Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 29

And here's the final batch of Personas I encountered in the 'base' Persona 5 game. I know I this took some time, mostly because I had to double-check which ones of the new Personas I've fused, like Baal or whoever, that I had talked about previously when they cameo'd as bosses earlier in the game. 

I'm slowly starting the Royal storyline, and I do intend on taking a bit more of a time with it just to see how much new story they added. I also have yet to finish Futaba, Haru and Yusuke's confidants! What have I been doing in the daytime periods of the base story, jeez! Anyway, a majority of these are just high level 70's-80's that I rapidly got exposed to while I was trying to fuse Personas during the Qliphoth World segment. 

Our eyecatcher here is Hifumi Togo, representing the Star Arcana. She's technically a student from Yusuke's school, but only really shows up in church in her own little side-plot with her shogi career and her domineering show mom. Pretty neat story, but I do really think that she could've definitely been integrated into the story in a way that someone from the school setting like Mishima or Kawakami were? I suppose I just thought it was weird that they didn't take more use of the school setting, though I suppose that was what Persona 3 and 4 did with a lot of school NPC's. I honestly kinda forgot Hifumi existed after I rank 10'd her, and considering the fact that she was originally supposed to be a teammate in development, it's kind of a shame. 

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Scathach

• Monster Name: The Shadowed One
• Arcana: Priestess

Scathach (literally 'shadowy') is a figure frm the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, being a legendary Scottish warrior-woman that trained Cu Chulainn in the arts of combat. Scathach is associated with the Isle of Skye, where her residence, Dún Scáith (Fort of Shadows), is located. After training Cu Chulainn and satisfied of her student, she gives Cu Chulainn the legendary spear Gae Bolg. 

Cu Chulainn would also get into an affair with Scathach's daughter, Uathach, and in the process would fight and kill Uathach's original bethroted, Cochar Croibhe. Scathach eventually ends up allowing Cu Chulainn to marry her daughter. At one point during Cu Chulainn's training, Scathach's rival, the warrior-woman Aife (sometimes Scathach's sister) attacks, Cu Chulainn rides to fight Aife. Cu Chulainn holds Aife at blade-point, and Aife vows to cease her conflict with Scathach. Aife allows herself to be impregnated with Cu Chulainn. Tragically, Cu Chulainn never knows the identity of his son Connla until they met in the battlefield years later, where Cu Chulainn slew Connla in battle. 

Scathach in Persona is depicted with a cloak and a very fancy giant witch hat, a very pale skin, and a pretty revealing outfit that bares her stomach and thighs. Pretty... interesting? She sure is a sexy goth witch? She's also got a rose tattoo on her cheek, though it's a bit hard to tell from this image. I like that she's sitting cross-legged in the air, at least?

Dionysus

• Monster Name: Hedonistic Braggart
• Arcana: Councillor

A little bit more interesting, and another one that really feels like a JoJo Stand design to me, particulraly one of the older ones that don't look quite as robotic. Dionysus is a humanoid but his entire body is done up with psychedelic colours, with a flowing red robe, little white shoes, and a floating scepter in front of him. The scepter is his scepter in Greek myths, Thrysus, tipped with a pinecone. Pretty simple design, but it really does communicate the 'god of wine and revelry' vibe pretty well, yeah? The red robe brings to mind flowing wine, and the rest of his design does look pretty psychedelic.

Surprisingly, I don't think we've seen a lot of Greco-Roman Olympians, huh? Greco-Roman monsters, yes. Titans, lesser gods, the Fates... but I actually think that Dionysus is only the second one out of the primary 12 Olympian gods we've seen, and the other one was Mercurius, a Persona tied to a party member. 

Anyway, Dionysus (Bacchus in Rome) is the god of wine, grapes, fertility, as well as revelry and celebration, specifically joyful worship, ecstasy and ritual madness. Less hedonistic associations to him include agriculture (you have to grow the grapes to get the wine), freedom, and the theater. Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths Dionysus was described as the son of the chief sky-god Zeus and the mortal called Semele, though others consider him the son of the gods Zeus and Persephone. Dionysus was involved in a lot of the Greek myths, and the primary stories about him involve his travels across the world where he would invent wine. Another story also describes Dionysus descending into the Underworld to rescue the spirit of his mortal mother Semele, and in other myths Dionysus was the god responsible for granting King Midas the golden touch, and to be responsible for Ariadne's eventual fate. 

Attis

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Hanged Man

Oh, okay? We talked about Cybele a while back, and turns out that his consort Attis is also in this series. He's the ultimate Persona of the Hanged Man arcana. As we mentioned before, the worship and myths of Cybele came from the people of Phrygia, before it was adapted and taken into Greek culture. Attis was part of these myths, being portrayed as the consort of Cybele. The specifics of the myths are as uncertain as those of Cybele (and are likely changed and adapted into variations). In the known surviving myths, Attis was born of the androgynous deity Agdistis. The Olympian gods conspired against Agdistis and caused him to castrate himself, and the result of this mutilation was an almond tree. The fruit of that almond tree became Attis.

Attis was extremely beautiful, and he was wed to the king of Pessinos's daughter. However, the goddess Cybele (mother of Agdistis, or in some versions of the story an alter-ego of Agdistis), who fell in love with him, appeared and the godlike power caused Attis to go mad and castrate himself, dying under a pine tree. From his blood, violet flowers sprouted. Zeus and Cybele would keep Attis's body from rotting, and, again, in some versions of the story resurrect Attis. Thus Attis became also associated with rebirth.

This led to a formation of the priests (the galli) that worship the cult of Cybele to also castrate themselves in mimicry of Attis. And... I don't think I've typed the word 'castrate' so many times in a row before! But Attis's design is, surprisingly, lacking of any phallic symbolism. Instead, the things that are 'cut' in Attis's body are his limbs, which hover where they are cut. Attis's entire body is also covered with bandages like a mummy, and I think it's a surprisingly tasteful depiction of the whole 'castration' theme without being too graphic. Him holding that wicked-looking curved dagger near his crotch does make me wince a little, though. 

Sraosha

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Star

We now go from Greek mythology to Zoroastrian faith, with Sraosha here being the ultimate Persona for the Star arcana. Sraosha is the most prominent Yazatas in Zoroastrian faith -- Yazatas are a term of divinity in Zoroastrian faith, though often erroneously just translated as 'angels' in English. Sraosha in particular is the yazata of conscience and observance, and is the medium between the faithful humans and the creator deity Ahura Mazda (a.k.a. Ohrmazd). In some versions of the culture, Sraosha is considered in a position equal to Ahura Mazda himself, as a mighty warrior that fights the forces of evil. Sraosha protects the righteous souls from the attacks of demons, particularly his rival Aeshma, when they cross the Chinvat bridge that leads from the mortal world to heaven.

And what an interesting design! Most artwork I can find of the real Sraosha tends to depict him as just an angelic being, but Persona/SMT decided to go for a far more interesting look, with an almost fairy-like look to him. Those crystal-like wings kind of evoke the idea of an insect without really being insect wings, but most strikingly is the head, which has large bat-like wings, a mousy (seemingly mouthless?) face, depressions that may or may not be eyes, and a massive gash down his forehead that might be Sraosha's real eye? Again, I'm not sure if this has any kind of basis in the real faith, but it sure is a pretty striking design!

Vohu Manah

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Councillor

And Vohu Manah here is also from Zoroastrian mythology. Vohu Manah is generally translated as something like 'good purpose' or 'good thought', which refers to the state of mind that enables an individual to accomplish their duties. Vohu Manah is considered as one of the seven emanations of the creator deity Ahura Mazda, each of which represent a facet of creation. He also represents all animals in creation, but especially cattle. 

And I'm not sure if there just isn't much depictions of Vohu Manah for the Shin Megami Tensei designers to draw from, but what a design! What a very, very interesting design. After so many humanoids in the last couple of personas we talked about, Vohu Manah is a surprising breath of fresh air due to how weird he looks. His body has a vaguely humanoid look, even with 'angel' wings folded downwards like a cape and a halo that spins up and down its body in its attack animations, but Vohu Manah's most interesting feature is the fact that his limbs are unraveling, like strings or ribbons. Does that mean all of Vohu Manah's body here are actually just unraveling ribbons? Or are the only things made up of ribbons his limbs?

He's also got a very cool face that reminds me of one of those hollow masks from Bleach, and his undulating body really does make him look so unique compared to a lot of the humanoid creatures we've seen throughout the review of this game's bestiary. And, uh... he's also got a very visible penis. I guess it's okay if he looks so inhuman? Anyway, Vohu Manah is the ultimate persona of the Councillor arcana, and the Councillor arcana is going to get much more relevant in this game's Royal storyline!