So yeah, after the gigantic flashback (it took, what, three hours total with several brief points where I can save?) and cutscene-heavy sequences between the end of the Niijima arc, the recap to the resolution of the framing story, Joker's allies expositioning about how they faked Joker's death, the recruitment of Niijima Sae into their rank of conspirators, some extra scenes with the two primary villains (Shido and Akechi), following straight into the typical pre-dungeon investigation... I finally am able to start the Shido palace! It's on a boat!
Anyway, it was admittedly a bit too much, and while I didn't mind the cutscenes per se, I would've liked if they had allowed me to walk around a little as Joker (or even Sae or one of the other allies), similar to how I controlled Joker when running towards Shido's campaign car. It's essentially a cutscene with several extra interactive steps, but I felt like it would've done a lot more in making it a bit less monotonous.
Anyway, new palace! I'm kinda panicking to rush all my Confidants to Rank 10 -- I think I should be doing the non-party Confidants first? Currently I kinda have to rush particularly Futaba, Iwai and Shinya, though a lot of my other Confidants are nearing completion.
Our eyecatcher is Dr. Tae Takemi, one of the first non-party Confidants that the game pushes you towards. I do feel like Takemi's story is neat, and she's got a pretty cool civilian 'goth' design. As someone in the medical field, I can definitely appreciate the story around the corruption of a medical higher-up, though I really do think that at the end of the day, her Confidant storyline kind of ranks in the middle-of-the-mill. Her story's interesting, but I really do feel that with aspects of Joker faking his death revolving around corrupt doctors, that there could be a bit of a tie-in?
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Seth
- Monster Name: Fratricidal Destroyer
- Arcana: Tower
...and Persona just said 'fuck it' and interprets Set as a giant black dragon with multiple trailing wings and a giant square-shaped upper jaw. Okay? He sure is a weird beast for sure, and a pretty cool-looking dragon, and as we'll describe below, Set has some overlap with the serpent-god Apep, and in fact in some older SMT games Seth is just a giant snake. But a dragon's cool! I can appreciate launching blasts of energy from a dragon-shaped JoJo Stand.
In Egyptian mythology, Set is the deity of deserts, storms and chaos, and was married to his sister Nephthys. Set would fight constantly with the snake-god of chaos, Apep. Out of jealousy, Set confronted and fought his brother Osiris, dismembering and murdering him. As described before, Osiris's wife Isis would reassemble Osiris and he would rise as the god of the dead, while also giving birth to their child Horus, who would fight Set, leading to the cycle of day and night. Set was also associated with foreigners, and as Egyptian relations with foreigners like the Kushite and Persian empires, Set would be treated with a lot more negativity by the Egyptian people... ironically associating many traits originally given to Set's old enemy Apep to Set.
Chernobog
- Monster Name: Black Avenger
- Arcana: Death
Chernobog is an alleged Slavic deity of darkness and bad faith, associated with destruction, darkness and winter. It was rather difficult because the traditions of the Slavs were oral-based, so any records of the original myths of Chernobog ('Black God') and Belobog ('White God') are influenced by the Christian influence. Whether they were deities, or simply personification of 'good' and 'bad' fate is debatable. Chernobog, obviously, became associated with the devil.
Black Rider
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Tower
Our final, highest-leveled Horseman of the Apocalypse, bizarrely, is the third one in the Bible. As far as levels go, they ranked the Black Rider above the Pale Rider, when you'd think that the Horseman representing 'Death' would be the most powerful of the four? The Black Horseman is the one that represents Famine,. Just like the biblical description, the Black Rider holds a pair of scales, representing the money needed to purchase specific weights of wheat and barley. Interestingly, when the Black Rider is sent forth, he is allowed to destroy life-sustaining food, but specifically given orders not to harm oil or wine. I guess it's one of those things where luxurious food will still be there, but primary sources of food aren't?
And... I really don't have much to say here in design. All the Horseman being represented is nice, but they kind of blur together after a while. It would've perhaps been a bit more interesting if either Famine or Death had a skeletal horse? I felt like that would've been an easy, low-hanging fruit. After how creative the White Rider is, I actually feel a bit disappointed with his three siblings.
Trumpeter
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Judgement
But that's not all! There's a final member of the set, formed by the 'special fusion' of all four riders, and... it's the Trumpeter! The Trumpeter is based on the fact that the Book of Revelation has a series of apocalyptic events. First, seven seals are broken -- the first four of which unleash the Four Horsemen. The seventh of this seal summons seven angels with trumpets, and these trumpets herald seven more apocalyptic events, all of which will destroy large parts of the world.
And we never really get a description of these 'trumpeter angels' in the bible, and technically the Four Horsemen were released by the seals, not the trumpets. But hey, this sure is a skeletal angel guy with a long trumpet! I do fine the combination of a skeleton face and wings to be cool, and the pose of him coming down from the heavens is a neat one that makes him distinct-looking from the other angels we've seen.
King Frost
- Monster Name: Monarch of Snow
- Arcana: Emperor
Oh, okay? We've got King Frost, which is basically taking the mascot of the franchise, Jack Frost, and making a 'king' version of him. Is there a Queen Frost somewhere? Get it, Jack, Queen, King? It's honestly a rather fun design, keeping the goofy face of the Jack Frost and putting it on a giant dome-shaped man with one of those fancy-looking Isaac Newton wigs. There's a door and padlock in front of King Frost's "clothes", and couple that with what looks like a entrance to the side really gives the impression of some kind of furnace or igloo. I like that the scepter he holds with his pudgy hands also has a Jack Frost face on it.
As far as I know, Jack Frost doesn't really have a 'king' equivalent in the original myths, but this is obviously meant to be a mascot mook. The characterization notes that King Frost 'has the power to freeze the entire world, but is unaware of it because he's naïve'. Okay!
Emperor's Amulet
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Hanged Man
Another dungeon, another Treasure Demon. As the description notes, this is Charlemagne's Talisman, this is a piece of jewelry that purportedly belonged to Charlemagne, and supposed to contain either (or both of) a piece of the Cross of Jesus Christ, or a lock of hair from the Virgin Mary. It was supposed to be buried with Charlemagne, but ultimately was passed around until, at the present day, it's kept in the Palace of Tau in Rheims, France.
Oh, minibosses aside, the theme of Shido's palace's Personas seem to be a mixture of high-ranking deities themed after rulers, with a smattering of 'guard dogs' like Cerberus here and there. . The whole idea is that it's a gathering of all of the influential people flocking under Shido's banner, so I guess that makes sense.
Yamata-no-Orochi
- Monster Name: Drunken Serpents
- Arcana: Judgment
Another very common creature to see in Japanese-based material is the Yamata no Orochi, an eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent from Japanese lore. The Yamata no Orochi's body reaches across eight valleys and eight hills, with plant matter growing all over its body. The Orochi is heavily featured in the tale of Susano'o. During Susano'o's exile from the heavens after a fight with his sister Amaterasu, Susano'o finds a couple who was terrorized by the Orochi, who comes every year to devour one of their daughters. Thus Susano'o hatched a plan to rescue the eight and final daughter, Kushinada-Hime.
Susano'o disguises himself as Kushinada, and then with the aid of Kushinada's parents prepared multiple jugs of sake. The Orochi, when he arrives, began to drink towards the sake, drinking with each of its head. Thus disoriented, the Orochi is left vulnerable to the strikes of Susano'o, who slew the Orochi with the blade called Ame no Habakiri. However, within Orochi's body, Susano'o finds the legendary blade, the Sword of Kusanagi (or Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi), which Susano'o would present to Amaterasu to reconcile from their earlier conflict.
Anyway, the design is... pretty much a bunch of snakes emerging from a center, kind-of-unseen body. I much prefer the more regal look of Ananta, but I do appreciate this more feral and monstrous 'mass of snakes' design.
Forneus
- Monster Name: Rhetorician of the Sea
- Arcana: Magician
I love the design here, though, where they took great liberties with the 'sea monster' moniker. Obviously a pun on 'Devil Rays' -- and a similar phrase exists in Japanese, too. It's a lot more clear as Forneus undulates in-game, but the lower half of his body is literally just a ray's body! Love the whip-like tail, and the fact that everything on the upper half of Forneus looks genuinely demonic. The artwork here makes it a bit more clear what we're supposed to be looking at, and the best description is that Forneus looks like a human that's fused with a manta ray, with the skeletal, bony fingers attached to the giant stingray fins like a bat's fingers. I love the creepy, bulging human body, and how the head eventually merges with the stingray's "head". Like the lower half of the 'human' part's face is sinking into a snout that resembles a chunky shark more than either a stingray or man.
And there's also a crown and some extra tendrils here and there, but not enough to make the design overblown. Pretty cool sea monster design, and there's just enough addition to really indicate that this is an intelligent demon as opposed to 'merely' being a manta ray.
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