Hello, Reader! How have you been since last week? Hope you’re ready for more weirdness as I continue to tell you about my experience playing Persona 5 Royal.
This week I went into Mementos for the bulk of my session. First, I need to cover some stuff I missed last week. I neglected to mention that my other party members (Ryuji, Ann and Morgana) all have codenames and personas. Ryuji is Skull and his Persona is Captain Kidd, Ann is Panther and her Persona is Carmen and finally Morgana is Mona and his Persona is Zorro (it even does the little Z swoosh with it’s rapier in a lot of it’s animations). From this point forward if I’m talking about the characters in the real world, I’ll use their real names and if I’m talking about them in the metaverse I’ll use the codenames.
The other thing I want to talk about is this games music. If you haven’t heard it yet, the Persona 5 Soundtrack (not the Royal edition) is on Spotify. A real quick top 10 of the ones I have heard so far in no particular order are. Check out those songs as well as the whole soundtrack, you won’t be disappointed. Especially if you like Jazz and Funk.
- 1. I Believe
- 2. Life Will Change
- 3. Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There
- 4. Last Surprise
- 5. Take Over
- 6. Colors Flying High
- 7. Layer Cake
- 8. Beneath the Mask
- 9. Swear To My Bones
- 10. Blooming Villain
Previously I defeated the perverted Volleyball Teacher, Kamoshida and made him confess his crimes against the students. 15 hours, 1 dungeon down and only 6 or 7 more to go. When I stole Kamoshida’s treasure, a crown in the metaverse, and returned it to the real world, it turned into a Gold Medal. Ann and Ryuji suggest that Ren should sell it. I couldn’t agree more. After taking one day off to help Sojiro around LeBlanc, I went to an air soft shop called “Untouchable.” The owner bought the medal and he gave us not only cash, but a paper bag that we’re told not to look into. Before leaving, some gentlemen came in and started investigating the owner.
Since the Phantom Thieves stole Kamoshida’s heart, it got a lot of people talking around the school and the city at large. It seems so peculiar for Kamoshida to have a change of heart and just confess his sins. The people want to know what’s going on but no one has the answers except our protagonists.
The men who come in to investigate start looking at Ren suspiciously as he leaves. Later that evening Ren and company all eat together to celebrate their first victory and decide that they should find a way to do what they did for Kamoshida’s victims for everybody in Tokyo. So, Morgana has an idea. The next day he tells Ryuji to search for Mementos in the Metaverse navigator app. He does so and the crew are back in the Metaverse but this time, they wind up in Mementos which is considered to be the general public palace. So it doesn’t belong to just one person. Mementos serves as a place where you can do side quests and grind for levels. While I do appreciate the thought of this, I really just wanted to get back to raising my real world stats and confidants as according to some research I’ve been doing, I’m going to need it for the late game. Especially if I want to get the true ending which is what I’m going for.
This one actually caused my first game over, so don’t be fooled by his cuteness. Something I learned really quickly is that if Joker dies in battle, you lose. I personally don’t much like this mechanic but it does make sense in a way. Joker is the main character so if he dies, you fail. In most traditional RPG’s your whole party has to fall in order to get a game over.
The following week, Ann felt like someone has been watching her. Low and behold, she was correct. Enter Yusuke Kitagawa. An art student of one Ichiryusai Madarame. A world famous artist apparently. He wants Ann to model for his next painting. The group talk it over more at Madarame’s art exhibit. Ann agrees to it but only if Ren and Ryuji can come along. The next day they all head over to Madarame’s house which is where Yusuke is staying since he has no biological family left. Yusuke tries to draw Ann but grows frustrated and loses focus and requests that she come back alone next time so he can draw her nude. This freaks everyone out and they all leave immediately. Prior to showing up to his place, the group saw some posts on the phantom thieves website (which now exists) that Madarame may be plagiarizing the art at his exhibit. They decide to put his name in the MNA (Metaverse Navigator App) and low and behold, he has a palace.
I decided not to go too far in the first time since I didn’t have a whole lot of healing items so I went to the first safe room and got the heck out of there. From there I spent more time in the real world leveling up my stats and confidants. After going back in a second time I got to an unopenable door. According to Mona, we need to convince Madarame in the real world that this door can be opened. So Ann and Morgana go to Madarame’s house in the real world while Skull and Joker wait for the door to open in the palace. Ann tells Yusuke that she’ll do the nude photo which is actually one of the more hilarious points in the game so far (there’s no nudity).
After opening the door in front of Madarame, Ann and Yusuke discover that there are seceral copies of famous painting that Madarame did a long time ago that he claimed were stolen. When pressed about it, he feeds the teens some lies that are frankly terrible. When they don’t buy it and discover that the original painting is there, Madarame calls the police and the two of them literally drop in to the metaverse to escape. Eventually Madarame’s Shadow catches the group in the Metaverse and starts to put down and belittle Yusuke. Yusuke finally awakens his persona, Goemon and the group takes on another tough group of enemies which actually marked game over number two for me. Upon the enemies defeat, the group leaves the metaverse and they all go to the diner and welcome Yusuke to the Phantom Thieves. I really liked how this palaces theme is a Museum. In fact, it was so funny I made this meme.
I’m still enjoying my time with the game, but now I’m really trying to schedule my in game time so I can efficiently level my stats confidants in the real world and take down giant sections of each palace. There’s a lot to do in this game and something I’m being reminded of every time I boot the game is to “Take my Time”. Well my friends, that’s all I have for this week. Until next time. Take care, God bless and remember that you are loved!
Be sure to follow Andrew on his Twitch channel when he plays more Persona 5 and other games!