Part 5: Part Five: We Talk To Stuff. And Kill It Too.

Part Five: We Talk To Stuff. And Kill It Too.

Last time on Persona 2:

Maya, Ulala, and Katsuya went totally apeshit on the demons. I think they've got rage issues . Fortunately, having rage issues is the quickest way to gain levels.



Gaining levels typically involves gaining Persona ranks as well, which resulted in the new Zan spell for Ulala and Callisto. Zan isn't much by itself - it does a small amount of Almighty, or nonelemental, damage. However, if we do this...

...then this happens:

That would be the Atomic Destruction fusion spell. It's basically just an instant death spell that requires all three characters to cast and has a higher chance of success. Aside from looking cool, it's a handy way to level Personas - anyone who participates in a fusion spell gains rank points, and Atomic Destruction can be cast more often than Stone Rise since it can fail. There's another benefit to the judicious use of fusion spells, as well:

Mutations occur when a battle ends through the use of a fusion spell. They can take a variety of forms, but they're always good things:


This, for instance, increases the Persona's stats, which by proxy increases the character's stats. This is the least impressive kind of Mutation, and is the most common; others are typically exceedingly rare, such as:

This, which gives the Persona a "desperation attack" that it randomly uses when its host is low on HP. It's common to go through an entire game without seeing this type of Mutation even once.

Clearly I wasn't the only one who was surprised by it.

Mutations can also teach Personas new spells, as we see here. As the Personas keep ranking up, mutating, and learning new spells, new fusion spells become available as well. For instance, Callisto has Poisma, which poisons enemies, and Helios has Scratch, which does just what it sounds like. If we put them together, like so...

(Note that Maya is unneeded in this fusion so it doesn't matter what she does)...we get Venomous Scratch.

It does damage with a chance to poison, which is decidedly unimpressive, but hey. Likewise, Mafui, the silencing status spell, and Single Shot, which does a small amount of gun-based damage, from Callisto and Helios respectively will produce:

Muzzle Shot, which does gun damage along with a chance to silence. Also nothing special. Around this point, our heroes were getting a bit tired of unimpressive two-person fusion spells, so they decided to chat with the demons for a bit instead.

Upon contacting a demon, you're given the option of choosing between your characters. Up to three characters can participate in any particular "round" of contact, and each combination will produce differing effects. Maya, for instance, interviews the demon:



Hey, I'm not that old, you little asshole! Maya evokes fear from this demon - if we do it again, the same thing will happen.




Ulala's mad fortunetelling skillz interest the demon; this is good to keep in mind, as interest is basically the "goal" of most contacts.



Katsuya lays it on a little too thick when interrogating the demon, so that's two levels of fear. One more, and contact will end with the demon being affected by a bad status or running away. Maya and Ulala decide that Katsuya's a little too male for this whole negotiation thing, so...



The goodness of a woman isn't in her bra!

Apparently the demon agrees, or is fascinated by the feminist outlook, as this evokes interest again. This is enough to max out interest, if you include another Fortunetelling from Ulala that I didn't screenshot, so...



You're not always the one who initiates contact, however.



Maya tries flattering the slime, and...

...succeeds fully, evoking joy. She then teams up with Katsuya to go all Dr. Phil on its ass...




...which evokes joy again, along with a really, really creepy slime face. Finally, all three of them team up:







After those bits of excitement, Maya and the crew decide that it's finally time to actually go after Joker. Clearly the first place he'd be is in the janitor's room. No doubt about it. Inside, Katsuya quickly does a little investigating of his own...

Isn't he just a Boy Scout? The school nurse is a bit more helpful than Katsuya:


Time to find that key, otherwise Katsuya's going to give himself an ulcer. An ulcer of justice.



Thanks for the help, useless and useless-er! Ulala's still fascinated by the poster, so Maya has to drag her away in order for the team to check the faculty room for the key.

Ulala is stunningly helpful, as is nearly everyone else in the faculty room.



See, because his name is Kat-suya...ohoho, Katsuya you kidding jokester.

:w-hat: the Hell are you talking about? Maya nearly gives up hope, but help comes from the most unlikely of sources.




Time to head up to the fourth floor and try it out. On the way there, our suspicions are all but confirmed:

We make it to the door and unlock it with the key.

Something about this just screams "boss fight", though, so we check our stats and spells before we head inside.


As we can see, Maya's good at healing and not much else at the moment. Dia is a single-target heal, Media is a group heal, and Diarama is a stronger single-target heal. All of them are basically overkill at this stage of the game.


Ulala focuses mostly on status effects - Poisma poisons enemies, Marin Karin charms them, Mafui silences them.


Katsuya's all about damage dealing - he's got nothing else, and his stats are heavily skewed in favor of STR.
With all those details taken care of, it seems like we're ready to head inside.

Katsuya takes point on the way in, with Ulala and Maya bringing up the rear. There doesn't appear to be anything inside, until...


Ulala spots Joker on the walkway above, and he's after Anna!



Katsuya leaps into action!


...and doesn't accomplish all that much, as Joker pulls the old demon summoning trick again.

Er...maybe we can talk our way out of this?


Maybe the snakes are more friendly.


Guess not, though I suppose that's decent advice. Well, since they're boss monsters, and they refuse to talk to us, they must be really tough, right?


...er, I guess not. One shot of Stone Rise each and the battle is won. At least they awarded a ton of experience:



Our new levels don't really impress Joker all that much, though.



He casts a sleep spell on the heroes, and it seems as if he's going to get away with Anna as the scene cuts to black. Suddenly, we hear the sound of Joker clashing swords with somebody:


COMING UP NEXT: Rumor has it there's lots and lots of story bits.