I was about to continue to and go into the Depths of Mementos dungeon, but I guess let me wrap up the handful of new Personas I met in the 'special battle' in the Velvet Room! I covered Alice, Belial and a couple of others before, but there are a handful of other Personas I haven't talked about, plus a couple of special fusions like Kohryu that I did.
I know I'm taking a bit of time, but I did end up taking a fair amount of time playing through the segment of the Shido arc after completing the palace and the deadline -- I basically maxed out almost all of my Confidants, with only Haru, Yusuke and Futaba being stuck at 9, 7 and 8 respectively. Some rather poor management of time, and I was erroneously mistaken that the playable teammates could be completed in the third trimester. Oops! I don't think I could catch up without replaying all the way back in the Futaba or Okumura arcs and unlocking Chihaya earlier, so I'm honestly not going to bother as long as I have the Royal DLC.
Since we're talking about her, yeah, Chihaya. She represents the Wheel of Fortune! I might do a little special talking about all the Arcanas and the confidants that represent them as well as the demons they choose to be in that Arcana. I like Chihaya decently, and I think out of the mid-game Confidants that are a bit more isolated from the rest of the main cast, in the main story, Chihaya might be my favourite? Tied with Iwai, perhaps? Her story is a bit more interesting because like Yoshida, Chihaya is essentially a pyramid-scheme scammer, which is pretty scummy, but that's also because she's essentially emotionally manipulated into thinking that the literal cult that she's stuck in was the only way for a 'monster' like her to live. I do think that her story is a bit more overwrought and feels a bit more over-the-top fantastical, but she has just enough to be a bit more interesting. I kinda wished that she had something more outside of her story, because I felt like being a fortune teller in a setting that places such great importance with the Tarot motifs she could've provided a bit more flavour?
Although the other Confidants are basically impossible to complete without her Confidant bonus, so I guess that's her huge contribution to the story. I really should've maxed her out much earlier!
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Cybele
- Monster Name: Bloody Goddess
- Arcana: Priestess
Cybele is the goddess of Phrygia, now located in modern-day Turkey, and she represents the idea of a 'mother goddess' similar to many other deities in other mythologies. Greek colonists that settled there would spread her worship to other Greek colonies, from which us modern-day people know about her about. Some sects assimilated her to aspects of other 'mother earth' goddesses like Gaia, Rhea or Demeter. However, the city of Athens revered her as a protector, and in Rome she is known as the Magna Mater ('Great Mother'), reinventing her as a Trojan goddess. Others yet saw her as a foreign mystery goddess. Unique to Greek religion, she has a eunuch priesthood. In Greece, Cybele became associated with mountains, towns and city walls, fertile nature and wild animals.
In Greek mythology, Cybele's major story involves her relationship with her youthful consort Attis, who would meet a tragic end. Depending on the views of the storytellers towards the Phrygian cults, Attis's death would either be framed as punishment for excess devotion to Cybele, or punishment for a lack of devotion. Due to the variety of Cybele's depictions in Greco-Roman culture, I'm really not going to list them all.
Cybele's design is... interesting. A floating, nearly-naked blue-skinned woman with gigantic horns and a bunch of strips of differently-coloured cloth covering all the naughty bits, alongside a couple of rings around her? She also has two big blades. She's the ultimate Persona of the High Priestess Arcana. I really don't have too much to say here, she does look more like a sexualized version of a Star Wars or World of Warcraft character.
Sandalphon
- Monster Name: Prison Master
- Arcana: Moon
Huh, an angel from Judeo-Christian mythology that's not part of the Judgement Arcana? Okay? He's at least the ultimate Moon arcana, and the design is pretty... simple. There's a robotic vibe to Sandalphon, though not to the degree of Melchizedek. His exposed 'skin' are golden and robotic, and he's wearing a tabard with a cross on it. His wings have metallic feathers like Marvel comics' Archangel. Not a bad design for an angel, honestly, speaking, but I do have a feeling that we'll see a lot more down the line.
Sandalphon is featured prominently in Jewish mysticism, particularly in the Kabbalah. Sandalphon is noted to reside in the Sephirot of Malkuth, alongside his twin brother Metatron, and some other sources state that Sandalphon is the prophet Elijah that rose to an angelic status. Sandalphon is noted as the 'dark' angel in contrast to Metatron's 'bright', and I am actually surprised that Persona/SMT didn't capitalize on this. Sandalphon gathers prayers to pass them to God. Records say that he is so massive that a human would take 500 years to walk the length of his body alone. Sandalphon is also the protector of unborn young, being responsible for determining the gender of a person while they were in the womb. Yet some other sources
Yoshitsune
- Monster Name: Grudging Warrior Arisen
- Arcana: Tower
Properly Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune, Yoshitsune is a Japanese general of the Genpei war, near the end of the changing of Japanese eras from Hiean to Kamakura. He was born as Ushiwakamaru in 1159, during the Heiji rebellion. Yoshitsune lost his father and brothers to the rebellion, and was raised by the Kurama Temple. Legend claims that a mythical Kurama Tengu raised Yoshitsune, and trained him in martial arts. Yoshitsune would wind up under the wing of the head of the Fujiwara clan, Fujiwara-no-Hidehira. As a skilled swordsman, Yoshitsune would defeat the legendary Benkei in a duelk, who would serve under him after the loss. In the Genpei War, Yoshitsune slew his rival cousin Yoshinaka, who had been imprisoning the emperor. However, he would be betrayed and forced to commit suicide by Fujiwara-no-Hidehara's son and his elder brother Yoritomo. Yoshitsune would become popularized as a main character in retellings of a myth, and the term 'hangan-biiki', 'sympathy for a hero', stems from this legend.
And... he sure is a samurai with two swords. Pretty cool expression on his face. I really find him rather mundane compared to all the angels and gods at this high-level, though Yoshitsune apparently is another one of those Personas that have had an enduring fanbase throughout the series.
Zaou-Gongen
- Monster Name: Angry Warrior
- Arcana: Strength
Just looking at Zaou-Gongen from afar, I was briefly tempted to just handwave him as another 'just-as-is' faithful copy of a religious or mythological figure, but Zaou-Gongen is actually based, on all things, by Spawn and other Todd McFarlane comics. It's a bit hard to see in this 3D model, but the mass of chains, the face-paint, the body-paint and the gigantic skull underwear does actually make Zaou-Gongen look like something from 90's superhero comics! Pretty neat, and kind of unexpected.
Kohryu
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Hierophant
the Huang Long would cause the dragon to become a symbol of Chinese imperial power.
In the Japanese system, Kohryu isn't normally depicted, since the Japanese elemental system uses 'void' as its fifth element, so there cannot be an animal representing it. Borrowing the Kohryu from Chinese literature to be used in Japanese ones have became more common nowadays. The design is pretty neat, and I do appreciate that the head looks a bit more feral and dangerous compared to the Qinglong/Seiryu -- who looks a bit more traditional. More impressively are the gigantic horns and the aura of light (or lightning) that radiates from the back of the Kohryu, which does help to set it apart visually form the Seiryu that it rules over.
In the game, Kohryu is the ultimate Pesrona of the Hierophant arcana, and is obviously formed from the four Si Xiang beasts.
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