Part 130: Emyprean
Living With Determination -Iwatodai Dorm-
That thing up ahead, whatever it is, is causing all of this.
It's supposedly tied to us and our Personas... You don't think that the only way out of this... is for us to die...?
Thinking like that gets you nowhere. We wouldn't have come this far if we didn't believe there's another way. Y-You're right... Sorry, my bad habits are coming back again.
We won't have to endure this for much longer. Everyone, brace yourselves. We're going in.We will in just a moment, yeah, but first we'll be taking one more trip to the Velvet Room to see what Liz has to say...
The wild talent you've awakened to, and the answer to life that waits at your quest's end... I do hope you find what it is you're looking for...I'd say that the end is absolutely in view at this point, since we've only got one door left in the Desert...
And since there's only one left to go, it's not much of a surprise where we're going next I'm sure.
Interstice of Time
See, this area being reused from Ptolomea makes sense to me but I'd definitely thing it'd be better if this was the first time we'd seen it.
Because we've gone so far deep into Hell, we've wrapped around! Empyrean fits the trend of names coming from the Divine Comedy by being mentioned in Dante's Paradiso. Empyrean itself is the highest sphere of Heaven and is the home of the primordial element of fire and/or YHVH himself depending on the source (Paradiso goes for the latter). Rather notably, however, is that despite only being one of the Heavens, Empyrean is the only one explicitly named within Paradiso. Other religions, most obvious being Judaism and Islam, have multiple (seven) Heavens and name all of them.
Mass Destruction -FES-
So, the new Shadows in Empyrean are a bit of a mix of ideas we've seen before I reckon.
Not much that's properly new or anything at this point, which... well, it's seemingly the end of the epilogue so that makes sense.
I dunno, I could probably have skipped mostt of these to be honest and I'm not sure anyone would care much.
Sometimes, at least, you get stuff like the Sleeping Table here which is on-paper a big ol' bastard. It IS the Sleeping Table so that makes sense, even if its methodology is to pelt you with with Almighty spells and powerful Strike attacks.
Though, uh, that's clearly just a bit of an outlier at this point. Everything else is either super simple and easy, mildly annoying or a tedious slog that takes millenia for barely more EXP than anything else.
Really though, the biggest issue with Shadows in Empyrean is that there's so fucking many of them. The first section has more than any other area has had in the Abyss and it's still less than half of what Empyrean has in total.
Can't even talk much about them individually because what else is there to say at this point? Between the entirety of the Journey and every other area in the Abyss, we're kinda out of stuff to say about Shadows.
They don't even have any new Skills or interesting quirks to think about at this point. An inexplicably high amount are straight up weak to themselves still, sure, but that's also not new.
I guess it's technically new that their go-to Almighty spell is Megidolaon and a fucking ton of them have it. And also Mind Charge, but like... Megidolaon isn't that threatening here. Sure, it's Almighty but it costs so much SP that if you can survive it you're fine.
Void Giant is at least a little noteworthy for being straight up significantly weaker than he was in the Journey, since he's been kicked out of Monad now. Like, sure, he's not the only one but he used to be the tied highest leveled Shadow and now he's just... here.
Fanatic Tower is a little bit noteworthy as well for being a fucking pain to fight. Physicals and Wind only. Has Evil Smile + Fear Boost + Ghastly Wail. 1400 goddamn HP that you have to cut through slowly. It's not even the worth for that gimmick, but it's getting there.
Comparatively, Natural Dancer having been demoted into a regular enemy since we last saw it is a much simpler enemy. Sure, there's no weakness to exploit but there's nothing obnoxious about it either.
Change Relic has the exact same resistances as the Natural Dancer but is one of those obnoxious slogs to fight.
And then they gave it fucking Diarahan. Thanks, that's not the least bit irritating and annoying.
Intrepid Knight's not really in the same category because it has sub-1000 HP, does not come solo and has a weakness. But! It still has a ton of health and it remembered to bring its Evade passive.
For the last regular Shadow, the Hallowed Turret is almost disappointingly boring in how it's just "use Elec until it dies!"
The Red Shadow battle here kicks things up a level by being against one of those tedious slogs to fight. And then takes a step back, realises that's not stupid and annoying enough. And puts four of them in the fight.
They give a lot of EXP but nowhere near enough to make this worth your time. And more importantly, mine.
Interstice of Time
This feeling... This has to be...The 8th floor gives us... this scene? Already?
I could've sworn there was more to Empyrean than this...
That Which Comes From The Darkness
Much like the end of Judecca, we see that humanoid Shadow just running away from this angle instead. I'unno, it's minorly different for this scene at least.
I think I'm right... This feeling... It must be...! But, no... It can't...
...Oh, I didn't mean to distract you. Enemy Shadows, incoming!
Hanged Man Rebellious Cyclops, Hermit Acheron Seeker x2 Master of Shadow
Unlike normal Shadow fights, at least the bosses require you pay a modicum of attention.
The Acheron Seekers are pretty much the support adds from Hell. They don't buff or debuff or anything, no, they just look to see who's weak to Expel or Curse...
And explicitly aim those spells at them. They CAN do other stuff too, sure, but when they have Hama/Mudo Boost and know your weaknesses here, why would they?
You might be wondering then why I brought the only characters outright Weak to instant death, but... there is a reason for it. And it's because of the Acheron Seekers.
The Rebellious Cyclops is pretty simple as well, honestly. Dude just really likes physical skills. A lot!
Poison Arrow has the added bonus of having a Poison proc, and since the AI didn't get improved for the Answer it still can't deal with Poison and freaks the fuck out.
Oh and he also has Primal Force. Yikes!
If/when its alone, it mainly starts dropping the upper-tier MT Physical skills instead of going for ST stuff.
Notably, however, it only uses the single-hit skills and not the multi-hit ones. Which is perfectly fine for me.
The obvious exception is Pierce, because the only single hit MT skill it has is functionally a Unique and is so ridiculously good that this random schmuck having Pralaya would be bullshit.
That it doesn't have Myriad Arrows either is a bit weirder, but I'm definitely not complaining!
So, the thing about this fight is that you can realistically only use Fire and Elec to damage either of them.
The Acheron Seekers have 2000HP, are weak to Fire and Elec, but resist Slash, Strike and Pierce and repel Ice and Wind. On top of that, they have 37 Strength, 73 Magic (for sometimes use with Megidola), 39 Endurance, 63 Agiltiy and 36 Luck.
The Rebellious Cyclops on the other hand has 3700HP, and drains Ice and Wind. He also has 78 Strength, 61 Magic, 46 Endurance, 18 Agility (yes, really) and 31 Luck. You might think you could get away with using Physicals since he's neutral but he has all 3 Evades AND High Counter for good measure. That's a question of luck and/or Tetrakarn. Personally, I just go for the latter since it negates the need for the former.
End Interstice of Time
For what's probably our penultimate boss reward, it's definitely a nice pair if items. And we even got 2 Eggs for good measure!
Just gonna make a quick party composition change and then we'll be good to go, I reckon.
So, the second stretch of Empyrean goes back to boring old stuff. I would be fine with it just being the one genuinely new area the entire time.
Mass Destruction -FES-
So, the Nemean
Oh right and for this stretch of Empyrean, rather than worry about every new Shadow, I'll just hit the highlights in no particular order. There's not many and the most interesting one is absurdly rare and didn't show up (I spent hours running the block looking for it).
Mostly that just means stuff like the Reckoning Dice will be glossed over and ignored. I'll use this as the example because there's several big HP slogs for this part of the area. They're all very similar, it's just a question of what elements you are allowed to use.
Y'know, without using Break spells anyway.
Except Minotaur I. H'es the big ol'
Divine Mother is a weird one. Mostly because she inexplicably has Ghastly Wail. You might notice she has no way of inflicting Fear, but that's not unusual. We've seen before that things are designed with synergy with other Shadows in mind (...once).
Problem: nothing in this stretch of Empyrean can inflict Fear. Ghastly Wail is a dead skill that she can never use.
But I'm not sure if that's intentional or not. The Crazy Twins here are noteworthy because they have no skills. At all. This just screams at being an accidental oversight, considering they sure had stuff in the Journey. I wouldn't be surprised if they were meant to have a Fear spell and it just... got missed out by accident.
Random Encounter Jotun of Grief is... well, it's Jotun of Grief except now a random encounter. And it's impossible to have a full four-person party that have Pierce elemental basic attacks. His skills are a bit different to before and he has less health (but is a higher level) but he's still just the Jotun of Grief.
So, Empyrean's second section is noteworthy for having two different Red Shadow fights. One of them is a joke gimmick thing that just would not show. Instead, we have one against three Cyclopes. The Chaos Cylops is one of them and but it's pretty noteworthy that this fight is against multiple new Shadows.
The Mighty Cyclops and Chaos Cyclops have a clear and easy duality thing going with one using Dynes and draining those elements, whereas the other uses... Vorpal Blade and Megidolaon and drains physicals.
Well, the point still kinda stands.
But the Mad Cyclop has the other 2 Physical elements and can be hurt by everything (but resists all damage, including Almighty!). Unfortunately, he's capable of being instantly killed so that makes quick work of one.
The other two, uh... not so much.
Interstice of Time
I wonder if that thing is showing itself to lure us in... Then there is something we're supposed to see, further into the Abyss of Time...In a moment much more inline with what we'd expect, the 18th floor has this scene turn up yet again.
That Which Comes From The Darkness
Before running off, this time we see that strange mysterious figure standing in the middle of the Shadows for but a moment...
...... I think... even if we don't chase that figure... we'll meet it in the deepest part of this place. We're getting close. Let's keep moving forward. Enemy Shadows incoming...! Strength Kaiden Musha, Strength Tenjin Musha, Strength Onnen Musha Master of Shadow
So, this seems likely to be our final boss fight in Empyrean and it's... kinda underwhelming. It's dangerous-ish, sure, but that's not really because of the Kaiden Musha.
It CAN do other stuff sometimes, but it just really likes Tempest Slash. And will use it quite a lot, sometimes Power Charging it for good measure.
The Onnen Musha is equally limited in its damage output and seems to be really weak and feeble on paper. He has a meagre 600HP but getting rid of it can be quite a chore at times, between Life Drain and the Tenjin Musha.
He also likes to use Poison Arrow sometimes and has Poison Boost so it's probably gonna poison someone. And the AI still can't handle that.
The Tenjin Musha is less interested in direct damage and more interested in being a support unit, though. Makarakarn is bad enough, really. See, the Onnen Musha can ONLY be hurt by Physicals normally but...
The Tenjin Musha is packing fucking Premonition, which you can only get via a Heart Item accessory! It's Dodge Physical and the only way we could ever use this is by getting Masakado's Hair and equipping it.
And then the Kaiden Musha has High Counter for good measure. So, they're implicitly telling you to use spells. Makarakarn covers that nicely.
When he's not casting that, the Tenjin Musha sometimes casts Revolution. Because Power Charged Tempest Slash (or even Vorpal Blade!) wasn't scary enough on its own or anything.
And whenever he gets a chance, he'll even cast Mediarama just to make things extra annoying.
But y'know what? This fight is fine. It's a good ol' simple slobberknocker. Sure, they're all a higher level than Nyx Avatar was. Sure, they're kinda annoying on paper. But it's just a straight forward fight in practice and that's something we've been lacking.
As mentioned before, the Onnen Musha has 600HP. He's level 76 and drains Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind and has 44 Strength, 56 Magic, 52 Endurance, 49 Agility and 30 Luck.
The Kaiden Musha has 1800HP and is also level 76. He has no weaknesses or resistances of note; Expel/Curse immunity is genuinely it as far as elements are concerned, though High Counter exists. He has 47 Strength, 49 Magic, 57 Endurance, 57 Agility and 34 Luck.
Tenjin Mush has 2000HP and is level 77. He similarly has no weaknesses/resistances of note, opting to skate by on Makarakarn and Premonition. 60 Strength, 49 Magic, 52 Endurance, 55 Agility and 43 Luck.
End Interstice of Time
Y'know, for what might very well be the last boss reward cache like this, 2 Soma alone is pretty damn good. 5 Balms of Life are pretty great too, but Soma are super limited here so I'm more glad for that.
So, the third section of Empyrean brings us back to this level design. The good one that makes the most sense for Empyrean.
This stretch is mostly identical to the second, save for one special difference. The 25th floor brings with it two fixed Rare Chests but unlike Antenora, the contents here are a bit more varied...
The most common thing they contain are Shadow Crystals. Y'know, because we already have More Yen Than We'll Ever Need but I guess we need more?
Alternatively, it can contain top-tier armor. Aigis and Metis' are the most obvious about it, though.
So much so, that they even tell you outright it's their best armor. It's very slight, but Aigis' IS better than the one you can get from Messiah.
Metis' is equal to Aigis, and she can't get anything from Messiah. Koromaru's IS the one from Messiah; everyone else's is a bit weaker.
Alternatively, we could get ultimate weapons instead.
Rather notably, they're not the fusion weapons. Instead, they're the ones from Monad and they're the strongest we can get here.
Since they're the regular weapons from Monad, their added effects are random.
I'm glad I got this one, though, so I can finally mention that it's a reference to Persona 1 specifically. It doesn't seem like it, but Mary is what Maki was renamed to in the PS1 release. This bow got renamed to Maki's Resolve in Portable to bring it back in-line, of course.
Everyone's best (non-Messiah) boots are on the 24th floor, but they're not guaranteed Rare chests so good luck with that.
oh and because theres no compendium getting messiah's heart items is a fucking pain to say nothing of there being no easy way to grind to level 90
Oddly enough, floor 26 gives us a third fixed floor with a save point and terminal point. This is most peculiar and we don't get a scene of that figure this time, so it stands out just a teeny bit more I think.
The Depths of the Abysscovers the rest of the update probably just watch this
Their Own Past
Is this... the deepest part of the Abyss of Time...?
You think? It's no different than the rest of the ones we've seen... But that fits, logically. Which means that the Abyss' origin--the reason for the time skips--is here...
...Oh! There's something I had to tell you all. It was in the papers about the Abyss of Time I mentioned before... Did you find something?
A reaction...? The gigantic tower rising so high left a gigantic hole in its place. That's the Abyss. Does that mean they've known about this for 10 years?
But it also said that since the Abyss is just a byproduct, there should be no Shadows in it...
Wait a sec! There's a friggin' ton of Shadows here! 
Did they forget a decimal place or somethin'?
No, their logic makes sense. 
...What could that force be? Who knows? Maybe it's somewhere down here. One thing's certain, though: it's deeply connected to all of you.
What's up with that!? What the hell did we do to deserve this...?
Well, there's another door... If that's here, then maybe...
If we leave out Aigis, Metis, and me... Whose past is left? Hey, yeah... Who else was there that had powers like ours?I can think of two people who might very well count, but...
She's really not wrong. There's absolutely nothing stopping us from just opening the door and seeing what lies beyond.
We'll know once we open it.
Whatever that "reason" is, it's strong enough to keep the Abyss of Time from disappearing... And we've come to erase that reason. 
...Despite saying that, we get no chance to do anything of the kind. Once we entered this floor, we were locked into whatever happens.
She's right. ...This appears to be our goal. Don't worry. We can do this. Silence
I... I... am... ......
......!
Please! Wait!
No! Don't go!
I dedicated my life to that purpose... But... I can't fulfill that purpose anymore... There's nothing more I can do... Can I continue to "live" this way...? Does my life have a meaning...? ......
So, as we see a bright light, we can see... something emerge from the shadow that it casts. Hmm.
Their Own Past
That's... the cause? D-Don't look at me... But... Well... I didn't expect that we'd get to see him again... Although he did have his back turned... ...Indeed.
......
What kind of clue is that...? Aigis didn't have to awaken to her Persona abilities, right?
Aigis, what was that? When did it happen?
...... I... always woke up to that. It was so painful to lose him... I withdrew into my room, unable to do anything... For a while, I did nothing but chase after him in my dreams... Aigis... Sister...
It felt like a weight on my chest lightened and fell off... That must have been... the last of the dreams I had. But I don't see what that has to do with my awakening... Sister... are you still in pain? 
...... *sigh* So that's the big cause of all this? That didn't explain anything... ...Don't you get it? 
Then the answer is obvious. ...What's that supposed to mean? What I said at the start was right all along... 
So... that means that figure we keep seeing is--
Wait, something's wrong...! That Which Comes From The Darkness
What the...!? Just as I thought... It's coming... The monster that's taken the shape of your regrets.
Ah, it's that thing again. And this time it's coming to us, rather than running away.
You gotta be kidding... That can't be--! This is the reason for everything... From the Abyss of Time's failure to disappear, to the presence of the Shadows... This... was born from all of you.
Wild Card Shadow Makoto Unavoidable Battle (Reincarnation)
So, before we focus on anything else, the Analyze screen shows us Shadow Makoto's elemental resistances. That's a rarity for a major boss fight, so that's kinda a clue to this fight being a bit gimmicky...
But, hey, despite being a weird Shadow creature, he still gets cut-ins and summons... a Persona...
And it's a Shadow Pallas Athena.
So, yeah, that's another big ol' clue as to what the gimmick here is.
Notably, he is not immune to Knock Down but that doesn't matter much.
So, after 3 turns with a Persona, he'll switch to a different one. There's a couple caveats to this, though.
First though, he, uh, get the ST fourth tier elemental spells. That includes Thunder Reign, yes, but he doesn't get two actions/turns so he can never capitalise on it.
Regardless of what Persona he's using, he has all four elemental Amps, Ailment Boost, Apt Pupil (crit rate increase) and a skill called Goddess Knowledge which... we can't get. Ever. It is unique to this guy. What does it do?
It doubles all Slash, Strike and Pierce damage he inflicts. Yikes!
Though, uh, here's the thing with this fight: he's technically a barrier change boss, sure, but he'll only use the Persona of people you bring for this fight. That makes Junpei, Mitsuru and Yukari all good options because they have the elemental Break spells.
Which pairs very well with Makarakarn for obvious reasons, yes.
More than that, bringing a mutual pair of elements is a good idea because he technically inherits weaknesses as well. He's not properly weak to anything, but he takes 50% extra damage from opposing elements. Naturally, this makes Ken and Koromaru less effective picks because Kala-Nemi and Cerberus don't have that bonus.
It's also worth noting that his AI is kinda ridiculously stupid and is super bad at aiming these things.
Not only will he gladly run into repels (as alluded to above), but even without that he'll gladly repeatedly cast, say, Bufudyne on Mitsuru. For no reason.
So, ideally you'd bring Metis, Junpei and Mitsuru. Bringing Yukari gives him Diarama access, when using Isis, which makes things take longer.
Metis' kinda mishmash skillset helps getting around most of the elemental change stuff but there's another reason: Shadow Makoto cannot use a Psyche equivalent. Bringing her limits his options even further.
Oh and, uh, he's immune to like every ailment. Including Shock and Freeze.
Shadow Makoto here has 7000HP and 75 Strength, 80 Magic, 70 Endurance, 85 Agility and 72 Luck. He sounds a lot scarier and more dangerous than he is, really. He's never gonna be super difficult because of the long scene preceeding it.
Silence
With the Shadow defeated directly, we enter the animezone for the first time in quite a while.
We even get to see real Makoto flicker over the top of the Shadow for a brief moment...
Before letters start to appear on the Shadow and tear away.
This is honestly a really cool visual effect in practice.
It does raise weird questions when you see it has like actual hair and muscle and stuff though.
But I'm fairly sure that's not meant to be literal, especially considering once its down to the nerves...
It just explodes into shining blue butterflies.
And then we get to see Makoto one last time...
Before the remnants of this thing fade away into the darkness.
Mistic
That was... the monster born from us? But it was...
You are correct. Wait, but that makes no sense. Persona-users are supposed to beat Shadows, right? What are you talking about? Don't tell me you've been fighting them this whole time without knowing... 
Did you all think that Shadows were mysterious invaders or something? 
When people are unable to face their darker selves, they break loose, free from all control. But sometimes, humans with special awareness can tame their Shadows... 
This is hardly anything new, really. While not super explicit, it's been a thing since Persona 1 though a bit more subtle. Not everyone becomes a
So Personas and Shadows... They're the same thing, just different names?
Reminder that as Anti-Shadow Weapons, Aigis and Metis are powered by Plumes of Dusk, which are fragments of Nyx. The Kirijo scientists were well aware of this.
...All those people lost their lives. ...... Then... the reason for all this is our Personas? The Shadows' power affects time and even space... 
It was by each of your wishes that time stopped moving forward... And as a result, you became trapped here.
So we trapped ourselves...? Hah... It's almost funny... Whatever the reason was, we beat that thing. 
Yes, that is correct. If we return to the dorm, we may be able to go outside.
Before we can leave, though, everyone (save Metis) gets something glowing in their hand...
Is this... a key? You should be able to leave using those keys. Once you make it outside, the Abyss of Time should disappear on its own.
Finally... Geez... I'm glad this didn't end up taking another year. But these keys... There's eight of them. That's because each of you played a part in bringing this about. 
Those words...
So it'll open if we're all around, is that right? Then let's get the hell outta here! Uh... So are we just gonna waltz out through the front door? That door, or another one... 
The main entrance, or that door... It's one or the other. A door that doesn't connect to the outside world...? Are you talking about... the door to his room? 
It's glowing and cannot be moved at all. That's a bit more than a normal ol' lock.
That door has the same feel as the doors to the past we've been going through up to now. What do you mean by "one or the other"? If we open it, won't it just connect to another past? That's right. 
The past...? The world of the past. You've all been there many times now. 
Is that true!? Why would I lie about something like this? If you don't believe me, then why don't you try leaving through the entrance?
...What do you want to do? I'll go along with whatever you decide, Sister. 
To be honest, that's all I care about. "Cursed fate"...? Which one are you going to choose, Sister? I... ...... Silence
This is way too heavy to decide right here... ...I agree.> You decided to return to the lounge.