Persona 5 Part #40 - 5/27: War Paint

Part 40: 5/27: War Paint

Part 39: 5/27: War Paint

Music: Blooming Villain

Boss: Ichiryusai Azazel Madarame

There is a world the mediocre cannot understand!

This is The Painter’s Face, and he’ll be our boss for this evening. If you don’t know what you’re doing this can be a bit of a trial but it’s honestly pretty simple.

You aren’t even worth the art you “create”…!

So, for this fight, we’ll be using just the Shiisaa we fused recently, as it knows a lot of good Physical skills like Double Fangs and Rampage, as well as resist Physical itself. Eventually we’re gonna have to make a good healing Persona, but between Morgana and the Takemedic-All Vs (100 HP to every party member) we got from Takemi, today is not that day.

Each part of the face is a different target with a different HP bar. Unfortunately, they also each have different elemental affinities, as can be seen here. The mouth absorbs Physical and is vulnerable to magic, and vice versa for the eyes. The nose absorbs nothing, because it sucks.

Another annoying aspect of them each being separate is that they each get their own turn. The eyes go first, in between some of our party members, followed by the nose and mouth when the cycle completes. The Right Eye (our left) uses single-target Fire, Electricity, and Ice attacks, while the Left Eye uses Tarukaja on the mouth and Rakunda on the party. Not bringing a Persona with buffs or Ann’s Dekaja, and the fact that we haven’t even seen a Persona with Dekunda (neutralizes debuffs on the party), all compound to make this rather annoying to keep up with, especially if it targets Morgana, who’s rather squishy.

The nose uses single-target Wind attacks or will start twitching, meaning we should focus it down.

If we fail to take it down quickly (it doesn’t have a ton of health, unlike the mouth), it’ll use Dust Flurry, a multi-target Wind attack. This is really only dangerous for Ryuji, but it’s good to not have to experience it at all. You’ll probably figure out that you should take it down naturally. In fact, I had to film another take where I intentionally let it happen so I could find out what happens and get those two screenshots.

For its part, the mouth does nothing but bite. This is your body on Resist Physical.

This is your body on “being the squishy mage on the receiving end of both Rakunda and the enemy’s Tarukaja.” It’s not pretty. Remember that Dia only heals about 50-60 HP and you’ll see where the problem is and why we need those Takemedics.

It takes a bit of time to down all the parts. I generally always ended up saving the mouth for last because Rampage hits three out of the four parts and magic does less than multi-hit Physical.

Anyway, once you do manage to get them all down, the face retreats, and the true boss emerges, Madarame, or as this form is really known, Azazel. Unlike with Asmodeus, Azazel has nothing to do with any corresponding sin, instead being associated with the scapegoat rite from Leviticus, or alternately the name for a fallen angel.

The Madarame who gathers a full crowd every time he opens an exhibit! I’m not someone that worthless brats like you are allowed to defy…!

You still have the nerve to say such things!? You will fully taste the wrath of those who were preyed upon by you!

On his turn, Azazel will use (heh) “Madara-Megido,” a trivially weak attack that does 10 damage to every party member. Our job is just to hit him with all we have at this stage.

After two turns, Azazel will retreat.

And, of course, the painting comes back.

It seems you need a good whipping to make you understand!

The parts respawn with less than full health, which is nice, but the face has some new tricks up its sleeve.

The Right Eye can now cast The Artist’s Grace.

The afflicted party member becomes covered with paint and weak to everything.

There has to be more than just our color changing! We should be cautious!

The only thing to do when it happens is just guard and pray for the best.

Unfortunately for us, the nose can now also Dust Flurry whenever it wants.

The paint wears off in two turns, thankfully.

Dammit… Those things can come back if we don’t take them down at once!?

But just in case there wasn’t enough bad news, the first time we knock down one of the parts, one of the others will immediately use Restore to bring it back up. From now on, we have to make sure we don’t leave a lot of time in between destroying each part or they’ll bring each other back, albeit with a paltry amount of health.

Stop it, you brats, or else…!

Now, it’s actually very easily possible to take Azazel down in two cycles, but there’s a bit more fight to show off if we hold back.