Part 13: 4/20: Castle Crashers
Part 13: 4/20: Castle CrashersWere finally heading into the Palace today.
Music: Suspicion
We basically just have to go to that castle and steal the treasure from Kamoshida, right?
But wait, what even is a Treasure? I wanna know that before we do anything.
A Treasure is the physical form of the Palace rulers distorted desires. In other words, its the core of the Palace. Once we steal it, the Palace will crumble I think. Having said all that, even I dont know what Kamoshidas Treasure is going to be.
And where can we find it?
Theres no way of knowing that until we go in and find out. But if I had to guess, Id say he has it locked up somewhere in the depths of the Palace.
Eh, I think I get it now. We just gotta find the Treasure, yeah?
Pretty much. Theres just a lot we wont know until we go in In any case, our objective is to find the Treasures location somewhere in the Palace. Make sure we go about this with time to spare so we can avoid any unforeseen circumstances. ...I expect great things from you guys.
We can check our progress with the Hold Meeting option, or just select Infiltrate Palace now and head on in.
Music: King, Queen, and Slaves
I think Id feel a lot better about Ann and her costume if this game wasnt so damn thirsty over her.
Hm? Whats up?
N-Nothing. I was just thinkin we should choose a code name for you too.
A code name?
Im Skull, hes Joker, and thats Mona.
Judging by your costume...
I mean, shes got that tail and stuff, so Whadda you think, Maaku?
What do you wanna be called, then?
Um, something better than just a little cat Maybe Panther? That sounds pretty cool, doesnt it?
Huh? Why?
Cause it sounds more ferocious?
Shes a cougar...!
Dont call me that! More importantly, Kamoshida !
Oh, right. Lets go!
Its game time from this point forward. Ill teach you guys the basics of infiltrating a Palace as we go.
My master would like a word with you.
*nods*
Music: Aria of the Soul
Well done. It seems you have remembered my words You truly make it worth rehabilitating you.
*chuckle* I am not attempting to withhold information from you. The essence of the rehabilitation that you must complete will be explained in due time. Once you encounter friends who share your aesthetics and discover your place in reality
This game has an interesting sense of the word aesthetics.
I mean, I guess that works. Sort of.
...Only then, will I explain it all. Such a day should not be far off. This time, I wish to introduce you to the aid we are providing.
Due to your potential in wielding the power of the wild card, you can handle more than one Persona. That power holds infinite possibilities. We will assist you in nurturing that potential. ...To that end, we must execute your Persona.
Well, thats morbid.
*chuckle* Do not be alarmed. Personas are personalities that exist within you Thus, you will only be discarding old personalities to have them be reborn as new ones.
Think of it as the fusion of your Personas. Now then, let us try an actual Persona fusion.
By fusing together multiple Personas, we can create a new one at the cost of the old ones.
To start, select the first Persona you want to use.
Do you remember how I mentioned forming bonds with Confidants? Personas are the power of the heart The stronger those bonds, the stronger your Persona will be. In other words, the effect of your bonds on execution or fusion, if you will, are quite substantial. When you fuse a Persona that shares its arcana with one of your bonds, it will gain great power.
So, when we fuse a Persona of the same arcana as our Confidants, the resulting Persona will gain bonus experience. This boost, called Arcana Burst, increases with the rank of the related Confidant. This is a big help because Personas require much more experience to level up than party members.
This will be a guiding principle for your forays into fusion Try not to forget it. Moreover, there is one thing I must warn you about. You cannot create a Persona that surpasses your current level. This is because the resulting Persona would be too powerful for you to handle effectively.
This is a straight-up bullshit gameplay contrivance, for the record. It only applies during the original fusion (or negotiation). If the Persona is resummoned in NG+ or gains experience beyond your level through Arcana Burst, it doesnt apply.
Now then, check the fusion results and choose a Persona that suits your stature.
So, we select two Personas...
When fusing a new Persona, you can select skills for it to inherit from the base Personas.
This Agathion seems good.
But lets give it Zio from Pixie for good measure. Its already about to learn a Physical skill and there isnt much use for Curse this early in the game.
Are you certain this Persona is acceptable?
Bye, Arsene.
*diabolical laughter*
Though I may disappear this moment, I shall always be at your side. We shall meet again when your fate reaches its conclusion. *diabolical laughter*
That scene always plays the first time you fuse Arsene, whenever it might be.
JESUS
Im Agathion. Im gonna be your new mask now! Use me, use me, use me!
I dont say it enough but these new Persona models are really excellent across the board.
A stronger Persona has been born from the body and blood of the old. It shall be your new strength.
You better understand it at once! Youll end up dead if you dont master it.
Gather Personas, and bring them here. Gather a great many, execute them, and continue to give birth to even stronger Personas. Developing your powers as such will play an integral role in the stand against ruin.
So that your rehabilitation goes well, we have a variety of rituals to choose in regard to executions.
And depending on the effort you put in, our master might consider further development of new rituals. Cry your tears of joy, Inmate!
Your heart is steadily gaining the strength of rebellion. IT seems your rehabilitation is proceeding smoothlya joyous fact, indeed In anticipation of this, I have prepared a gift for you. I hope that you shall accept it.
I feel a deepened connection with Igor...
Now we can see hidden secrets in the environment.
That is a thiefs skill, allowing one to tap into their sixth sense and see what is hidden in the dark. I believe you can handle it now. May you continue devoting yourself to further rehabilitation.
...Now then, if you have any requests, we will heed them.
Actually, well just head out. Seeya Igor.
Music: King, Queen, and Slaves
To my teammates, it looked like I wasnt moving
Whyre you spacin out like that? ...Its kinda hard to tell what youre thinkin sometimes.
Lets just say hes a man of high caliber.
Uh, sure. Lets go with that. As we also saw in Persona 3, the Velvet Room is not a physical place, and when you enter it, to everyone else youre simply zoning out.
Were counting on you, Joker!
Lets head to the safe room we found last time. Its in the first floor of the west building. Thats pretty close to our usual entrance. It should be a pretty decent starting point.
Safe room ?
Itll make sense when you see it. Welp, lets head out!
This is a godsend for moving through the Palace, especially if youre forced to leave and come back. Well be trying to get through this Palace in a single day (operative word there being trying, because oh boy) but even so just being able to pop out from a safe room and hit up the Velvet Room is great.
Theres also this weird thing. We can get help from other online players occasionally. Very occasionally. So occasionally that I dont even really remember most of the situations its useful for. We get three help requests per dungeon visit and thats it, though, and well be seeing at least one of those potential situations within this Palace.
We can steal goodies from environmental features that glow using Third Eye.
Its just more loot to sell at Untouchable, but hey, more cash is always nice.
Its a gap in the cognition. A safe room, if you will.
Yeah, still not getting it.
Right? Uhhh, Im fuzzy on the details, but I think its some kinda spot where Shadows cant find us.
Huh I didnt think a place like that existed in here. So, what do we do in this safe room?
Take a break, duh. Oh, and we talk about stuff too.
Huh Those are important. I guess Ill rest for a bit too then. Let me know when were ready to head out, Joker.
Time to get to work. Ill be explaining enemies gimmicks and some of their weaknesses.
This Bicorn is weak to Electricity and uses mainly Physical strikes, while the Pixie primarily heals and uses Electricity, and is weak to Gun and Curse.
Ryuji can hit the Bicorns weakness easily, then Baton Pass over to Ann. Morgana still doesnt know Baton Pass, which is going to be something of an issue for his usefulness in this Palace.
Anns gun also has an interesting gimmick. She has an SMG with more than double the amount of bullets anyone else has, but no way of controlling which enemy she targets, forcing you to fire repeatedly until you hit your mark.
Anns finisher is something, all right.
These Incubuses are prone to using Life Drain repeatedly to suck health from your party members and give it to themselves. Theyre weak to Gun and Bless, the latter of which we have no source of as of yet.
They also have massive spiky dicks because SMT is weird.
And heres Ryujis finisher.
Oh well Guess we just gotta ambush it from behind again
Well sure, if you want to go about it the orthodox way. But theres a more stylish route!
Once its in range, jump on it and rip its mask off!
Whoa That does sound pretty damn cool...
Hey! This isnt a movie!
Joker, with your poise, you should be able to finish it off. Give it a try!
This is a lot of tutorial text for the act of hiding behind a couch. The controls for moving around cover arent great, for the record. Theyre much too sensitive and I often find myself flipping around my hiding place trying to return to where I was.
But hey, guaranteed ambushes are pretty great.
These Agathions use Wind and are weak to Electricity.
These Silkys, on the other hand, use Ice and are weak to Fire and Electricity. Noticing a pattern here?
Further in, we come to a room with bars blocking the inside.
If hes protecting it this securely, it has to be important. That means there should be a way in and out of there. Joker, do you think you can solve the mystery of this room? Im sure your observation skills will help you get through!
If it wasnt obvious enough, we need to use Third Eye to see these footprints and the glow of the switches.
Pull the first switch...
...run to the opposite side of the room...
and do the same thing.
The bars recede.
Whoa...
As expected from you, Joker!
Its a trap! The bars drop back down and a Garrador drops from the ceiling!
...Not really.
Youre hopeless Dont you realize how vital a map is?
Its a true necessity for a phantom thief. This should make securing a route much easier.
Wait, does it say where the Treasure is on there?
Oh Actually, it seems like this map is incomplete There might be more of them around.
Mkay, lets start checkin what we can. Well prolly find another map along the way somewhere.
Further in, we return to the entrance hall, where were forced to climb above to the rafters.
From there, we jump across the chandeliers...
...Right into an enemy trap. Sometimes enemies will just sprout out of thin air at set points and fuck you up.
Not only do they get to go first, we cant escape. Its a rough situation all around.
After dealing with that and returning to solid ground, we find a safe room and a treasure chest.
It needs a Lockpick We have 1 of those. Want to open it?
We have to use a Lockpick to open this chest. Whats in it?
Straight garbage, thats what. The Gold Breastplate is barely better than Ryujis default armor, and with half the evasion. Its designed to be sold to Unbreakable along with that Onyx, which is vendor trash. Oh, hey, that was also our last Lockpick, meaning we cant open any of the other chests in here either! Great!
Hey Look to the left There are some Shadows here too. Now, you cant just blindly rush into a fight. First you need to ascertain how strong they are.
Howre we supposed to do that?
Well, well need to observe the enemys actions and get some insight into their skills. That should be possible for you, Joker.
This nearby enemy is yellow, so its the same level as us. Using this is handy because it lets us know what kind of enemy well face, which is useful if youre trying to conserve SP and skip fights like we are. Through this, we can game our encounters to only fight enemies we want or need to for Personas or experience.
These Kelpies use Wind skills and are weak to, guess what, Electricity, but also have the annoying habit of summoning more of themselves. If you can defeat them quickly enough, its more experience for little cost, but they can also overwhelm you if youre not careful.
Theres also this Berith, too strong for us to grab just yet, but its weak to Ice.
Hes also capable of fucking us right up.
Further in we pick up this Snuff Soul, which restores 50 SP and were going to be saving for a later dungeon, because 50 SP is massive at this point in the game.
Doors locked.
Th-The hell ? It aint openin!
Wait I can hear a faint breeze blowing in from somewhere Is there another way through?
We can climb on top of the bookshelves to this vent.
From there, we can crawl through.
Uh, theres a guard there...
Thats OK. Hey, Joker, do you think we can ambush it from here? It should be the same as hiding and jumping toward an enemy. Give it a try.
Morganas just trying to tell us that we can also ambush from above.
I dont have anything to say about this shot, I just happened to stop on this frame and thought you all should see it.
Anyway, lets beat the piss out of this enemy.
We dont quite manage to kill it (because its invincible for the purpose of this tutorial). Instead, it starts talking to us.
We ask it for an item and send it on its way.
Shadows have emotions too, you know. Of course theyll be afraid if you corner them like that. It might be worth purposely creating such situations to get them begging for their lives.
This Muscle Anklet raises Strength by 2, so we slap it on Ryuji.
Finally, we hit another saferoom. This updates getting a bit long in the tooth, so well resume next time. Were doing relatively well on SP, for the most part, but weve already spent a good portion of our healing, so well need to be careful if we want to complete the Palace in a single day.