Okay, I'm updating the portraits so things may look a little odd for a bit, please ignore any weirdness until I say I think I'm finished and you can all tell me how stupid I am because I actually missed some or, like, put Mark in for Yuki or something. Update coming after that.
With everyone standing around the lobby of the Hospital waiting for John to head to the Shrine. But, naturally, there are more important things to do than save his friend's mother! Things like making sure he doesn't suck the most out of all his friends.
How am I supposed to fight demons with a scalpel? Mark, gimme your axe. What? No way, man. Get your own damn axe! Hey, Yuki-- No. Well Nate just has a stupid mop. Haha, Nate sucks. Oh, hey! Ellen! You had a real weapon, right?
Oh, this? I grabbed it from the fencing club before I left school! I figured with all those demons around I really ought to have something to protect myself. Of course, that was before I learned about Nike. Did you know that in the battle between Zeus and the Titans, Nike fought alongside Zeus as the divine charioteer-- No one cares, gimme your sword. Oh! Of course, John. Anything for you. ...I mean it. Anything. That's a little creepy. Anyway, here. You can have my scalpel, I guess. Don't cut yourself or anything.
That's better! Great, you stole Ellen's weapon...wonderful. Can we hurry up, please? Actually, Yuki, I have a better idea! What? What could possibly be more important than saving Mary's mother? We're gonna compare our Personas and laugh at Mark and Nate because theirs suck! ...actually, yeah that does sound fun. Hey!
"Weak against physical" sounds bad, but there's two things to take into consideration: 1) 'physical' is only one type of attack, instead of an all-encompassing term and 2) non-magic attacks are weak and stupid for 99% of the game. Wind is a fairly weak attack spell, but with a Magic Power as high as Starion's, it's more than capable of taking out anything that doesn't resist the element.
"Attack" is the term that is used for physical attacks in general. This doesn't really matter again because of point 2 above and also because Voodoo's Vitality is super high. The spell Holy does a small amount of damage to one enemy, and then continues to damage the enemy at the end of each round. The exception to this is enemies with the "Evildark" alignment. They are instantly killed by this spell. The only reason this isn't completely horrible is because we're fighting a lot of zombies, which count as Evildark enemies.
Mark
(Let's not point out that the character they made black has as his initial Persona an African Tribal Warrior...) AKA Ogun
STRENGTH: 14
VITALITY: 11
TECHNIQUE: 9
AGILIRT: 6
LUCK: 10
Reflect Gravity
Weak Against Spirit
Magic Power: 50
Magic Defense: 40
Nothing ever uses Gravity, and "Spirit" means "Light and Dark" so he's basically ridiculously easy to one-shot KO. Tackle does decent damage to anything that it can hit, but the fact that it has such a small radius means it can only hit things directly in front of Mark. His horrible Magic Defense means he'll take huge damage from spells, too. For example, in this dungeon, a level 2 Pixie was hitting him for about 15 with a Wind spell.
Same weak against Spirit as Mark, which still sucks, but Blast is a much better spell and she has higher Magic Defense.
Ellen
AKA Nike! Another left unchanged.
STRENGTH: 11
VITALITY: 7
TECHNIQUE: 6
AGILITY: 14
LUCK: 10
No Effect Against Magic
Weak Against Attack
Offensive Magic Power: 59
Magic Defense: 71
That's right. Ellen is completely immune to all magic except for Darkness Based spells, which will either kill her outright or do massive damage. This is a trait that is shared by almost every single Judgement class Persona, which makes them some of the best in the game. Light is similar to Holy, except it does real person damage to the enemies, instead of ticking off 1-8 a round. It does increased damage to Evildark enemies, to the point of her hitting zombies for about 300 a pop.
The "SP" listed next to each Persona is the amount of SP/MP it costs to summon that Persona. Instead of each spell having its own individual cost like in most games, the costs in this game are tied to the Persona. Each Persona has a unique cost with higher level Personas costing more. You can use any of the Persona's spells for that cost. So if you were to somehow fuse a Pixie Persona with a "Heal everyone in the party to full health" spell, you can now fully heal the entire party for the low, low cost of 2 SP. It is very abuseable if you work at it.
Additionally, you may notice a +2 beside every Persona's level. That is the Persona's Rank. As a Persona's Rank increases, its stats increase and it learns new Spells. So let's do a bit of grinding and take a look at each starter at the max rank of 8, shall we?
...Hm. That's...not very impressive, is it? Blind Light, Magic Seal, and Confuse are all status ailment abilities, and as such are nearly completely worthless. Wind All is okay as long as you're not fighting anything that reflects or absorbs Wind, and can end most of the random battles around here in one turn thanks to that insane OMP, and Spin Kick is a small AoE physical attack, which makes it virtually worthless. Yeah. John doesn't get to make fun of people's starter Personas anymore.
If you were less than impressed with Holy, then the second spell, Candy Voice wasn't likely to win you over, either. It's another Status Effect spell--Charm this time--that works in a very small AoE centered around the caster. Not exactly the most useful spell in the game. An Accuracy increase is nice enough though hardly essential, and Iron Punch is pretty weak so we're still not exactly being wowed by Nate's presence in the party. MagUp, however, is amazing. It increases the Offensive Magic Power of the entire party and, like all buffs, can be cast multiple times for greater effect. This is a great way to lay the damage on bosses, and only two other Personas in the game learn it so this alone will make certain we keep Voodoo around long after tossing the other starters out. HolyWhite is okay, too.
This is...okay, I guess. Hit-All spells are pretty good before you start fighting things with varied resistances, but that super low OMP means they won't be doing too much damage, and the super low DMP means we'll be taking lots of it. We'll be changing this Persona ASAP.
Three different elemens, one of which is an AoE (Red Fire), an upgrade to her initial spell, and some healing. Good OMP and DMP, too. All-in-all a very respectable (and trustworthy!) Persona.
Outside, everything looks normal at first; but when you hit the edges of the city...
Was that giant, impenetrable, technicolor barrier always there? No, that's...that's kind of why everyone in town is freaking out. That and the demons. Riiiight...
Anyway, let's get going.
Looks like the easiest way is south and then west past the SEBEC building. Let's head out!
Guys, look. There's something going on by SEBEC.
What's that Guido up to now? Let's check it out.
That person there...Isn't he the newcomer? Huh? Yeah, that's that fool, Chris...What the heck is he doing!? So you won't let me pass, huh? You guys are dead! You know that, right!?
Man in black: "Do not make us repeat ourselves again. Everything beyond this line is under Sebec's control. If you do not follow our orders, you will be shot." What the..? What a fool! He's going to get himself shot!
Mark steps forward to deal with the Men in Black
Yo, what's up? Please excuse this moron. He's under medication...Dude, get outta here you fool! Before you get us all shot! Damn...It's you guys again.
And with that, Chris leaves.
So, Mark, you actually help others...Isn't that a surprise! Shut the heck up! I'm just trying to save his mom from grieving over his death!
With Chris saved and Mark's softer side revealed, we finally reach the shrine.
Hey, guys...There's something I've been wondering for a while. We're all American, right? Except Yuki, I think Yuki's Asian or something. I'm American, too, John... Well, whatever. Anyway, my point is, if we're all Americans living in a small American town, how come there's a giant Shinto Shrine right behind the school? ...
Cultural diversity? That's exactly as good an answer as any other. Let's go!
Here we are! Oh, there's Mary's mom! Wow! A beautiful butterfly!
The butterfly circles the shrine a few times, and everyone seems enthralled by it.
This butterfly...Isn't there something strange about it? Wh...what the...!
Suddenly, everything goes white. When we're finally able to open our eyes...
Aw, crap...am I dead again?
Welcome back, my friend! Have you mastered the use of your Persona? As you have noticed, the whole world has started to shift to a world that should not be. People with strong minds can stop this insane shift from moving any further. Many doors will be open to you in the future, and you will see the deeds of very evil men. It will be up to you to decide which door is the right door. Do not forget this.
Again we flash out, and just as suddenly as we were gone, we're back at the shrine.
What was that? A dream? "Life is stranger than fiction," many have said. That was another important life experience. What? Are you guys high? What's with the attempts at being deep?
Ou...Ouch...
Hey, hey! Don't forget Mary's mother. Are you all right? You've been grazed by a bullet...Who shot you? Yeah, I mean, it's not like we ran across a bunch of very large men that threatened to shoot us or anything. Guido's men... Guido? Guido of Sebec Corp.? Why are you making her waste her energy on obvious questions, Nate? The changes in the town are all Guido's doing. As an engineer at Sebec, I was involved in developing a very specialized machine. This machine is called the "Deva System". Machine...Is that what caused all these changes? The Deva System deforms the air dimensions causing supernatural changes. Guido doesn't care about the people or this town...We have to tell the police! Well, that's going to be a problem. I just checked the Police Station and it's infested with demons! Oh my...Somebody has to stop Guido! How did you escape from Sebec? The abandoned factory has a secret cargo entrance. Use this Security Card to... Nancy!! She just fainted! We have to get her to the school and fast! John, I'm going to leave that up to you. I'm going to the factory. John, I'll leave that up to you. I'm going with Mark. Hey guys! Wait up! There they go again, always forgetting about us and leaving us behind. Let's just hurry back to the school. Those two are exactly the same--stupid! They'll meet us back as soon as they see what's going on at the factory.
And then there were three. Well, three and one unconcious lady, but I don't think she counts. Let's head to the school!
...Next time, this is getting pretty long as is.
Next time: There is absolutely nothing in that box, don't bother looking
Just wanted to chime in to say that this Let's Play is really good and appreciated. This wacky Americanized Persona was one of the first Playstation games I owned and it blew my mind. I got overwhelmed somewhere in the middle though and I'm pretty sure I never finished it. I thought about picking up a PSP to finally get some resolution, but I'm not sure I could stand the first person dungeon crawling these days. This LP is a great alternative. Thanks Blackjack!
Welcome back, my friend! Have you mastered the use of your Persona? As you have noticed, the whole world has started to shift to a world that should not be. People with strong minds can stop this insane shit from moving any further. Many doors will be open to you in the future, and you will see the deeds of very evil men. It will be up to you to decide which door is the right door. Do not forget this.
That's how I read it.
Also, "the whole world has started to shift to a world that should not be." This is a bad sentence and it should feel bad.
That large butterfly mask shadow thing in the shrine is pretty neat.
Also, 'Deva System', eh?
Does it somehow screw around with Bishamon and his pals so that the barrier protecting [strike]Tokyo[/strike] this small American town gets weaker, therefore allowing all those demons into this world?
That large butterfly mask shadow thing in the shrine is pretty neat.
Also, 'Deva System', eh?
Does it somehow screw around with Bishamon and his pals so that the barrier protecting [strike]Tokyo[/strike] this small American town gets weaker, therefore allowing all those demons into this world?
I don't wanna give anything away, but the real answer is much more stupid!
Because I don't get to use Alana (:() and because Chris's forbidden Arcana list is so staggeringly huge (:() I don't get to use my normal Personas. So you all get to see me play through with wacky Persona setups that I've never tried before!
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The AnonymousUh, uh, uhhhhhh...Uh, uh.Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Awesome update. Can't wait for the next one!
...although, is there any reason you're using JPEGs instead of PNGs for the screenshots?
Okay! As of Right now all of the Portraits should be in nice, new .PNG format. Not the actual screenshots, but the portraits. I'll be looking through past updates to make sure but everything should look okay.
Big update coming either today or tomorrow, depending on when I get it finished. Summer Class finals are starting soon and I don't know if I'll be able to get any more updates done during those two weeks so I figured I'd give you guys a big one -- a lot of story, a lot of dungeon crawling, and four new Personas.
Re: Chris - it wouldn't be fun if the game wasn't challenging. Besides, you're playing Persona Easy Type. :P
Wait, this is the easy version of Persona? I thought the PSP version was the easy one, since I kinda waltzed through it with the starter stuff.
No version is all that difficult, but this is definitely the easier one.
They cut down the number of random battles which means, since your SP recovers as you walk around, you'll almost always be at full or near-full SP unless you're doing a lot of grinding in the late game when Personas start costing a good bit of SP to summon. Because the encounter rate is lower, they also increased the amount of experience each encounter gives you.
I was actually going to go into this in the update, to explain the "grinding Persona ranks" process.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Didn't they also reduce the HP of bosses? I remember hearing that somewhere.
Expect an update in an hour or two. This one's massive, guys. For those of you that are familiar with the game, I'm covering everything from reaching the school a second time through to entering the Factory. I may end up splitting it into two parts just to keep it readable. This is because, like I mentioned earlier, finals are coming up for my summer term, so I won't really be able to offer much in the way of updates. I have a mechanics update planned, because that won't actually take up very much time and it will give me a chance to finally explain all the contact stuff, but no real gameplay updates until the middle of August.
Also, I may as well say it, since fRAWRst had to abandon his Persona 2 LP, I'm planning on doing that after this one, if a) no one else has done it and b) anyone would be interested in it. I would be doing both games of it, of course.
We open outside the school, because Ellen won't let us actually go anywhere else once we leave the shrine, so why not, right? Ellen turns to address one of the students guarding the gate.
Guard: No! You must say the password. I can't let you in if you don't! I know it...Roses are red, zombies are blue, but my face is white, so you know I'm true.
Guard: OK, you can pass!
The guard opens the gate, but everyone needs to take a moment after that
...you know, as far as passwords go, that one is not only awful, it's kind of racist, too. Seriously. Who came up with that? I know, right? Zombies aren't even blue, they're more of a grey-ish green color... Help... Yeah, yeah, 'oh, stop Guido!' 'Oh, I've been shot!' 'Oh, take me to the school even though there's a perfectly good clinic the exact same distance from the shrine!' We're discussing important social issues here, you know. Fine, let's go.
Inside, we are greeted by Ms. Smith
Oh, John! Is everyone OK!? I'm so glad you're safe...What happened to her? I'll explain later! Quickly! We must take her to the infirmary! OK! John, come with me to the infirmary! Yuki, Ellen, can you go to the hole in the wall? Alana and T.J. are trying to fill that hole up. Please go and help them. Just make sure the demons can't get in, right? OK! Let's go Ellen! Let's.
We cut to the infirmary, where Nancy has regained consciousness and is explaining the events up to now.
...And that's what happened. Sebec...What is going on there!? Can you believe them John? Oh, I'm sorry, but...can you please go to the hole in the wall and tell them not to close it? Mark and Nate might be coming back that way. And we all know Mark can't get in through the front gate! ... ... ... What? It's their racist password!
Okay, so we're back in school! Complete with one of my favorite songs off the soundtrack:
In the American version of Persona, this second trip is just another stop along the way, important mainly for the events at the very end of the visit. In the Japanese version of however, what you do here is insanely important. You see, there is an entire second path through the game called The Snow Queen Quest (compared to the plot we're playing through, called The SEBEC Quest) that can be started in the school. You activate this quest by talking to various people throughout the school, all of whom mention an old, supposedly cursed, play called The Snow Queen that the school used to perform. All of the actresses that played The Snow Queen and wore the cursed Snow Queen Mask died in unusual circumstances. Because of these deaths, the play has been forbidden to be performed and the mask sealed away in storage. Once you find the mask and someone puts it on, though, all hell breaks loose, and the spirit of the Snow Queen traps the school in an icy dimension surrounded by four towers. Dungeon Crawling ensues, characterization happens (at least for Alana and Yuki, who are required party members), and a tedious experience is had by all. Although the Snow Queen Quest is a completely separate path and the game ends once it is completed, the canonical time line for Persona 1 indicates that the Snow Queen Quest happened and then the SEBEC path was completed.
Now, enough of that. Let's get going.
Yup. That's a hole in the wall, all right. Ellen went outside alone. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen. You know how she is. She kept saying something about how she has the Scalpel of True Love now or something, so no demons could stop her? How weird! I wonder if there is actually an exit out of town. She is so creepy. Anyway, we're not plugging up the stupid hole because Ms. Smith is the only person in the entire world that cares about Nate and Mark, so you losers can keep hanging out here or whatever, I'm gonna go explore the rest of the school. What? You mean we're not just going to run out the hole and go blindly after Guido? Good idea, Yuki, but not just yet! Ellen, creepy as she is, gave me an idea! What's that? I'm gonna loot the sports clubs!
And so we do!
Three sets of headgear and a pair of boxing gloves from the boxing club!
A bow from the archery club!
Two pairs of Trentshoes (your guess is as good as mine!) from the ballet club!
And in the fencing club...well.
Is my bald father alive?
Why don't you go outside yourself, Tad, hmm? You're such a whimp!
St...stupid! I'm not afraid of demons! You're scarier than they are! You buff and manly woman! What did you call me? You're a whimp! Whimp whimp whimpy boy! Dog face!! You manly-looking girl! Man man man manly girl! Wow, what a tongue twister!!
Okay, not that I care, but I can see a treasure box beside you guys so is there any way I can get you to shut up? Huh? Hey, John, let me give this to you.. I used this at my previous school I attended. I think that you'll need this more than I will...
Haha, you mean I didn't need to send Ellen out into the demon infested wilderness with nothing but a scalpel and a crush? Sweet. Thanks, Tammy. She really has no redeeming value, John, does she? Uh, dude, she just gave me an entirely free weapon. You want my support, you gotta beat that. Hmm...oh! I've got it! My dad owns the local pharmacy, and I happen to know for a fact that Nate can't stand the music they play there. It drives him insane and gets stuck in his head for days! ...you are a gentleman and a scholar, Tad.
The chest turns out to be worthless, unfortunately. It containts three gauntlets which would be nice, if I hadn't collected something like 30 of them from monster drops while grinding Personas to rank 8. There is something of interest here, though!
She even pointed out their differences. She said there are some that will join you and some that won't. There are even some that are afraid.
Hmm...seems like Tammy used that rapier for more than fencing at her old school.
This is actually a reference to Shin Megami Tensei: If..., a spinoff of the first Shin Megami Tensei game for the Super Nintendo. It's also the start of the Persona timeline, and a lot of the ideas in If... were later refined and brought into Persona. Tammy is the main character of that game (well, the canonical one, anyway. When you play you're given a choice between Tammy and an unnamed male protagonist). Tammy also has the honor of being the only person in the series that is both a Demon Summoner and a Persona user.
That, essentially, is the end of the school for us. We can head into the storage room off the side of the gym to find an obviously suspicious box...
But the game simply pops up a "there's nothing here" message and boots us back to the gym. (This is, fairly obviously, the Snow Queen Mask.) I guess John just doesn't like the looks of that box or something, given the fact that he's been spending the last half hour wandering through the school and doing nothing but opening boxes that have been left lying on the floor.
All right, I'm outta here. Where the hell's Yuki? She went to check on Mary's mother. She said she'll be back in a little bit, if you wanted to wait for her? No way, I guess she just doesn't get to be a part of Operation: Kick An Old Rich Guy's Ass. Tell her not to open that box in the storage room. I don't like the way it was looking at me. Well, see ya!
Before we leave, however, another familiar face comes to check out the hole in the wall.
Oh, John! What're you guys doing!? Oh... Is that you...Mary? What? Is it you...Mary? Yeah, it's me. The one and only Mary the Magnificent! What's wrong Alana? John, this is too strange. Mary was never this happy and giggly. What's going on!? Alana, what are you talking about? Oh? That big hole...John, you did it, right? What? We're not talking about a few missing bricks here! That hole is giant. How would I even do something like that? See? Something is wrong! Weren't you just in the hospital? Alana, stop it! You're really starting to upset me! Would you prefer that I was in the hospital? Um... I think she's the real Mary. How can you tell? She could be a demon or something! Mmm... Sorry, but she's carrying her favorite compact. She's never without it. Alana, stop badgering T.J.! But, T.J., there's something definitely not right around here...
We don't get to find out what that something is, though, as Nate suddenly appears through the hole in the wall, surprised as anyone to see Mary.
John! What? Why is Mary here? Not you too! Stop joking around, Nate. By the way, what's wrong? You're (sic) face looks flushed and upset. I'm not upset! I'm just out of breath from running back here. That idiot Mark got caught by demons at the Police Station. Mark thought it was a good idea to obtain weapons and ammo for extra protection. That's when he got caught. Normally, I wouldn't think twice about leaving that idiot there to die, but he's got the Security Card. You have to help me go and rescue him! Mark? ...Demons? John! We have to rescue him! We do? Uh--I mean, uh--we do! Here's a gun. Using a Persona, greatly decreases your energy level. That's how Mark got caught. It won't hurt to be prepared. Don't forget to equip the gun. Persona? I don't understand it very well. Don't worry. You will in about five minutes. Call it a hunch. Oh well...Let's go!
So. Mary somehow is not only out of the hospital, but doesn't remember ever being there in the first place. This is definitely strange. Maybe talking to her again before heading through the hole will help.
This must be the work of the Girl in Black. I'll show her! John, hurry!
John doesn't even know what the fuck. But, this isn't the first time we've heard of a Girl in Black. Remember that man in the hospital who said he'd been seeing a ghostly Girl in Black around the Sebec building? How does Mary know about that, though...
As soon as we leave the school, things get even weirder with Mary.
This is no time for a joke. Joke? No, really! What is it? A government organization that keeps the peace and order in society. Therefore, we are going to the "Police" Station. Get it? Uhhhh... I'm slowly remembering something, or am I?
Just then, Mary notices the gym and freaks out.
What? The gym!? It looks brand new! When did they rebuild it? It was redone six months ago, while you were in the hospital. Aw, crap, here we go again... There you go again...I was never hospitalized! Stop kidding around! Hey, John...Is she suffering from amnesia? Man, how do I know? She was in the hospital for mental delusions! For all I know she thinks this is a live action game of Candy Land! Maybe we shouldn't take her along... What are you guys mumbling about? We're wasting time. Mark's in danger!
Before we can head out, though, we see the rarest of things. A canonical example of a random battle!
This dude literally just fades in from nowhere.
So you know what that means, everyone!
So that was Persona? The power from my mind...Another self within me... Persona is a Latin word which means "mask". From this word, English words such as "personality" were derived. Thanks, Professor. Seriously, dude, that was random and pointless. I don't think she was expressing shock at the word Persona. Yeah, not so much. It was more the fact that there are demons and angels co-existing within our souls? If you want to be poetic, an eye for an eye and a demon for a demon. I don't understand how it works, but it could prove to be very useful! You're high right now aren't you? We can do it! We can find out why demons have invaded and defeat them. We can take our city back! Yes. but to do that, we have to go rescue that idiot Mark.
But first! Let's talk to Mary again.
We will not let that girl do what she wants with us! Right, John!?
John still doesn't know what the fuck.
Let's get out of here. Mary is strange and confusing.
Okay! We have to hurry and save Mark right away, John! Absolutely. Let's head to the Police Station. Wait for it... But first!
Look at that shit. That is some terrible equipment we have. I mean, really, Nate? A mop. How is that going to help us? Are you going to pretend to be a janitor? A little demon janitor? No, but seriously. To the casino! Wait, what?
Can I help you? We exchange money for tokens here. ...oh my god. What ARE you?
We swallow our terror and buy a few coins off him. It's a direct 1-to-1 ratio of dollars to coins, and I've accumulated quite a few dollars from grinding Persona ranks, so I'm able to buy quite a few coins, too.
But, which game to play. There's slot machines, of course, and blackjack, and something called Code Breaker which I'll explain more of in another update. The real moneymaker, though, is Poker.
The payouts themselves aren't so great, but when you win, you get a chance to double your money.
Big & Small is the one we're going for. It's pretty self-explanatory, they give you a card, you guess if the next one is going to be bigger or smaller. With a little patience, you can get very lucky this way.
Very, very lucky. And yes, I know I was stupid for playing a 9, but I always push my luck farther than I should in these games. I just went ahead and took my 20000 coins there, though.
About a half hour or so in the casino and a little exchanging coins for items later, our gear looks better.
Much better.
And with a little extra grinding, Mary's Persona is on par with John and Nate's, too.
Maria's pretty good as far as starter Personas go. Chill is the lowest level ice spell, but Freezer is a nice upgrade that does AoE damage. Multi Bow is an excellent physical attack, that hits random enemies in the area anywhere from 3 to 5 times. Cure is always good to have, and Poison Cure is surprisingly useful as we'll start to find treasure boxes that spring Poison Traps and I always forget to buy Poison Cures. Trap Cure is of limited use though, as it protects us from damage floors. There aren't too many damage floors in the game, and those that do exist don't hurt enough to matter.
With all of that out of the way, we're ready to head into the Police Station!
Up next: If you thought the password was racist, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
The inside of the police station is no better off than the hospital. Cabinets are destroyed, payphones have been ripped off their mounts, boxes overturned and paper strewn about the place. Mary, though, seems to be getting a little less crazy, at least.
This is the Police Station? Oh, yeah! That's right, I remember now. Let me see... Mark must be in jail, John... However, we can't open the cell without the key...What should we do? Maybe it's somewhere around here... Let's try finding it. Yeah, that's right... John, help us look for it.
The Police Station is a bit more complex than the hospital, although not by much. The enemies are all new, but because we're expected to still be using the starter Personas, they're still nothing noteworthy. This dungeon trip proceeds exactly the same as the previous one, with me talking every enemy out of its spell card and not actually fighting very many of them.
On the second floor we find a stairway leading down to a second area of the first floor. Here, all we find is a door leading into a small room. These must be the cells, surely?
And, indeed, upon heading in, we find Mark!
Wait, who's that in the second cell? It's hard to tell, but it kind of looks like...Brad?
Yo! Who's there!? Damn, I'll kill you all! Get me out of here!! Hey, Mark! Just kick back! There's no use pissing them off even more! We should just kiss up to them, and maybe they'll let us out... Oh...What!? There you are! Are you OK, Mark? ...Oh!? Brad is here too! Hahaha! You fools look like some caged up monkeys! How did we end up at the zoo? Duuuuuuuude. Did you seriously just say that.
Okay, okay. I get that the translators were just translating the lines and not thinking anything about it, but if you're going to make a character black, and then have him be arrested, maybe you should change that line into something other than 'you look like a caged monkey' because I mean seriously.
Shut up, Nate!! What took you guys so long!? ..........Mary? Psh, it's you guys...I know, I know...You all missed me, huh? Oh, Brad...You're still here? Ouch... What is this fool talking about? I didn't even know you were here, Brad. So that 'monkey' comment was directed solely at Mark, then? Admit it, you're the one that wrote the password for the school, aren't you? That's not important. By the way...Why are you here? Let's just get them out first.
Mary unlocks their cells, and Brad tries to explain the whole 'captured by demons'
Even I can't kill those damn demons without any weapons...So we came here to look for something useful, but we ended up like this instead. Damn it, Brad! Just don't say anything! ...Mary!? What are you doing here? Are you sure you're able to be out here? What? Why is everyone so concerned about me? I'm perfectly fine! Okay... I was just making sure. Anyway...
Mark is interrupted by the sound of the door opening.
Officer: Like you're supposed to...
Shut the heck up! This better not be any of your stupid jokes! I didn't even do anything yet! Wait! Something's wrong!
Try not to be surprised here, guys, but they're actually demons, and they attack.
Oh, crap! You're the one who's gonna die!
John, Mary, Mark, and Nate make short work of the four zombie cops surrounding the demon captain.
I am only including that so you can see the hilarious :shock: face the captain makes when they kill the cops.
But, this guy's pretty good at strategy and has a plan of his own:
I don't want to die!
We know what happens next!
Brad, understandably, is kind of shocked.
Nate, not so understandably, is also shocked.
What..? You too, Brad? I would at least think that monkeys wouldn't be able to handle such powers...I guess I was wrong. Dude, it should be pretty obvious by now that everyone that played Persona had those dreams and got these powers. And seriously, stop it with the monkey thing already. OK, I'll explain everything...So just sit down and listen up...
Thankfully, the game doesn't make us listen to exposition we've already been exposed to, so the screen fades out and then back in after Mark finishes explaining everything.
Brad is no longer confused and is now, excited as all hell.
See? I knew I was different! I've had this feeling since I was a kid! Ah, yeah! It's all about ME! What the heck is this guy getting all excited over? Psh, whatever...Anyway...Hey John, is it cool if I go with you guys? I feel a bit uneasy leaving this up to you guys...
Despite the wording, we have no choice but to take him with us...
I feel the same way about you... Mark, give the Security Card to John. Alright... Here you go... Don't lose it! Here, Mark, your gun. Don't shoot me with it! Hey! I know you all are just wishing for me to come along! I don't think any of you has what it takes to become a hero! You guys lack spirit! Stop lying to yourself! You know you want my company! So what's up, John? Psh, whatever...Hey John, do you want to take him along? Mmmmmmmno. Oh, serious? You won't regret it? OK, fine...I'll just go back to school then... (Sigh) You're going to regret this!
Brad disappears into the demon infested city. Alone. Canonically speaking, everyone went together and John didn't tell any of his friends to fuck off into hordes of demons just because he wants the dude with the scar in his party.
Okay! Now that we're all here... ...Where do we go? Well...I hear that new shop just opened up! Let's go see.
You can call upon your inner self in this room... Please, show me your Persona. What is your desire? Uh...I guess I'll make some new Personas?
Self-Service, obviously! I'm not some little kid that needs the creepy dude with the nose to hold my hand the whole time! Self-Service it is, then...
...So, uh...you said something about Full-Service?
It's actually not quite as complicated as it looks, don't worry. The Persona 1 Wiki has an excellent write up on Fusion Theory, here's the important bits.
White Normal: Nothing special
Orange Unstable: Higher chance for fusion accident
Blue Beneficial: Result Persona have +5 to its highest stat, and +20 to Magic Def
o Normal Fusion: No skill inheritance
→ 1st Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 1st demon entering the recipe, according to the priority
↑ Beneficial 2nd Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 2nd demon entering the recipe, according to the priority; all stats +1
↓ Unfavorable 2nd Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 2nd demon entering the recipe, according to the priority; all stats -1
X Cannot Fuse
So, let's fuse some Personas! We don't want anyone to feel left out, so we make four.
One for John...
One for Mary...
One for Mark...
And one for Nate!
Of course, they aren't too helpful, what with only being on Rank 1, but we can deal with that easily enough.
Didn't Alana say Ellen left to find a way out of town? I wonder if we can find her.
We find her in the subway, by using the highly scientific method of "well, she wasn't anywhere else!"
...Mary? When did you leave the hospital? Aw, crap, she said the H word! Oh, excuse me...I suppose this isn't the time to discuss that now. I'm just glad that everyone is safe and sound. Damn, this place is all messed up... I'm afraid so... I went around all over, but I couldn't find a way out...By the way, where is everyone? Are they searching for clues to what caused all this? I guess you could say that... Actually...
We fade out and in as another explanation occurs...
Oh really...Is that what happened!? May I go with you, John? I would like to do my own research, too... There are still so many things I don't know...your favorite color, the type of music you like, what shampoo you use... Please, take me with you! Oh my god are you serious? No. Absolutely no. Veto. Denied. I understand...You want me to stay somewhere safe, don't you? ...Yeah. Okay. That works. Let's go with that. But since I'm alrady out here, I think I'll take another look around town...Take care. She is so creepy... Oh, I know! Yuki! Yuki can come with us! To the school!
When we get there, though, we find that the school wasn't quite as safe as everyone thought it was.
This, too, is caused by the Deva System.... That Guido, I'll get him!
Attempting to enter the space the school once was, allows us a vision of the school, surrounded by four towers.
You just had to open the box, didn't you... Now what do we do..? Okay, guys, I know this is sad and confusing, but we need to focus. We need to take out Guido, and to do that, we'll need supplies. To the Pharmacy! Th-the Pharmacy? Yeah. Unless, of course, you can think of a reason we shouldn't go... No! No reason. Right. The Pharmacy. Let's go...
Hahaha, you're the best, Tad! Okay, let's go. Did you even buy anything!? Nope! To the Factory!
On the way to the factory, we make sure to get everyone's new Persona up to Rank 8. Let's take a look.
John
AKA Urvashi and no, I have no idea what an Ixl is
STR: 14
VIT: 10
TEC: 16
AGL: 27
LUK: 10
OMP: 167
DMP: 123
Reflect Chill
Weak Against Physical
Ixl is a magical Powerhouse. Her stats aren't anything to write home about, but Ice All is an amazing spell that does good damage and has a chance to freeze enemies, causing them to lose a turn. And with her ridiculous magic power, it will do about 300 damage to enemies not weak to ice.
Mary
AKA Phaleg
STR: 16
VIT: 11
TEC: 7
AGL: 22
LUK: 17
OMP: 156
DMP: 156
No Effect Against Magic
Weak Against Attack
Halo is phenomenal. His stats aren't special, but Heal All heals the entire team for approximately 250-300 health. Red Fire is a decent spell thanks to his high OMP, and Wind All was a nice fusion bonus. Strength Drop is a huge help against quite a few bosses, too. Halo will be with us for the entire game.
Nuke More is all he has going for him. Strength is a dump stat, Squash is useless, Poison Pin is decent at best, Nuke is outclassed by Nuke More, and Light Kick is horrible. I've already talked about Weak to Spirit and his DMP is horrid. Is Nuke More really worth it?
Oh, it has its uses...
Nate
AKA Fuutai
STR: 15
VIT: 22
TEC: 52
AGL: 43
LUK: 9
OMP: 72
DMP: 65
No Effect Against Tackle
Weak Against Whip
Immune to Tackle and Weak to Whip are both pointless, and his OMP isn't high enough to make use of his decent spell selection. DMP is obviously terribly low, too. But look at those stats. Nate is a tank with this guy active, and is taking the front row center position to take all the physical hits thrown by the enemy.
Now, like John said...to the factory!
...next time.
Next time: We send another one of our friends out into the wilderness unprepared.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
That is some nice music in Part 5.
Also, little late on the Devil Summoner couple. :P Can't you meet them early on?
Nice touch on Atlus USA dubbing the graffiti walls. It's in Japanese in Persona PSP. Except for 'don't be a crazy dog'.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Also, I may help out for Persona 2; in a sense. I can do the path in EP you don't. Or something like that. I just want to jump in on that somehow. :P
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Zen VulgarityWhat a lovely day for teaSecret British ThreadRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
You persona freak
Do one of Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Don't have a capture card. And people know how awesome DDS 1 & 2 is. And I just finished replaying them not long ago.
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Zen VulgarityWhat a lovely day for teaSecret British ThreadRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
I never played them.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Also, little late on the Devil Summoner couple. :P Can't you meet them early on?
You can. In fact, I did. The expository 'who are these people' text is from my first exploration of the school--you can see Mark in the corner there. I didn't include them then because, well, it's a really boring scene that is basically them fighting, and then talking about how much they fight.
Also, I may help out for Persona 2; in a sense. I can do the path in EP you don't. Or something like that. I just want to jump in on that somehow. :P
Hm. I was planning on doing both, actually. So that I can show off the bonus boss in the bonus dungeon, which requires you to go through both paths. We'll work something out, though! I can always do the other one just to get to the bonus dungeon or something. That's still a long way away.
Good news: I actually have a bit more time than I thought before my finals start, so I may be able to get out a real update between now and then.
Bad news: I was playing around with the idea of doing video for the boss fights, Fraps only records in 30 second increments and with a watermark because I refuse to pay money for this LP sorry, and VirtualDub desyncs the audio something fierce. I'll play around with it a bit more to see if I can get it to work, but right now assume no video.
Good news: I actually have a bit more time than I thought before my finals start, so I may be able to get out a real update between now and then.
Bad news: I was playing around with the idea of doing video for the boss fights, Fraps only records in 30 second increments and with a watermark because I refuse to pay money for this LP sorry, and VirtualDub desyncs the audio something fierce. I'll play around with it a bit more to see if I can get it to work, but right now assume no video.
Camstudio is good for this. You can also try the native AVI output, according to how you are playing this
Great update. When I first played the game, I thought Ixl was LXL in lowercase. I don't know why that made more sense to me.
Doesn't the casino have cheap stones to merge into persona at this point? Or are you going to avoid doing that because of cost and confusion?
They don't have any yet. I got, like, a Wind Stone and a Chill Stone from CodeBreaker and a couple Chill Stones off Jack Frosts, but those are for crappy weak spells so I'm not putting them on anything yet.
I'll talk about adding items when I have items worth adding.
edit: Oh, and they have totems to fuse some special Personas, but see above re: going into it when I do it.
Good news: I actually have a bit more time than I thought before my finals start, so I may be able to get out a real update between now and then.
Bad news: I was playing around with the idea of doing video for the boss fights, Fraps only records in 30 second increments and with a watermark because I refuse to pay money for this LP sorry, and VirtualDub desyncs the audio something fierce. I'll play around with it a bit more to see if I can get it to work, but right now assume no video.
Camstudio is good for this. You can also try the native AVI output, according to how you are playing this
Camstudio works, thanks! Made a little test video of Philemon's intro (up to the name input), let me know what you guys think (volume, etc)
Posts
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
With everyone standing around the lobby of the Hospital waiting for John to head to the Shrine. But, naturally, there are more important things to do than save his friend's mother! Things like making sure he doesn't suck the most out of all his friends.
How am I supposed to fight demons with a scalpel? Mark, gimme your axe.
What? No way, man. Get your own damn axe!
Hey, Yuki--
No.
Well Nate just has a stupid mop. Haha, Nate sucks. Oh, hey! Ellen! You had a real weapon, right?
Oh, this? I grabbed it from the fencing club before I left school! I figured with all those demons around I really ought to have something to protect myself. Of course, that was before I learned about Nike. Did you know that in the battle between Zeus and the Titans, Nike fought alongside Zeus as the divine charioteer--
No one cares, gimme your sword.
Oh! Of course, John. Anything for you. ...I mean it. Anything.
That's a little creepy. Anyway, here. You can have my scalpel, I guess. Don't cut yourself or anything.
That's better!
Great, you stole Ellen's weapon...wonderful. Can we hurry up, please?
Actually, Yuki, I have a better idea!
What? What could possibly be more important than saving Mary's mother?
We're gonna compare our Personas and laugh at Mark and Nate because theirs suck!
...actually, yeah that does sound fun.
Hey!
John
AKA Seimen Kongou
STRENGTH: 13
VITALITY: 9
TECHNIQUE: 6
AGILITY: 12
LUCK: 10
Reflect Wind
Weak Against Physical
Magic Power: 68
Magic Defense: 49
"Weak against physical" sounds bad, but there's two things to take into consideration: 1) 'physical' is only one type of attack, instead of an all-encompassing term and 2) non-magic attacks are weak and stupid for 99% of the game. Wind is a fairly weak attack spell, but with a Magic Power as high as Starion's, it's more than capable of taking out anything that doesn't resist the element.
Nate
AKA Aizen Myouou
STRENGTH: 11
VITALITY: 13
TECHNIQUE: 10
AGILITY: 6
LUCK: 8
Strong Against Magic
Weak Against Attack
Magic Power: 42
Magic Defense: 72
"Attack" is the term that is used for physical attacks in general. This doesn't really matter again because of point 2 above and also because Voodoo's Vitality is super high. The spell Holy does a small amount of damage to one enemy, and then continues to damage the enemy at the end of each round. The exception to this is enemies with the "Evildark" alignment. They are instantly killed by this spell. The only reason this isn't completely horrible is because we're fighting a lot of zombies, which count as Evildark enemies.
Mark
(Let's not point out that the character they made black has as his initial Persona an African Tribal Warrior...)
AKA Ogun
STRENGTH: 14
VITALITY: 11
TECHNIQUE: 9
AGILIRT: 6
LUCK: 10
Reflect Gravity
Weak Against Spirit
Magic Power: 50
Magic Defense: 40
Nothing ever uses Gravity, and "Spirit" means "Light and Dark" so he's basically ridiculously easy to one-shot KO. Tackle does decent damage to anything that it can hit, but the fact that it has such a small radius means it can only hit things directly in front of Mark. His horrible Magic Defense means he'll take huge damage from spells, too. For example, in this dungeon, a level 2 Pixie was hitting him for about 15 with a Wind spell.
Yuki
AKA ...Vesta, actually
STRENGTH: 12
VITALITY: 12
TECHNIQUE: 11
AGILITY: 8
LUCK: 9
Absorb Fire
Weak Against Spirit
Magic Power: 57
Magic Defense: 57
Same weak against Spirit as Mark, which still sucks, but Blast is a much better spell and she has higher Magic Defense.
Ellen
AKA Nike! Another left unchanged.
STRENGTH: 11
VITALITY: 7
TECHNIQUE: 6
AGILITY: 14
LUCK: 10
No Effect Against Magic
Weak Against Attack
Offensive Magic Power: 59
Magic Defense: 71
That's right. Ellen is completely immune to all magic except for Darkness Based spells, which will either kill her outright or do massive damage. This is a trait that is shared by almost every single Judgement class Persona, which makes them some of the best in the game. Light is similar to Holy, except it does real person damage to the enemies, instead of ticking off 1-8 a round. It does increased damage to Evildark enemies, to the point of her hitting zombies for about 300 a pop.
The "SP" listed next to each Persona is the amount of SP/MP it costs to summon that Persona. Instead of each spell having its own individual cost like in most games, the costs in this game are tied to the Persona. Each Persona has a unique cost with higher level Personas costing more. You can use any of the Persona's spells for that cost. So if you were to somehow fuse a Pixie Persona with a "Heal everyone in the party to full health" spell, you can now fully heal the entire party for the low, low cost of 2 SP. It is very abuseable if you work at it.
Additionally, you may notice a +2 beside every Persona's level. That is the Persona's Rank. As a Persona's Rank increases, its stats increase and it learns new Spells. So let's do a bit of grinding and take a look at each starter at the max rank of 8, shall we?
John
STR: 19
VIT: 15
TEC: 12
AGL: 18
LUK: 16
OMP: 86
DMP: 67
...Hm. That's...not very impressive, is it? Blind Light, Magic Seal, and Confuse are all status ailment abilities, and as such are nearly completely worthless. Wind All is okay as long as you're not fighting anything that reflects or absorbs Wind, and can end most of the random battles around here in one turn thanks to that insane OMP, and Spin Kick is a small AoE physical attack, which makes it virtually worthless. Yeah. John doesn't get to make fun of people's starter Personas anymore.
Aw, man...
Nate
STR: 17
VIT: 19
TEC: 16
AGL: 12
LUK: 14
OMP: 60
DMP: 90
If you were less than impressed with Holy, then the second spell, Candy Voice wasn't likely to win you over, either. It's another Status Effect spell--Charm this time--that works in a very small AoE centered around the caster. Not exactly the most useful spell in the game. An Accuracy increase is nice enough though hardly essential, and Iron Punch is pretty weak so we're still not exactly being wowed by Nate's presence in the party. MagUp, however, is amazing. It increases the Offensive Magic Power of the entire party and, like all buffs, can be cast multiple times for greater effect. This is a great way to lay the damage on bosses, and only two other Personas in the game learn it so this alone will make certain we keep Voodoo around long after tossing the other starters out. HolyWhite is okay, too.
Suck it, John.
STR: 20
VIT: 17
TEC: 15
AGL: 12
LUK: 16
OMP: 68
DMP: 58
This is...okay, I guess. Hit-All spells are pretty good before you start fighting things with varied resistances, but that super low OMP means they won't be doing too much damage, and the super low DMP means we'll be taking lots of it. We'll be changing this Persona ASAP.
STR: 18
VIT: 18
TEC: 17
AGL: 14
LUK: 15
OMP: 75
DMP: 75
Three different elemens, one of which is an AoE (Red Fire), an upgrade to her initial spell, and some healing. Good OMP and DMP, too. All-in-all a very respectable (and trustworthy!) Persona.
STR: 17
VIT: 13
TEC: 12
AGL: 20
LUK: 16
OMP: 77
DMP: 89
Magic immunity, attack spells, healing, and buffs. What more do you want? Definitely the best of the five starters.
I don't wanna look at Personas anymore, let's go to the Shrine
Psh, you're just saying that because your Persona sucks...
SHRINE!
City 1 Post-Disaster
Outside, everything looks normal at first; but when you hit the edges of the city...
Was that giant, impenetrable, technicolor barrier always there?
No, that's...that's kind of why everyone in town is freaking out. That and the demons.
Riiiight...
Anyway, let's get going.
Looks like the easiest way is south and then west past the SEBEC building. Let's head out!
Guys, look. There's something going on by SEBEC.
What's that Guido up to now?
Let's check it out.
That person there...Isn't he the newcomer?
Huh? Yeah, that's that fool, Chris...What the heck is he doing!?
So you won't let me pass, huh? You guys are dead! You know that, right!?
Man in black: "Do not make us repeat ourselves again. Everything beyond this line is under Sebec's control. If you do not follow our orders, you will be shot."
What the..? What a fool! He's going to get himself shot!
Mark steps forward to deal with the Men in Black
Yo, what's up? Please excuse this moron. He's under medication...Dude, get outta here you fool! Before you get us all shot!
Damn...It's you guys again.
And with that, Chris leaves.
So, Mark, you actually help others...Isn't that a surprise!
Shut the heck up! I'm just trying to save his mom from grieving over his death!
With Chris saved and Mark's softer side revealed, we finally reach the shrine.
Hey, guys...There's something I've been wondering for a while. We're all American, right? Except Yuki, I think Yuki's Asian or something.
I'm American, too, John...
Well, whatever. Anyway, my point is, if we're all Americans living in a small American town, how come there's a giant Shinto Shrine right behind the school?
...
Cultural diversity?
That's exactly as good an answer as any other. Let's go!
Shrine (Philemon's Voice)
Here we are! Oh, there's Mary's mom! Wow! A beautiful butterfly!
The butterfly circles the shrine a few times, and everyone seems enthralled by it.
This butterfly...Isn't there something strange about it?
Wh...what the...!
Suddenly, everything goes white. When we're finally able to open our eyes...
Aw, crap...am I dead again?
Welcome back, my friend! Have you mastered the use of your Persona? As you have noticed, the whole world has started to shift to a world that should not be. People with strong minds can stop this insane shift from moving any further. Many doors will be open to you in the future, and you will see the deeds of very evil men. It will be up to you to decide which door is the right door. Do not forget this.
Again we flash out, and just as suddenly as we were gone, we're back at the shrine.
What was that? A dream?
"Life is stranger than fiction," many have said.
That was another important life experience.
What? Are you guys high? What's with the attempts at being deep?
Ou...Ouch...
Hey, hey! Don't forget Mary's mother.
Are you all right?
You've been grazed by a bullet...Who shot you?
Yeah, I mean, it's not like we ran across a bunch of very large men that threatened to shoot us or anything.
Guido's men...
Guido? Guido of Sebec Corp.?
Why are you making her waste her energy on obvious questions, Nate?
The changes in the town are all Guido's doing. As an engineer at Sebec, I was involved in developing a very specialized machine. This machine is called the "Deva System".
Machine...Is that what caused all these changes?
The Deva System deforms the air dimensions causing supernatural changes. Guido doesn't care about the people or this town...We have to tell the police!
Well, that's going to be a problem. I just checked the Police Station and it's infested with demons!
Oh my...Somebody has to stop Guido!
How did you escape from Sebec?
The abandoned factory has a secret cargo entrance. Use this Security Card to...
Nancy!! She just fainted! We have to get her to the school and fast!
John, I'm going to leave that up to you. I'm going to the factory.
John, I'll leave that up to you. I'm going with Mark.
Hey guys! Wait up! There they go again, always forgetting about us and leaving us behind. Let's just hurry back to the school.
Those two are exactly the same--stupid! They'll meet us back as soon as they see what's going on at the factory.
And then there were three. Well, three and one unconcious lady, but I don't think she counts. Let's head to the school!
...Next time, this is getting pretty long as is.
Next time: There is absolutely nothing in that box, don't bother looking
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
That's how I read it.
Also, "the whole world has started to shift to a world that should not be." This is a bad sentence and it should feel bad.
Excellent though - I forgot how strange it seemed to have Mark and Nate bickering then saying "oh, let's go off the factory together"
The bass line in this reminds me of SMT2's world map music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4iOesA05ZY&feature=related
Also, 'Deva System', eh?
Ah! Thanks, should be fixed now.
Yeah, this is where the writing really starts to get crazy and bad and hilarious because it's bad.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Because I don't get to use Alana (:() and because Chris's forbidden Arcana list is so staggeringly huge (:() I don't get to use my normal Personas. So you all get to see me play through with wacky Persona setups that I've never tried before!
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
...although, is there any reason you're using JPEGs instead of PNGs for the screenshots?
If I get ambitious I may reupload the old pictures but I'm not making promises.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
(Uh, or above)
Re: Chris - it wouldn't be fun if the game wasn't challenging. Besides, you're playing Persona Easy Type. :P
(Personas I'm using just in case people want to be surprised? I guess?)
Ix1 is still a staple, though, because she can all but oneshot Tiny.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Big update coming either today or tomorrow, depending on when I get it finished. Summer Class finals are starting soon and I don't know if I'll be able to get any more updates done during those two weeks so I figured I'd give you guys a big one -- a lot of story, a lot of dungeon crawling, and four new Personas.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Wait, this is the easy version of Persona? I thought the PSP version was the easy one, since I kinda waltzed through it with the starter stuff.
They cut down the number of random battles which means, since your SP recovers as you walk around, you'll almost always be at full or near-full SP unless you're doing a lot of grinding in the late game when Personas start costing a good bit of SP to summon. Because the encounter rate is lower, they also increased the amount of experience each encounter gives you.
I was actually going to go into this in the update, to explain the "grinding Persona ranks" process.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Also, I may as well say it, since fRAWRst had to abandon his Persona 2 LP, I'm planning on doing that after this one, if a) no one else has done it and b) anyone would be interested in it. I would be doing both games of it, of course.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
We open outside the school, because Ellen won't let us actually go anywhere else once we leave the shrine, so why not, right? Ellen turns to address one of the students guarding the gate.
Guard: No! You must say the password. I can't let you in if you don't!
I know it...Roses are red, zombies are blue, but my face is white, so you know I'm true.
Guard: OK, you can pass!
The guard opens the gate, but everyone needs to take a moment after that
...you know, as far as passwords go, that one is not only awful, it's kind of racist, too.
Seriously. Who came up with that?
I know, right? Zombies aren't even blue, they're more of a grey-ish green color...
Help...
Yeah, yeah, 'oh, stop Guido!' 'Oh, I've been shot!' 'Oh, take me to the school even though there's a perfectly good clinic the exact same distance from the shrine!' We're discussing important social issues here, you know. Fine, let's go.
Inside, we are greeted by Ms. Smith
Oh, John! Is everyone OK!? I'm so glad you're safe...What happened to her?
I'll explain later! Quickly! We must take her to the infirmary!
OK! John, come with me to the infirmary! Yuki, Ellen, can you go to the hole in the wall? Alana and T.J. are trying to fill that hole up. Please go and help them.
Just make sure the demons can't get in, right? OK! Let's go Ellen!
Let's.
We cut to the infirmary, where Nancy has regained consciousness and is explaining the events up to now.
...And that's what happened.
Sebec...What is going on there!? Can you believe them John? Oh, I'm sorry, but...can you please go to the hole in the wall and tell them not to close it? Mark and Nate might be coming back that way.
And we all know Mark can't get in through the front gate!
...
...
...
What? It's their racist password!
Okay, so we're back in school! Complete with one of my favorite songs off the soundtrack:
Monochrome
In the American version of Persona, this second trip is just another stop along the way, important mainly for the events at the very end of the visit. In the Japanese version of however, what you do here is insanely important. You see, there is an entire second path through the game called The Snow Queen Quest (compared to the plot we're playing through, called The SEBEC Quest) that can be started in the school. You activate this quest by talking to various people throughout the school, all of whom mention an old, supposedly cursed, play called The Snow Queen that the school used to perform. All of the actresses that played The Snow Queen and wore the cursed Snow Queen Mask died in unusual circumstances. Because of these deaths, the play has been forbidden to be performed and the mask sealed away in storage. Once you find the mask and someone puts it on, though, all hell breaks loose, and the spirit of the Snow Queen traps the school in an icy dimension surrounded by four towers. Dungeon Crawling ensues, characterization happens (at least for Alana and Yuki, who are required party members), and a tedious experience is had by all. Although the Snow Queen Quest is a completely separate path and the game ends once it is completed, the canonical time line for Persona 1 indicates that the Snow Queen Quest happened and then the SEBEC path was completed.
Now, enough of that. Let's get going.
Yup. That's a hole in the wall, all right.
Ellen went outside alone. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen. You know how she is. She kept saying something about how she has the Scalpel of True Love now or something, so no demons could stop her? How weird! I wonder if there is actually an exit out of town.
She is so creepy. Anyway, we're not plugging up the stupid hole because Ms. Smith is the only person in the entire world that cares about Nate and Mark, so you losers can keep hanging out here or whatever, I'm gonna go explore the rest of the school.
What? You mean we're not just going to run out the hole and go blindly after Guido?
Good idea, Yuki, but not just yet! Ellen, creepy as she is, gave me an idea!
What's that?
I'm gonna loot the sports clubs!
And so we do!
Three sets of headgear and a pair of boxing gloves from the boxing club!
A bow from the archery club!
Two pairs of Trentshoes (your guess is as good as mine!) from the ballet club!
And in the fencing club...well.
Is my bald father alive?
Why don't you go outside yourself, Tad, hmm? You're such a whimp!
St...stupid! I'm not afraid of demons! You're scarier than they are! You buff and manly woman!
What did you call me? You're a whimp! Whimp whimp whimpy boy!
Dog face!! You manly-looking girl! Man man man manly girl! Wow, what a tongue twister!!
Okay, not that I care, but I can see a treasure box beside you guys so is there any way I can get you to shut up?
Huh? Hey, John, let me give this to you.. I used this at my previous school I attended. I think that you'll need this more than I will...
Haha, you mean I didn't need to send Ellen out into the demon infested wilderness with nothing but a scalpel and a crush? Sweet. Thanks, Tammy.
She really has no redeeming value, John, does she?
Uh, dude, she just gave me an entirely free weapon. You want my support, you gotta beat that.
Hmm...oh! I've got it! My dad owns the local pharmacy, and I happen to know for a fact that Nate can't stand the music they play there. It drives him insane and gets stuck in his head for days!
...you are a gentleman and a scholar, Tad.
The chest turns out to be worthless, unfortunately. It containts three gauntlets which would be nice, if I hadn't collected something like 30 of them from monster drops while grinding Personas to rank 8. There is something of interest here, though!
She even pointed out their differences. She said there are some that will join you and some that won't. There are even some that are afraid.
Hmm...seems like Tammy used that rapier for more than fencing at her old school.
This is actually a reference to Shin Megami Tensei: If..., a spinoff of the first Shin Megami Tensei game for the Super Nintendo. It's also the start of the Persona timeline, and a lot of the ideas in If... were later refined and brought into Persona. Tammy is the main character of that game (well, the canonical one, anyway. When you play you're given a choice between Tammy and an unnamed male protagonist). Tammy also has the honor of being the only person in the series that is both a Demon Summoner and a Persona user.
That, essentially, is the end of the school for us. We can head into the storage room off the side of the gym to find an obviously suspicious box...
But the game simply pops up a "there's nothing here" message and boots us back to the gym. (This is, fairly obviously, the Snow Queen Mask.) I guess John just doesn't like the looks of that box or something, given the fact that he's been spending the last half hour wandering through the school and doing nothing but opening boxes that have been left lying on the floor.
All right, I'm outta here. Where the hell's Yuki?
She went to check on Mary's mother. She said she'll be back in a little bit, if you wanted to wait for her?
No way, I guess she just doesn't get to be a part of Operation: Kick An Old Rich Guy's Ass. Tell her not to open that box in the storage room. I don't like the way it was looking at me. Well, see ya!
Before we leave, however, another familiar face comes to check out the hole in the wall.
Oh, John! What're you guys doing!?
Oh... Is that you...Mary?
What? Is it you...Mary?
Yeah, it's me. The one and only Mary the Magnificent! What's wrong Alana?
John, this is too strange. Mary was never this happy and giggly. What's going on!?
Alana, what are you talking about? Oh? That big hole...John, you did it, right?
What? We're not talking about a few missing bricks here! That hole is giant. How would I even do something like that?
See? Something is wrong! Weren't you just in the hospital?
Alana, stop it! You're really starting to upset me! Would you prefer that I was in the hospital?
Um... I think she's the real Mary.
How can you tell? She could be a demon or something!
Mmm... Sorry, but she's carrying her favorite compact. She's never without it.
Alana, stop badgering T.J.! But, T.J., there's something definitely not right around here...
We don't get to find out what that something is, though, as Nate suddenly appears through the hole in the wall, surprised as anyone to see Mary.
John! What? Why is Mary here?
Not you too! Stop joking around, Nate. By the way, what's wrong? You're (sic) face looks flushed and upset.
I'm not upset! I'm just out of breath from running back here. That idiot Mark got caught by demons at the Police Station. Mark thought it was a good idea to obtain weapons and ammo for extra protection. That's when he got caught. Normally, I wouldn't think twice about leaving that idiot there to die, but he's got the Security Card. You have to help me go and rescue him!
Mark? ...Demons? John! We have to rescue him!
We do? Uh--I mean, uh--we do!
Here's a gun. Using a Persona, greatly decreases your energy level. That's how Mark got caught. It won't hurt to be prepared. Don't forget to equip the gun.
Persona? I don't understand it very well.
Don't worry. You will in about five minutes. Call it a hunch.
Oh well...Let's go!
So. Mary somehow is not only out of the hospital, but doesn't remember ever being there in the first place. This is definitely strange. Maybe talking to her again before heading through the hole will help.
This must be the work of the Girl in Black. I'll show her! John, hurry!
John doesn't even know what the fuck. But, this isn't the first time we've heard of a Girl in Black. Remember that man in the hospital who said he'd been seeing a ghostly Girl in Black around the Sebec building? How does Mary know about that, though...
As soon as we leave the school, things get even weirder with Mary.
This is no time for a joke.
Joke? No, really! What is it?
A government organization that keeps the peace and order in society. Therefore, we are going to the "Police" Station. Get it?
Uhhhh... I'm slowly remembering something, or am I?
Just then, Mary notices the gym and freaks out.
What? The gym!? It looks brand new! When did they rebuild it?
It was redone six months ago, while you were in the hospital.
Aw, crap, here we go again...
There you go again...I was never hospitalized! Stop kidding around!
Hey, John...Is she suffering from amnesia?
Man, how do I know? She was in the hospital for mental delusions! For all I know she thinks this is a live action game of Candy Land!
Maybe we shouldn't take her along...
What are you guys mumbling about? We're wasting time. Mark's in danger!
Before we can head out, though, we see the rarest of things. A canonical example of a random battle!
This dude literally just fades in from nowhere.
So you know what that means, everyone!
So that was Persona? The power from my mind...Another self within me...
Persona is a Latin word which means "mask". From this word, English words such as "personality" were derived.
Thanks, Professor. Seriously, dude, that was random and pointless. I don't think she was expressing shock at the word Persona.
Yeah, not so much. It was more the fact that there are demons and angels co-existing within our souls?
If you want to be poetic, an eye for an eye and a demon for a demon. I don't understand how it works, but it could prove to be very useful!
You're high right now aren't you?
We can do it! We can find out why demons have invaded and defeat them. We can take our city back!
Yes. but to do that, we have to go rescue that idiot Mark.
But first! Let's talk to Mary again.
We will not let that girl do what she wants with us! Right, John!?
John still doesn't know what the fuck.
Let's get out of here. Mary is strange and confusing.
Okay! We have to hurry and save Mark right away, John!
Absolutely. Let's head to the Police Station.
Wait for it...
But first!
Look at that shit. That is some terrible equipment we have. I mean, really, Nate? A mop. How is that going to help us? Are you going to pretend to be a janitor? A little demon janitor? No, but seriously. To the casino!
Wait, what?
Can I help you? We exchange money for tokens here.
...oh my god. What ARE you?
We swallow our terror and buy a few coins off him. It's a direct 1-to-1 ratio of dollars to coins, and I've accumulated quite a few dollars from grinding Persona ranks, so I'm able to buy quite a few coins, too.
But, which game to play. There's slot machines, of course, and blackjack, and something called Code Breaker which I'll explain more of in another update. The real moneymaker, though, is Poker.
The payouts themselves aren't so great, but when you win, you get a chance to double your money.
Big & Small is the one we're going for. It's pretty self-explanatory, they give you a card, you guess if the next one is going to be bigger or smaller. With a little patience, you can get very lucky this way.
Very, very lucky. And yes, I know I was stupid for playing a 9, but I always push my luck farther than I should in these games. I just went ahead and took my 20000 coins there, though.
About a half hour or so in the casino and a little exchanging coins for items later, our gear looks better.
Much better.
And with a little extra grinding, Mary's Persona is on par with John and Nate's, too.
AKA Mazu/Matsu/Maso
STR: 15
VIT: 17
TEC: 19
AGL: 16
LUK: 18
OMP: 88
DMP: 89
Absorb Chill
Weak Against Fire
Maria's pretty good as far as starter Personas go. Chill is the lowest level ice spell, but Freezer is a nice upgrade that does AoE damage. Multi Bow is an excellent physical attack, that hits random enemies in the area anywhere from 3 to 5 times. Cure is always good to have, and Poison Cure is surprisingly useful as we'll start to find treasure boxes that spring Poison Traps and I always forget to buy Poison Cures. Trap Cure is of limited use though, as it protects us from damage floors. There aren't too many damage floors in the game, and those that do exist don't hurt enough to matter.
With all of that out of the way, we're ready to head into the Police Station!
Up next: If you thought the password was racist, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
This is the Police Station? Oh, yeah! That's right, I remember now.
Let me see... Mark must be in jail, John... However, we can't open the cell without the key...What should we do?
Maybe it's somewhere around here... Let's try finding it.
Yeah, that's right... John, help us look for it.
GEE, I WONDER WHERE IT COULD BE.
Now we can get it. Let's go.
And go we do.
MAJIN...FOREVER
The Police Station is a bit more complex than the hospital, although not by much. The enemies are all new, but because we're expected to still be using the starter Personas, they're still nothing noteworthy. This dungeon trip proceeds exactly the same as the previous one, with me talking every enemy out of its spell card and not actually fighting very many of them.
On the second floor we find a stairway leading down to a second area of the first floor. Here, all we find is a door leading into a small room. These must be the cells, surely?
And, indeed, upon heading in, we find Mark!
Wait, who's that in the second cell? It's hard to tell, but it kind of looks like...Brad?
Yo! Who's there!? Damn, I'll kill you all! Get me out of here!!
Hey, Mark! Just kick back! There's no use pissing them off even more! We should just kiss up to them, and maybe they'll let us out... Oh...What!?
There you are! Are you OK, Mark? ...Oh!? Brad is here too!
Hahaha! You fools look like some caged up monkeys! How did we end up at the zoo?
Duuuuuuuude. Did you seriously just say that.
Okay, okay. I get that the translators were just translating the lines and not thinking anything about it, but if you're going to make a character black, and then have him be arrested, maybe you should change that line into something other than 'you look like a caged monkey' because I mean seriously.
Shut up, Nate!! What took you guys so long!? ..........Mary?
Psh, it's you guys...I know, I know...You all missed me, huh?
Oh, Brad...You're still here?
Ouch...
What is this fool talking about? I didn't even know you were here, Brad.
So that 'monkey' comment was directed solely at Mark, then? Admit it, you're the one that wrote the password for the school, aren't you?
That's not important. By the way...Why are you here?
Let's just get them out first.
Mary unlocks their cells, and Brad tries to explain the whole 'captured by demons'
Even I can't kill those damn demons without any weapons...So we came here to look for something useful, but we ended up like this instead.
Damn it, Brad! Just don't say anything! ...Mary!? What are you doing here? Are you sure you're able to be out here?
What? Why is everyone so concerned about me? I'm perfectly fine!
Okay... I was just making sure. Anyway...
Mark is interrupted by the sound of the door opening.
Officer: Like you're supposed to...
Shut the heck up! This better not be any of your stupid jokes! I didn't even do anything yet!
Wait! Something's wrong!
Captain: Execute them!
What the..?
Officer: Execute! Execute! Execute, execute, execution! Die! Hahahaha!!
Try not to be surprised here, guys, but they're actually demons, and they attack.
Oh, crap!
You're the one who's gonna die!
John, Mary, Mark, and Nate make short work of the four zombie cops surrounding the demon captain.
I am only including that so you can see the hilarious :shock: face the captain makes when they kill the cops.
But, this guy's pretty good at strategy and has a plan of his own:
I don't want to die!
We know what happens next!
Brad, understandably, is kind of shocked.
Nate, not so understandably, is also shocked.
What..? You too, Brad? I would at least think that monkeys wouldn't be able to handle such powers...I guess I was wrong.
Dude, it should be pretty obvious by now that everyone that played Persona had those dreams and got these powers. And seriously, stop it with the monkey thing already.
OK, I'll explain everything...So just sit down and listen up...
Thankfully, the game doesn't make us listen to exposition we've already been exposed to, so the screen fades out and then back in after Mark finishes explaining everything.
Brad is no longer confused and is now, excited as all hell.
See? I knew I was different! I've had this feeling since I was a kid! Ah, yeah! It's all about ME!
What the heck is this guy getting all excited over? Psh, whatever...Anyway...Hey John, is it cool if I go with you guys? I feel a bit uneasy leaving this up to you guys...
Despite the wording, we have no choice but to take him with us...
I feel the same way about you... Mark, give the Security Card to John.
Alright... Here you go... Don't lose it!
Here, Mark, your gun. Don't shoot me with it!
Hey! I know you all are just wishing for me to come along! I don't think any of you has what it takes to become a hero! You guys lack spirit! Stop lying to yourself! You know you want my company! So what's up, John?
Psh, whatever...Hey John, do you want to take him along?
Mmmmmmmno.
Oh, serious? You won't regret it? OK, fine...I'll just go back to school then... (Sigh) You're going to regret this!
Brad disappears into the demon infested city. Alone. Canonically speaking, everyone went together and John didn't tell any of his friends to fuck off into hordes of demons just because he wants the dude with the scar in his party.
Okay! Now that we're all here... ...Where do we go?
Well...I hear that new shop just opened up! Let's go see.
Velvet Room
You can call upon your inner self in this room... Please, show me your Persona. What is your desire?
Uh...I guess I'll make some new Personas?
Self-Service, obviously! I'm not some little kid that needs the creepy dude with the nose to hold my hand the whole time!
Self-Service it is, then...
...So, uh...you said something about Full-Service?
It's actually not quite as complicated as it looks, don't worry. The Persona 1 Wiki has an excellent write up on Fusion Theory, here's the important bits.
So, let's fuse some Personas! We don't want anyone to feel left out, so we make four.
One for John...
One for Mary...
One for Mark...
And one for Nate!
Of course, they aren't too helpful, what with only being on Rank 1, but we can deal with that easily enough.
Didn't Alana say Ellen left to find a way out of town? I wonder if we can find her.
We find her in the subway, by using the highly scientific method of "well, she wasn't anywhere else!"
...Mary? When did you leave the hospital?
Aw, crap, she said the H word!
Oh, excuse me...I suppose this isn't the time to discuss that now. I'm just glad that everyone is safe and sound.
Damn, this place is all messed up...
I'm afraid so... I went around all over, but I couldn't find a way out...By the way, where is everyone? Are they searching for clues to what caused all this?
I guess you could say that... Actually...
We fade out and in as another explanation occurs...
Oh really...Is that what happened!? May I go with you, John? I would like to do my own research, too... There are still so many things I don't know...your favorite color, the type of music you like, what shampoo you use... Please, take me with you!
Oh my god are you serious? No. Absolutely no. Veto. Denied.
I understand...You want me to stay somewhere safe, don't you?
...Yeah. Okay. That works. Let's go with that.
But since I'm alrady out here, I think I'll take another look around town...Take care.
She is so creepy... Oh, I know! Yuki! Yuki can come with us! To the school!
When we get there, though, we find that the school wasn't quite as safe as everyone thought it was.
This, too, is caused by the Deva System.... That Guido, I'll get him!
Attempting to enter the space the school once was, allows us a vision of the school, surrounded by four towers.
You just had to open the box, didn't you...
Now what do we do..?
Okay, guys, I know this is sad and confusing, but we need to focus. We need to take out Guido, and to do that, we'll need supplies. To the Pharmacy!
Th-the Pharmacy?
Yeah. Unless, of course, you can think of a reason we shouldn't go...
No! No reason. Right. The Pharmacy. Let's go...
Satomi Tadashi
Hahaha, you're the best, Tad! Okay, let's go.
Did you even buy anything!?
Nope! To the Factory!
On the way to the factory, we make sure to get everyone's new Persona up to Rank 8. Let's take a look.
John
AKA Urvashi and no, I have no idea what an Ixl is
STR: 14
VIT: 10
TEC: 16
AGL: 27
LUK: 10
OMP: 167
DMP: 123
Reflect Chill
Weak Against Physical
Ixl is a magical Powerhouse. Her stats aren't anything to write home about, but Ice All is an amazing spell that does good damage and has a chance to freeze enemies, causing them to lose a turn. And with her ridiculous magic power, it will do about 300 damage to enemies not weak to ice.
Mary
AKA Phaleg
STR: 16
VIT: 11
TEC: 7
AGL: 22
LUK: 17
OMP: 156
DMP: 156
No Effect Against Magic
Weak Against Attack
Halo is phenomenal. His stats aren't special, but Heal All heals the entire team for approximately 250-300 health. Red Fire is a decent spell thanks to his high OMP, and Wind All was a nice fusion bonus. Strength Drop is a huge help against quite a few bosses, too. Halo will be with us for the entire game.
Mark
AKA Gozu-Tennou
STR: 46
VIT: 18
TEC: 20
AGL: 11
LUK: 16
OMP: 151
DMP: 54
Reflect Blast
Weak Against Spirit
Nuke More is all he has going for him. Strength is a dump stat, Squash is useless, Poison Pin is decent at best, Nuke is outclassed by Nuke More, and Light Kick is horrible. I've already talked about Weak to Spirit and his DMP is horrid. Is Nuke More really worth it?
Oh, it has its uses...
Nate
AKA Fuutai
STR: 15
VIT: 22
TEC: 52
AGL: 43
LUK: 9
OMP: 72
DMP: 65
No Effect Against Tackle
Weak Against Whip
Immune to Tackle and Weak to Whip are both pointless, and his OMP isn't high enough to make use of his decent spell selection. DMP is obviously terribly low, too. But look at those stats. Nate is a tank with this guy active, and is taking the front row center position to take all the physical hits thrown by the enemy.
Now, like John said...to the factory!
...next time.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Also, little late on the Devil Summoner couple. :P Can't you meet them early on?
Nice touch on Atlus USA dubbing the graffiti walls. It's in Japanese in Persona PSP. Except for 'don't be a crazy dog'.
Do one of Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2
Is supposed to be this:
But all I can think is this:
If you like boring games with Dickgirls, maybe.
Well, I suppose you are reading a Persona 1 LP though, so it might just be your bag.
Maybe as a (series of) bonus update(s) after you've finished or something. I just wanna see it, really.
You can. In fact, I did. The expository 'who are these people' text is from my first exploration of the school--you can see Mark in the corner there. I didn't include them then because, well, it's a really boring scene that is basically them fighting, and then talking about how much they fight.
Hm. I was planning on doing both, actually. So that I can show off the bonus boss in the bonus dungeon, which requires you to go through both paths. We'll work something out, though! I can always do the other one just to get to the bonus dungeon or something. That's still a long way away.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Good news: I actually have a bit more time than I thought before my finals start, so I may be able to get out a real update between now and then.
Bad news: I was playing around with the idea of doing video for the boss fights, Fraps only records in 30 second increments and with a watermark because I refuse to pay money for this LP sorry, and VirtualDub desyncs the audio something fierce. I'll play around with it a bit more to see if I can get it to work, but right now assume no video.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Camstudio is good for this. You can also try the native AVI output, according to how you are playing this
Doesn't the casino have cheap stones to merge into persona at this point? Or are you going to avoid doing that because of cost and confusion?
I'll talk about adding items when I have items worth adding.
edit: Oh, and they have totems to fuse some special Personas, but see above re: going into it when I do it.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQNlPZ_-sgQ
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
3DS: 1607-3034-6970