Via save-scumming, I'll be able to see the cutscenes leading to all my teammates awakening the third-tier Personas, and we'll review them. It's just that my main concern is to get all my characters to rank 10 -- particularly Yusuke and Sumire -- which is definitely doable.
This is going to mainly just be a 'fusions and teammate Persona' page, as I basically try to complete the Persona-pedia. Other than anything new in the final dungeon, I think all I have to do is to fuse everyone in the Advanced Fusion, as well as a couple of 'hidden' ones like Alice that don't show up on the full inmate registry before you unlock them.
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Kamu Susano'o
- Arcana: Emperor
Romanized into English as Susano'o, Susano-o, Susanoo or Susanowo, Susano'o-no-Mikoto is the Shinto god of the storms, the sea and Summer, and the brother to Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. The three siblings were born when Izanagi purified himself from the filth of the underworld, which we covered when we talked about Izanagi. Susano'o, particularly, was born from Izanagi's nose.
There are various legends of Susano'o, and some focused on his rivalry with his sister Amaterasu, which can sometimes get a bit too far due to Susano'o's wild and impetuous nature, at one point causing Amaterasu to seal herself in a cave and plunge the world into darkness. Presumably, the whole 'cause chaos among the gods' thing is why Susano'o is considered a mythological trickster? However, he is also a heroic figure, as Susano'o also slew the multi-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi, rescuing the princess Kushinada-hime and marrying her.
Astarte
- Arcana: Empress
Haru's second-tier Persona is Astarte, the Greek name of the Canaanite goddess Athtart/Ashtart. She's an equivalent of Ishtar, and is the goddess of war, hunting, love, sex and horses. Her symbols are the lion, the panther and the eight-pointed star. In the Baal cycle, she is one of the staunchest allies of Baal, and she participated in some of the conflicts against the sea god Yam. Some myths consider Astarte to be the consort of Baal, and other sources conflate Astarte with another goddess, Asherah.
Most famously and referenced in the description in this game, Astarte is often thought to be the 'Queen of Heaven' denounced by the prophet Jeremiah in the Bible as a false goddess. The name of Astarte is corrupted into 'Astaroth', which would eventually be turned into a separate demon in Christian mythology.
And the design for Astarte is a huge departure from the design of Milady, her giant skirt and the copious amounts of steampunk gatling guns underneath the skirt. The imagery of a slender female figure atop a giant structure is still there, and the main colours you see is still pink... but it's a whole different ball-game for Astarte! The humanoid part is relatively simple for these 'Stand'-esque Personas, with a woman with a gigantic golden moon growing out of her head. Her giant 'skirt', however, is a multi-layered skull that rotates around, and the skull has a childish, bizarrely-contrasting painting of pink and purple flowers and eyes that look like they're plucked from a doll. There's also some rings at the bottom?
I'm still processing this one, to be honest, and it's such a departure from the already weird Milady. See what I mean about Personas being able to look more than just a 'humanoid'? Sorry, Kamu Susano'o, you're just kind of boring compared to the madness going on with Astarte here.
Agnes
"It's strange. All it took to make myself stronger is to put myself first?"
- Arcana: Priestess
Makoto's third-tier Persona is Agnes, and like all the other Royal-exclusive third-tier Personas, it's an alternate or the 'real' name of her original Persona, Pope Joan/Johanna given by some tellings of her story. We've talked about Pope Joan before, so basically everything that applied there also applies here.
I did express a bit of a disappointment that the uniqueness of Makoto's sentient bike Persona was kind of lost when she evolved it to Anat. The idea that it's a Transformer is cool for sure, but it's not like Anat transforms into a bike in animations or anything. And so just like how William, Diego and Celestine resemble their original counterparts but remixed, Agnes returns into being a vehicle... specifically a badass dragster. The sleeping pope face is now the figure of an angelic woman, and I really do like the quasi-steampunk-looking vents and the giant armoured spikes on the front end of the vehicle. Without the gold and the angelic statue, you could really pass this off as a Batman vehicle or something!
Anyway, I like this one. Always really enjoyed Makoto's Personas, and turning from a motorbike to a robot and now to a badass dragster is unexpected but most certainly welcome.
Vishnu
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Fool
The 'ultimate' Fool Persona unlocked by maxing out Igor's confidant is Vishnu, who's portrayed relatively faithfully to his religious counterpart. He's a man with four hands, holding a conch, a lotus, a chakra ring and a club -- the traditional things associated with him. Not much to say here, though Vishnu is traditionally depicted as blue-skinned. He's still wearing blue clothing here, but I guess they have to alter the look a bit.
He's one of the chief deities in Hinduism -- I can't really possibly summarize Vishnu's lore within two paragraphs, so I'm not even going to try. Vishnu is the Preserver and one of the three principle deities of the Trimurti alongside Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer. This leads to the three cycles of life -- creation, preservation and ultimately destruction. Vishnu maintains balance within the world, and at the end of our current age, he will appear in the form of his avatar Kalki, and judge whether mortals have been good or evil. Afterwards, the universe will end and creation will start anew.
Vishnu's avatars has prominently appeared in many incarnations in Hindu myths, both as humans and animals. His first prominent appearance in Hindu mythology was as the fish avatar, Matsya, who warned the first human Manu about a great flood, telling him to build a ship to take animals and plants to a higher level. Other notable avatars includes Rama and Krishna. In addition, Vishnu is depicted to be the husband of the goddess Lakshmi.
Chi You
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Chariot
According to the legends, Chi You has a bronze bull head with a distinct metal forehead, with four eyes, six arms and wielding weapons in every hand. His hindquarters were sometimes described to be that of a bear. Persona's interpretation is... a fun one! We've had a lot of multi-armed, fancily-coloured deities before, and if we're being honest giving Chi You a minotaur head isn't exactly the most exciting thing... but giving him legs that splay out like a spider's is probably what made him stand out compared to the many other multi-armed deities. Pretty cool set of weapons, I particularly like that shield with a face on it.
Metatron
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Justice
And we close this off with our last angel, Megatron. I mean, Metatron. He kinda looks a bit more robotic, huh? Design-wise, Metatron is basically a silver version of Sandalphon, honestly, being a more artificial and mechanical-looking angel compared to the funny-skinned but still humanoid four archangels.
Metatron isn't considered to be an official angel anymore by most Christian sects, but is one of the most famous one from Judaism. Some myths take him as the ascended version of the prophet Enoch, and he is characterized as the 'voice of God'. According to the myths, Metatron acts as the vessel that God speaks to mankind with, and is covered by one million eyes and mouths. Metatron is considered to be the angel that's nearest to god, and is the largest body among all the angels. In Judaism, his status is higher than even the archangel Michael. He's the twin brother of Sandalphon.
There's a lot of myths about Metatron that make for fascinating reading, though the lack of consistency across different materials does make it a bit hard to follow. Worth noting that it really does seem that before they settled on the gnostic themes for the game's original main villain Yaldabaoth, Metatron seemed to be the basis of the original boss, being a giant metallic angel that has taken over a higher being and 'speaks' for him.
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