Persona 5 Part #203 - 12/24: Deadly Sins

Part 203: 12/24: Deadly Sins

Part 192: 12/24: Deadly Sins

Music: Blood of Villain

This is crazy! It’s like a building!

It was already huge back when it was the Holy Grail…!

The administrator must guide mankind toward proper development. And now that the foolishness of man has been proven, it is the administrator’s duty to purge them.

You kidding!? This is just some kinda rigged game you started!

The foolish masses merely spread indolent thoughts and force the progress of society backward. If left to humanity, the world would slowly meet its demise. Rehabilitation is impossible now.

That doesn’t mean humans are evil though!

Indeed. There are many upstanding citizens. However, they merely take the sole path before them. The act of making decisions is accompanied by nothing but pain. Even if a cliff of ruin lie ahead, these lemmings would march on without a second thought…

If this is all for the sake of humanity, wouldn’t being beaten by humans satisfy you?

I am the entity which governs this world. Its future depends wholly on my leadership. Those who dare defy this natural order shall be met with punishment raining down from the heavens.

Ngh…!

Rgh…! That thing’s on a totally different level!

Can we defeat something like him?

What bigger target could there be for the Phantom Thieves to tackle?

(smiling) Although… it’s still way too big for my liking.

All right, I’ll give the navigation everything I’ve got!

We can do this if we all work together!

Let’s take him down!

Crowning our glory by defeating a god… Now that is true art.

We basically just gotta beat that thing, right!?

I’m so glad I was able to be a part of your team…

Well put. Let’s finish this.

Boss: God of Control, Yaldabaoth

Music: Yaldabaoth

A note about this song: for some weird-ass reason, its official spelling is “Jaldabaoth,” which is… wrong. This extends even to the iTunes release of the soundtrack with changed names for some of the songs. More recent titles have fixed this misspelling, but it’s still really odd.

Also: I keep waffling back and forth on it, but I just don’t think this song is very good!

No tolerance, no mercy.

That quote is from the wiki, which I guess I’ll trust because my only guess for what he was saying before I read it was “No providence, no mess.”

...You shall perish.

Right on. We got this. How tough can he really be, after all?

Ah geez that’s a lotta health

Yaldabaoth’s main attack is Arrow of Light, which is a powerful single-target Almighty attack. Yaldabaoth only gets one turn though, which is fortunate for us… though also rather suspicious. What’ve you got up your sleeve?

Still a ton of health (15000, to be precise), but we’re chipping away at it. As you’ll notice, though, Yaldy takes a good deal less damage than the Grail.

Also every time we attack him, he shouts some bullshit like “PERISH.” or “BOW DOWN.” or “STOP, YOU FOOLS.” It’s great.

Huh?

The insanity of mankind shall bring forth the demise…

A mechanical arm suddenly appears.

Don’t let your guard down until we know what it does!

You okay there, Maaku? You’ve got the Pepé Le Pew eyes.

Oh shit, Maaku was too busy masturbating to take his turn. Hate when that happens.

Lust is a special ailment that cannot be purified with skills or items. It’s basically identical to Fear in that it causes you to lose turns, though without the chance to flee (which wouldn’t have activated anyway because this is a boss fight). Again, we can’t get rid of it, so we’ll just have to put up with its effects for now. Thankfully, it’ll wear off after a single turn.

Oh shit, another one!?

The fraudulence of mankind shall bring forth ruin…

Oh hey, it’s just Madarame’s lame painting gimmick. Get your own boss mechanics!

So, if you can’t tell yet, we’re going to go through all the sins in order, each one corresponding with a different mechanic. Yaldy’s basically Kevin Spacey, but in hindsight more human-like and less of an unfeeling predatory sociopath.

Thanks for the charge, Futaba! The great thing about her charge move is that it gives you both Charge and Concentrate, meaning that you can unleash a charged Physical/Gun and a charged magic attack on two consecutive turns.

Anyway, let’s guard with Maaku so we don’t get fucked up while we’re weak.

The attachments Yaldy summons only have 1500 health. We want to get rid of them as soon as we can, because every one he has summoned is another turn he can take.

The Gun of Execution can also use Capital Punishment (shoot one ally) or Shoot Up (shoot three allies). Every one of these attachments also repels two damage types. The gun repels Gun (duh) and Wind.

Gospel just deals damage to one ally. The Bell of Declaration can also use Frail Law (lowers the party’s Defense) or Tough Law (raises the Defense of Yaldabaoth and his attachments). It repels Fire and Psychokinesis.

Maaku’s free of the Vanity effect, so let’s take down the bell.

The selfishness of mankind shall bring forth ruin…

Wait, what!?

He may keep switching up his moves! Let’s be careful!

Well, let’s take a look at the damage…

CHRIST

OH MY GOD

Yeah, let’s just guard for this turn…

Whew…

Ouch.

As you can see, the Sword of Conviction repels Electricity.

It also uses Wind Cutter to damage one ally and Sword of Judgment to damage all of them, as shown.

The sword also repels Physical, how fun! That means that Ryuji is totally incapable of damaging it without using bullets!

Anyway, let’s get rid of that annoying sword.

You have no chance to survive make your time.

The passion of mankind shall bring forth ruin…

Oh no… a book… how terrifying…

Wrath is basically just Rage, but with a fun twist. It keeps the standard “Attack way up, Defense way down” aspect, but you get to choose your actions instead of being forced to melee a random target.

Let’s see how much this Atomic Flare does to this fucking book under the effect of Wrath.

Dammit. So, yeah, the Book of Commandments repels Nuclear and Ice.

It can also use Wrath of God to attack an ally, or Agidyne or Bufudyne.

Cool it, Futaba. It’s about to wear off.

Wait, the gun’s back!?

So yeah, eventually Yaldy will resummon his defeated attachments with half health. He also adds a new twist to their repertoire…

The fixation of mankind shall bring forth ruin…

Uhh… that’s just Hunger. It’s not even a special Hunger, either, you can purify that shit off her immediately! What, could you not figure out a real mechanic for Greed?

Yaldabaoth also possesses Dekaja and Dekunda, in case you thought you could actually count on buffs and debuffs. I’m not saying don’t use them, I’m just saying this dude is gonna make it really annoying for you.

And now the bell’s back.

The resentment of mankind shall bring forth ruin…

What does Envy do…? Well… nothing, in this take. To see the consequences of Envy, let’s switch over to my second recording:

Say, Makoto’s looking a little starved for SP, let’s take care of that.

There we go, good as new!

Uhhh…

Fuck, dude! (That was charged, for the record, Maaku’s not throwing out 400 damage melees regularly)

So, Envy’s effect causes the afflicted party member to attack another party member if they receive “support” from a third party member. This “support” can come in many forms: healing, buffs, you name it.

But now we need healing, so let’s take care of it.

Wait, what? Apparently, Envy also activates even if your “support” is multi-target, which really doesn’t make sense because they’re supposed to be getting jealous that they’re not receiving attention or whatever.

Anyway, back to the first take.

And now we have to deal with the book again.

The ingratitude of mankind shall bring forth ruin…

Pride’s effect is invoking some kind of counterattack if you attack during the turn it’s used. In this take I’m smart enough to avoid doing that, so let’s head back to the alternate:

So, attacking while Pride is active will cause your SP to be drained. Notably, an attack that kills the book will not proc this counterattack.

We’ll head back to the original take, but… that’s all the sins! I mean, I get not doing Akechi’s Emptiness, but there should really have been something for Sloth. You included Vanity but not Sloth? Weak. Just throw Sleep out there, unless you’re worried that inflicting an ailment that heals you isn’t in the spirit of this, whatever. It’s also really weird because it means the sword doesn’t get a second ability.

Anyway, we spend the counter turn buffing and charging.

I also give Maaku Tetrakarn, which is hella stupid. Yaldabaoth doesn’t have any Physical or Gun attacks; according to this presumably-datamined stat chart I found for him on the wiki, his Strength is a paltry 28. The only Physical or Gun attacks in this entire fight are courtesy of the sword and the gun, but they’re immune to the element they use so Tetrakarn is pointless. Makarakarn doesn’t fare much better, either. Most of the magic attacks here are Almighty, which doesn’t get reflected by Makarakarn, and the only applicable spells that do get cast are Agidyne and Bufudyne from the book, one of which it is also immune to.

Anyway, we can attack now.

If we take too long Yaldy can still whip out his attachments without new abilities.

We’ve been holding on to these Somas all game, let’s use one just for the hell of it.

That hit the spot.

Oh hey, we’re almost done! Yaldy probably doesn’t have any tricks left, so I suppose we’re home fre--

Ah shit.

You have no means of escape, humans.

As you pass through the gates of destruction…

Well, that don’t look good.

Some kind of insane attack’s coming! Watch out!

We have two turns to prepare for this, but this game has been really inconsistent about that so there’s no real way of knowing it. What I’m pretty sure the game wants you to do here is kill as many of the attachments as fast as you possibly can. Of the four times I’ve fought this boss, I’ve tried that three times, and it’s never worked out for me. Either I kill some, get wrecked by the attack and get saved by Final Guard, or I fuck them up so hard the boss dies before even using the attack.