The second part of my coverage of the Futaba Palace arc. Having played mostly to the end of the Palace's story, it's... it's a pretty interesting story. I did feel like the real-world segments were the least 'realistic' in terms of the Japan-spanning conspiracy, but all the talk about Futaba suffering under the false memories of her mother so much that she became an insanely depressed shut-in... is pretty sad, actually. I think Makoto's story is a bit more memorable to me thanks to how much it's built up, but I do think that at least in terms of her as a character, I do really like Sakura Futaba's backstory. Now the game does end up giving us a couple of easy villains to blame, and I felt like that's the easy way out -- both the 'evil adults, damn those evil adults' and the literal cognitive manifestation of Futaba's guilt -- but it's a video game that still needs Futaba to be functional enough to join the party.
It's also a bit surprising, by the way, that Futaba doesn't join the party, not traditionally, and I actually giggled a bit when the revelation came that Futaba's just not going to interact with the cast until the deadline because... she's literally hibernating.
Anyway, turns out that I've mostly covered all the enemies that actually show up in the dungeon, with only Futaba's Persona, the final boss and the final miniboss as the new additions. So the rest of this article are actually the handful of Personas that I created during the course of the arc's events.
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Necronomicon
"Will you die as you are told...? Who will you obey...? Cursed words spat out by a seething illusion? Or the truth within your own soul?"
- Arcana: Hermit
Futaba's Persona follows Makoto in being super-duper weird. And you think you couldn't get any weirder than a motorbike with a face, but... well, Futaba's Persona isn't based on a thief or a rebel, but rather... a book? Huh! It's the Necronomicon, from the Lovecraft mythos. In the Lovecraft mythos, the Necronomicon is a grimoire that appears a lot in stories related to the Lovecraft mythos and later additions by other writers. The Necronomicon is basically a catch-all tome for all the ancient cosmic beings that exist in that world, written by the 'Mad Arab' Abdul Alhazred, who was gifted (or cursed) with knowing forbidden knowledge about the way the world works. Those who read from the Necronomicon often go mad from its knowledge.
Now the Necronomicon is reimagined here not as a book, but rather... a giant UFO with tentacles coming down from it? Hmm? It is interesting that, as mentioned in the previous part, Futaba's palace was designed with an aesthetics that blends ancient pyramids and cyberspace, probably based on all those 'ancient aliens built the pyramids' conspiracies. With how so much of the exploration and initial character arc dealt with Futaba uncovering repressed (and sometimes false) memories, that's an interesting way to define the 'forbidden knowledge'. And with Futaba's 'true' self being a cocky hacker, it is neat that the Necronomicon takes only the modern part of Futaba's Palace while abandoning the 'tomb' portion to nothing.
It's a bit hard to see from the official art, but there's a gargoyle on top of the UFO, which the game initially focuses on (I think it's intended to be a fake hint at a more traditional Persona) before zooming out to show the full scope of the UFO. It's also got very squiddy tentacles (hi, Cthulhu mythos), which it uses to wrap around Futaba and carry her into the UFO's innards. It... it's probably not naughty Japanese tentacle stuff if it's something born of your own psyche that serves as your personal attack vehicle, right?
Anyway, Futaba sure has a tentacle UFO as a Persona. It is interesting to note that Futaba doesn't really awaken her Persona like the other Persona 5 characters -- no brutal ripping off of masks, but rather the acceptance of her Shadow self, which is apparently in line with how previous Persona games handled it. Futaba herself is also different, not actually being a playable character (which confused me when she didn't join the party) and being more of a supporting character that helps in the background. Odd!
Zouchouten
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Strength
Another one of the Heavenly Kings, similar to Jikokuten that we discussed before. Zouchouten, also known as Virūḍhaka in his original Sanskrit and Zēngzhǎng Tiānwáng in Chinese, is the member of the Heavenly Kings that guards the Southern part of Buddha's realm. His name refers to the sprouting of grain (which the lore text mentions) and can also refer to helping mortals grow. Zouchouten is noted to lead Kumbhandas and Pretas. We've talked about Kumbhandas, a type of dwarvish misshappen spirits before, while Pretas are often translated into English as 'hungry ghosts'. In Chinese interpretation, he holds a sword and teaches compassion. In Japanese ones, he's shown with a sword or spear, often trampling a jaki (a type of demon).
Again, not much for me to say. He sure is a Chinese general with green skin and a spear. I do appreciate making 'sets' of these mythological figures, I do, but I really don't have much to say about this one.
Principality
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Justice
I guess all 'Justice' Persona are just angels, then? We kind of moving up the ranks of angels based on 5th century Catholic tradition, or De Coelesti Hierarchia (On the Celestial Hierarchy), which divides angels into three orders of nine levels. We've covered Angel and Archangel before, and the Principality (sometimes 'Ruler') is the highest of the lowest order. Principalities are angels that guide and protect groups of people, such as nations or churches, and preside over bands of angels. Not much is known about them, though.
I really don't have a whole lot to say about the Principality here. He sure is an angelic dude with a cool robe and a spiky crown that reminds me of the Statue of Liberty. Not really a whole ton to say.
Decarabia
- Monster Name: Vicious Pentagram
- Arcana: Councillor
Another Persona I got from fusion, and... this might be my favourite demon ever! Decarabia is yet another demon from the Ars Goetia, specifically demon #69. Hee hee hee. He's noted as a Great Marquis of hell, and he usually appears as a 'pentagram star' before turning into a man if the summoner requests it. Decarabia is an expert in the knowledge of herbs and precious stones, and can transform into a songbird for his conjurer and act as an animal familiar.
Again, very simple... and they went with the glorious, most fun way to depict this demon! A pentagram, you say? No, let's just make Decarabia a fucking starfish with a cartoony eye on it. It's so hilarious that one of the greatest demons gets adapted into a starfish alien, reminiscent of Starro the Conqueror from DC... but it's very clear that the actual reference here is Warning From Space, a classic 1950's Japanese sci-fi movie that has these one-eyed starfish aliens as antagonists. I've never heard about Warning From Space, but it's apparently a movie that inspired Stanley Kubrick to create 2001!
Anyway, this is why I love the more obscure, more monstrous creatures like Decarabia here. They do so much creativity in adapting them while still being faithful to the source myths, whereas someone like Zouchouten above just feels so... so mundane.
Choronzon
- Monster Name: Gathering Devil
- Arcana: Magician
Okay, this one is... very weird-looking and very cool. A bunch of pulsating heads, fused together in some unholy amalgamation into a sphere, while spewing some kind of demonic or toxic miasma. The artwork for the heads look particularly painful, too, with veins bulging all around and very tortured-looking faces... it reminds me of something from Berserk, actually. Very nasty-looking, demonic design, and I'm told that this design was originally meant to represent Legion, the, um, legion of demons from the Bible before it got repainted into Choronzon.
Choronzon, meanwhile, is a much newer demon. Known as the 'Dweller in the Abyss', Choronzon was first mentioned in 16th-century occultists, but became famous in popular culture due to the teachings of the 19th-century writer and occultist Aleister Crowley. Crowley founded the cult of Thelema, and he summoned Choronzon, the "temporary personification of the raving forces that occupy the abyss". Which is probably why the Choronzon in Persona looks so malformed, since it's just a temporary manifestation of hell's energies. Choronzon ends up breaching the summoning circle and attacking Crowley's disciples.
Very cool design here, and it was rather... interesting for me to learn about cults that are relatively close to modern times.
Alilat
- Monster Name: Decadent False God
- Arcana: Empress
The final miniboss in the dungeon is Alilat, probably better translated as al-Lat. Al-Lat is a goddess worshipped in the Arabian peninsula, and is mostly known as one of the three main idols (alongside Manat and al-'Uzza) worshipped by the people of Mecca before the prophet Muhammad arrived with Islam and spread it across the area. In Islamic tradition, her worship ended when the prophet demolished her temple in Ta'if. Her form there was a cubic, granite rock, which was demolished. A legend about Al-Lat suggest an origin where he was a man who grinds cereal (al-latt, 'the grinder'), and after the grinder's death, the stone (or the man, in the form of a stone) was deified.
Persona's version of Alilat is a pretty interesting take, going for the stone itself carved with some dogu-esque glyphs and markings on it. It's not the most exciting looking enemy, but it does look suitably ominous -- just a stone tablet or plinth hovering menacingly with glowing runes on it. It fits with Mot, a boss we met earlier, and most certainly with the ruins of this place. Not my favourite design, but I respect what they were going for.
Sphinx / Cognitive Isshiki Wakaba
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: N/A
So, instead of fighting the shadow version of Futaba, her mindscape has been fucked up enough by her own guilt that one of the 'cognitions' within have morphed into an abnormally powerful form -- a facsimile of Futaba's mother, blaming Futaba for her real-life counterpart's suicide. It's a very... interesting adaptation of the whole 'voices in your own head' and mental phenomenon. She's essentially the manifestation of Futaba's self-loathing and self-blaming, which would naturally take form in the cognitive world as an abusive, warped mirror of her real mother.
The actual execution, though, is something that I honestly feel like it leaves something to be desired, particularly looking at how grotesque and creative the bosses in this franchise tend to be. Picking a sphinx as the final boss isn't a particularly bad choice, considering the Egyptian themes of this dungeon and how the sphinx is very much one of the most iconic creatures to come from Egyptian mythologies,
So Wakaba is... just a regular sphinx, a giant winged lion... and the 'human face' is just Wakaba's angry face, with glasses, pasted onto it. She also wears a red modern outfit that doesn't really make her particularly intimidating or menacing. I would be able to forgive this if this was just the 'first phase' of a boss fight before she morphs into something a bit more menacing, but she just stays like this and her boss fight is drawn out pretty long because of her pretty huge health pool. Nothing particularly interesting about the mechanics of the fight either, I think it's just meant to be long so the designers have the chance to have a couple of longer cutscenes to tell Futaba's story.
I guess Shadow Wakaba does yell a bunch of accusations and you can basically either agree with her toxic accusations or be supportive to your new teammate Futaba, but if this was meant to be a nod to the sphinx's three riddles, it's not a particularly interesting one. The screechy effect they put into her voice acting also makes her dialogue something I want to get through as quickly as possible.
...and there's also a bit of a confusion on what 'sin' this dungeon is meant to be, and I guess it's not impossible that they just merged two sins into one. The items within the dungeon itself are labeled as 'wrath', and Wakaba herself does seem pretty wrathful. However, the calling card sent to Futaba calls her a 'sinner of sloth', which isn't particularly fair to call a depressed, traumatized teenager, but I guess that's the closest 'sin' unless we're going to consider dismay or despair as a sin again. It's all moot since the final boss is just a sphinx instead of being named after a demon, though.
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