Persona 3 FES Part #125

Part 125: Cocytus

This track doesn't really play here. Or anywhere. It's unused, but this is the best spot for it in my opinion.

So, now that we've got access to Paulownia Mall again we can go shopping for supplies. Hurray! There's a few differences to before (can't use the arcade, for example) but they're mostly self-evident.

The most noteworthy one out in the mall proper is that, as promised, we can't leave. Just get this strange barrier locking us in.

The shops are almost all identical to before, too. The way they operate is the same as in the Journey, so they'll update their stock based on Aigis' level. We CAN use the Antiques store, mercifully, but there's no weapon fusion this time around. That takes days to complete and we don't have that now, so the option is removed.

To "compensate" for the lack of date items, we get new stuff we can make in their stead. Stuff that's genuinely useful, even.

And some attack items as well. Can actually make the Magatamas this time around, and Megidolaon Gems too, which could come in handy later, maybe.

Nothing else of note here, so we'll take the door back...

Silence

Looks like this place is fully connected to the Abyss of Time now.

Maybe it's because everyone was hoping to make frequent resupply trips.

This will certainly make it easier to go back and forth.

Hellooooo! We're kinda blocked back here!

Hey, hurry it up! There's more of us blocked back here.

> You found a means of getting supplies, but you are still trapped in the dorm.

> What awaits you even deeper inside the labyrinth...?

Living With Determination -Iwatodai Dorm-

Woof! Woof!

Let's do this!

Uh... But it was Aigis who ended up finding the supply route, not you.

...Note to self: Ignore Akihiko-senpai!

So, now we have Junpei and Koromaru back. That's useful but not quite as great as it sounds, since they both are pretty dedicated single-target fighters and all.

They do at least join at level 31, so Koromaru gets the advantage of being the best character for instant death stuff for a bit. Mudoon is obtainable for us, sure, but it requires a lot of hassle and extra hoop jumping that makes it not worth it.

Needless to say, for our new glowing door we'll be taking them with us. And Metis fills the fourth slot because she's just that little bit more convenient thanks to Neo Orgia Mode.

So it looks like Team What's Healing? is what we're using this time around.

Interstice of Time

So, our second are of the Abyss is... really kinda underwhelming at first.

Cocytus is pulling double-duty for its name scheme, it seems. It's fitting to P3's general trappings by being one of the rivers of the Underworld in Greek mythology, sure, but it's also appropriate to get immediately after Malebolge. In Dante's Inferno, Cocytus is the ninth circle of Hell although there it's more of a lake than a river. It would be difficult for this pattern to keep up, but it does give an interesting vibe of descending deeper into Hell.

Visually, it's bland and sucks though. It's just Arqa but a different shade of purple. Boring.

Mass Destruction -FES-

So, what Shadows do we have in Cocytus? Well, Muttering Tiaras are very simple and come with an Ice weakness. Since we're now at a level where we can use Ice easily (thanks King Frost), they shouldn't get turns. Matarukaja is a pretty bad thing to see so early, but it's really not a big deal if they never get to use it.

Much more annoying is the Obsessed Cupid, who also has an Ice weakness. Marin Karin/Holy Arrow are bad enough but Charm Boost makes them just that tiny bit worse. Y'know, provided they get turns. Which mostly should never be happening at this point.

Laughing Table deciding that it wants to Repel Slash is a cruel joke, but not much else to say about it really. Fire is super common and we just got the two other characters who can burn things. Ice Break is kinda... inconsequential for the most part, 'cos we still don't have Mitsuru.

Venus Eagle brings us back to an Ice weakness and sort of falls in line with what we'd expect of one. Dodge Pierce here does not annoy me as much as it could, since she's otherwise Neutral. It's disincentives using Pierce stuff still, but there's no strange incentive to do so, so it's kinda moot.

Trance Twins are weak to Koromaru in like every way. Eerie Sound and Distress Boost is annoying in theory, but just kinda there in practice. If the other things are getting no turns, these guys are getting even less.

Okay, Tranquil Idol is potentially obnoxious and annoying. Mudo and its Boost aren't as bad as they could be, but it's just bad enough to be a bit annoying. Maragion and Fire Boost is more of a threat normally, but Junpei and Koromaru are immune so...

Elegant Mother on the other hand, drops the instant death for better elemental coverage. Her resistances are obnoxious (especially Drain Pierce!) and she can heal her already absurdly high HP pool.

But she's weak to Mudoon and we just got Koromaru. She tried so hard and came so far, but in the end it didn't even matter.

Curse Dice are the final regular Shadow and boy that Makarakarn makes it a bit of a pain in the ass. Except by now we're able to make Persona that are immune to the element they use, and everyone else (except Metis and Ken*) negates their own element anyway. So, uh, it tried I guess.

But that's the regulars. There's still the Red Shadow and boy howdy is this one a fucking pain in the ass.

The Avenger Knight is a rude boy who takes forever to kill, has end-game levels of hit points in the second area and is immune to instant death. Combine that with it being an actual, genuine threat (Mazionga + Elec Boost is bad enough without Swift Strike) and oh boy do we have something that is not worth fighting. Ever.

Interstice of Time

Shuffle Time stuff is upped a bit and can now include Rank 4 cards. Yay? It's not a great upgrade since 2 and 3 still hangout here a lot but it's nice all the same.

I don't know if this is just me being absurdly lucky so far, but I swear Gold Shadows are a lot more common in the Abyss than they were in Tartarus. I don't really go out of my way to check their spawn rates or anything though.

Nothing of real note until we hit the eighth floor and see that strange humanoid Shadow again. If this is like before, then that means...

That Which Comes From The Darkness

Oh, and over there...!

Oh... it disappeared again.

Well, just concentrate on the enemy before you for now!

...Incoming!

Hanged Man Briliant Cyclops

Master of Shadow

So, the Cyclops has no weaknesses. It does, however, have Sharp Student (because of course it does). Rebellion isn't a great way around that, but it might help. Maybe.

The Cyclops itself is kinda simple, really. It uses Mabufula a lot and it may or may not have Ice Amp to go with it. The wiki says it does, but that really doesn't mean much.

When it's not doing that, it likes to use Kill Rush to do a decent chunk of Strike damage instead. That's also kinda dangerous.

The one other thing it can do is Summon in adds to make this take longer.

The Soul Dancers it brings in are just kinda... here to be annoying and get in the way, really. No skills or anything of note, so they're not really a threat. Ice weakness is pretty useful, since it means they can be knocked down and ignored.

We have good Ice access now and wouldn't you know it? At level 34, Metis gets Bufula too.

Her build is REALLY confused, yes.

The one downside to this, though, is that because this fight takes a relatively long time (it's a boss fight in The Answer) she finally overheats.

This is just as bad as when Aigis does in the Journey, since it kills her defense for a few turns.

Ironically, it's quicker AND more convenient to just let her drop and then revive her afterwards.

Oh and when he gets low on HP, the Cyclops adds Bufudyne to its repertoire just to try and actually kill you. It doesn't help.

The Brilliant Cyclops has 1200 HP, 41 Strength, 24 Magic, 30 Endurance, 24 Agility and 26 Luck. He resists Slash attacks and drains Ice, Elec and Wind. Only real options then are Strike, Pierce and Fire which is annoying but not as bad as it sounds.

End

Interstice of Time

We'll just pick up our real post-battle item rewards, take the door back to the Desert for a quick free heal and then descend deeper into Cocytus...

Honestly, I really like the aesthetic the second section has.

It's basically just Tziah, but fallen into a state of disrepair and tha's really cool. It makes it look sort of like a tomb of sorts and it's not really just "the same but a slightly different color." It's still not quite as good as when Malebolge used the dorm for half of its design, but it's a step in the right direction.

Also we can find rad new upgrades including a Grenade Launcher for Aigis. Sorta hard to dislike that.

Mass Destruction -FES-

So, what Shadows do we have this time? Dancing Hand comes back and likes to use Ice and Panic. We're firmly in the point where random encounters stop getting to, like, do things so it's not really a big deal in practice though.

Maniacal Book sure looks to be a fair bit more irritating. Provoke is a bad idea for it to use, as we've seen before, but everything else could be a bit of an issue. Except weak to Mudo so...

Steel Gigas is a step more towards The Answer being The Answer again. Weak to Wind, has Dodge Wind, and strong Phys attacks to pretend to be threatening.

Heat Balance is Heat Balance. Dodge Elec would be bad but there's no other Elec weaknesses in Cocytus, and Wind is very common so we'll just use that instead. Slash resist is a bit odd, but it just serves to potentially hamper Koromaru more than anything else.

Dogmatic Tower is chock full of hefty resistances, including being Anti-Koromaru, but a Wind weakness is easily their undoing. We have no reason to not have Metis just use Orgia Mode in every random encounter and stuff that actively rewards that being more and more common is making it hard to genuinely consider them threats.

But the we get the Blue Sigil. Weak to Strike and with a ton of HP seems like perfect Metis fodder, and he is, but then you notice that he has Tetrakarn and Evade Strike. Tetrakarn doesn't really matter, since Metis will gladly just remove that and take a small amount of damage. Evade Strike is more annoying because it's Evade. It really just serves to delay the inevitable.

The Avenger Knight does not make his return at any point in this half of Cocytus, oddly. We have a different Red Shadow to contend with too...

...And it's the lowest levelled Shadow in this half of Cocytus. There's 5 of these and the reason they're the Red fight is pretty apparent. A simple gimmick of "have all the dynes" would fit with how technically early this is for that, but the Cyclops had Bufudyne already so it's a bit too late. At least they tried?

Interstice of Time

Rank 5 cards are available now too, but they're super rare (this was the only one that happened at all) unfortunately. Just noting it as a thing, really.

Not really much else, because Persona 3 does not make for a very good full dungeon crawler (as you may have noticed forever ago). Fuuka chimes in on floor 13 to let us know we're nearly done.

Sure enough, we reach the end on the 15th floor just like with Malebolge. The previous door got us access to the mall, so let's see what we get this time...

Silence

Veteran Officer: Eh, you can go. Looks like a pretty routine accident.

Veteran Officer: Says here that your name's... Ken Amada, is that right? Ah, well, geez... Sorry about what happened to your mom. But she gave her life to save you from the collapse.

......

Veteran Officer: Anyway, I gotta take your statement. You're a witness, after all.

If I told you what happened... would you believe me?

Veteran Officer: Of course I would! Helping people out is our job.

My mom was... murdered.

Veteran Officer: ...W-What?

I looked and saw this teenager, holding his head and yelling...

Veteran Officer: Wait... you're saying he did it? But the whole house was crushed!

Exactly as expected, Ken saw Castor very clearly. It also explains why he's more vague with Shinji's description, really, because Castor would stick in his memory a lot stronger and cleaner.

It roared, and my mom and my house were--!

Veteran Officer: Oh, a monster, huh? Haha... There's no way that actually happened. Oh, uh... I shouldn't laugh... I know sometimes after a traumatic incident like this, people can--

I'm not lying! And I really saw it!

We know it's a cover-up and all, but this guy also just said the whole house was crushed. Crushed.

What...? A car crash...?

Veteran Officer: We've already found the car and what's left of the driver. We just need an account of the accident now.

That's a lie! You're making that up!

Veteran Officer: I know that's what you think, but... it's true.

Veteran Officer: Be right there!

Wait! I really saw it!

I can't trust any adults.

So I'll find him myself...

Their Own Past

But the first door didn't disappear. It just opened up to a new place...

Never mind that... That was...

I thought of lots of ways to search for the culprit, but I couldn't manage any of them alone.

I kept wondering why the culprit had special powers, and I didn't...

I wonder if that's what led me to start experiencing the Dark Hour since that day...

Ken...

...I'm sorry for that.

Hey, Metis! What was that about!?

What was what about...? Oh, I see.

The Paulownia Mall one took place in June and was a random day in the month. In the middle of the school day. And that conversation that happened never took place. Aigis was at Yakushima until the end of July.

This conclusion is based on absolutely nothing.

That's not what I meant! Why did we see such a painful memory?