Part 31: 07/01/09 - 07/03/09: Arqa The Third Land (Part Four)
Alright, so we're at July and - for better or worse - we do have exams coming up very soon...
Want To Be Close (Reincarnation) / Time
Of course.
Good. I'm counting on you.
According to the cycle, it should appear on July 7th at midnight, six days from now. And remember, incidents increase when a full moon is near, so remain alert at all times.
Nicely, today is fairly short and we should definitely hang out with Bebe now that we can without issue.
Joy
Ze sewing machine won't go...> Bebe seems confused.
Take a break.
Yes... Zat eez a good idea. ...Sorry! Gomenasai!
I am worried about my uncle... 'ow can I convince 'im to let me stay 'ere? If I became a samurai, maybe I could stand up to 'im... ...Oh! Maybe it we go to ze Sweet Shop and 'ave a snack, I can come up wiz a plan!Man, if you want to go to the Sweet Shop first, you could just say so.
Shall we!? Alright. Yatta! Let's go!
> You decide to go to the Sweet Shop with Bebe.
I will be disappointed if I 'ave to return to my country! I want to stay 'ere in Nihon even if I 'ave to eat dirt!
It's really obvious what the answer here, again. It's always kinda annoying having to deal with these kinda options.
Arigatou! Zank you! I can do anyzing with your support, Makoto-sama!
Jitsu wa, actually... I 'ave a plan! I will return 'ome... Mochiron, of course, I will not give up just like zat! I will come back 'ere after persuading my uncle! I will convince 'im 'ow great Japan eez! Now, I just 'ave to figure out 'ow to explain it to 'im. Zat will be easy with your 'elp, Makoto-sama! Please help me! Onegaishimasu!> It seems like Bebe is counting on you.
> Your relationship is stronger now!
I will see you again... Hasta la vista!> You decide to go back to the dorm.
Yeah, see you later Bebe.
Iwatodai Dorm
That means it's going to be a Star Festival special bout.Oh, wow, I totally forgot the Tanabata is coming up too. Hopefully we'll get something to do related to it, at least.
so I was worried my sword skills might have deteriorated... However, I seem to have maintained my ability level.
Because if you do, you won't be able to move. Try to stay relaxed at all times.
As a result, umbrella sales have plummeted this year. Compared to last year's rainy season, vendors are reporting a 70% dropoff in revenue.
Since we have exams coming up in a couple weeks, we'll have a bit more of a focus on an Academics grind when it comes to Social Stats again.
I think we only need Academics 3 to be able to get the top score here. It's definitely not over 4 though; we should be able to manage it just fine regardless.
Want To Be Close (Reincarnation) / Time
But we'll worry about that shortly.
For now, well, let's bite the bullet. We've been ignoring Kenji for abut 2 months (for good reason admittedly), but we can't do that forever...
Plus he keeps calling me at night and it's really annoying, so I'll do anything to make that stop.
Joy
But, I kinda took her away from them, ya know, dude? Like, I made her my girl before they even had a chance... Emiri is a really strict teacher... But at home, she's a real sweetheart. She's always...
It was really nice of Kenji to immediately remind me why we've been ignoring him super-hard.
Yeah, good-looking people are just attracted to one another. It's like they're meant to be together. I agree. I know, right!? It's like a TV show, dude! Seriously!
What about you, Makoto? How are you and Yukari-san doing? Well, I wish you all the happiness in the world, dude. ...Hey, don't tell anyone about me and Emiri, okay? Teachers aren't allowed to date students.That's... an insanely weird and red flag-y request. Or at least it would be, if Kenji wasn't super blatantly delusional, considering our last conversation with the guy, but still.
I'm trusting you, man.> It seems like Kenji trusts you...
> Your relationship is stronger now!
Well, I guess that's because I've got something better going on in real life.> It doesn't seem like Kenji's ever going to stop talking...
> You ended the conversation and returned to the dorm.
In my head, Makoto just ends it by getting up and walking away. It seems very plausible, honestly.
Iwatodai Dorm
Not really.
Well, you really should. Your calendar will list events as well as when a full moon will appear.The Calendar is semi-hidden in your menu, but I've just not looked at it because it's kind of not necessary. It's nice, sure, but everything of importance is told to you elsewhere anyway.
I think she should include us in more. I agree. It's hard to know what's going on when she makes all the decisions. And that kind of behavior can lead to misunderstandings...
...Huh, this is ALSO a Persona 2 reference. This show is 100% hosted by Lisa Silverman (you should remember her from her brief stint on Who's Who at the very least!), which is cool.
"Lei Ho" means "Hello"! That's all for this week! Back to the news!In Innocent Sin she also gave a couple of minor Cantonese lessons here and there, just as flavour. I don't know how accurate it actually is, but hey, I'm not gonna complain.
And as an added bonus we've hit Max Charm as well! Now the Academics grind is both a necessity and our only option.
...At least on Wednesdays and Saturdays when we can double-dip. I wonder what we're gonna do the rest of the time...
Well, we can also study every day that isn't a day we spend with Maya. So long as the RNG doesn't be a mean jerkface anyway.
That's not an option in Portable, sure, but that's not the point.
Oh and we'll be spending this Sunday with Yuko. Don't worry, I have my reasons.
It's really kinda unfortunate, but understandable, that Academics is such a slog that we only get the occasional real boost to. It's just sort of... there.
Want To Be Close (Reincarnation) / Time
Listening: Whoa, Shirakawa Boulevard? Ewww... I know what was on his mind!
Gossping: We've just started dating, but I'm already kind of disgusted. He's got such a dirty mind... Maybe I should dump him. I don't want to be the subject of one of those rumors that goes, "A couple was found unconscious..."
Listening: Hahah! That'd be great!
> The first bell has rung.
I... feel like I should be surprised that he still has a job here. But, somehow, I'm not.
That the "Genji Monogatari" had a different author... That "Murasaki Shikibu" was a shared pen name... Some have even suggested that Murasaki Shikibu was an alien from outer space. An intriguing theory...
So, she's like the Japanese Shakespeare, except she gets to be on the money whereas he's the focus of a shit Roland Emmerich film that doesn't even make the smallest iota of sense. But I repeat myself.
But there's one thing you might not know about Murasaki Shikibu... And that's the way in which her achievement is recognized worldwide. Does anyone know? Junpei?
Huh? Me? (How am I supposed to know about someone who lived that long ago? Wh-What do I say, Makoto?) (The Global Heritage Pavilion.) Correct. Too easy, was it? Next... (Phew, you saved me... Thanks, Makoto.)
Well, this no longer really matters. We'll still get these right, since it might help with the exams, but the Charm boost is a complete inconsequential bit now.
Since we don't have any real risk right now, we can hang out with Fuuka and not have to worry about a dumb timelimit.
Joy
Don't worry. It won't be like before... You'll be able to eat it this time. ...Wait, didn't I say the same thing last time...? ...Oh well, this time I truly mean it. Well, here it is... Please try it.> It appears to be a flavored rice ball.
W-Well, h-how does it taste? You did a great job.
...Really? I'm so glad to hear that.
...Thank you.
I made it today in home economics class. Learning how to make a rice ball in a high school sounds strange, doesn't it? Remember when I told you that I had to get better at cooking? Well, since then, I've been practicing making rice balls every single day. They're simple to make, but perfecting their taste is quite difficult. Everyone in home economics class kept telling me how good my rice balls tasted today. So, to show you my appreciation for all your help, I brought you one. You've taught me so much, Makoto-kun. Thank you for everything... I didn't teach you anything. No, that's not true... You taught me something very important.
I said this before, but when I'm with you, Makoto-kun. I think more positively... ...And I want to make people happy... That's probably why I did such a good job on that rice ball. I concentrated on who was going to eat it. ...!
......> Fuuka is blushing.
> Fuuka has expressed her appreciation to you.
> Your relationship with her has grown...
I'm sorry for talking so long... Well, I'll see you later...Well, yeah, obviously.
> Fuuka left.
> ...Since it's getting dark out, you decided to go back to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
...on the 7th, during the Dark Hour, when the next Shadow will appear. This next operation is very important to my research. Please prepare yourselves for the next full moon.I guess it's not too surprising or unusual for Ikutsuki to be here now, considering how close to the full moon we are.
I bet they're all just jealous.
Perhaps the time of year dictates which type of victim Shadows target.
After she didn't return home the next day, her worried parents contacted the police. Eyewitnesses have placed the girl with several of her friends in town around midnight. The police investigation is still underway.
It was super weird; one minute she was there, next minute... she was just, like, gone.
But, hey, today is a Friday and our last real chance to go to Tartarus before Liz's deadline and also the full moon, so!
The Voice Someone Calls
Alright, just gonna give Junpei the Warrior-- wait, hang on, what?
...Why would you remove this? Why did you replace it with the default piss-weak 2hander? You take this bat with nails in it back RIGHT NOW, young man!
So, yeah, I guess the super-cool and useful joke weapons are things that people will choose to unequip because they're wrong.
Anyway, here's our team composition for this next stretch of Arqa. I'm sure it'll be fine, really.
tartarus_0d02
Starting things off well with Fuuka not being able to tell us where the next boss is. Not too big a deal, really.
Absolutely nothing of substance happens for a little while, really.
I mean, I guess folks start hitting level 20 which lets us have a stock of 10 Persona if we need it. It saves on time and money later, at least.
Floor 50 is a little more important and worthwhile than the other floors.
Since it has Mirrors as rare treasure. We could also just trade gems for them if we really wanted, but this is better.
...Especially since we somehow get both. I'm not complaining about that one.
On the 51st floor, Fuuka finally finds where the next boss fight is. So, we'll take this opportunity to take a bit of a gander at the new Shadows.
Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out
Out of everything here, Maniacal Book is probably the meanest. It's not exactly difficult or anything, but its only weakness is to Dark and it can both drain your SP and inflict Charm.
Which, uh, is quite an annoying inconvenience at times.
Crying Tables are, well, they're tables. They're not exactly a threat and between Makoto and Mitsuru, they don't get turns. They come in packs of upto 4 which is something, I guess.
Killing Hands are probably the least threatening thing here, including the tables that don't get turns. The hands also don't get turns, but if they did they have Re Patra so even if they do get turns, they basically don't.
Enslaved Beasts are... really weird. They only have a weakness to Fire and no resistances whatsoever. At least they have Counter to be an inconvenience to Akihiko.
Finally, we have Dark Eagles which can heal and dodge Yukari. That's, uh, nice for them, I guess.
tartarus_0d02
On the 52nd floor, Fuuka questions why enemy Shadows respawn. That's, uh, that's it really.
The 53rd floor is even less interesting. It just has Fuuka remind us that the boss is on floor 59.
The 54th floor starts a trend that continues for the entire rest of the block. We start immediately next to the stairs. It's somehow gonna get sillier.
Huh, around here Sky Balances decide to reappear. Weird decision.
...Oh, while I rememer, let's use the Jack Brothers spell. It costs 20% of Makoto's SP to try and Knock Down every enemy.
They... have a microphone...?
The spell involves them doing a standup routine?!
It tries to knock down every enemy bowling them over laughing. I can't... this spell is AMAZING as an idea, oh my God.
The 56th floor is very reminiscent of the 54th floor at first, but it does sort of do something different.
Most enemy formations are just groups of the same Shadow which is really boring, but this one is almost clever. Instead, we just don't use multi-target Fire spells. So close, but so far from something decent.
The 58th floor drops us... right in front of the stairs. Great, sure, okay.
Not gonna take advantage of that immediately, though. Try and find some stuff in the area first, and we luck into finding a Gold Shadow for good measure.
Don't get a Coin for the 10k which'd be nice and useful, but a Nihil Bow is worthwhile anyway. It saves trying to farm one later at least.
Aside from that, there's nothing else of note on the 58th so we'll head on up to the 59th. Just the one Shadow here, which is a good sign.
But now that we're here, we'll head on back to Elizabeth real quick.
The Poem for Everyone's Souls
The Lustful Snake is quite a strong enemy, but still you were able to defeat it. As I suspected, great power sleeps deep inside you. I look forward to seeing you unlock your true potential... Please accept your reward.
A very decent amount of money for sure. This'll be useful for obvious reasons.
What a charming operetta from the two brothers... ...Operetta? Hmm... In any case, I would gladly summon them just to watch that again. Please accept your reward.
Well, this is less useful than straight cash but it has some uses all the same. Probably.
Next in the questline is technically worse. I dunno why it's third here; it's Angel+Archangel, so we can do this one right now.
Like so. It costs 30% SP to half enemy HP at best. Its... really not good.
It's, just like, why even bother using this? I'm sure it has uses somewhere, but the Persona it uses are low-end trash so I doubt it.
Divine punishment from the two angels... Although it was directed toward the Shadows... It could give anyone a fright it they had committed a crime before. Please accept your reward.
So, what's next? It can only be better than that.
...Well, alright then. We need to be level 20 to do this one, so...
First we need to grab a Unicorn. It was easier to just make one, but then this happened and oh dear. This is really good and useful but also really worryingly bad. See, Bufula is good and cool...
...But it led to a roughly-40 minute timespan of rerolling skill inheritance for Narcissus to get the four skills I wanted him to get. I was gonna stick Dodge Pierce on here in lieu of Poisma, but this works better long-term anyway.
Oh and Narcissus does have a Heart Item. It grants immunity to Charm. He doesn't even get the Heart on this fusion but it's fine, since grinding it out right now would be misery anyway.
Added bonus to level 20 is that we can make Hua Po now too. She's kinda pretty good by default, but she inherited Auto-Tarukaja so her 23 Magic is pretty great. If Kenji was at rank 8, she'd get Fire Boost at fusion which is kinda wacky but that takes a bunch of hassle and rescheduling just for and it's not really worth the effort.
So, now that we have the two most useful Persona for this fight, let's murder a Shadow.
Emperor Intrepid Knight (Portable) Master of Tartarus / Danger Zone
So, the Intrepid Knight is the most on-paper dangerous fight we've had to date.
Well, for starters he has fucking Garudyne. Base power of 300 and, whoops, we have Junpei and no Yukari.
...Fortunately, every single time he cast this it was on Mitsuru. Every. Single. Time.
Unfortunately, this 195 is after Tarunda. Yikes.
Oh, but do you really think that's not enough? Good news, he has Mind Charge! Already does around 250 before (de)buffs, but now it's got a 2.5x power boost. Yeah, uh, that ain't survivable.
Fortunately, we found a Magic Mirror so we can put that to good use.
...Except, uh, not quite. Intrepid Knight drains Wind. Goddammit.
Reflect here uses his Magic (18) to determine the damage dealt, and his Endurance (20) to determine the resistance thereof. So, there's no fun shenanigans with that here.
But, uh, this 270 is still way more than we can reasonably deal in a round. And he has 1000 flat, by the way. Yeaaaaah.
Fortunately, there's two things to keep in mind here. First, he "only" has 102 SP. Second?
He is VERY susceptible to many ailments. He only has 12 Luck, so its pretty easy to capitalise on.
Panic is good because it seals off many of the nasty things the Knight can do. Makarakarn is a mean one since he resists Slash, Strike and Pierce AND has Counterstrike for good measure.
He can also just leather everyone with his 20 Strength to try to smash through as many people as possible.
He also has Wind Break, just in case you use like Ghoul or something, but he never did it for me so whatever.
Oh, when I said most ailments? Yeah, he can be Enraged which is both the ideal choice and also insanely terrifying.
It means he can only do a basic attack, sure, but with the damage boost from Enrage, it becomes equal to (and sometimes even outdamages) his Garudynes.
Oh and he gets to attack twice when Enraged. So, uh, that's something to be wary of.
But, well, he only does the one thing now, and we found an Attack Mirror so...
He will gladly nearly half his HP in a single round, thanks to Enrage also guttering his defense. Sometimes he might sensibly attack the same person twice in a row, but that's not common.
Could also Rakunda before Enraging, or something. This is even more absurdly good on Portable since you can guarantee he hits a mirror on both turns he attacks while Enraged. Not doable here because no manual control, of course.
The reason for wanting Hua Po here is that her Agilao here does about 25% of his health on her own. Granted Auto-Tarukaja and Enrage help a ton here. It drops to ~60 without those.
He's also very susceptible to Charm, if you want to go that route instead. Narcissus is just really good for this fight in general, really. High Luck, starts with Marin Karin AND Charm Boost, can be made with a Pyro Jack which naturally gets Enrage and Rage Boost...
End tartarus_0d02
Since the Intrepid Knight came alone, we have two items to grab here. The Megido Gems are... nice, I guess? Soma is never not amazing, though.
Also since the Knight was alone, we're just running to the barrier now it seems.
Not much here, so let's pull off a Frolic. It only costs 10% SP.
It might not be the skill that becomes Frolic in later games, but it... certainly is what you'd expect from Narcissus.
Oh and it's a Mediarahan with a chance to inflict Charm on folks. It's not a super-high chance, but it can be an annoyance or an inconvenience if it happens at the wrong time. But, hey, full HP heal so it's not gonna bite you in the ass too much.
Plus, y'know, Narcissus' heart item grants Charm immunity anyway...
That's all there is to see until we hit the 64th floor and make it to the barrier.
I don't even remember what Liz's reward for this one is, at this point.
Whatever it is, it probably won't be worth the hassle it takes to get here though.
The Poem for Everyone's Souls
Of course, it was written by a human. But, who...? I'm sure you'll find the answer higher in the tower... Please accept your reward.
I straight up never use these, so you might have well just giving me the money upfront instead. It'd be more convenient, really.
That young man has control over many beautiful women... Perhaps someday, I'll find myself in his power as well. Please accept your reward.
But this is definitely good and useful. Also kinda fitting, which is nice.
The next one in the chain we can't do for a long-ass time, though. Take-Mikazuchi is level 24, so you'd think this wouldn't be too bad. But, uh, the other god of thunder is who you think it is. And he is level 53.
But, whatever, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it in like 4 months or so (I say optimistically). We have some far more important things to worry about first.