Oh, and the mouse segment is... interesting. It's just a whole level that's just a puzzle labyrinth in-between minibosses, which I thought was... well, rather interesting.
A lot of the previous minibosses like Garuda or Moloch are also showing up in my fusion pools, as well as the DLC personas like Asterius and Tsukuyomi, so it's been pretty fun! I'm still rocking with a souped-up starter Arsene and Orpheus Picaro as part of my party, but I've been having a lot of fusing here and there to complete my Persona-dex.
Our eyecatcher this time is Akechi Goro in his civilian form, due to certain huge revelations that will happen. This is a meeting I knew was going to happen, which is why I saved Akechi's official art for this page!
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Kali
- Monster Name: The Blackened Fury
- Arcana: Empress
Another goddess from Hinduism, Kali is a goddess of destruction, death and time. Despite these negative connotations, however, Kali is also considered as the goddess of positive change, as well as governing the progress of time in general. Due to the different interpretations of the myths, Kali has been interpreted as either a benevolent mother goddess, or a figure of ultimate annihilation of the universe. Kali is noted to have emerged from Durga, and is regarded as the 'ultimate manifestation of Shakti, the primordial cosmic energy, and the mother of all living beings. The goddess is stated to destroy evil in order to defend the innocent. She is the consort of the god Shiva, and is the foremost among the Dasa-Mahavidyas, the ten fierce Tantric goddesses.
Again, I want to avoid talking too much about religions that have so much interwoven into their mythos, particularly ones with multiple different interpretations. The Persona design of Kali does take on several aspects that Kali is often seen with in artwork and depictions of her, like her six arms wielding weapons, as well as a string of skulls. Most real-world depictions of kali wear the string of skulls on the neck, but Persona's Kali has it around her skirt. Are her clothes also white to match the skulls?
Interestingly, Kali doesn't have her tongue stuck out. It's not a 'mistake', after all, with the many different representations that Kali has had over the centuries, but the stuck-out tongue of Kali is recognizable to me in pop culture thanks to the band Rolling Stones' symbol being inspired by Kali's tongue specifically.
Hanuman
- Monster Name: Nimble Monkey King
- Arcana: Strength
Afterwards, Hanuman returns to Rama, who would later arrive with an army to liberate his wife, in which Hanuman serves as a general. In the fight, Rama's brother Lakshmana was fatally wounded, and the only way to heal him was with a specific herb from a Himalayan mountain. Hanuman was the only one able to make the trip, and unwilling to take the wrong herb, simply ripped the entire mountain to bring it to Lakshmana. Rama would reveal his divine powers as an incarnation of Vishnu, obliterating Ravana and his demon army. After the act, Rama gifted all his allies with gifts. Hanuman, however, threw away his gift, angering many of Rama's court officials. Hanuman replied that he needed no gift to remember Rama, since Rama and Sita are always in his heart. For proof, Hanuman ripped his own chest open, showing that his heart had an image of the two on his heart.
I do like the difference in how they portrayed Hanuman as compared to fellow monkey-god Thoth, since Hanuman is still a deity in a religion that's widely-worshipped nowadays. Where Thoth was portrayed as rather comical, Hanuman looks every bit the fierce warrior as his normal portrayals, adorned in regal attire and all. Again, he doesn't really leave much to me to talk about design-wise, but it's neat to see him.
Atavaka
- Monster Name: Infuriated Wisdom King
- Arcana: Faith
Āṭavaka's depictions vary in the number of heads, arms and skin colour, and Persona's Āṭavaka goes for a rather seemingly simple design. Eight arms, multiple weapons, the typical robes of these wisdom kings, golden elephant knee-guards, and... a head growing out of the primary head. Āṭavaka have been shown to have multiple heads in different depictions, but I can't find any that specifically has a tiny little head growing out of the other!
Ongyo-ki
- Monster Name: The Cleaner
- Arcana: Hermit
The final member of the Four Oni from the legend of Fujiwara no Chikata, we've met his other three buddies all the way back in Kaneshiro's Palace -- Fuu-ki, Sui-ki and Kin-ki. I am surprised that Ongyo-ki here didn't at least show up as a cameo, since this game isn't a stranger in introducing bosses that share models with Personas that we don't meet in the 'wild' until much later (Belphegor showed up all the way in the first Palace!) but hey. Ongyo-ki's name means 'invisible oni', and is able to eliminate his aura and prevent enemies from sensing him. Allegedly, legends of Ongyo-ki was what inspired ninjutsu.
Not a whole ton to say about his design. I do like the double-bladed scythe-crescent-moon thing he's holding, but the rest of his design is honestly rather mundane by the standards of this game, being a pretty simple 'oni'-looking humanoid in all black. Looks cool, but not the most memorable.
Cu Chulainn
- Monster Name: Spear-Wielding General
- Arcana: Faith
We kinda discussed all the legend of Cu Chulainn when we talked about his younger self, Setanta, all the way back in the earlier stages of the game. It's... interesting that he gets represented as two completely separate Personas. Or, hell, even 'demons' in the original Shin Megami Tensei games. How does that work? Anyway, design-wise Cu Chulainn is sure a cool guy with a spear, I really don't have much to say about that.
Summarizing what I've said in Setanta's entry so this isn't a short paragraph, Cu Chulainn is an Irish mythical hero from the tales of the Ulster Cycle. He's the son of the god Lugh and Deichtine, and as a child he killed the guard dog of Culann in self defense. As penance, Setanta became known as Cu Chulainn (hound of Chulainn) as a replacement. Cu Chulainn trained in war under the goddess Scathach from the Land of Shadows, and wielded the magic spear Gae Bolg. In combat, he sometimes will enter a battle frenzy where he cannot differentiate friend or foe, becoming an unrecognizable monster. He would defend Ulster single-handedly against the armies of the evil Queen Mab of Connacht. His great deeds would give his fame, but his life would be short.
Cu Chulainn took two geis -- unbreakable oaths -- which caused him to have much power. Two of these are 'never eating dog meat' and 'never refusing a meal offered by a woman'. A woman did come to offer him dog meat, causing Cu Chulainn to be trapped in a situation where he has to break one of his two geis. Ultimately, he would break more of his geis, meeting his ultimate end at the hands of Lugaid. Afterwards, the goddess Morrigan took him to the land of the fae, where he became a knight.
Loki
"Justice? Righteousness? Keep that shit to yourselves!"
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Justice
And here's the pre-final boss of this dungeon, where [SPOILERS FOR A >5 YEAR OLD GAME] turns out that, gasp, obvious traitor party member Akechi Goro is, well, a traitor! I think the fun big twist isn't his honestly rather gloriously-goofy 'evil Sentai enemy' black mask outfit, but rather the fact that he has a second Persona. Our party members speculate that this is the same ability that Joker has, the 'Wild Card' that allows Akechi to have multiple personas, though some people online seem to think that Loki is an 'upgraded' Persona in the same vein as some of the other Rank 10 Personas like Hecate or Anat.
Either way, though, Akechi's boss fight has him summon the power of Loki! Everyone knows who Loki is, right? If not from myths, then from the highly-successful Marvel comics and their associated media. The trickster god of the Nordic pantheon, Loki is born as a Jotunn, or a frost giant, from Farbauti and Laufey. He tricked his way into the court of the Norse deities, becoming the blood-brother of Odin. Loki is featured in many, many stories in the Nordic mythologies, often acting as the foil to the more noble Odin or Thor.
Loki is the father of multiple other fantastical beings. With the giantess Angrboda, Loki gave birth to Hel, goddess of death and ruler of the realm of death of the same name; Jormungandr the world serpent who coils around the seas of the world; and Fenrir, the giant wolf. He was also the mother (shape-shifting was involved) of Odin's eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. In addition to great magics, Loki wields the sword Laevateinn. Ultimately, after a betrayal involving the god Baldr, Loki was chained up with a poisonous snake constantly torturing him, until the time of the end of the realms, Ragnarok, would arrive and Loki would be unleashed where he is fated face the god Heimdallr, where they would kill each other.
Akechi himself really does highlight the duality between the nice, heroic veneer of a 'ace detective', being all charismatic and cool and whatnot. We see a veneer of this break down when Akechi reveals his treachery and in later parts of his in-game confidant, but it's not until this fight that he really breaks down and snarls and just screeches at the good guys about how all their friendship and justice is bullshit. Great job, Hoshi Soichiro! It really highlights that under all the charm and suaveness, Akechi's entire ace detective 'persona' (heh) is perhaps the biggest societal 'mask' out of the main characters. Which, again... really does fit with Loki's mythological origins, doesn't it?
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