to make use of the Full Moon bonuses for fusion and yadda yadda yadda since the game doesn't quite take over on these nights just yet. Well, to be blunt, he was kinda wrong; we have to take today off in order to prepare for whatever shit goes down tonight.

Not that I'm complaining; the jerk worked me way too damn hard the past week and I need the break.



You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, things and ideas. You just crossed over into… the Dark Hour."



Kind of a boring hour, really. Mitsuru's just been tinkering away at her ham radio all night.




By which she means aliens from outer space. Kind of a conspiracy nut, that Kirijo-senpai.



"Now I'll never get those negatives of Big Foot and Elvis."




Stop it, Mitsy. You're making me blush!



Spoilsport.

By the way, if you're wondering how I know how all this despite being asleep… I have psychic powers. Nah, I'm just fooling - the cameras in the building are DH-proof so I'm just running a recording of it for you guys. And to think, you guys don't think I care.

Quick! Stock up on water so the aliens with the really stupid weakness won't come after us! Haha, that was such an awful movie




Oh no. So you're telling me another demented clown-hand spider thing with knives is going to come after me tonight? I still have nightmares from the thing.



Yes, because mortal danger is a family-friendly activity. Bring your friends!



Augh, I WAS JOKING.



I just hope we don't bite the big one.



Good thing there's a band of troubled teens with special powers here to set things straight, amirite? Though you have to wonder, why hasn't anyone else developed powers to fight these things yet? Or, for that matter, why haven't major disasters like the one we're hoping to prevent tonight come up before?

In all honesty, this whole thing doesn't really seem all that well-thought out



Wait no, forget that noise. Junpei's got it right; we're here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and we're all out of gum.



Except Akihiko, heh.



I kinda feel bad for the guy, though… at least, I would, if it wasn't for the fact he got bitten in the ass by a Cowardly Maya last month.



But thou must!

Anyway, fast-forwarding a bit now. I get elected leader again because who's got two thumbs and kicks major ass? THIS GUY.




You'll be singing a different tune when I send you to the frontlines to die, soldier. Now drop and gimme fifty!




Annnd fade to black.



So the rich girl with the tinfoil hat and severe paranoia has ditched us the night of potential disaster? Why am I not surprised?



I just hope there aren't any werewolves out tonight. Better stay away from 'em, they can rip your lungs out, Jun.



Though, heh, I'd like to meet their tailAAAAAGGGGHHH



WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT



I am seriously >:|-ing at you right now, Mitsy.




Well what about your bike, then? And don't just hand-wave it like you do everything else that gets in the way of your conspiracy theories, like you did when I asked you why the computer ate my homework last night.



What.

Are you serious.

Anyway, let's get this over with already. Mission Start!



Updates on Yukari and Junpei, in case you were wondering. Not really much to say about those two, other than that Takeba's picked up her first attack spell (the wind spell, Garu).




We run on some train tracks for a bit. Nothing happens.

I feel like this whole segment could be replaced by a long ladder climb. Bleh.



Yukari's got the gist of it. The whole thing smells fishy to me.



Yeah, just like how you really saw the Abominable Snowman in the alleyway last week. I bet his name isn't really even Christopher, is it?



Tch, fine.



Then don't climb up the ladder first, dumbbutts.



Okay, so. We're on the train now and there aren't any shadows here. Are you sure this isn't just another false positive, Mitsy?




Huh? You're right, Yukari. That IS str-



It's a trap!