Persona 5 Part #212 - Addendum I: Another Goddamn Fusion Episode

Part 212: Addendum I: Another Goddamn Fusion Episode

Well, that was certainly an interesting two-month sabbatical! Without working on this LP as the sole motivator and constant in my life, I fell into a rapid depressive spiral that completely derailed my life and that I only very recently managed to escape! Oh, and Katsura Hashino really stepped in it this time with that Catherine rerelease, and Atlus decided not to dub Persona Q2, so this franchise isn’t exactly doing too hot at the moment either. It seems like maybe Persona 5 is truly over. That doesn’t mean I can’t wring the few remaining drops of life essence in this game and turn them into questionable comedic choices for all of you, though!

Well, let’s head back in.

We could just load our clear data and continue on to New Game+, but I have something I need to take care of before we can go ahead with that.

So, let’s reload from Qliphoth World, the last chance we had to fight.

We’re not actually here to fight, though.

That’s right, it’s time for…

Addendum I: Another Goddamn Fusion Episode

Your prayers have been answered.

First up, Futsunushi from Mot and Cybele.

I am the god of the swords which once conquered this land. I shall temper the blade of your heart.

Futsunushi is the Shinto god of swords, and considered to be the personification of one himself. ‘Nuff said.

Futsunushi came with the skill Ali Dance, which doubles evasion against all incoming attacks. That’s a pretty great skill. We replaced it with a later skill it learned, however. That skill is Firm Stance, which is probably even more broken. You can’t dodge… but you take half damage from everything. It’s the inverse of Ali Dance, and it rules as long as you don’t have a glaring weakness to an element the enemy is using.

Next, Okuninushi from Lachesis and Power. It’s far too low to be useful anymore, but we don’t want it to use, but to fuse.

My sword, my bow… These tools which formed this fine land shall now grant you power as a mask.

Okuninushi is… this wiki summary is very long, holy shit. I’m not reading this. What’s the in-game version? “A Kunitsu deity of Japanese mythology that governs agriculture and medicine. He's said to have built the country of Izumo with Susano-o's daughter, Suseri-Hime." Yeah, that works.

Now, Yatagarasu from Mara and Hell Biker.

Can you sense this noble aura? In that case, I shall become a mask and lead you on… Follow me.

Yatagarasu is a three-legged crow from Japanese mythology that represents divine intervention in human affairs. Also, nobody knows what the fuck its actual deal is because none of its appearances in the mythology are explained or even consistent. Awesome. Apparently even the “three legs” bit is of debatable veracity and probably just got stolen from a Chinese deity, welp.

Now, this is why we’re here. In Persona 4, Yoshitsune was pretty much the one broken god-tier Persona you used to just clown on everything, to the point where I actively avoided fusing it until the bonus boss of Golden pretty much made me by being so far above everything else in that game challenge-wise. This is because of its unique skill, Hassou Tobi, as well as its lack of weaknesses. That is still the case in Persona 5, you will find. We’ll go into just what Hassou Tobi is later, but let’s just fuse it for now. Yoshitsune is a special five-way fusion from Shiki-Ouji, Futsunushi, Okuninushi, Yatagarasu, and Arahabaki. We pay 61,619 yen to fuse above our level.

I see you know of my ingenious feats. Rejoice, for I shall graciously become your mask…

Yoshitsune was a Japanese general of the Minamoto clan during the late Heian period, and gained renown for his skill. He became emperor before being betrayed and forced to take his own life.

The developers anticipated that we’re pretty much just here to make shit blow up, and locked Hassou Tobi so deep into Yoshitsune’s skill list you can’t get it even with everything maxed. It seems like we need to grind… but there’s another way around this.

We haven’t used Gallows in forever because there was just no reason to. We didn’t need experience on many specific Personas, and the skill acquisition would be useful if it wasn’t so unreliable. Here, though, it’s perfect. 48000 experience would take at least 15 minutes of running around and grinding, quite possibly more. This simplifies the matter greatly.

We get over 100k for Moloch, and no, I have no idea how that’s determined. I tried Zaou-Gongen, who was 21 levels higher, and got less experience from it. It’s bananas.

Yoshi leveled up twice and got Hassou Tobi out of it. We’ll put it to work in a second.

We’re not done yet. Gabriel from Thor and Nebiros. We pay 84,700 yen to fuse above our level.

I am Gabriel. As your mask, I now declare the birth of your newfound power...

Gabriel is "one of the four major archangels. She is also the only female angel at this rank. Her name comes from the Sumerian word for ‘governor.’ She is the angel who told Mary of her pregnancy." She’s a high-ranking messenger angel in the Abrahamic religions, and in Islam is the highest-ranking angel, who revealed the Qur’an to Muhammad. Depictions of her as female are hotly debated amongst scholars.

Now, we fuse Michael, our final goal for today, in a special fusion from Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. We pay 109,619 yen to fuse above our level.

We are also running dangerously low on funds! I only have 300k left in my massive pockets from the 1.2 million I had near the end of the game due to my boneheaded decision to resummon some of the Personas I fused away here.

I am Michael. In the name of the light within you, I shall become your mask.

Michael is the fourth and final archangel, viewed as the field commander of the army of God.

But we also didn’t fuse Michael to use him in battle. At least, not yet. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Talking to Lavenza again at this point will give us this message.

It seems there are only a few blank pages left in the Persona Compendium. To show our respect for your extraordinary efforts, allow me to grant you a small reward. I will apply an even bigger discount to the cost of summoning Personas from the Compendium. You may have what it takes to fill this Compendium completely one day. Your enemy is that evil god… Train your Personas as you desire. One cannot be over-prepared. Please bear that in mind.

Thanks, Lavenza. That discount increases the savings from 15% to 25% whenever we pull a Persona from the Compendium. But back to Michael.

We’re not here for his frankly absurd stats and skills. No, we’re here for something even better… stupid bullshit that breaks the game.

If you go over to the Electric Chair screen to itemize a Persona, you’ll see this next to Michael’s name. Now, most people probably wouldn’t dare throwing away the Persona they just dropped 100k just to fuse, but if we take a closer look.

Jesus fucking christ. So, yeah. +10 to all stats. For the character we already never took out of our party due to sheer unfailing usefulness. What the shit.

Bye, Michael!

And hellooooooooo, gun!

This is so duuuuuuuuuuuumb, I love it!

So let’s do the ending sequence again. This is with Matarukaja, by the way. I also think the Grail takes more damage than normal enemies (Yaldy takes less, for the record), so factor that in.

So, this is Hassou Tobi. Eight Light Physical strikes to all targets. A lotta buildup for something that maybe doesn’t seem immediately broken, but I assure you…

It is.

That Hassou Tobi was Matarukaja’d and Charged. So was this God’s Hand from Ryuji. The latter dealt 1632 damage, while the former dealt… *crunches numbers* …3067. That’s an 88% increase.

Granted, Ryuji’s Strength is lower… by seven. Not enough to explain that shit!

So yeah. we clown this dude. Now we just get to go through the entire ending again, which takes about forty-five minutes, hooraaaaaaaaaay!