Part 10: PART NINE: Sanity's Requiem (Please don't sue.)

PART NINE: Sanity's Requiem (Please don't sue.)

Last time on Persona 2...

Maya and friends climbed Mt. Mifune, hoping to make it to the Sanitarium where Tatsuya Sudou was being held. Sudou, they believed, could shed some light on the matter of the Joker case. However, the direct path to the Sanitarium was blocked, so they were forced to take a winding, roundabout path up the mountain. Finally, they made it to the rear entrance. There, they discovered a grisly scene.

Ulala quickly announces the source of the party's discomfort. Where would we be without her?

Baofu reacts to the situation by acting like a dick, as always.


Katsuya, on the other hand, immediately goes all detective on the bodies.



Aside from his body odor, Baofu has anger issues, apparently.

Fortunately, Maya steps in and defuses the situation. Once again, keep this decision in mind, it's significant later.



Thanks for the recap, Baofu. Maya asks her companions what they think of their current situation.



Nobody offers any particularly fascinating information, so Maya tries her hand at playing detective...

...and fails miserably. Useless woman! With nothing else to do in the entrance area, Maya and friends head into the sanitarium proper.


Almost immediately, they run into a convenient Velvet Room and a new location - Trish's Fountain. We've seen a Velvet Room before, so let's head into the Fountain.



Inside we meet Trish, who's basically an utter whore in a fairy outfit. Trish offers healing at her Fountains, but she offers it for an absolutely ridiculous markup:



Six thousand Yen amounts to six battles or so; not worth the price at all, especially when Maya can handle all of the healing on her lonesome.

Trish also badmouths you if you turn her overpriced healing down. Maya asks her companions if they'd back her up, should she try and curbstomp Trish.


There are even stories going around about that bizarre murder case. Geez, even if it's a joke, I wish they'd stop it. At least SOMEBODY thinks the general populace's fascination with Joker is strange.

But there was one story that's really scary. Even I couldn't sleep. I'll tell ya when I feel like it. Wait, Baofu's got character depth beyond being a cock? Gasp! Next up, we head to the curiously-placed yet handy Velvet Room. Once inside, Baofu shares a little bit more about himself.

Listen, Personas are just tools...use them according to the situation. Don't ever think that's you...I'd never admit that's me...You can only count on yourself in the end...Huh? Do I hate Personas? Yeah, I hate them...You can't use them when you need 'em most...Don't ever rely on them too much. Huh? Why am I able to use Personas...? That's what I'd like to know...though I might've played that game when I was a kid...
Persona usage is typically granted by playing the Persona game, which is depicted as a sort of demon summoning ritual. The characters in the first Persona are seen playing it as the game opens, and it's implied that Maya's group had played it at some point as well.

Come to think of it, back in high school I learned Persona from you and played it...I wonder if it has anything to do with this? Ulala adds her thoughts about the Velvet Room, as well. I actually knew of that door before, It was there, then it wasn't, so I thought it was a weird door, but I didn't think it led here...
Around this time, everyone finally notices that Katsuya's Persona is basically a giant spiritual fursuit and it's been creeping everyone the fuck out. It's time to put the Velvet Room to use. We head back out and find ourselves some demons to contact. This goes about as well as it usually does.


Ulala tries her fortune-telling crap on the giant bird.



Ulala:
While we manage to get some cards out of the bird, it's a World demon - we want Sun cards, so we find some other demon to Contract with; the blank Free Tarot cards we'll get from this can be converted into Sun cards.

This guy here works just fine...

...as we see. After a few battles, we've collected enough Free Tarot to summon a new Persona for Katsuya, so we head back to the Velvet Room and talk to the Demon Artist.

We go into the Demon Artist's dialogue, and...

...select the cards we want.

One spiffy animation level, we're up 45 Sun cards, so we head back to Igor and give him the okay.



There's a flash of light, and once the scene clears, we meet...

...Surya, a level 13 Persona from the Sun Arcanum. Surya reflects Fire attacks, but is weak to Water attacks; his primary advantage over Helios is that he learns both Fire and Wind attack spells. After taking a few battles to rank him up, he learns Maha Garu, the group-target Wind spell, which gives us the opportunity to learn a new fusion spell.

Wind followed by Water followed by Maha Garu makes...

...Cyclone Blade. This does enough damage to defeat any random encounter demon in the Sanitarium in a single strike, and attacks all the demons at once; simply put, we've just made this dungeon our bitch. Just for fun, we put Baofu and Odysseus' new Soothing Melody spell to use as well:

Marin Karin followed by Soothing Melody makes...

...Seductive Melody, which is a charm spell that affects all enemies. This actually has a pretty high chance of connecting, but Cyclone Blade does the job just fine for now. Now that we've gotten our ass-kickery taken care of, we continue through the Sanitarium.

We come across five grand in a box - incidentally, this would't afford us a single shot of Trish's healing - and then make our way to Room 206; we find a terrified nurse inside.

...He did it...He called the demons...The patient in Room 303...Tatsuya Sudou summoned the demons! The demons attacked my patients and my co-workers...It's no lie! ...You saw them too, right? All those corpses! We see what the rest of the party makes of this.

Could it be those dead Mafia guys back there?...


He probably bribed them under the mask of charity, but she spilled her guts quickly. Well, it can't be helped in this situation. Room 303, huh? Well, we know where we're headed now, so we get back to it.

On the way, we grab an AGI Incense card just lying around. We don't have to go much further from the card to get to Room 303.

Katsuya, ever the Boy Scout, points it out helpfully as we draw close.

Katsuya and Maya bust in, guns at the ready.


So the truth comes out - Tatsuya Sudou is Joker. At least the man has good taste in headwear. Maya is suddenly entranced by a poem on the wall.




ORACLE OF MAIA
The twinkling star of Pleiades sets time in motion;
Dance of pleasure, Feast of shadow, Tongue of stranger, Atonement lights above.
The lion's roar echoes throughout...
The 5 skulls shine in Hades...
The holy cross shines in the Heavens...
The moment the stars stop rising...
The beat of the virgin Maia also ceases...
Paradise remains on Earth...


My thoughts exactly, Baofu.
Katsuya: Heaven's cross...is it the "Grand Cross" that occured this summer? Is...this...some sort of prophecy?
Ulala: You mean where all the planets in the solar system align in a cross formation...? But nothing happened...?
Suddenly, Maya falls to her knees.

Ulala: Does your chest hurt again, Ma-Ya?
Katsuya: Again...?
Ulala: After running into Deja Vu Boy,she got this mysterious bruise on her chest that nags her...She doesn't know how she got it...
Maya stands back up and says that she's fine.
Ulala: Fine...? You sure about that?
Baofu: This place ain't normal...This room's vibes can't be trusted. Let's move on. Nobody has anything else to add to the creepy room; nobody, that is, save for Ulala.

We take our leave of the room, and continue exploring the Sanitarium. Not long after, everyone is suddenly shook by Persona resonance.

Up the nearby staircase, we come to the Director's Office, where the resonance is strongest.


Inside, who do we meet but Tatsuya Sudou himself, staring into the mirror and shaving? Without turning, he acknowledges the party.

I see...I feel sorry for that brat.
Katsuya: You're...Tatsuya Sudou, aren't you? This serial killing...the killings 10 years ago...You did these, didn't you?

They said they needed a sacrifice. With the chest all carved out alive...With the tendons cut so they can't escape.
Baofu: You piece of garbage...How the hell did you get that kind of power being locked up for 10 years?
Tatsuya Sudou: "Kotodama", y'know, Kotodama. Y'know? You say something, and it'll happen? The voices tell me anything...that poor excuse for a dad did this to me.
Katsuya: Kotodama...? The rumors...? You said your dad did this to you. Then, why is he after your life?
Suddenly, the sound of a ringing cell phone pierces the air.

We cut to the person making the call, a sketchy-looking scarred man standing outside.

Baofu catches a glimpse of him from the window...and suddenly dashes out.

After Baofu makes his exit, Sudou answers the phone.

I'm free, you got that? "I'm coming for you soon!"...Give that message to my fuckin' dad!
Katsuya: What do you hope to accomplish!? To keep on killing!? To get revenge on your father!?
Tatsuya Sudou: Hyahaha! I used to kill for pleasure, but now I only kill because people give me a call...
He turns and stares directly at Ulala.
...right?

Katsuya Sudou: My real purpose is...to right the wrong. "This Side" is wrong, and The "Other Side" is right. My fuckin' dad wouldn't understand that...You understand, don't you?
He stares at Maya, who doesn't respond.


Sudou teleports away as Katsuya fires at him.

With nothing left to control it, Maya, Katsuya, and Ulala are attacked by the Hellhound. The obvious solution to this? Try to talk the Hellhound out of it!

...er, I guess not. Maybe we can run away?

Nope, looks like we'll have to fight.

Thanks to Surya's Wind spell, however, it's not really much of a battle. We blast the Hellhound with Hydro Boost four times, taking minor damage from mid-level Fire spells in the process, and it collapses. With the threat elminated, the team heads after Baofu.

Baofu doesn't say a word - he simply takes a drag of his cigarette.
Katsuya: You seem to have a reason...do you know him?
Again, Baofu doesn't respond, so Katsuya whips out his cell phone and calls back to HQ to make his report.




With that said and done, the team knows their next destination - the Sky Museum. There, they hope to get some answers out of Sudou, or at least try to put a stop to whatever crazy plan he's come up with.

COMING UP NEXT: The Persona crew takes to the skies!