Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 2

Second part of my coverage of Persona 5 monsters! There is a lot to do, a lot to explore, and a lot of dialogue to listen to, and I'm just taking things slow. I realize that I haven't even finished the first dungeon yet, but I'm just... well, I'm just spending perhaps a bit too much time trying to figure out this and that in the game. Reading, confidant-building, trying different activities in the overworld, building up social skills, talking to the many, many NPC's, reading the books... 

And the dungeoneering is fun, too actually, and so is the 'fusion' mechanic. There's a lot of mechanics involved and despite something that would easily overwhelm people, I felt like it's delivered in a way that's honestly pretty easy to digest. Again, I could've just blazed through with Orpheus and Izanagi, and I did try on the first 'free' day of the dungeon, but I decided to enjoy the game as it was meant to be played. 

Anyway, not here to talk about the story, but about the monsters and Personas that I've encountered both in the dungeon of Kamoshida's Palace as well as the fusion room!

I do realize that if I wanted to, I could go a bit more ham with the fusions and try and see as many Personas as I could, but for the most part I'll just talk about any Persona that I see and any that I fused or considered fusing myself. I figured that I'd just take this slow and not make this as encyclopaedic as smoething like my Pokemon or Digimon reviews, and after I finished my playthrough then I'll look up a list and talk about any I missed. 

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Cait Sith

• Monster Name: Hunting Puss in Boots
• Arcana: Magician

I thought it was weird that an enemy in this game was Puss in Boots. Sure, we had other literary figures like Zorro showing up as Personas, but for the most part, the figures we fight as enemies have been mythological or religious figures. And then come waddles in this bipedal purple cat with a fancy hat, a cape and gigantic fancy red boots, and he swishes and slashes his rapier. It's unmistakably Puss in Boots!

...and then I manage to add one to my party, and it's a Cait Sith. Oh! Okay, sure. The Cait Sith is a fairy (or in some tales, a witch) from Scottish legends that takes the form of a cat with a white mark on its chest... which I assume the Persona version represents with the clasp on his cloak or the big-ass silver belt. The Cait Sith is untrustworthy and legends say that when a cat passes over a corpse, it's a Cait Sith stealing the soul away before it could pass on to the afterlife. In other legends, the Cait Sith would bless the houses that leave a bowl of milk for it, and curse those who doesn't. 

Rather disappointingly, our actual humanoid cat party member Morgana doesn't comment at all about seeing other humanoid cats. Both Morgana's Zorro and the Cait Sith are classified as the 'Magician' arcana, though. I suppose the whole 'cognition' thing is a handwave to why some of these beings look different, and a humanoid cat swordsman is far more memorable of a design than just a cat with slightly different fur!

Silky

• Monster Name: Troublesome Housemaid
• Arcana: Priestess

Another one that's rather simple, the Silky (or Silkie, but not Selkie, which are seal-people) is just a ghostly lady with green hair. She's a pretty simple fairy, too, which I feel I've seen a fair amount of times in fantasy fiction but never in a major role. The legend of Silkies come from Scotland, and draws their name from the silk clothing they wear, which rustle while they work at night while everyone is sleeping. It's one of those fairies whose legend has a lot of similarities with other kinds, because of the nature of foklore in general -- Wikipedia basically considers Silkies as an alternate name to Brownies.

The Silky goes around and is helpful, performing chores at night and guarding houses against intruders, but has a nastier side to her where she 'terrorizes lazy servants', and leaving houses she doesn't care for in disarray. One of the more interesting legends about the Silky is that a house that is reported to be inhabited by a Silky had it take care of the family that lived in it... but when a different family who doesn't believe in fairies moved in, the Silky acted as essentially a hostile poltergeist, disturbing and terrifying the family that did not respect her. 

Anyway, I think I spent more time talking about the real-world legends than the actual Persona herself. She's kinda boring, TBH. 

Kelpie

• Monster Name: Mad Marsh Horse
• Arcana: Strength

The first one of the 'Strength' Arcana we meet, I absolutely love this idea of the Kelpie. The Kelpie is a supernatural water horse from Celtic mythology, which had shown up a lot in fiction, I feel. The Kelpie haunts rivers in Scotland and Ireland, and is a shapeshifter that can transform from a gorgeous but deathly black horse into a humanoid form. There are many recorded myths about the Kelpie, but several recurring themes include it basically luring children into the water, with one particularly grisly version of the myth having a group of children's hands stuck onto the fur of the Kelpie, who then drowns the children, consumes it and spits back the entrails onto the shore. There are many variations of this myth, and is essentially a myth that discourages children from playing near the deep lakes. 

And the physical appearance of Persona 5's Kelpie is wonderfully haunting, a marsh-green horse with a set of terrifying red eyes and a grimace on its mouth... and the back end of the Kelpie trails off into a mass of tentacles that could be interpreted as kelp... but considering the legends, it's most likely a reference to the entrails that is so associated with the victims of the Kelpie. So we have a supernatural ghost fairy horse whose body trails off into entrails. That's cool! Honestly, this design of the Kelpie might possibly be the coolest and more creative designs I've seen in this admittedly short delve into the game. 

Berith

• Monster Name: Brutal Cavalryman
• Arcana: Hierophant

We get yet another demon man from the Ars Goetia, and this time it's one I've vaguely heard of before. Mentioned in the Book of Judges as Ba'al-Berith, a deity that the Israelites worshipped when they turned away from god, the literal translation is actually more 'Lord of Covenants', with Ba'al meaning 'Lord' as a title instead of a name. Of course, the fun with translations and whatnot ended up causing Berith to get mutated in Judeo-Christianity into a demon. 

The Ars Goetia describes Berith as a Duke of Hell, that can tell things of past and future, able to turn metal into gold and will always lie unless you ask him questions. He's also described as a soldier riding a red horse, and... well, his design in Persona 5 is sure a knight with a red horse. I guess that golden lance is meant to represent his ability to turn objects into gold, though I really wished that they had allowed Berith to keep the golden crown he is supposed to have in mythology. I really don't have much to say here, Eligor was also a Goetia demon lord guy who's also a knight riding a horse... I really do wish that they ha taken a bit more liberties here and there, though if we're getting some 80+ Goetia demons, or even half of that number, I'm pretty sure some of them have to take the role of weaker enemies.

Succubus

• Monster Name: Twilight Prostitute
• Arcana: Moon

With Incubus showing up early on as weaker monsters, it's actually not much of a surprise that his female counterpart, the Succubus, would show up not long after. While the Incubus is a ghoulish, nasty-looking imp, the Succubus is basically what you'd expect from a Succubus in fantasy games. A sexy, voluptuous woman with bat wings, a devil tail and a leotard. Honestly, with some of the other character designs in this franchise, it's a surprising amount of restraint. There's a cute little running gag between Incubus and Succubus, too, with Incubus having a chain with a bolt on his leg, and Succubus having a nut. Funny. 

And... yeah, I really don't have too much to say about the Succubus that I haven't spoken about in the Incubus segment -- it's basically the same legend, flipped around. Which is interesting, because the Succubus appear at around the same point in the game as...

Angel

• Monster Name: Zealous Messenger
• Arcana: Justice

Whoa! Wait, these are the angels of the game? Sexy women with insanely stripperiffic BDSM gear, blinded eyes, a chain on the neck, and just... just leather straps covering the vital parts? The description of the nine orders of angels and whatnot definitely mark this 'Justice' Persona as part of the Judeo-Christian mythology. There are many schools of thought on how the 'angelology' works, but there are most certainly many different visual representations of angels, and this 'angel' is meant to be the one that looks the most like a human -- just a humanoid figure with wings.

...which does not explain the bondage gear, I'm sorry. This is what I expected a succubus from this franchise to look like, but it is kind of funny, if baffling, that it's the angel that looks like a BDSM slave. I'm sorry, Angewomon has nothing on this. I scrolled through the 'Angel' page on the Megami Tensei wiki and while I don't usually talk about the other designs in the franchise, it seems to be a pretty even split on whether the angels look like 'classic' angels or, well, this. 

Archangel

• Monster Name: Heavenly Punisher
• Arcana: Justice

One order up from regular angels in some versions of Christianity are the Archangels, who are one of the few that contact generic angels on the 'material plane' directly. Though since some of the mightiest archangels like Michael are also called archangels, there's debate on the definition of 'archangels'. Which... really the ranking of angels doesn't matter all that much in the religion itself, but apparently some people who talk about angels and demons really get on with it as much as a Lord of the Rings geek. I can relate to that. 

Anyway, it's a pretty appropriate design, I suppose, to make the Archangel into basically a crusader with blood-red wings. It's a pretty simple design, all things considered, but quite a neat design! An Archangel serves as a miniboss in Kamoshida's Castle, and the idea is that Kamoshida has such a king/god complex that there's a church area devoted to him, and the Shadows in that area are all Angels and Archangels, since Kamoshida has deluded himself into thinking he's a basically a king or a god in the castle that is his school. 

"Slime Mara"

• Monster Name: Torn King of Desire
• Arcana: Tower

...oh yeah. I know about the 'Mara' monster and its association with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. It's kind of a meme at this point, with how expansive and complex the franchise is, but I've known it the longest as 'the JRPG with the green penis demon'. I mean... it's hard not to, y'know? Other games just have dragons and soldiers and beasts and demons and golems and robots and ghosts. BOOOORING! Big green phallic goopy abomination is clearly where it's at. It's honestly rather, uh, morbidly fascinating to see just how many different variations of Mara have shown up in the franchise, and how much mileage they got out of green weenus with a sad mouth. Though I guess it's not the mouth itself that's sad-looking, right? It's also the head, formed by the glans of the phallus? I mean, regardless of whether it is Persona's "shadows created from the cognition of mankind" or SMT's literal demons, it does kinda make sense that at least one of them looks like genitalia.

The Torn King of Desire here serves as a miniboss in the dungeon, and our female party member Ann is suitably horrified by this tiny green weiner. No this isn't the true version of the iconic Mara monster, which is fully erect and ready for action. We'll cover that deign when we get there. The Torn King of Desire, is, instead, an imperfect 'Slime' version with unique statistics -- namely, that it's weak only to physical attacks and resists elements. Yeah, you literally have to beat the meat.

I think I ran out of my quota of dick jokes. I... I really don't have much to say here, beyond the acknowledgement that the game developers took the effort to program in the enemy behaviour that this dick-creature targets Ann whenever possible. That's creepy! Anyway, it sure is a ding-dong-dingus monster based on an entity of desires and temptations, who guards a location in a metaphysical location spawned off of a sexual predator's lustful desires. But it's short, so I guess Kamoshida can't get it up?

Saki Mitama

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Lovers

Now the next batch of Personas aren't monsters in the palace, but rather created from me fusing random Personas together. There are a lot of others that I could see on the fusing menu like 'Slime' and 'Hua Po' and 'Matador', but I haven't actually seen them. The ones I'll actually talk about are the ones that I actually made and hasn't actually encountered in the overworld. We start off with this rather... interesting thing. It's just a teardrop-shaped magatama with a sleeping, content face. Saki Mitama, in Japanese Shinto belief, is a part of the soul that brings good fortune and blessings, and it brings great bounty from hunting, and aids in love, profit, growth and new paths.

This is just a crash course on the religion that I am completely unfamiliar about. Mitama is the spirit of a kami, and some definitions note that a single mitama consists of several souls independent of each other. Kinda-sorta like the 'Persona' of Jungian psychology that this game is based on, but I hesitate to draw an outright connection. There are four souls, the Ara-Mitama, Nigi-Mitama, Saki-Mitama and Kushi-Mitama. Among them, Saki-Mitama is the 'soul of fortune', and is the happy and loving side of this mitama. Not really much to say about this, to be honest. 

Genbu

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Temperance

A lot more to talk about, both as a mythological figure and as a monster design! The Genbu, or the Xuanwu in Mandarin, is one of the Four Symbols or the Four Guardians, and has shown up a lot in different anime adaptations, most relevant to me being the Beyblade anime and Digimon Tamers. Consisting of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird and the Black Tortoise, each of these beings represent one of the four cardinal elements and an element. The Black Tortoise, or Xuanwu/Genbu, represents the North and the element of water. Unlike the other three guardians, which are usually depicted as a single animal, the Xuanwu is often depicted as a tortoise intertwined with a snake -- two animals associated with longevity in Chinese culture. 

Genbu doesn't really deviate from that too much, although what a cool-looking monstrous tortoise face and snake face they chose for this incarnation of the creature! The fangs on the tortoise right underneath one of those piggy terrapin snouts is cool enough, but the snake being bright crimson red to contrast with the darker black-blue of the tortoise shell makes it stand out a lot more. The snake also looks a lot more like a dragon with how it's drawn, isn't it? With all the fins and fangs and whatnot?

Obariyon

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Fool

Mmm, yeah, I wasn't really feeling this one. It's a neat enough standalone design, I suppose, being a goblin with large hand and a hairdo that covers half its face and a long ponytail. The Obariyon is clearly having a good time, though, with that huge grin and its dancing in place. The Obariyon is a yokai from Japanese culture, with its name being a phrase in the Niigata dialect meaning 'give me a piggyback ride'. And as the accompanying blurb helpfully describes it, the Obariyon is a 'piggyback monster' of people that pass grassy paths. It's heavy, and sticks to you, and in most legends is invisible. In Persona 5, this is represented with suction-pad-looking structures on his palms, the tips of his fingers and his belly. That's a neat bit of detail, actually! Legend has it that if you can bring the Obariyon all the way home, he will turn into a bag of valuable gold coins. Some interpretations of the Obariyon myth liken it to dealing with children, and if you play and rear a child enough, you'll be rewarded in the end. Neat! I don't really care about the Obariyon as a design, but learning about different myths is fun!

Also, and I'm sure the legend of the Obariyon inspired the manga in some way, but this really reminds me of the Stand 'Cheap Trick' from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's fourth part, which also features a similar imp-goblin thing sticking onto the back of a person and being unable to be removed.