Part 128: Ptolomea

Living With Determination -Iwatodai Dorm-



You've encountered a human-like figure during the investigation, haven't you?
Since you've seen it in person... can you describe it for me?
All I could tell through Juno was that it seemed human...
That's impossible. There's no way anyone but us could be down there.
But we do keep running into it...
Anyway, we're heading for the deepest part of the Abyss. Once we corner it, we'll get the truth.
C'mon, let's go.

Just a sec, we'll go back to the Abyss in a moment. Before that, Liz has a very minor dialogue update in the Velvet Room at this point. And I do mean "minor."

The Poem For Everyone's Soul



......
Are you... still searching?
For "him"...?
......

Honestly, I think this dialogue doesn't fit here. It's clear what she's implying, but it doesn't really make logical sense at this moment.

Well, y'know, that conspicuous humanoid Shadow looks like Makoto, but that's all.



Anyway, back in the desert, the door we want this time around is directly adjacent to Caina.

Interstice of Time



Odds are good that, yes, we will see another scene of someone's past at the end of this area. We might not, but pattern recognition says otherwise.



Ptolomea comes yet again from Dante's Inferno and is the third area within Cocytus. Its namesake isn't necessarily immediately obvious, but it comes from Ptolemy of Jericho. It's a bit of a step back in a way from the previous areas, as Ptolemy became its namesake by murdering invited guests and so Ptolomea is for those whom are traitors to guests.

Yeah, after family and country it's... incredibly underwhelming, really.

Mass Destruction -FES-



So, Ptolomea is the first area of the Abyss that doesn't make me roll my eyes in a "let's just get this over with" way. The Shadows help with that, naturally, but the Death Twins aren't a great example. Sure, it's nice that their only weakness is Strike and they don't have a Dodge/Evade passive either. They're lacking a bit in being real threats, though Stagnant Air to Pulinpa is almost a good idea. If it was Tentarafoo, it'd make more sense for how late this seems.



Devoted Cupid isn't that interesting on paper either. Ice weakness, no way around that, but it also has Pulinpa and... Holy Arrow which makes sense. Marakunda could make it a decent support enemy and Re Patra is, well, it's cute I guess.



Adamant Beetle keeps up the trend. Power Charge Heat Wave isn't bad, but we've already seen more dangerous stuff, weak to Elec and has no way of stopping us poking it. Rakukaja is a thing.

Mostly I just like the Shadows here because they're not annoying or obnoxious. It helps a lot with this area being playable, really.



Ardent Dancers are technically worrying and a bit of a real threat. Blade of Fury gives it a fairly decent offensive (albeit one that's been dwarfed by Deathbound previously), Tentarafoo covers for its one weakness reasonably well and Sexy Dance does so too but even better.



Jotun of Evil is... Jotun of Evil. Just like last time we saw this particular boy, he repels everything that isn't a Physical element which is a weakness. No way to cover for that, though, and Last Resort is still bafflingly useless. Everything else is a potential threat in its own way, though.



Apostate Tower's a bit of a step back in comparison. Middling Elec, Middling Elec But MT and MT Poison is not a very exciting or interesting moveset. Can't all be winners, I guess.



Immoral Snake is more like it. Life/Spirit Drain are weird and just serve to be a minor nuisance, Mediarama gives survivability and Agidyne is real offense... but then its resists are weird nonsense. Neutral to Fire? Immune to Wind? Weak to Pierce and both Instant Death elements? Immoral Snake are you feeling alright?



Magical Magus is still a fantastically dumb name. It doesn't seem like a real Magician Arcana entity though, with being Ice elemental and all. Mind Charge is kinda wasted here and Tetrakarn is, like, I get it but it's irrelevant?



Pistil Mother comes along to fill the role of "big bag of Hit Points." She's a pretty good offensive threat with Garudyne and Mind Charge, along with mid-tier multi-tarets. Weak to Ice gives a way to cut through her relatively fast but whoops neutral to Expel/Curse so that's always an option.



The Red Shadow fight comes along bringing us 3 Scarlet Turrets. Defensive powerhouses for sure, and yet there's a weird thing here. They have Power Charge and Arrow Rain... but are neutral to Pierce? They can only use Pierce, even, and that's one of four elements that are best suited to use here.

Tetrakarn / Attack Mirrors are sure gonna make these guys easy to deal with, huh?

Interstice of Time



One last little thing before we get to the end of the first stretch of Ptolomea is the rare chests here. Not because they're fixed and interesting, but because... they could be this. Previous blocks have had stuff like Eyes of [Element] to give Evade passives or Snuff Souls for SP recovery and upgrades for weapons/armor.



And then in Ptolomea we get that. Which nulls Freeze. This should totally be around way earlier because Freeze is not a threat.



I dunno, it just super bugs me I guess. Floor of respite here is on the 7th, so that means the 8th floor brings us our boss fight.

Magician Wondrous Magus, Magician Crying Table, Magician Cowardly Maya

Master of Shadow



So, this fight is... its weird. I genuinely think this fight is misplaced and should not be here.



All 3 Shadows have weaknesses, sure, but so did both the fights in Antenora.



What makes it really stand out more is that the Maya and Magus are both weak to Fire, and the Table is weak to Ice. However, as you can see here: they only have the Dodge and not the Evade.



On its own, that doesn't really make it a big deal or anything, but it seems 2 fights later than it should already.



No, instead I'm gonna look at something else I've not really touched on before: enemy Shadow levels. They're mostly irrelevant fluff but... hear me out here.



In Antenora, the Brave Wheel/Judgement Sword/Ice Raven were all different levels at 47, 48 and 49 respectively. The Primitive Idol/Shouting Tiara/Wrathful Book are all level 50.



The Shadows in this stretch of Ptolomea were level 49-53, with the Red at 55. That's a pretty reasonable thing considering the last boss... except these guys are also 47, 48 and 49. They're a lower level than the regular Shadows in the area.



Not just that, but:

The Cowardly Maya has 1000 HP, is weak to Fire, resists Slash, Strike, Pierce, Elec and Wind and drains Ice. It has 34 Strength, 29 Magic, 33 Endurance/Agility/Luck. Incredibly unimpressive, sure, but it's a Maya and was originally the weakest regular Shadow so that doesn't stand out much.

...Exept here it's the level 49 Shadow. Yes, really.



The Crying Table is a bit of a cheating ass, and is noteworthy for that reason and that reason alone.



Yeah, it brings back the enemy-exclusive Good Spirit Drain. Blech. It's the level 48 Shadow and is a bigger issue than the Maya. It has 35 Strength, 38 Magic, 34 Endurance, 33 Agility and 30 Luck. Weak to Ice, drains Strike and Fire and repels Elec. Very bizzare, but its low stats (relatively) stand out all the more now...



That just leaves the Wondrous Magus to pick up their slack and he nearly does. Nearly!



See, he has 1650 HP and is the level 47 Shadow. Prima facie the least threatening of the trio, but in practice the only one really dangerous (sticking a giant asterisk on this statement). 34 Strength, 50 Magic, 25 Endurance, 26 Agility and 28 Luck. Weak to Fire, resists Slash, nulls Strike, drains Wind and repels Ice. That's close to a real enemy, but compare it to stuff from Antenora. 50 in its highest stat is close but still trails behind.



So, about that asterisk. There is one thing genuinely interesting about this fight and it took me doing it like five or six times to get it to happen, so it's not even common but...

I've not really talked about what these guys can do because it's mostly self-explanatory and not very interesting or new. Except this. The Crying Table has Evil Smile.



If anyone is afflicted with Fear on its turns, the Cowardly Maya uses motherfucking Ghastly Wail and the joke fight becomes something you have to take seriously now. It's nice to see that this instant win button is in the enemy's hands and it will use it.



And by nice I mean oh my God, that's terrifying! Thank you, this fight genuinely needed that.

...No, seriously, if it wasn't for that, this fight would be dull as shit and I'm only spitballing that I think it needs to be before the Wheel/Sword/Raven and everything else bumped up one to accomodate. The pacing of that seems to work out better.

End

Interstice of Time



Balms of Life are always to have a couple more free Homunculi might not go amiss either. Not a super big deal since we still have both the ones we got before but hey, it's nice to see all the same.

When we open the shortcut here, I'm gonna... uh... swap out our entire party. It'll make sense, I swear.



Going with Yukari, Akihiko and Ken for the next stretch of Ptolomea and... something about this seems weird.



The second stretch of Ptolomea isn't just not reused from earlier, it's not reused from The Journey either. This isn't a revamped Tartarus block. This is genuinely new.

This right here is why I like Ptolomea more than every other block of the Abyss thus far. They put real effort in and I appreciate that.

Mass Destruction -FES-



New area means new Shadows, of course. Silent Book follows on nicely from the previous stretch by being remarkably normal. Virus Breath is still a weird skill and Tentarafoo is Tentarafoo. Wind Break seems odd, but it often comes with things that use Garudyne so it's fine really.



They're not this thing though. Indolent Maya is the most blatant and explicit support unit imaginable and they usually are!

...Sometimes they come solo with nothing else, though, and it's like, really? You're really doing this?



Almighty Hand manages to be fairly standard and not in a particularly interesting way. Its even pretty much identical to how it was in The Journey, save for being a much higher level and swapping the Expel skills for support stuff.



Writhing Tiara isn't particularly impressive either, honestly. Spirit Drain is probably normal Spirit Drain because its a normal Shadow and all. Diarama is potentially good for survivability and Agidyne could be good for damage too, but this is all predicated on it getting turns. Something that most Shadows in Ptolomea have difficulty with.



Jupiter Eagle's the thing that often comes in teams with the Silent Book, so they have that backing up their Garudyne at least. Sukunda gives them improved accuracy and evasion in theory, but that's all.



Phantom Lord is more or less what you'd expect from looking at it, really. Strong fire, decent Curse, weak to Expel... at least Makarakarn covers that last one. Provided he can get it off, of course.



Iron Dice is very straight forward in a lot of ways. That said, that it only resists Physicals instead of being flat immune is a bit of an odd misstep of sorts, in my opinion. I dunno, I just think that'd make more sense for it.



Although it is explicitly a mirror of the Mind Dice which only resists the other 3 spell elements too, so it's a wash I guess. The Mind Dice decided to come packing four Mind elemental ailments and it picked Distress over Charm...? Really? Like, Distress isn't bad per se, but it is way better for you to use, so this is just weird.



Vehement Idol knows what she likes, and its to use the one element she's Weak to.

And Mind Charged Megidos, but really? Her only other spell is Hamaon? Well, if you insist...



Perpetual Sand is, well, its sand. Its a bit of a step back from the previous one, but at least its not weak to its one Physical attack. Tetrakarn is kind of a given, really, but it'll never get to use it.



Bestial Wheel is unfortunate in that its a big boy with a lot of health, but being weak to the elements that belong to the best party for this bit of Ptolomea is really unlucky. Its skills are pretty good in that Marakunda and Deathbound are scary as all hell, but since it gets locked down and even its HP pool isn't enough to get it out of the surprise round...



Red Shadow is just the one boy but fucking hell is he a right pain to deal with. Only really vulnerable to 3 elements, has Matarunda to make him even more obnoxiously difficult to kill, Life Drain does ~200 or so in his big meaty hands so he gets to be annoying and possibly outdo whatever you throw at him in the wrong situation...

At least he only has 100 SP, but like he also has Deathbound. Just because he can't damage and heal simultaneously forever doesn't mean he can't try to murder you.

Interstice of Time



16th floor is when we run into this thing for the fifth time.

That figure again...
Could it have some sort of purpose here...?

Like normal, gonna take this opportunity to leave and heal and what have you. Especially for what's waiting on the next floor, since he can be a bit of a doozy...

That Which Comes From The Darkness



If that presence is summoning them, does that mean it's an enemy...?
But it seems like...



It doesn't seem like it's going to attack us this time, either. Focus on the Shadow!
Get ready!

Hanged Man Neo Minotaur

Master of Shadow



So, the Neo Minotaur is a rarity for a boss fight in The Answer. He's a big chufty boy with a lot of HP but no backup and he doesn't even summon adds or anything.



He just fucks you up and leaves you to deal with it. He's also a bit of a sneaky bastard to deal with in terms of elemental resistances too.



So, first off, he likes to use Wind magic, yes. Honestly, turns when he's not casting Magarudyne ad infinitum are the exception not the rule. That's why we brought Yukari; she's immune to it and easily has Mediarama by now. If not, what the hell are you doing?

Oh and he has Wind Amp. Just throwing that out there.



When he's not murdering the shit out of you with that, he's making it easier to murder the shit out of you. Either with this, Mind Charge (as shown above), Power Charge (we'll get to that) or just telling you to fuck off...



Neo Minotaur really likes to murder you with Amped Garudynes. He does like 200-odd damage without (de)buffs.



But sometimes he likes to show off that his Strength is his second highest stat. That means Vicious Strike which is potent and effective...



Or goddamn Akasha Arts which is even more. I kinda brought Thor for the off-chance he gets off a Power Charged one of these because that is a straight up death sentence.



See, here's the thing: you can only use four elements against him. Five if you count Almighty (nah). Of those four, Slash, Strike and Pierce are all resisted so that leaves Elec as the only thing he's neutral to.



We can buy Shock Magatamas here, so this is a good time to mention something about them that makes them Really Good for this fight. They're basically Ziodyne in an item form, right, except for one teeny difference: 100% Shock rate.

We brought Akihiko and Ken for Ziodyne (it took a while to get Ken Ziodyne admittedly...) but the Magatama kinda makes them obsolete.



The Neo Minotaur has 2500HP, 64 Strength, 65 Magic, 43 Endurance, 23 Agility and 34 Luck. As mentioned above, he resists all three Physical elements, but on top of that he nulls Fire and Ice and drains Wind.

The Neo Minotaur is not a particularly complex fight, really. It's straight forward and easy to understand, there's no weird tricks or gimmicks (outside of "use Elec you dumbass"), he doesn't even have a Dodge/Evade Passive. It's a dangerous enemy at first, but once you know what he can do it's also easy to plan around. Oh and he's level 58, just in case you didn't think the level thing from before wasn't really inconsistent and incongruous.

I dunno, on paper the Neo Minotaur seems kinda bad but in practice I like the dumb goof.

End

Interstice of Time



Another reason the Neo Minotaur is not garbage: he gives us our second Soma. How nice!



Sadly, the last stretch of Ptolomea slips back into being part of the Abyss of Time. No new Shadows or anything, since its the third part and all, but that just really drives home how lazy this last bit is.



And the door isn't until floor 25, so there's bit of a walk to get there this time.

Silence



Guard 1: It's only the second time anyone has been here without special equipment.
Guard 2: ......
Scientist: Normal weaponry is useless against Shadows. Any equipment we brought would be for your peace of mind. Everyone here has had their "potential" developed in our labs... That should suffice to protect us. And even if you're devoured, that in itself would be valuable data for us. Hahahah...
Guard 1: Ugh... Is anyone left in the Ergo Division who isn't a psycho? In any case, Sir... Are you all right with this? I mean... bringing your daughter...





Even this far back, Takeharu had his eyepatch, huh?

It's never explained in-game how he got that, but he was attacked by Shadows during an investigation into Tartarus. Just so happened to be during the first time anyone entered Tartarus, so we don't see it on-screen.

Guard 1: ...I see. I'm sorry to have spoken out of turn, Sir.
Guard 2: ......
Guard 1: Hey, what's wrong...?



Guard 2: Aaagh! Gaaaaaaah!



Guard 1: Wh-What the..!?
Scientist: Looks like it's back to the drawing board for the artificial development of "potential"...!
Guard 1: Sir, Miss, step aside!

That's... a Shadow...

Guard 1: You little--!



Guard 1: Sir! Miss!

Gah...!
Father!



Very hard to see in motion as she's only visible in this vague translucent ghost-like state for a handful of frames, but Penthesilea's here. Makes sense that Mitsuru's Awakening is the one we'd see on-screen all things considered.

Scientist: Oh... did you see that!? Such power! It's a Persona! I was right! Persona-users do exist!



Father... I'm glad you're safe...

Scientist: That was wonderful, Lady Mitsuru! A beautiful expression of your natural potential! At last, our future seems bright!

Why are you so happy about it!?
Now... Mitsuru can never escape from the destiny of atonement...



What's so bright about that...?
Don't worry, Father... I chose this for myself...
I'll protect you... Father...
Mitsuru...

Their Own Past



Hm...? Oh... yes.
Senpai...? What's the matter?
Ah, well.... I'm sorry, it's just that...



Senpai...



Excuse me, Iori? Are you saying that's no longer the case?
Uhhh, n-no... That's not what I-- C'mon, you got it all wrong!
...It's exactly as I though.
Of the past events we've seen up to this point...



It feels like there's some aspect they all have in common.
Don't you all think so?
Yes... Bur for now, we don't know what that might be.
This is the fifth door...



Oh... I just remembered! There's something I have to tell you all!
Remember the machinery and documents Mitsuru-senpai found?

No, because we've never seen them or anything. We WERE told about them early on and that's... it. It's not even meant to be implied that they're the Old Documents we found in the Journey, since they're stuff Mitsuru found in the basement off-screen during the prologue.



Most of them were from the accident 10 years ago, so he must have hid them so they wouldn't be destroyed.



Is that true!?
We may be close to discovering what this place really is.
We're closing in on it...
We should hurry forward.

> ......

> You decided to return to the lounge.