Part 12: April 18 Part 2: Storming the Castle
Our first order of business is of course changing into the Gecko costume.
-Yukiko's Castle-
Oh, I've been misspelling it this whole time! This costume makes me feel all dour and angsty, like some kind of manipulative little sociopath.
Hm? Sensei changed. Ohh? That's different from the normal school uniform you wear. You look good in anything! You truly are a man of the city!
I guess this is the Gekkoukan High School uniform...
It's kind of weird wearing the uniform of a high school I never went to.
Hey, I kinda like it. You actually look like a young lady in that outfit. Heheh, hear that world!? I AM ladylike! In your face!
...Uuup until the moment you speak. Oh yeah, you changed too, Sanzo-kun. That's the uniform of another school. A blazer, huh? Yeah, it works. Did you wear something similar at your previous school? Changed into the Gekkoukan High uniform. You're rocking that thing, man. Did your last school have a blazer, too? Yep. It was a more normal design, though.
Oh yeah, you changed too, Sanzo-kun. That's another school's uniform, isn't it?
Looks good. The blazer makes it look very sophisticated. Though, I gotta say, the gakuran style uniform looks best on you now.
Sensei, can I bother you for a second? The hall here seems different from before, so this place might get pretty tricky...But I'm with you! Don't you worry, Sensei! Leave it to me to show the way!Here's the Rescue Request in action.
After you tap the button in that upper corner, you'll start seeing other players' rescue signals, and you can send them a bit of help.
Your own signal lasts until the next fight you get into, at which point this happens:
Everyone on the team gets a little HP and SP for each player that responded to your rescue request. I only had one this time, because everyone else cheeses it by hitting the SOS button and then letting their Vitas sit overnight.
GO! HWATTA!
That was easy!
You can use those things I gave you at the entrance to come back. It's tiring walking back!
Yukiko...what's wrong?
*chuckle* Things are really heating up!
This place is huge! It's sooo exciting, but it makes it so hard to find him! Ooh! Maybe he's playing hide-and-seek in the fog! Ready or not, here I come! Let's go further in then, shall we!?
You're not Yukiko...Who are you!? *chuckle* What're you talking about? I'm Yukiko...and Yukiko is me. No! Don't tell me, are you--!? Where's the real Yukiko!? What's with these voices!?
The Shadows are getting agitated!
Heehee! You'd better be waiting with bells on, my dear Prince!
That clearly wasn't the real Yukiko. It had to be... I think it was. It must have been the other part of herself. So it's just like what happened to us... But I don't think she was excited for nothing. The real Yukiko wants to show us something. I can feel it. It's hard to explain...It seems like she has a strong connection to this castle. This is a lot more dangerous than I thought! Yukiko...!
Thankfully, Chie's not an idiot. She doesn't actually go anywhere this time.
-Yukiko's Castle-
Yukiko will be okay, right...?
Yukiko's voice: *chuckle* Teeheehee...My Prince will soon come for me. *chuckle* I'll always be waiting...Forever and ever...
Hrmm...I hear her voice. But all I sense around here are you and Shadows. Watch out for the Shadows, and keep going! When a Shadow has its back to you, carefully get in close and smack it!
Red Shadows like this one will be tougher than usual.
Whooo's da man!?
Yukiko's voice: Thank you for coming to the Amagi Inn today. Your room is right this way. If we can help you in any way, please let us know immediately.
...What's this voice talking about? This place isn't an inn. It's totally a castle!
Hokay!
Give it up!
Shuffle Time keeps happening, too. Here's what happens when you manage to get every card in the shuffle:
The Sweep Bonus guarantees that you'll get a Shuffle Time after your next battle. You'll start with 2 extra picks, and some of the starting negative cards and Personas you already possess will be changed.
Once you hit the fifth level of Yukiko's Castle, her Shadow will start trying to punk you.
Yukiko's voice: Hmhmhm...Ohoho...
I can sense her! She must be on this floor!What'd I say about that damn laughter? Never trust it!
Yukiko's voice: Wow! By any chance, are you...My princes? I'm locked up here...Please save me! Hmhmhm...I'm sure my Princes can do it...I'm sure they'll brave any danger to release me from this place...I'll be waiting for you...Ohoho...
This seems very strange. Be careful.This floor is a single looping hallway with rooms around the outside. When you approach any room door, Shadow Yukiko will teleport you past it.
All you have to do is turn around and go back. You can work your way around the level like this, until:
It's that girl's scent!
My Prince wouldn't lose to guards such as this, correct? Gyaaaaaah! I've never seen such a strong one before! I-It's attacking us!-Time to Make History-
Meet the Avenger Knight.
He'll boost his offense with Tarukaja and Power Charge, and then drop the hammer on one of the kids. Make sure you're Guarding.
Sanzo's got no time for any of that brouhaha today, though.
Offing that chump lets you open the way up.
-Yukiko's Castle-
Yukiko's voice: *chuckle* If you really are my Prince, then we will surely meet again. I am but a trapped soul...I cannot leave this place even if I wished...*chuckle*
I don't sense her anymore...Oh! Are you okay, Sensei? I'm sure we've got a long ways to go. Don't push yourself too hard! If you're tired, you should head back! I want to save her as fast as we can...But let's be careful, Sanzo.Once you've located a stairway, talking to Teddie lets you fast travel up or down from anywhere on your current floor.
Reporter's voice: Now that has a nice ring to it...Let's see if we can interview her. Excuse me!
Yukiko's voice: Shut up!
Male student's voice: H-Hey, Yukiko-san. Mind if I ask you something...? Is it true that announcer's staying at your family's inn?
Yukiko's voice: Shut up, shut up!
Reporter's voice: Someday, though...That aside, wow! You're looking gorgeous in that kimono. You must have a lot of male visitors.
Yukiko's voice: Leave me alone! I'm sick of it...
I don't get what's going on with all these voice, but I can sense that we're getting closer. Hang in there!The regular Shadows have some dick moves of their own, too.
This enemy, the Positive King, can summon other Shadows. Then it'll toss debuffs around while its minions take you apart.
I said "you," not "us."
Dice Shadows like to blow themselves up. It counts as a win for you...if you can survive. Use lightning.
Yukiko's voice: My dear Prince...Please hurry and take me away! Somewhere...To a world where no one knows me...
It's close! She's just beyond here! I've been wondering all this time...What's "scoring a hot stud?"Where the hell's that chain rattling noise coming from?
Sweet!
*shudder* D-Don't open that! That should never be opened!Fine...killjoy.
It must be her! She's right behind this door!
Three princes are here to see me!? My my! Are you the surprise guests who came in late? Awwwww...I wish I'd gotten a better look at you! My, it's getting crowded here. Why don't you and I go somewhere else...? A land far, far away, where no one knows me. If you're my Prince, you'd take me there, won't you? C'mon...pretty please?
Three princes? Wait, does that include me, too? Duh! The third one's gotta be me! I seriously doubt that.
She always leads the way...Chie's a strong Prince...Or at least, she WAS. Was?
She can't take me away from here! She can't save me! Yukiko...-Border of Insanity-
Historic inn? Manager training!? I'm sick of all these things chaining me down! I never asked to be born here! Everything's decided for me! From how I live, to where I die! I'm so sick of it! To hell with it all!
That's not true... I just want to go somewhere far away...Anywhere but here...Someone, please take me away...I can't leave here on my own...I'm completely useless... Stop...Please stop... I have no hope if I stay, and no courage to leave...So I sit on my ass hoping that someday my Prince will come! I don't care where we go! Anywhere's fine! As long as it's not here, I don't give a damn! Historical tradition? Pride of the town? What a bunch of bullshit! How dare you...? That's how I really feel. Isn't that right...me!?
Stop! Don't say it!
Yukiko! We have to stop it! That girl's in danger! We know! It's all right, Yukiko...Just hang in there! We'll save you!-I'll Face Myself: Battle-
Shadow Yukiko starts out with weak physical attacks...
...and a somewhat more dangerous fire attack, Burn To Ashes.
However, she's weak to ice.
Let's go, Tomoe!
Gotcha!
HAAAA!
Since we stocked up on grenades, Yosuke can get in on it too.
Unfortunately, Yukiko's Shadow can cover her weakness just like Chie's did.
The Charming Prince will throw around various buffs, debuffs, and other annoyances. That's why we brought Trumpeter.
Like any good wingman, he deals with the interloper quickly and cleanly.
Once Shadow Yukiko is on the ropes, she changes her routine:
She switches from fire to fear...
...and if she successfully fears anyone, she will drop a fucking chandelier on them.
Even with about five times as much armor as he should have right now, this still took off almost half of Yosuke's health.
Feinne posted:
So, here's the video of the fight. One thing to keep in mind is I'm basically at the lowest possible level to have even a chance to beat her.
So as I've hinted, this fight is radically different in the original game in a LOT of ways. First off the obvious: She's not weak to anything. The only way to down her is with a critical hit in the original. Her early game is largely similar, she will use a mix of Agi and physical attacks. Except, another big difference, she doesn't use what I'd characterize as 'weak' attacks. She instead fucking wrecks people with Double Fangs and Assault Dive for most of their health most of the time (she can just Attack sometimes but it's rare). After a turn or two, she'll summon the Charming Prince, as we saw there. So, a thing about the Charming Prince in Golden that didn't get shown off is that he runs off when he gets to about half. In the original he doesn't do that. You have to fully kill him to be rid of him, and he's the one who fears people to combo with Yukiko for the Shivering Rondo. He also casts Diarama on her, which is no fun at all. He's actually weak to Ice and can be Dizzied, but When her health gets low, she never switches to Fear. Instead, ~50% marks her first use of Burn to Ashes. She then starts casting it every few turns or so, completely randomly and unpredictably. She does normal Attacks even less, throwing around a mix of Agi, Assault Dive, Double Fangs, and Burn to Ashes from this point until you or her are dead. When she knocks someone down, she will either move on to another, cast Matarunda, or cast White Wall on the Prince. And she will knock people down unless you're super cautious with Chie because she LOVES making you pay for not having her Guarded by using a fire attack on Chie.
There are a few strategies, and all of them suck for different reasons. My favorite (though it's not the one I used in that video) I'd term as the Valkyrie strategy. It uses, naturally, the persona Valkyrie, because she's pretty high level and gets Media. The downsides are, of course that Valkyrie doesn't have any special defenses against physical and fire attacks. Still, this strat is pretty reliable because you just in general have pretty solid defenses. The one I use in the video is to use Senri, an Empress persona that is immune to fire. This strat is very, very risky though, because Senri has basically the worst possible defenses against physical attacks you can have without being actually weak to physical. So, if she targets the MC with a double fangs and you're not at high health you're probably dead, game over. Still, it's a strong strat because it means Burn to Ashes doesn't hurt the MC, and it's a huge source of damage in the fight. There are strats that use Slime and Red Wall, but I don't care for those because Red Wall is super SP intensive and a pain in the ass to keep up.
The best thing you can do to improve your chances is to be level 15 bare minimum and go into the fight fresh at full SP. It's beatable below that and it's beatable without shit (I mean I do it in that video) but it's not the sort of thing you do if you're not very familiar with the game. Definitely don't do it at level 13 on a fresh file like I do if you haven't played the game as many times as I have (you probably haven't).
Also count how many times I almost wipe later on in that video. I'm not entirely sure I expected to be able to succeed in that state, I think I just gave it a whirl on the principle that if I pulled it off I saved myself a day of dungeoning.
Next time I'll be back with either a relatively relaxing boss fight or some absolutely ridiculous bullshit depending on whether he does a certain thing before the next major boss.
Yukiko, are you hurt!?
We understand. You're not the only one like that, Yukiko-san. Everyone has something they can't show to other people, or don't want to admit to themselves...-I'll Face Myself-
I was so self-centered that I never understood what you were going through...I'm your friend, and I still...I'm so sorry... Chie... I was always jealous of you, Yukiko. You had everything that I didn't...That jealousy was like a wall, and I was so lonely! I wanted you to need me. But it was me who needed you. I can't do anything right on my own...I've caused so much trouble for Yosuke and the others. If you weren't by my side, I...I wouldn't know what to do...
Chie...I never saw the real you either. I was too busy trying to find an easy way out.
I understand now. You're me.> The strength of heart required to face oneself has been made manifest...Yukiko has faced her other self. She has obtained the facade used to overcome life's hardships, the Persona Konohana Sakuya!
Konohana Sakuya, the flower goddess. Her jealous husband once set fire to her chambers, but the flames did not touch her.
Yes, I'm just a little tired...
You all came to rescue me? Of course! Thank you... Don't even mention it. I'm just so glad you're safe. Hehe...Right on. So, who threw you in here? Huh? Who are you? Rather...What are you? I'm Teddie! So, who threw you in? I don't know. I think...someone called my name...But my memory's a blur. I can't remember who it was. I'm sorry, um...Teddie.
No new clues... Not necessarily. Now we know for sure that someone threw Yukiko-san in here. Hrmm...Then it really isn't you guys.
Are you satisfied now? I-I always believed it wasn't you guys! You little...! You're one lying sack of honey... Anyways, let's hurry back home. Yukiko looks exhausted. Thanks again, Teddie!
Leaving you? What're you talking about? You live here. Well...yeah, but... I'm sorry, Teddie. I promise to come again...
R-Raaaawr!
My, it's getting crowded here. Why don't you and I go somewhere else? C'mon...Pretty please? Gah! You're giving me the creeps! That's it, you're stuck here for the rest of your life!
No, I'm just a little tired... Do you remember anything? I'm sorry, but I don't remember anything...
Well, no worries! You're safe, and that's more than enough.
But there's no mistake that Yukiko-san was, um...attacked, the same way as the last two victims.-Deduction-
And I think the one we saw on the Midnight Channel wasn't the real Yukiko-san, but her Shadow. Maybe the things Yukiko-san was suppressing in this world took form in the TV...?
You know, Teddie was saying something like that.
Awww, it's no use. I'm just going round and round in circles. What kinda person could be doing this? Let's call it a day.> You're worried about Yukiko's condition right now...
Yeah, we can go over it some other day. Yukiko really needs to get some rest. I'll take her home.
Oh, that's right...Sorry. Yukiko-san must be exhausted.
> You were able to rescue Yukiko safely. But this case's mysteries have deepened even further...For now, you should wait for Yukiko to recover.
-Like A Dream Come True-
Hi there.
We got off work at the same time, so I'm giving him a ride back to his place. I thought we might swing by. Nice to meet ya. I'm Adachi, the guy who's been your dad's slave since spring.
I can still work you harder, you know. Haha, good one, Sir! Ha...ha...
Oh, I almost forgot! You're friends with Yukiko Amagi, right? They found her safe and sound! Tell all your friends at school! That's a relief. Yeah, for us on the force too.
But this doesn't mean the case is closed, though.
We were just questioning Ms. Amagi, but she says she doesn't remember anything that happened while she was missing. And we can't figure out her whereabouts during the missing period, either. It's like she really disappeared. It's all pretty fishy, if you ask me...Like there's something else going on.*SLAP*
Ow!
Stop blabbering, dumbass!
S-Sorry... Ignore him. He's just spouting some wild fantasy. Yukiko isn't involved. ...Yeah, I know. Anyway, don't mind him. He can be a real pain sometimes.
I'm hungry.
Hey, you're right. My stomach's growling too. Hahaha, so you do have a softer side around Nanako-chan, Sir. Shut up and siddown...And wash those hands first! Hm, I should do the same...> Dinner promises to be lively for once...
Here's where the kids stand after all of today's fighting.
Yukiko has a Persona now, too, but she hasn't actually joined up yet. That'll have to wait until she recovers.