Part 36: 07/14/09 - 07/19/09: Yabbashah The Dry Land (Part One)

Alright, it's time for our most difficult challenge to date... Finals.

And, like the mid-terms, it's gonna steal effectively a full week of our time. Great.


Dowsing
I know it's been a while a this point, but I'm sure you still remember the answers to all of these. They were all mentioned in class at some point or another.

Octopus
Also, each day is taken up by one question like before. This is going to be a recurring trend everytime we get to exams.

Minamoto No Yoritomo
Needless to say, I will be getting all of these questions right because they're not really difficult but feel free to give it a try yourself if you want. It's a bit meaner in that I'm not including the answer options but, uh...

I went, I learned.
They're not really required for three of them so whatever.

I hope you got them all right, because I sure did!

oh and yes i skipped the day transitions between the questions because they don't mean anything there


Well, last day and Junpei's being... friendly, huh?








This might very well be a good sign. It sure feels more optimistic than what we got at midterms at least! I think there's a better possible result, though... but I might be thinking of vanilla again.
































Really, Mitsuru is more conspicuous here by her absence...






















Hey, it's that kid from the shrine!
Anyway, Ken is voiced by Brianne Sidall who I know pretty much entirely for being Tsukasa in .hack// and Gimmy in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
























And we'll be spending most of it on a real vacation!









This is genuinely a good idea, because July has a dark secret with Tartarus that will fuck you over if you don't know about it in advance...




Really, the key word is "had."





goddammit, ikutsuki








It would be nice if Ikutsuki stopped making incredibly shitty puns, yeah. But at the same time, that's what makes Ikutsuki, well, Ikutsuki.


And Akihiko is sat all on his own, and is oddly saddened that Ken is gonna be living here for like 2 months.

It's dealing with the many cases of Apathy Syndrome over the last few months. Cultural anthropologists are investigating the causes, and...

Alright, so we'll be going to Tartarus naturally. Nice to stretch our legs after 5 days of exams.


Alright, so before we do our proper ascension, I'm just gonna climb up from the 2nd floor to the barrier as just Minato. This is so I can grind yen (and I guess maybe also things to sell as a bonus) without fighting anything.


We get to just under 100k from that one trip, which is good enough for now. This lets us take Hua Po and... something else I had (Take-Minakata most likely) already to flip into Vetala for that request.







The Sugar Key is a clever reference to Digital Devil Saga (1 specifically), where you needed to get this from Titania at the white castle at Co-Ordinate 136. That let a Pyro Jack open a giant treasure chest which enabled you to go and fight King Frosty at the top floor.
Anyway, here it just lets us fuse King Frost when we reach level 30. Ideally by then we'll have a higher Emperor social link rank but who knows.

Next in our chain of fusion requests is an Orthrus but that requires us to be level 28. Notable that this gives us equipment and not access to a new Persona...

Anyway, that done we need to ascend higher in Tartarus before we can do anything else for Liz so we'll be taking this party tonight.

Gonna take down that barrier and head on up...

We did it. We finally made it to the third block!



So, the third block of Tartarus has this kinda cool appearance. I dig it, personally.

Plus the stairs look like they're from a ghost ship or something. It's kinda rad.
Anyway, Yabbashah - like the previous blocks - is a Hebrew word. In this instance it means "dry land," and it's also the name of the 5th world in the Kabbalah.

Oh sweet, we found the golden Shadow here really quickly. I just put that down as "if this happens, it's a bonus."


So, we'll just cave its skull in with a bus-stop sign.

There's the one Bronze Medal we need for Elizabeth's request. I guess Mitsuru'll be getting a Steel Pipe sometime soon after all.
Anyway, we're done a fight here so we'll deal with them now I guess.

Creation Relics are a bit weird, in that they're very Wind heavy but can heal, cast Light instant death... or self-destruct. Sure, okay.
Also, they're weak to Dark and generally come in groups of 3. Pale Rider just so happens to start with Mamudo...
Oh and they drop the Relic Fragments we want 5 of for Elizabeth too.

Killer Twins are, uh, Twins I guess. They have one clear gimmick but we have easy Maragi access and also Junpei, even though he doesn't ever get Maragi himself.

Indolent Mayas are, uh, Mayas I guess. They might very well be the most relatively weak one of the lot so far. I'unno.

Silent Books are maybe a little bit more dangerous since they can just (try to) kill everyone, or inflict Poison. That's... something, I guess.

Dogmatic Towers are similar, but lack the instant death, ailment proc rate increase and also weaknesses. That they're immune to 3 things, one of which is an instant kill even, is a bit annoying but managable.

Remember Lustful Snakes from before? Yeah, they turn up here. The're the same as they were in the second half of Arqa.

Mach Wheels aren't all that difficult, even though they could be on paper. Tarukaja + Power Charge means Double Fangs could tear through anyone effortlessly, but that takes forever and being weak to both Yukari AND Akihiko means they're gonna die in 1 round.

Oh, and our requisite Big Boy With Lots of Health is the Avenger Knight. He's, uh, annoying but weak to Expel so we can just Hama him. Gigantic Fist is very terrifying though...

And, of course, this is a new section of Tartarus so our Shuffle Time cards can go up to rank 4 now. EXP gives 1.8x bonus, equipment is ~70-80 attack (so, equal to what we had before) and coins gives around 4000 yen.
It's amazing how quickly it scales towards making Wands the only real choice.


Anyway, let's get our real climb on. On floor 67, Fuuka tells us that there IS a boss somewhere but she doesn't know where. Thanks, Fuuka.

Floor 68 lets us get the Pleiades bow sometimes. This is... honestly a really good bow.

We've had the Toy Bow for a while, and this is both stronger AND gives +4 Magic for good measure. It's less accurate but still higher than the norm. We're definitely gonna give this to Yukari right away.

On Floor 70, Fuuka finally figures out where the boss fight is. The 72nd floor seems a bit closer than I'd have expected since we started Yabbashah on the 65th but I'm okay with that.

Ah, there we go. I was beginning to worry that the Red Shadow for this area wouldn't show...


Wild Drives are... honestly kinda bastards right now. They have 35 Strength and 33 Endurance...

So this means we can't really do that much damage to them with anything.

This unfortunately includes All-Out Attacks!

And this is what they can do with a basic attack. Just by default. Yikes.

But, hey, level 34 so that means they're worth A Lot of EXP especially when you add Wand cards (this was just from rank 3, even).
Plus we need 3 Greasy Gears for Elizabeth anyway, so we'd have to deal with them sooner or later. Just glad to get it done now.

And, of course, the 72nd floor is 3 enemy Shadows. Sure, okay. I sorta expected that, though.
Just gonna take the Terminal Point back down the 1st floor for that free full heal and also...






Oddly, the Steel Pipe is a one-handed sword. Sure, okay.






Medical Powder is just improved Medicine. It's, uh, fine I guess? Might just end up being sold for scratch down the line but who knows.






At least the 70k is enough to push us over 300,000 which sounds like a lot... but it won't last very long at all.

And from getting the Bronze Medal, our next Rare Shadow hunt is... in the 4th block. For a weapon that is also a new weapon type. Welp, can't even PRETEND to do this one for at least another month so.

So, our trio this time are... 3 wrestlemens. Pretty sure we've had that before...



Okay, so let's get this out of the way right now...

The Furious Gigases are like the beetles from before. Yes, they are mechanically weak to Wind however they also resist it. A lot. They might have 30 Endurance, but...

Yukari - Yukari - can do quadruple the damage Garula can with a basic attack.

They're also immune to Fire (and Resist Elec), and if you ever scan them... Junpei will stand around and Wait if he's set to do anything BUT Heal/Support. They are neutral to all 3 Phys elements, but they have a nasty secret.

They have High Counter which means there is a 50% chance of them effectively reflecting any given Slash/Strike/Pierce attack. Yikes.

Anyway, skillset wise... their basic attack can do almost 500 damage. If it crits, but still. That's horrifying (and only in Hard mode).

...They can use... Life Drain...? I, uh, I genuinely did not know that until now. Wow.

Power Charge is a given, though. And also insanely scary.

Sukukaja is the closest thing there is to a real breather move from these guys. I will gladly accept!

Rebellion is a bit of a double-edged sword. It mainly benefits them, though, because of High Counter which is why they have no qualms using it.

Oh and they also have Gigantic Fist. Remember this, from the Avenger Knight random?

Over 500 damage. Over 500 damage. Gigantic Fist is heavy Strike damage, which means it has a baseline power of 315 and it also has a base 15% chance to Crit. Tartarus bosses kinda don't fuck around if you give them a chance.

Oh and they're not really susceptible to ailments, much. Boring.


But, well, they only have 500HP. Set Yukari to Full Assault and she will cast Magaru and hey if Minato also has Wind magic then you win in 1 round courtesy of 2 All-Out Attacks. Or maybe the 2nd if turn order isn't friendly to Yukari.
Furius Gigases are really giant Hulk Hogan shaped paper tigers, and I for one am glad. Later Tartarus bosses get genuinely terrifying and I'm really looking forward to it!

Our floor treasure is a single Precious Egg. This gives one person back all their SP. I can think of one major use for this , but it's not for a long, long time (and it's arguably better done with a Soma anyway) so...

That's all we'll do in Tartarus for now. We'll go back to finish off Yabbashah in a bit. First, we have the time to be lazing on a Sunday afternoon...


...Y'know, I was looking forward to not buying from Tanaka today. This pushes us back below the 300,000 Yen mark but the Mage's Mark should be worth it. I hope.

Since we had exams before, we didn't get the new shoes until now. And they're a very good evasion boost over what we had in the past. Simple, but effective.


Viewers will only be able to see 25% of the sun from Tokyo, and 18% from Osaka. As a result of the eclipse, the temperature will drop slightly.
No one's in the dorm so we'll run to the TV and... get here either too early or way too late. We even missed the next episode preview!


Yukari and Fuuka are over at the Port Island Station hanging out by the cinema, I see.

Yukari, that's... that's a fountain and a cinema. They, uh, they don't...




And Fuuka pretty much just echoes Yukari's sentiments, huh. Sure, okay.

Fortunately, Junpei's also easy to find.




That's the plan!

But, sadly, we can't find Akihiko or Mitsuru anywhere, so we'll go and spend the day with Maya as per usual.


> Maya is walking nearby.







> Maya seems to be enjoying herself.

> Maya seems to be embarrassed.


Well, you did sorta admit to being okay with this particular crime before...







"Bad" is an understatement...
> Maya seems to be having fun.


...Hang on a minute...



> Maya cares about you.
> Your relationship is stronger now!



...It's a coincidence. Like the Pascal thing in SMT1. Yup. That's it. It's an SMT1 reference buried in the Persona 2 stuff.
> You failed to convince anyone.

> Maya's player signed off.
> You decide to log off as well.

Fortunately we're going to leave on vacation today. I could certainly do with being anywhere but here right now...