Weekly Gaming Blog (Persona 5 Plot Spoilers!) · 10:21am Apr 28th, 2017
Welcome to my Weekly Gaming Blog!
Quick Pokemon Shuffle note: Alola Pokemon are now appearing in Shuffle!
This week's coverage: Persona 5
WARNING: This blog contains Persona 5 plot spoilers for 5/18 (After School) through 6/20 (Evening). Proceed with caution.
REMINDER: Although this blog contains certain P5 plot spoilers, please be mindful of posting spoilers beyond that point in the comments. Please note where the blog's story summary leaves off, and mark any spoilers past that point. (Or better yet, don't leave spoilers past that point in the comments at all. 
)
Newly acquired games this week:
None
Persona 5
(Note: I named my protagonist Shitty Underpants Kaito Hidari, so for simplicity's sake I will be referring to him as such throughout. Additionally, I will be using the group name I gave the thieves in my game, Les Chatons, to refer to the party collectively. Also, and again for the sake of simplicity, I am omitting the narrative framing device of the interrogation from my recaps.)
Current Progress: 6/20 (Evening)
KAITO Lv. 20
Persona Compendium: 14%
Charm 2 | Proficiency 2 | Knowledge 2 | Guts 2 | Kindness 2
Confidants:
0. The Fool: rank 5
I. The Magician: rank 3
IV. The Emperor: rank 1
V. The Hierophant: rank 2
VI. The Lovers: rank 3
VII. The Chariot: rank 4
VIII. Justice: rank 1
XI. Strength: rank 1
XIII. Death: rank 4
XVIII. The Moon: rank 5
XIX. The Sun: rank 3
The Ugly Maker of Beautiful Things, continued
Les Chatons' infiltration of Madarame's Palace hits a roadblock when they encounter an impenetrable security field protecting a massive peacock-ornamented door. Mona recognizes the pattern from a door in Madarame's atelier with a heavy lock on it, and reasons that the security around this door is impenetrable unless they can unlock the real peacock door in the outside world before Madarambe's eyes. In order to do that, Ann has to invite herself over to model for Yusuke, then stall him until Madarame returns home while Morgana attempts to pick the lock.
Hilarity ensues at the atelier, but the mood changes abruptly when Ann and Yusuke enter the locked room in the atelier and discover Madarame's secret: the peacock room is full of copies of Madarame's "stolen" masterpiece Sayuri...as well as the original. Madarame tries to lie his way out of the situation, but Yusuke is finally unwilling to accept his excuses. Angered, Madarame calls his private security to arrest Ann. She flees, and Yusuke chases after her. Ann escapes into the Palace, pulling Yusuke in with her. In the Palace, as Yusuke struggles to get a handle on the situation, Madarame's Shadow appeared, dressed in fine gold silks and accompanied by a private security army. Between the real Madarame's confessions and his Shadow's bragging, the whole truth finally comes out:
Madarame spread a rumor that Sayuri had been stolen to boost both the painting's fame and his own, then deceived various private interests, claiming he had recovered the painting but needed to keep it out of the public eye and was looking to sell it at a "special price". With this arrangement, he sold perhaps hundreds of copies of Sayuri, vastly increasing his personal wealth. He then used his various "pupils" as tools to maintain his fame and public image, stealing their work and exhibiting it under his own name so that he would continue to be praised and revered as a humble master of the Japanese arts, working out of a shabby atelier in the slums...
...while in actuality all he ever paints anymore are copies of Sayuri, and he maintains a lavish private residence under the name of a mistress far away from his "shack".
And, of course, he gloats that abusing his students for his own gain is easy because children can't fight back, and anyone under his thumb can be ruined effortlessly if they oppose him.
With the full ugliness of the man exposed, it's finally more than Yusuke can take. All the things he feels he owes Madarame for are nothing against the truth of what a fraud and a monster he is. Having reached the point at which he finds Madarame unforgivable, Yusuke Awakens his Persona, Goemon. After battling their way past Madarame's security and leaving the Palace, Les Chatons retreat to a cafe, where Yusuke tells the others his whole story: he never knew his father, he doesn't really remember his mother, Madarame took him in, and so forth; Madarame has taken care of him for ten years and nurtured his talent, and he feels he owes everything he is to Madarame...but at the same time, he can no longer ignore the plagiarism, abuse, materialism, and two-faced nature of his former master. Learning that Les Chatons intend to change Madarame's heart and force him to confess his sins, Yusuke asks to join the party.
Yusuke reveals that Madarame is now paranoid and angry, and intends to take legal action against them once his exhibit is over. With the deadline more urgent than ever, Les Chatons continue their infiltration of Madarame's Palace.
The treasure heist is a little more complicated this time, and ends with Les Chaton being lured into a trap. Planting an insulting fake painting in place of the Treasure (seriously, a henohenomoheji?!), Madarame traps Les Chatons in the courtyard, where he reveals the Treasure: the true Sayuri, which was painted by Yusuke's mother.
It turns out that the painting "Sayuri" was a self-portrait, painted by Yusuke's mother after his birth. She was in poor health and knew she would not live to see her son grow up, so she painted herself holding the infant Yusuke to her bosom and looking down on him with all the love and regret in her heart. Madarame became enamored with the painting and believed that with a slight alteration—the removal of the infant from the portrait—Sayuri would carry an air of mystery in the vein of the Mona Lisa, which would capture the imaginations of art lovers and create fame and adulation.
Not content with desecrating a dying woman's declaration of love for her child, Madarame's sins against Yusuke and his mother went farther still: he was present when Yusuke's mother suffered a seizure which ended her life. He chose to allow her to die rather than calling for help, because her death would be convenient for him.
With all his sins laid bare, Yusuke loses the last possible shred of forgiveness in his heart for Madarame. Madarame's Shadow decides to end their lives and attacks.
However, Madarame underestimated Les Chatons. After a gruelling battle against a dangerous Shadow, the thieves are victorious. Defeated, Madarame acquisces, and agrees to return to his real self and confess his crimes. However, as the Palace begins to collapse around them, Madarame's Shadow asks about the other intruder, the one with the black mask...
For the duration of the exhibit after this, Madarame remains bedridden, saying nothing to Yusuke except "I'm sorry." At the end of the exhibit, Madarame arranges a public press conference, during which he confesses his crimes. He breaks down sobbing on camera, and is transferred to a police hospital for further observation and questioning. Among the bystanders watching the news on outdoor TV screens, a well-dressed boy takes particular interest in this event and the rumors of the Phantom Thieves.
As Les Chatons discuss their success and potential future activities in their obscenely public and unsecure "hideout", Makoto observes them from a distance...
The Conflicted Student Council President and the High School Detective
Time passes. Principal Kobayakawa pressures Makoto into investigating the students at Shujin while suppressing rumors—his logic is honestly circular and difficult to follow, but the pressure he exerts on Makoto is real and gives her no choice but to continue onward. It gets worse when he posts notices for students to go to the Seitokai with their concerns and problems, even though he never bothers to clear this posting with Makoto, which just causes her even more problems. However, through the posting she learns that some organized criminals are targeting students in Shibuya. When she takes this information to Kobayakawa, he seems hesitant to allow her to pursue it, but also seems to think that it somehow lines up perfectly with whatever his real goals are.
To make matters even worse for Makoto, students now believe she was fully aware of Kamoshida's abuses and said nothing, which makes her fellow students trust her less.
As for Les Chatons...
The thieves are cooling their heels in the aftermath of their success while they wait for a lead on a new target. On a school field trip to a TV studio, the core members of Les Chatons catch the interest of koukousei tantei Akechi Goro, who causes a citywide stir when he expresses his opinion of the Phantom Thieves on a television talk show: that they should be arrested, because vigilante justice aside, if they do have the power to influence the hearts of their victims, they could pose a danger to society.
Akechi's opinion causes a sway in the court of public opinion of the Phantom Thieves, which drills a sense of desperation into Les Chatons to find a new target and prove that they ARE justice.
At school, Makoto approaches the core members again, continuing her forced investigation of them, which leads her to get into a minor altercation with Ann, from which both girls walk away with heavy hearts.
Later that day, Yusuke announces he has left the student dorms at his school and intends to move in with Ann. When Ann says absolutely no to that, she tries to pawn him off on Ryuji, but Ryuji's place is too small. Morgana suggests allowing Yusuke to stay in Kaito's attic room...of course, Kaito has to clear that with Sojiro.
Swell.
The group heads for Leblanc, where Ann and Yusuke fortunately make quite a favorable impression on Sojiro. Upstairs, they decide to have a welcome party, and when Ann spies a portable stove amid all the crap in the attic, they decide to have hot pot.
After the celebration dinner, as Ann dozes off on the couch, Kaito tells Yusuke and Sock Emoji the whole story about his arrest: The woman Kaito protected threatened to blow the whistle on her attacker, but he turned it around on her, threatening to destroy her life and pin all the things she would accuse him of on her. He bullied her into reporting to the police that Kaito had assaulted him without provocation. When the police arrived, they couldn't suck this guy's dick hard enough, and that was the end of Kaito's normal life. Kaito doesn't know the man's name and doesn't remember his face, but we, the player, recognize him: he's the bald asshole from the hotel elevator. Not the one who Sock Emoji got into it with, the guy who was with him.
Meanwhile, Sae (who is Makoto's big sister) pressures Makoto to focus all her attention on preparing for college entrance, and basically tells her not to think about anything else at all but studying.
The next day, Makoto has a conversation with Akechi about his television appearance and the Phantom Thieves. Back at Leblanc, Yusuke talks with Sojiro for a while before returning to the student dorms, having decided he needs to get in touch with other people and learn how to cope with them or whatever. Sojiro shows a bit of his softer side, and Yusuke decides to leave the true Sayuri at Leblanc.
Later, Les Chatons discuss a rash of restaurant burglaries being carried out in Shibuya in the dead of night, which some people are claiming to be linked to the Phantom Thieves. Some of the members favor taking action to bring these burglars to justice, but in the end, the group decides that it's too big a risk.
The next day, at school, Kaito is called to the Student Council room under false pretenses. When he arrives, Makoto interrogates him about his involvement with the Phantom Thieves, and plays a recording of Sock Emoji and Ann talking about being Phantom Thieves in fucking public.
I have to break the narrative for a second here to complain about how stupid EVERYONE in this game is. Ever since they moved the "hideout" to an obscenely public place, I've been screaming at Sock Emoji and the others every time they start talking about this shit in public. I mean, how fucking stupid do you have to be? I kept wondering when it was going to come back to bite them in the ass and, well, here we are.
I have a LOT more to say on this subject, but I'll leave it for the Notes section at the end of the blog.
Makoto forces Kaito to lead her to the "hideout" to meet with the rest of Les Chatons. Once there, Makoto plays her recording for the others (in a public place), then offers a deal: she has a mission for them. If they can prove their ability to change a person's heart, if they can prove that what they're doing is justice, she will erase the evidence. However, she has no actual information on the target she wants them to go after. She tells them to meet her on the school roof the next day to discuss it some more.
After Makoto leaves, Les Chatons regroup at the small diner they frequent to discuss having been caught talking about being Phantom Thieves in a public place. Because, y'know, a different public place is the best place to talk about being caught confessing to being criminals in a public place. 
The next day, Makoto further explains the assignment she has for Les Chatons: She wants them to target the boss of the mafia group running scams & threatening people in Shibuya, including a number of Shujin students. She gives the thieves two weeks to bring the mafia boss to justice.
For the next week, Les Chaton work to investigate the situation. Checking with a few kids at school, they learn that high school students from around the area are being suckered into smuggling drugs for the mafia, and blackmailed into keeping quiet while their "employers" extort money from them. Their investigation into the recruiting agents in Shibuya are hindered by Makoto's hamfisted, clumsy attempts to find a lead instead of leaving it to the "professionals", but despite Makoto making things harder than they need to be, Les Chatons prevail by contacting the reporter chick they met back at Madarame's shack, who meets with Kaito in a shady bar in Shinjuku and, after some direct questions, gives him the name of the guy they're after: Junya Kaneshiro.
Phantom Thieves Vs. The Mafia
After learning the name of the next target, Les Chatons meet up to try to deduce the proper Meta-Nav keywords by sheer guesswork. Because, you know, they're idiots. Stupidly enough, it works, and they find the third Palace.
(It only works because the guy they're targeting is a severe megalomaniac. 
)
Kaneshiro sees the entire city of Shibuya as his personal bank, and inside his Palace, all the people walking around town are literal walking ATMs. After searching the town for any sign of Kaneshiro's hideout and talking to some broken-down, suffering Human ATMs (brrr), they finally realize where the true Palace is: a floating bank, literally gliding over all, above the rooftops of Shibuya.
Although they've located the Palace, for the time being they have no way to reach it, so they decide to regroup and plan for their next infiltration. That evening, Kaito receives a text from Ohya, who warns him that Kaneshiro has some very shady connections.
The window to prove their justice is shrinking fast...
Meanwhile, at the Niijima house, Makoto tries to share her thoughts on the Phantom Thieves with her sister, and in turn receives a brutal lecture which boils down to "You only have time to think about things like that because you're freeloading off me, so grow up and do what I tell you to and absolutely nothing else because you're useless."
God, I hate Sae. I hate Sae so much.
The next day, Les Chatons are having yet another RIDICULOUSLY PUBLIC PHANTOM THIEVES MEETING when Makoto walks up to talk to them. They're already annoyed with her, and Ann says something unnecessary, calling her useless—mirroring what Sae said the night before.
Ouch.
Ann and Yusuke being cruel to her after her sister was so cruel to her the night before spurs Makoto into action, and she decides on her own initiative to help Les Chatons get in contact with Kaneshiro.
Makoto runs off, and the others chase after her. They lose her in the crowds, but she calls Kaito and tells him to keep the call open and record it. It turns out she's gone right up to some of the mafia men and is asking direct questions which will very likely put her life in danger. The two henchmen take her away in a black car.
Kaneshiro turns out to be a fat bastard who looks like the lovechild of Louie Anderson and Syndrome. When Les Chatons tail the car to the club where he's lounging around being a hedonistic ass, he catches them on camera in a very compromising position—a group of minors in an adults-only club, surrounded by drugs and alcohol. Now he has blackmail material on all of them, and threatens to hurt their families if they go to the police. He gives them three weeks to bring him three million yen if they want to avoid being broken.
After they leave the club, Makoto apologizes for getting them all dragged into a huge mess, and also for not doing anything when Kamoshida was running roughshod over the entire school.
During this whole session of self-recrimination, Morgana realizes that Makoto may be the key to getting into Kaneshiro's bank. They couldn't get in before because they weren't considered to be his "customers", but now that they're on the hook for three million yen...
Morgana suggests taking Makoto with them into the Metaverse. Seeing it with her own eyes, Makoto no longer doubts the reality of the Phantom Thieves. Luckily, for all her many faults, Makoto is smart enough and studied enough that she quickly grasps the situation and accepts it. She decides to approach the bank, reasoning that since she's now a customer, she'll be let in. Sure enough, as soon as she walks up to the floating bank, it drops down to street level and lowers an entrance ramp! With a way in right through the front doors, Les Chatons can now infiltrate Kaneshiro's Palace...
À SUIVRE...
Thoughts:
- I nearly had a fucking heart attack when Joker got KOed in one shot during Yusuke's Awakening battle the first time I attempted it. Knowing the Persona series, I actually dropped my controller in shock because I saw a solid 45 minutes of cutscenes and gameplay evaporating like piss in July before my eyes.
Thank FUCKING GOD P5 fixed the most aggravating "gameplay feature" of the series and lets you restart boss battles so you don't have to play ALL THOSE CUTSCENES ALL OVER AGAIN.
- Shame the same can't be said during ordinary encounters. I'm not accustomed to getting game overs during ordinary enemy encounters. It's just not something that happens to me outside of lucky one-shots in other Persona games. That it happened to me three fucking times in Madarame's Palace annoys and embarrasses me.
- Holy fucking HELL Madarame boss battle.
- The whole "maid service" scene is fucking stupid and awkward. Seriously. Yikes. I cringed. Literally, physically CRINGED at that whole bit.
- Above, I mentioned how irritated I am with the main characters for their CONSISTENT stupidity in dealing with ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. Below is an excerp of my IM exchanges with Zef regarding the subject.
Moth: These dipshits are talking PT stuff in a public bath
Moth: Within earshot of an old dude
Moth: Yeesh
Zef: Heh! Yeah.
Zef: They're lucky the old dude's hearing is as sensitive as his skin.
Moth: ...
Moth: SEE?
Moth: SEE?!
Moth: WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY
Moth: ALL THE FUCKING TALKING ABOUT FUCKING THIEF SHIT IN FUCKING PUBLIC
Moth: LIKE FUCKING IDIOTS
Moth: ...
Moth: ...
Moth: THEY'RE STILL DOING IT
Moth: THEY LEARNED NOTHING
Moth: NOTHING
Moth: THEY JUST GOT CAUGHT BY TALKING ABOUT THIS SHIT IN A PUBLIC PLACE
Moth: SO WHAT DO THEY DO?
Moth: THEY TALK ABOUT WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Moth: IN ANOTHER PUBLIC PLACE!!!!!
Moth: THEY'RE STILL DOING IT!!!!!!!
Moth: WHAT THE FUCK?!??????!
Zef: XD
Zef: Ryuji: "Hey, let's make the school rooftop our hideout, no one goes there!"
Zef: Later:
Zef: "Hey, let's hold loud, incriminating meetings in the crowded school courtyard! Better yet, in this even MORE crowded accessway!"
Moth: I know, right? And they NEVER FUCKING LEARN
Moth: What gets me, though? Is that Ann isn't exactly any smarter than Ryuji
Moth: And they're not the only super stupid ones
Moth: I want to strangle basically every character in this game for being complete fucking idiots
Moth: The latest target of my ire?
Moth: Makoto.
Zef: Ah
Zef: She's... impulsive
Zef: I'll leave it at that before spoiling anything
Moth: "So we wanna get these shady mafia guys to lead us back to their boss, right? And to do that we need to act like we're fish on the hook for the drug thing, right? Here's a bright idea! Let's ask the first shady guy that comes up to us to offer us the drug smuggling job ALL ABOUT ALL HIS EVERYTHING SO HE JUST UP AND LEAVES AND THERE'S NO POSSIBLE WAY WE CAN FOLLOW HIM BECAUSE HE'S MADE US!"
Zef: XD
Zef: Ann and Ryuji are basically big kids.
Moth: OK, on the subject of Ann, and I'm gonna be really mean and really sexist about this?
Moth: If her tits weren't weighing her down, she'd float away from all the air in her head.
Is it just me or does Goro character design reminds you of Light Yagami from Death Note?
4512420 Not especially, no.
4512421 His whole demeanor may scream Adachi 2.0 but he looks like the stereotypical overachieving ass.
The joy of insta-kill attacks... Especially when your protagonist seems to be immune to revive items...
Of course, the same thing happened in P4. They discussed all of their stuff at Junes, the only department store in the whole town, and is so popular it is driving the other stores out of business! Hardly private. Plus, they got arrested for having swords there. You would think someone would have noticed them.
Now that I think about it, Naoto listened in quite a bit.
At least SEES met in their dorm, which is private.
But I agree with you, Moth. Talking about going after a member of the mafia in a public place is a good way to get a bullet to the head if the mafia is any kind of competent.
Glad I'm not the only one who thought the maid scene was cringy as all hell. I had a feeling it would be awkward, but I didn't think it'd be...THAT awkward.
Also with you on the protagonists being idiots. I was playing a different jrpg at the same time as Persona 5, and the protagonists in that one were so competent it ended up making the PT (SeeS, as I call them.) Look even WORSE. I will say I like Makoto, even if I think what she did was pretty dumb. Akira (or Kaito.) I also like far more then Yu. But other then that, I'm not a fan of the crew just yet.
Still loving the game, but the more I've thought on it, the more problems seem to crop up for me. I can't form a final opinion till I get my copy back in two weeks, however. :/
To give a compliment, I will say Persona 5 is damn effective at making you hate it's villains.
4512589 Yeah, it was, but at least her Social Link is decent
Ouch. Yeah, there was some stupid bits. Any cool that caught your interest?
4513163 Pretty much just the Awakenings.
4513236 Huh. I can see that.
I feel like Goro Akechi looks like a rejected Persona protagonist design. Doesn't help that his voice actor played Sorey, the main character in Tales of Zestiria.