Part 13: 4/20: Castle Crashers

Part 13: 4/20: Castle Crashers

We’re 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 ruler’s distorted desires. In other words, it’s the core of the Palace. Once we steal it, the Palace will crumble… I think. Having said all that, even I don’t know what Kamoshida’s Treasure is going to be.
And where can we find it?
There’s no way of knowing that until we go in and find out. But if I had to guess, I’d 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. There’s just a lot we won’t know until we go in… In any case, our objective is to find the Treasure’s 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 I’d feel a lot better about Ann and her costume if this game wasn’t so damn thirsty over her.

Hm? What’s up?
N-Nothing. I was just thinkin’ we should choose a code name for you too.
A code name?
I’m Skull, he’s Joker, and that’s Mona.
Judging by your costume...
I mean, she’s 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, doesn’t it?
Huh? Why?
‘Cause it sounds more… ferocious?
She’s a cougar...!
Don’t call me that! More importantly, Kamoshida…!
Oh, right. Let’s go!



It’s game time from this point forward. I’ll 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, that’s 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 doesn’t 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 let’s give it Zio from Pixie for good measure. It’s already about to learn a Physical skill and there isn’t 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




I’m Agathion. I’m gonna be your new mask now! Use me, use me, use me!




I don’t 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! You’ll end up dead if you don’t 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 smoothly—a 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 thief’s 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, we’ll just head out. Seeya Igor.

Music: King, Queen, and Slaves



To my teammates, it looked like I wasn’t moving…
Why’re you spacin’ out like that? ...It’s kinda hard to tell what you’re thinkin’ sometimes.
Let’s just say he’s a man of high caliber.

Uh, sure. Let’s 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 you’re simply zoning out.

We’re counting on you, Joker!



Let’s head to the safe room we found last time. It’s in the first floor of the west building. That’s pretty close to our usual entrance. It should be a pretty decent starting point.
Safe room…?
It’ll make sense when you see it. Welp, let’s head out!




This is a godsend for moving through the Palace, especially if you’re forced to leave and come back. We’ll 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.





There’s also this weird thing. We can get help from other online players occasionally. Very occasionally. So occasionally that I don’t even really remember most of the situations it’s useful for. We get three help requests per dungeon visit and that’s it, though, and we’ll be seeing at least one of those potential situations within this Palace.





We can steal goodies from environmental features that glow using Third Eye.




It’s just more loot to sell at Untouchable, but hey, more cash is always nice.



It’s a gap in the cognition. A safe room, if you will.
Yeah, still not getting it.
Right? Uhhh, I’m fuzzy on the details, but I think it’s some kinda spot where Shadows can’t find us.
Huh… I didn’t 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 I’ll rest for a bit too then. Let me know when we’re ready to head out, Joker.

Time to get to work. I’ll 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 Bicorn’s weakness easily, then Baton Pass over to Ann. Morgana still doesn’t know Baton Pass, which is going to be something of an issue for his usefulness in this Palace.



Ann’s 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.



Ann’s 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. They’re 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 here’s Ryuji’s 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 there’s a more stylish route!



Once it’s in range, jump on it and rip its mask off!
Whoa… That does sound pretty damn cool...
Hey! This isn’t 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 aren’t great, for the record. They’re 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 he’s 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? I’m sure your observation skills will help you get through!



If it wasn’t 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!



It’s a trap! The bars drop back down and a Garrador drops from the ceiling!

...Not really.

You’re hopeless… Don’t you realize how vital a map is?



It’s 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, let’s start checkin’ what we can. We’ll prolly find another map along the way somewhere.



Further in, we return to the entrance hall, where we’re 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 can’t escape. It’s 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. What’s in it?



Straight garbage, that’s what. The Gold Breastplate is barely better than Ryuji’s default armor, and with half the evasion. It’s designed to be sold to Unbreakable along with that Onyx, which is vendor trash. Oh, hey, that was also our last Lockpick, meaning we can’t open any of the other chests in here either! Great!



Hey… Look to the left… There are some Shadows here too. Now, you can’t just blindly rush into a fight. First you need to ascertain how strong they are.
How’re we supposed to do that?
Well, we’ll need to observe the enemy’s actions and get some insight into their skills. That should be possible for you, Joker.





This nearby enemy is yellow, so it’s the same level as us. Using this is handy because it lets us know what kind of enemy we’ll face, which is useful if you’re 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, it’s more experience for little cost, but they can also overwhelm you if you’re not careful.



There’s also this Berith, too strong for us to grab just yet, but it’s weak to Ice.





He’s also capable of fucking us right up.



Further in we pick up this Snuff Soul, which restores 50 SP and we’re going to be saving for a later dungeon, because 50 SP is massive at this point in the game.



Door’s locked.

Th-The hell…? It ain’t 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, there’s a guard there...
That’s 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.

Morgana’s just trying to tell us that we can also ambush from above.



I don’t have anything to say about this shot, I just happened to stop on this frame and thought you all should see it.

Anyway, let’s beat the piss out of this enemy.



We don’t quite manage to kill it (because it’s 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 they’ll 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 update’s getting a bit long in the tooth, so we’ll resume next time. We’re doing relatively well on SP, for the most part, but we’ve already spent a good portion of our healing, so we’ll need to be careful if we want to complete the Palace in a single day.