Part 46: 6/7: Regrettably, A Mementos Update

Part 45: 6/7: Regrettably, A Mementos Update

This is going to be a Mementos day, because we needed to do that eventually, I guess.

Music: Beneath the Mask -Rain (Instrumental Version)




This intel is on a sadistic student. It sounds like she’s been treating a particular male student as a slave against his will. For example, she’ll give him degrading orders, or berate him in public…
So she’s acting like a dominatrix to a guy who doesn’t want that… That’s horrible. I think we’ll need to whip her heart instead, OK?
Very well. I will go along with this.
No objections, right? Mm… we’re good to go if you’re OK with it. That’s a unanimous decision! OK, all that’s left now is to take down the target in Mementos!

\

Anon: C’mon, more sacrifices!
Anon: It’s just a coincidence…
Anon: thieves are the bad ones
Anon: plz get all the bad guys
Anon: What’s he gonna be hit w/?
Anon: Petty criminals? Pointless
Anon: Vigilante justice is wrong.
Anon: Too elaborate for a prank
Anon: Target more losers!
Anon: SERIOUSLY??? LOL
Anon: This site’s still up? Lol
Anon: What’re they after?
Anon: Art theft? ROFLMAOOOO
Anon: Yeah, keep it going!

Mostly fine, but...

Anon: madarame epic fail, rofl
Anon: you guys believe this? Kek

I want to die.

At the moment, our target count in Mementos is 2. Well, let’s go.
>Let’s go.



Music: Mementos



Really? It seems the same to--






What’s this…?
It looks like the places we can go has expanded again. It’s because we made Madarame’s Palace disappear, right?
Most likely. ...I think.
You seem rather uncertain. How far does this… Mementos run anyway?
Uhhh… It’s huge! ...Extremely.
You’re always so vague when it comes to the important stuff. It’s like he’s kinda flaky as our chief of operations. Don’t you want him to try a bit harder too?




There, there...
I don’t fully understand, but Mementos and the Palaces are related to each other, correct? Then all we must do is continue changing the hearts of evildoers to ascertain its full expanse. I don’t believe there’s a need to quarrel over it.



I mean, you did say it changes every time we come in.

Remember, the layout changes every time we change floors. Also, apparently the rain will make the Shadows more dangerous, but the game never explains in what capacity. Based on what I’ve looked up, it increases the chance of rare enemies and Treasure Demons appearing, as well as the spawn rate of chests.



Yeah. And just as I expected, the path ahead is still open. All right, time to check it out!



While Qimranut is a distortion of the Hebrew word Chomranut, meaning materialism, Aiyatsbus comes from the phrase Ee-yatsivut, meaning instability.



Oh… Cautiousness is good, but let’s not linger in one area for too long, OK? In Mementos, there’s a certain Shadow that’s far stronger than the rest… We’d have no chance against it.
Wha--!? Are you for real!? You shoulda told us that from the start!




If you move through Mementos at any appreciable speed whatsoever you’ll never run into The Reaper. It’s not even like Persona 3 where there were special floors where he’d spawn faster, it just takes a number of minutes for him to spawn, to the point where you can easily avoid him. I went through the entire game without once encountering The Reaper.



Anyway, this is the start of our money grind. We have about 42,000 yen at the moment. We need about 200,000 by even a rather conservative estimate. No, really. All that’s barely going to last us until the next Palace.

This is what it looks like when Yoshida’s Rank 3 procs, by the way.



Because I’m a damn fool, I decide to waste all my SP grinding in Aiyatsbus instead of the block we just unlocked. See that money amount? That’s decent for this block, but depending on the enemy in the next block I could be getting 3-6 times more per pull. Using Yoshida’s Rank 2, I can get up to about 3,000 yen up to four or five times in a row on some enemies. Even better, they don’t die in two hits in the next block, so I can do that multiple times.



And then there’s the RNG, which hates you. The amount of money you get is supposedly based on the enemy and your Persona’s Luck stat, but even when picking Personas specifically for that, sometimes you just get crap like this. Also, this is with a proc on Yoshida’s Rank 3 ability. I finally understand why people suggested leaving him at Rank 2, because his Rank 3 is terrible. Remember how I said when Rank 3 procced it gave you more money but ended the battle? Forget the “more money” part, because sometimes it just gives you way less! I would legitimately have been better off just killing the enemies because you get far more from killing them than this.

All this is to say, I fucked up big time and wasted a bunch of time and SP on scrub enemies that give you garbage.




Meanwhile, this is Yoshida’s Rank 2. It’s much handier.



Eventually, though, you can ask too much and the enemies will get mad and attack you.



Mementos is different. While other Palaces exist because of just one person, this one’s from the public. From that perspective, it’d take more than a few intruders to make a mark on the security level. You’d have to do something so bad that the entire public sees you as an enemy. So… be careful, OK, Skull?
Hey, shut up!




While exploring Mementos, members of the party will occasionally spout out little lines, and other party members will respond to them. It’s cute.



Huh…? Those are… They’re people… right?
Well, I’d say they’re most likely Shadows...
What’re Shadows doin’ here? It’s not like they’re gonna be catchin’ a train or--



I-It stopped…?



They got in...
Hey… Where’s that go?
If I had to guess… I’d say into the deepest part of Mementos.
What? This place seriously don’t make any sense…
……



Isn’t it a waiting room? I didn’t expect there’d be one here too...
It looks like we’ll be able to use this to take a break. Make sure to utilize it well, Joker.



Mm… It seems like this is some kind of safe zone separate from the other areas.



Even Mementos has safe rooms, of course, and you can do anything in them you could normally do.

Moving on...



Well, yeah… Even I can see that. I mean, just look at the place.



Woah, Takama-- Uh, Panther. You’re really into this!



What could this mean…?

Probably that we’re nearing the end of the block.



Remember that request Mishima just gave us about the sadist? That’s a boss that guards the end of the Mementos block. Once we defeat it, we can progress onwards. Pretty much all the blocks have bosses like this at the end once you progress far enough in the game to reveal them. We could take them on now, or we could circle back to the second floor of Aiyatsbus and take on the bully that we got the request for a month ago and we never did anything about. Whoops!



Oh my god!

Um, okay.



We also open a locked chest to find this garbage, a Balm of Life. Not only do we get three of these with that free DLC item pack, we can just buy items that serve the exact same function.



Eventually, we enter the distortion.

This guy’s bullyin’ is really bad. From what I hear, it’s mostly blackmail, takin’ money from people, that kinda thing.
If we don’t make him have a change of heart, his bullying might get even worse.
Let’s go.

Music: Desire



That’s no reason! How’s it their fault when you don’t give ‘em any choice, huh?
You’re the lowest of the low. Bullying people weaker than you, knowing they can’t fight back!
The hell!? You’re all ganging up on me, too! Are you Phantom Thieves some kind of gang!? Protectors of justice, my ass! Don’t act high and mighty with me when you don’t know anything!



You’re the one who doesn’t know anything! Let’s get ‘em!

Music: Keeper of Lust

Shadow Takanashi



This miniboss is pretty simple.



It can inflict fear, which is no big deal.




It also likes to use Lucky Punch to score cheap crits and follow them up with Stomach Blow, which inflicts Hunger.



We could defeat it easily, or we could attempt to gain even more money another way. See, about half of the Mementos minibosses are vulnerable to Confuse. And, if you remember way back to the list of status effects, one of the effects of Confuse is that it causes the affected character to throw away money. See where I’m going with this?

What we do is use Pulinpa (high chance of Confuse), hope it hits, and if it does, we get a free 8,000 yen… if it doesn’t choose to throw away an item or do nothing instead. Unfortunately, Confuse wears off 2-3 turns later, and even spamming Pulinpa every turn we get, without a skill like Confuse Boost, we’re lucky to hit at all. We can’t do this forever, either, because we don’t have any SP Adhesive 3s to let us regenerate SP. We’re best off taking what we do get and moving forward instead of trying fruitlessly to get as much as we can from this one enemy. And remember, the amount you get is based on your Persona’s Luck stat and the amount of money the enemy gives upon defeat. The reason this works so well in the first place is that as minibosses, they give substantial amounts of money when killed. In case you’re wondering, yes, this does mean that the money rewards from this strategy will grow exponentially as the game goes on! This is probably the best, easiest way to get money in the game, though we’re attempting this at pretty much the worst possible time (it gets substantially easier when our party learns specific skills), in case my paltry return of only about 16,000 yen seems rather low.

Music: Sunset Bridge



What are you talkin’ about?
If I don’t go after him, I’m the one who’s gonna get bullied! I can’t take it, I just can’t!
Oh, I get it now. There’s an even bigger bully—ordering this guy around—who’s behind all this.
Hey! Didn’t you just say it’s people’s own fault for not standin’ up for themselves?
That’s… er… Please, help me!



Thank you! Oh, thank you, you wonderful phantom thieves!
This guy… Fickle fellow, isn’t he?
I’m counting on you… You guys promised.
Fine, but you better apologize to those people you bullied!



We get a single Protein. Lame.



Now that we’ve taken down that Shadow, we can progress further through Mishima’s Confidant. Oh joy.

From here, we need to return to the gate and take down the new Shadow.

Music: Mementos



She really seems like a sadist...
She’s calling someone her slave and ordering him around, right?
In a way, she’s denying his existence. I certainly wouldn’t want to be a victim of that.
Let’s go talk to her.

Music: Desire



It’s ‘cause you made some guy your slave! That’s all kinds of wrong right there.
That’s what he wants! He worships me more than any god, you know.
Uh… I don’t know where to begin to explain how you’re wrong...
I beat him and I hurt him, and he sees it as a sign of our love and friendship! He’s so happy!
You are so delusional.
I’m pretty, and my grades are good! It’s my right to order people around! I’ll start by giving orders to you pigs! Lick my shoes, peasants!



Music: Keeper of Lust

Shadow Shimizu




Shimizu starts by using Oni-Kagura, which fucks us up pretty good.



After a round of attacking, she’ll boost her Attack and then Charge up, which is our cue to take her down quick.

Music: Sunset Bridge




I could never stand that...
Why did you start treating him like that?
He just kept going along with it, so I misunderstood and thought I could do anything I wanted… Actually, I… wanted to be more than friends with him.
More than friends? You mean like as a boyfriend!?
Yes. I had a crush on him, but then I got possessive. Those feelings went out of control...
Be careful that you don’t make things worse for yourself than they already are...



We get a Whip Sword, a new weapon for Ann.



And there’s that request down.

Music: Mementos



The door opens now.

Whoa, we did it!
This is because more people believe in us now, right?
That has to be it. Now then, let’s get in there!



And so we enter Chemdah, meaning desire.

Looks like it’ll be a new area from here on. I’m starting to understand how this place works...
Yes… It is quite a marvel to find the subway system down here.
Uh, Earth to Yusuke! It’s always been like that!



This isn’t an important shot, but Zorro spawned facing backwards for some reason and it’s weird.



The last floor had seven areas, but the one before that only had two, right?
I suppose it varies, depending upon the location...
Guess that means it ain’t easy to tell how much of a floor we got left to cover, huh?
That’s right. We won’t know how many areas are on a floor until we make it to the end. But judging by the vibe I’m getting from the Shadows… this floor isn’t any smaller than the last.




The first image here is a normal gain, while the second is a Yoshida Rank 3 proc. As you can see, both are much more lucrative than their counterparts from the last block.



But there’s also new dangers. If we push too hard...



...additional enemies may spawn.



After nearly getting steamrolled by this Nue, we decide we’ve had enough fun for the day.



We made it to the next safe room, which means it’s about time to head home, because I’d rather save my SP items for the real Palace.



We end the day with 158,000 yen, with about 38,000 of that coming from Aiyatsbus (not counting the 12,000 we got from Shadow Shimizu) and 56,000 coming from Chemdah, which goes to prove how much better an idea it would have been to grind there instead, considering how much less time and SP we spent down there. We’re still well under what we need, but we have enough assorted junk to sell to Untouchable to get us to about 193,000 or so, which is acceptable if not perfect. We’ll have to make do.

Music: Beneath the Mask




Complaints about the authenticity of artwork are flooding in from buyers after the Madarame debacle. It seems this scandal will continue to cause confusion in the art world for some time.
The people who bought art from Madarame should have accepted the truth about him by now…

Next time, we’ll hopefully do something actually interesting, because fuck money grinding.