Part 59: 09/15/09 - 09/16/09: Tziah The Desert (Part One)
So, it sure seems like we got pretty much all the plot stuff for the month dealt with now that Junpei's done moping around.
Changing Seasons / Sun
Three left, huh? And the next one won't come for another three weeks. Man, why can't they just come all at once?
That would be tough.
Haha. That's true. But, with more people now, it should be easier to defeat them. I can't wait for the next full moon.
Nice brisk day, and I think Kenji finally realised what his S.Link is. "Not good" is an understatement, to be fair.
...Well, let's see where this rabbit hole leads.
Troubled
Are you in trouble?
R-Right... I-I...
D-Dude! I-I don't know what to do...!
oh no such a tragedy
Emiri is being transferred to a school in Kyushu... Wh-What should I do, dude? You should talk to her. Yeah, man, that's what I thought!
But she's, like, totally avoiding me... It's like, all of a sudden, she won't take my phone calls or reply to my text messages... She's probably only doing this to protect me, but still...> Kenji seems like he's going to cry.
I can't just sit here and do nothing... I gotta think of a plan... I need your help, dude...> Kenji has disclosed his troubles to you.
> Your relationship is stronger now!
> You decided to return to the dorm.
As far as Kenji's scenes go, this one is probably one of the more boring and uninteresting really. Kinda disappointed, since its lost the "charm" it had before.
Iwatodai Dorm
However, she's still uncomfortable talking about Personas... It might take a while before she's ready. Oh well. We still have three Shadows to worry about, so I'll concentrate on that. They'll be sorry they ever set foot into this world.We've still got like 3 weeks, just under, before the next full moon which is plenty of time really. We don't need to focus overly much on training that hard.
...I'll probably do it offscreen a bunch anyway, but that's more for convenience than anything else.
...which is a shame. As Student Council President, I have invested a lot of time organizing it. So, I hope we can still have the festival, but... I guess all we can do is trust in Providence...
I used to think he was a bit of a womanizer... That's because he is. Or at least was.
...but now he seems like such a gentleman.
The only reason he is still alive is because he has knowledge in self-preservation. That quality makes him quite valuable in battle.
So, I'm gonna give her some space. 
It's gonna be hard. But, what can I do...?
Y'know, I was kinda tempted to go to Tartarus tonight. Turns out that's not happening, because Koromaru wants to take a walk, and we can bring Shinji with us!
Joy
Well, what happens, happens...> You spoke quietly with Shinjiro...
...You used to live here, huh? Well, c'mon... Let's go home.
It's a bit of a shame that we can't quite keep up with my plan to just marathon Kenji for a couple days now. Monday, Tuesday, Friday...
Changing Seasons / Sun
Gossiping: Yukari is going to dress up as a maid for a cafe in the Culture Festival!
Listening: Wait, are you serious!? Why? What happened?
Gossiping: She drew the short straw in the Archery Club! She's gonna be pissed, but that's all the more reason to check out the cafe!
> The first bell has rung.
See, stuff like this makes it really obvious that whole "typhoon" thing isn't going to amount to anything important. They're spending time letting us know about just how anime and dumb this festival is gonna be.
So, today's a Wednesday. We can't do quite as much during the daytime here than you'd think. We still have plenty to do, don't get me wrong, but it's gotten much more limited than before. So, student council is actually seeming worthwhile!
Joy
It's actually kind of nice not having those hyenas around. Hyenas? I see the way they look at me.> Hidetoshi seems troubled.
...As you can see, the meeting's over, so you can leave if you want. But, I just got here...
I see...
If you're not in a hurry, can you spare a few minutes? A man without position, honor, or education... What can he cling to as he struggles through life? "Sincerity," a man once told me.
...Do you want to know what happened to that man?
But when a magazine learned they were hiding something, the execs pointed the finger at the script writer. They said it was the writer who had concealed the truth; he was made into a scapegoat.
In today's society, the weak are preyed upon by the strong. You can't survive on sincerity alone!
But, to do that, I'd need enough power to make my vision a reality.> Hidetoshi is opening up to you.
> Your relationship is stronger now!
> You decided to go back to the dorm.
Hey, look, Hidetoshi kind of has a personality now that exists and isn't overtly obnoxious. Good for him! It only took more than half the S.Link (technically).
Iwatodai Dorm
We have to stop the Shadows at any cost.Yeah, that's true. We're pretty close to done, though; only 3 more of the Arcana Shadows to go, remember...
Why me!? It's just not right! I agree.
I'm so embarrassed! I feel like running away!
I'm not sure if it's going to hit us or not, though...
I probably wouldn't have gone to it anyway. 
I really don't like being around a lot of people right now.The game is making it seem so much more likely than not that the typhoon isn't going to matter, but it still keeps getting brought up anyway. And there's just enough doubt about it creeping in...
On the other hand, Culture Festival.
That crap doesn't interest me.So, anyway, it's a Wednesday and our evenings are awfully limited in general now. We've pretty much cleared out everything we can do at night, so...
The Voice Someone Calls
We're gonna be going to Tartarus, tonight. We'll be bringing this team with us this time around, and boy howdy is this the Hard Mode composition. Actively no one here has anything really resembling worthwhile support and no active healing outside of items.
Makoto can compensate for that easily enough, sure, but that's a giant waste of your wild card.
tartarus_0d04 
I dunno what it is with the modern Persona games having a Yellow Area, but at least this one is more of a muted gold than the bright piss yellow bloom mess that Persona 5 has.
Tziah is actually pretty simple, compared to the earlier blocks. Its name just means "drought" in Hebrew, and its also from the Kabbalistic traditions as the name of the sixth world.
Theres not really much to Tziah as an area that we haven't seen before, but that's not gonna be a surprise at this point. Tartarus just sorta isn't very exciting on its own merits. At least Tziah is rolling out the red carpet for us.
On the 118th floor, Fuuka finds where the boss fight is gonna be. We started Tziah on 115, so the fight is pretty dang early and quick huh?
And we managed to find some armor that's totally obviously just for Junpei.
...And that's about it as far as things in the first stretch of Tziah. Yeah, really.
Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out
So, what about new Shadows? Well, we have Champion Knights turning up here from the previous block of course.
And, naturally, a new area means the cards can go upto rank 6 now too. The EXP gains from this are getting pretty damn wacky, since its basically 220% with a Rank 6 Wands.
As for Shadows that are actually new? Hey look, it's a Maya. Hey look, it's terrible! Can only do Strike damage and gets dunked on hardcore by Elec and Wind. Has such a low HP amount that its not ever gonna get a turn... Sure is a Maya alright.
Constancy Relic is... significantly less threatening than some other Relics we've seen. That she wastes one spell slot on Re Patra is especially baffling to me. Media is cute but worthless now. Garudyne is almost a threat since she has 31 Magic. A Fire weakness is especially bad at this point. It's tied with Elec in weaknesses that are easiest to exploit for obvious reasons.
Blue Sigil is... not that scary, really. Ice is only bad for Akihiko, and he's not scraping the lower end of the party at this point so he's likely not gonna see use. The Sigil itself being weak to Dark is laughably unfortunate for it.
Tranquility Idols are pretty easy to deal with, honestly. Mamudo is very easy to have, now as is Mudoon. Koromaru having Dark spells himself makes them really simple. Hama(on) isn't as threatening as it seems, really.
Killer Drive is very similar to the Idol in that it's weak to an instant death element and that's... really absurdly bad for it. Oh well, I'm not complaining. Power Charge + Gigantic Fist WOULD be dangerous if it ever had a chance to matter. Oops!
And, yeah, the Red Shadow here is pretty common and I'm glad for that because it's sort of almost a fun one.
..Just don't Rush and/or have a Physical oriented party. Guess what half of that we fall into!
The Hakurou Musha is a new type of Shadow, oh my! That he's weak to both Expel AND Dark seems like its easy to exploit (and it is) but the low rates of the easily usable spells at this point balances it out. Power Charge + Zan-Ei could be really dangerous on a New Moon, but its something that'll only catch you out once.
That said they have 42 Strength and 43 Agility so it IS bad to get hit by.
They give pretty dece EXP for sure, though, and we need 3 of their drops for Elizabeth.
And, hey, when getting the last one Fuuka hits level 41 and learns a new skill. It does exactly what it says on the tin, really. It's a 15% heal so it scales pretty decently, though by the time it matters much, HP damage from regular Shadows isn't going to be a thing that kills you.
...That's it for new Shadows here. Yeah, there's not really much in this bit of Tziah.
The Poem For Everyone's Soul
They're perfect for use with a katana. Not many things are both beautiful and functional, as these are. Please accept your reward.
The reward certainly isn't super-great. 200k is nice and all but its either not enough to matter or its just more to add to the pile. A bit of an awkward one, that. I'm sure some folks'd get use out of it though.
I, uh, I can't say I was expecting this to happen when I was taking advantage of our newly maxed Tower Link. Cu Chulainn's the second Tower persona and the first one that has Power Charge available (hence why Setanta got it super, super early in Portable I guess!). And then he skill changed to get early Samarecarm (revives someone with full HP). Sure, okay. Probably won't use it though.
So, hey, let's fight a bunch of tanks. With a spear!
...Getting some Civ memories all up in here.
Chariot Arcane Turret x3 (Portable) Master of Tartarus / Danger Zone
Technically, Fuuka is right. The Arcane Turrets here are pretty noteworthy!
See, they're immune to Fire and Elec and resist Slash/Strike/Pierce. They're "weak" to Ice and neutral to Wind.
Nothing particularly noteworthy there, right? Sure, but! Unless I'm forgetting something (maybe) the Arcane Turret is the last boss with a weakness. So, uh, there's that.
There isn't much that the Turrets can do that we haven't seen before, really. Marakunda is new insofar as its a multi-target debuff which I'm sure they needed with their 1000SP that the each have.
They also have Eerie Sound to try and spook everyone... but with a whopping 13 Luck it doesn't work all that well!
But, hey, we have Cu Chulainn and he comes with Vile Assault. Y'know how Ken has Cruel Assault which does bonus damage to downed enemies? This is that but Even More.
Did I mention these things resist Pierce? Yeaaaaah, that goes super-well for them I'm sure. This'd basically one-shot one otherwise (they have 1000HP each).
Anyway, uh, if they get turns they can use it to Mind Charge like everything else has been able to.
They have a couple of Dynes which sounds scary...
...but they have 20 Magic so its really kinda not.
Just, uh, don't be weak to Elec or Fire.
Because they can ALSO use Vile Assault! And wouldn't you know it, the Chariot things have decently high Strength (45).
And that's it. That's all they can do. Yeah, uh, not much of a threat there all told. Just a bit of a long fight because they don't take much damage and there's 3 of 'em. Whatever.
End
I'll certainly not turn down getting a couple Balms of Life though. YHVH knows these things could be handy, in theory, at some point ever.
Possibly even the next time we come to Tartarus! But, uh, for now we'll just get back to the daily life of a high school boy.