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Megami Tensei
From The Codex
Background
The Megami Tensei franchise refers to the entire franchise of Megami Tensei games and spin-offs, primarily developed by Atlus and currently owned by Sega. The series began with a series of novels written by Aya Nishitani, the first of which is Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. The franchise has crossed many consoles genres, and forms of media, and is the one of the most popular Japanese RPG franchises. Although less popular, Megami Tensei or simply called "Megaten" by fans, contains more games and spin-offs than almost any other franchise.
Ever since Shin Megami Tensei was released as a spinoff of the original Megami Tensei series of video games, the Megami Tensei franchise has made multiple spinoff series. Although they might deviate game-play wise, various recurring elements will show up, such as names of Elemental Spells, the various Demons that appear, the Moon Cycle system, and so on.
Currently, the two active series are the Shin Megami Tensei Series, considered to be the "main" series, and the Persona series, which has outsold the Shin Megami Tensei series. Recently however the the Soul Hackers series has been revived with a second game, implying more franchises from Megami Tensei could come back.
The following plots for the Megami Tensei games are as follows:
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{{#:tag:tabber| |-|Megami Tensei=Akemi Nakajima, a programming genius, invented a Devil Summoning Program. But after gaining physical bodies, the demons Loki and Set attacked the summoner. He was saved by a mysterious transfer student, Yumiko Shirasagi. Nakajima and the magic-wielding Yumiko joined forces and repelled the demons... However... The demons have not surrendered. Lucifer, a once beautiful angel who was cast into Hell, is planning to conquer the human world! A demonic palace has appeared in Asuka... where the tomb of the goddess Izanami rests under Shirasagi Mound. The powerful Izanami has been captured by Lucifer, and her chamber sealed within the palace. To save Izanami... defeat the resurrected Loki and Set, and Lucifer himself, Nakajima and Yumiko walk through the palace's entrance... But will they ever be able to return to the surface...? |-|Megami Tensei II= In the year 199X, the world was demolished with a bombardment of missiles, and the survivors of the cataclysm were forced to live in shelters. It's now the year 2036, and two friends are playing a video game called 'Devil Busters' in the Keihin (京浜) shelter No. 3. Shortly after they beat the first boss, they unseal Pazuzu. The demon gives them the Demon Summoning Program in hopes of using it for the defeat of Bael along with a warning of a coming menace. Demons then begin to raid the shelter and the two friends must save the remains of humanity. Later on, once they meet the Partner and the hero agrees with her, the friend leaves the hero, saying that the next time they meet would be as enemies. The friend later transformed himself into the Dark Hero and repeatedly attempted to halt their advance. As the two traveled across the land, they gathered the Seven Pillars of Solomon, at the cost of the hero's arm, slew Pazuzu, and defeated Bael, who had killed the Dark Hero. After defeating Bael, however, he took frog form and was taken with them. With the aid of Masakado, the two use the Seven Pillars to gain access to the Expanse. Once there, the two begin fighting their way through the demon lords who rule over the planes of the Expanse. Once they reach Astaroth's Castle in the Lost Woods, the partner is captured by Astaroth, but is later saved by the hero. Later, in Beelzebub's Maze on Mount Fear, the two confront Beelzebub, who fuses with Bael and becomes Baal. The two then confront Lucifer, however Baal manages to convince Lucifer of the two's good intentions, allowing him to join their party. With Lucifer at their side, the two return to Tokyo and begin investigating Suzuki Company Ltd.. There, they learn from a decapitated head that the head of the company is not a normal human and that they should be wary of him. Shortly after, they are confronted by Asura, but Lucifer convinces him to side with them, transforming him into Ahura Mazda. The party meets Mr. Suzuki after slaying Belphegor, who reveals himself as Satan, the figure responsible for the nuclear war and the demon invasion, and attacks the party. After Satan's defeat, if the hero recruited Lucifer, the party is teleported into the presence of YHVH. YHVH offers them one more chance to betray Lucifer and offers to make them into gods, but they refuse and do battle with YHVH. After YHVH's defeat, the two are teleported back to the hero's home in the bomb shelter. Lucifer gathers all the demons and returns them to the Expanse to help humanity rebuild. The two return to the surface and watch as power and life returns to the ruins of Tokyo. If the player decided not to take Bael along as a frog or disagreed with Lucifer, YHVH will reward the Hero and the Partner by making them into gods and bringing them to Heaven, but in the true ending it is implied that doing this would have doomed humanity. }}The story begins with a dream sequence as the nameless Protagonist is led through a formless hallway to meet a crucified man, a man tortured by demons, and a beautiful woman bathing who pledges to be with him eternally. Upon waking, the story begins in Tokyo as the Protagonist checks his email to learn that a mysterious man calling himself Stephen has sent out a suspicious 'Demon Summoning Program' to all those willing to use it. Intrigued, the Protagonist downloads it onto his laptop before going out on an errand for his mother. Outside, it becomes apparent that all is not right with Tokyo - police have barricaded many streets and people have started to go missing, along with a recent murder in the park. It's soon realized that recent experiments with Terminal-based teleportation have accidentally opened up a portal to The Abyss, and demons have begun roaming the streets. The Protagonist has another dream in which he meets the same dream-companions again, only this time they interrupt a ritual sacrifice in the dream. The woman who was to be sacrificed expresses her gratitude before the dream ends. Guided by the mysterious Stephen, the Protagonist uses the Demon-summoning program to convince some of the demons to join him and fight back against the more hostile demons. He soon meets up with the real-world versions of the men he met in his dream as they begin a search for some of the missing persons in the demon-infested Tokyo. Along the way, he meets a woman named Yuriko, who claims to be the woman he met in his dream and that she intends to fulfill her promise to always be with him as soon as she can sever his connection to 'the other one'. Warring Factions The Protagonist can choose to align himself with any of the three factions, but no matter what, the Heroine will be rescued and join his side, the two forces will clash, and Ambassador Thorman - the deity/demon Thor in disguise - will launch nuclear missiles on Tokyo, destroying nearly everything. The Protagonist, the Law Hero, and the Chaos Hero only survive thanks to the sacrifice of the Heroine, who sends them to the Diamond Realm, another plane of reality, with her magic. After the Great Cataclysm The two factions are at odds with opposing ideologies. The Messians have aligned themselves with Law, choosing to devoutly follow the plans of their leaders to find salvation in 'God's Thousand-Year Kingdom'; finding the Gaeans as anarchists. The Gaeans aligned themselves with Chaos, shunning the Messian view as dictatorial, and choosing a path of anarchy where the strong make their own futures. The Messians have begun construction of a great Cathedral to be the throne of God from which he will purge the world of sinners, and the Gaeans seek to summon Lucifer from The Abyss to release strong demons across the world. Both sides have their followers and detractors, including the Law Hero and Chaos Hero, respectively. In the future Tokyo, the Protagonist begins to feel the pains and hear the screams of a woman who apparently isn't there. After freeing a man known as the Psychodiver from a Gaean tyrant's prisons, the Protagonist is informed that his soul is inexorably intertwined with another's and it is her pain he feels. The Psychodiver tells him that the woman's mind has been infected by a demon, and if her condition worsens further, his own life will be in danger. The Protagonist finds the woman locked in a Messian stronghold. She bears an exact resemblance to the Heroine and she has been made to be the so-called Messiah of the Messian Church. With the Psychodiver's help, the Protagonist enters her mind and defeats the demon possessing her. As the girl wakes up, she tells the Protagonist about vague memories of her former life. She was the Heroine who died saving him, but her soul was so strongly connected to him that she was reborn into the world without her memories of anything but the Protagonist. She leaves her life as the Messiah to travel with him and they are separated from the Chaos Hero and Law Hero. The Chaos Hero fuses himself with a demon out of his frustration to become stronger and leaves the Protagonist, deeming him 'weak'. The Law Hero sacrifices himself while protecting the Protagonist from a powerful demon who steals his soul. Saving the World Regardless of the player's choice, the Messian Cathedral is completed which summons a flood upon Tokyo, washing away everyone who wasn't in the Cathedral at the time. Only a few Messians and Gaeans remain alive in the Cathedral and they continue to try to eradicate the other. Again, the player has the choice of joining with the Law-aligned Messians, fighting against the demonic leaders of the Ring of Gaea; or to join the Chaos-aligned Gaeans and fight the tyrannical angelic Messian leaders. After their initial clash, the Messians and the Gaeans find themselves locked in a stalemate, each side controlling half the Cathedral. The Asura Lord, leader of the Gaeans, has entrenched his forces in the basement of the Cathedral with his henchmen Arioch, Astaroth, Surtr, and finally the Chaos Hero. The upper floors are guarded by the angels Uriel, Gabriel, and Raphael, as well as the Law Hero standing before the angel Michael, the leader of the Messians. No matter his path, the Protagonist must fight his way across both lines to confront both Michael and Asura Lord. While descending the lower floors to find the Chaos Hero, the Protagonist meets Yuriko again, who reveals herself to be Lilith in disguise. She was the first wife of the biblical Adam and she longs to be the Protagonist's partner. It is implied that the Protagonist and the Heroine are the reincarnations of Adam and Eve, explaining Lilith's motivations in attempting to kill the Heroine and live eternally with the Protagonist. Near the bottom of the Cathedral, the Protagonist meets an enigmatic man, Louis Cyphre, who warns the Protagonist that the 'true enemy' still waits. After defeating Asura Lord at the behest of Law, Michael at the request of Chaos, or both to restore the balance, the Protagonist is teleported to the roof of the Cathedral above the clouds. A Chaos-aligned Protagonist is congratulated by Louis Cyphre, who reveals his true form as Lucifer and vows to lead the world into a golden age of freedom. On the Law path a messenger of God welcomes the Protagonist, and tasks him with preaching God's word so that all mankind may be welcomed into the Thousand-Year Kingdom. A Neutral Protagonist is greeted by the figure of Taishang Laojun, a being of balance, who thanks him for his efforts on behalf of the universe, and urges that the hero build a new future for mankind, "built by neither reliance on God nor demons, but by the hands of people themselves." The Neutral path is what's used in it's direct seuquel. With the defeat of both Asura Lord and Michael, balance has been restored to the world and the Protagonist can work to create a world where the survivors can worship freely, which leads into the prologue of Shin Megami Tensei II. Thought as Megami Tensei is a Multiverse, every ending is canon.The following is an introductory timeline to the game, as found in the original manual for the Super Famicom version of Shin Megami Tensei II (credits go to Kage no Tenshi Re-Miel for great part of the translation):
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199X:
Ideo Hazama, a student of Karukozaka High School who is bullied by his peers, performs an occult ceremony in the school's gym in order to obtain power and get his revenge. As a result, Hazama managed to become the Expanse's ruler under the alias of Deity Emperor and transport the whole school there. The protagonist is one of the school's students who decides to explore the Expanse in hopes of going back home. However, the Expanse is crawling with dangerous and powerful demons. Shortly before the school was sent to the Expanse, a copy of the Demon Summoning Program was uploaded into the school's computer network. With the help of the president of the school's computer club, the protagonist installs the program into a COMP custom-made by one of the teachers. With this, the protagonist can summon and negotiate with the demons that inhabit the Expanse. At the beginning of the game, the protagonist must choose a partner to accompany them in their journey from a group of four students: Yumi Shirakawa, Shinji "Charlie" Kuroi, Reiko Akanezawa, or Akira Miyamoto. Each partner has a defined route and once one has been chosen, the protagonist is locked on that path. The first three options visit multiple worlds based on most of the Seven Deadly Sins while Akira's route explores a massive tower known as Tower of Confinement. Charlie's Route Yumi's Route Reiko's Route Akira's Route Taking place during the brief period that the Protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei is in another world, but the plot later goes on a very different direction that game's, Shin Megami Tensei NINE focuses on the survivors of the apocalyptic war of 199X as they attempt to rebuild society. The first project is a digital world meant to recreate Tokyo before it was destroyed by ICBMs: Idea Space. However, Idea Space experiences glitches known as "Noise" that manifest as demonic entities. Because of the way the Idea Space works, damage inflicted inside will also afflict the user in the real world, so the Noise must be eliminated as a matter of public safety. The Central Administration Bureau has assembled a team of warriors, known as "Debuggers" to fight the Noise. One day, the protagonist is visiting Idea Space's recreation of Shibuya when a Legion attacks. A mysterious woman appears and saves Kei Azuma from the Legion, and introduces herself as a Debugger... Kei then becomes a glitch hunter, tracking down and destroying Noise.In Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, the player takes on the role of a young boy who is caught up in the apocalypse while visiting his sick teacher, Yuko Takao, with his two classmates Chiaki Hayasaka and Isamu Nitta. The player must survive in the Vortex World with the new powers and capabilities given to him through Magatama obtained from Lucifer. With these powers, the player is given the opportunity to align themselves with a Reason that decides what the world will become. A mysterious black hole has appeared on the region of the South Pole and is expanding day by day. Concerned about this event, the United Nations sent a collection of elites from around the world to investigate the area called Schwarzwelt (シュバルツバース, Shubarutsubāsu, Schwarz-verse). Inside, the U.N. Schwarzwelt Investigational Team finds that the area has been infested with supernatural beings known as demons that threaten to cross into the human world. As the team delves further into the Schwarzwelt, they find strange and repulsive callbacks to human society. The player assumes control of an unnamed soldier from America (or Japan in the Japanese version), who will be working with three other crew members assigned by the Joint Project. The crew dons Demonica suits, which enables access to special abilities as well as regulating the player to the conditions within the Schwarzwelt. Shin Megami Tensei IV takes place in a world separate from the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei games, even though recurring demons and abilities are present.[10] The two main locations are the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, a feudal society inspired by Medieval Europe which is secretly controlled by angels; and Tokyo, a modern-era city enclosed in a rock dome and overrun by demons.[11] Prior to the game's events, when Tokyo became a demon stronghold and was threatened with destruction by angels, a member of Tokyo's Counter-Demon Force tamed the God Masakado, fusing with him to create the protective dome over Tokyo. Mikado is built on the dome's surface. After the dome is created, only twenty years pass in Tokyo while over a thousand years pass in the Kingdom of Mikado. Remnants of Tokyo's technology, studied by the Mikado church as "mystic relics", remain scattered throughout the land. Players control a Samurai who is the reincarnation of Tokyo's savior. His default name is Flynn: as with previous Megami Tensei player characters, he is a silent protagonist, with his actions and attitudes determined by the player. Three other characters accompany Flynn on his journey, representing the game's three main moral alignments. They are Jonathan, representing Law; Walter, representing Chaos; and Isabeau, representing Neutrality. Other important characters include Burroughs, Flynn's AI assistant; Lilith, a powerful demon from Tokyo; and Issachar, a former childhood friend of Flynn's. Story The party explores Tokyo searching for the Black Samurai, confronting a variety of foes: the demons which infest Tokyo; the Ashura-kai, a yakuza organization who rule the city and provide a semblance of order; and the Ring of Gaea, a cult dedicated to its leader Yuriko. The party discovers that the Black Samurai was Yuriko, a demon whose true name is Lilith, and that she sought to bring chaos to the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado and undermine its ordered, stagnant structure. The party also rescues three mysterious masked men from Tokyo on the orders of Sister Gabby, a member of Mikado's church. Walter is convinced by Yuriko that the Ashura-kai should be defeated and more demons unleashed on Tokyo, while Jonathan is convinced by Gabby that Lilith must be slain. Flynn can support either Walter or Jonathan, but regardless of his choice, both are successful: both Lilith's Ring of Gaea and the Ashura-kai are defeated, and demons are released into Tokyo via the Yamato reactor, an energy source connecting parallel dimensions. Flynn, Jonathan, and Walter explore two different timelines of Tokyo: one where law dominates, and another where chaos reigns supreme. In both of them, Flynn's previous incarnation was slain. After viewing the alternate worlds, a score based on Flynn's moral choices throughout the game decides whether the player is on the Law path, Chaos path, or Neutral path. Additionally, the player always has the option to destroy the world at the behest of The White, personifications of human despair who desire complete oblivion. Jonathan allies with the "new leaders" of Mikado, the four archangels Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael and Michael - Sister Gabby and the three imprisoned figures the Samurai rescued. They merge into Merkabah, God's chariot. Walter allies and merges with Lucifer, the most powerful demon; they seek to destroy Mikado. Should Flynn side with Law, he and Merkabah defeat Lucifer. In order to prevent further corruption of the people of Mikado, they destroy Tokyo, killing themselves in the process. If Flynn sides with Chaos, he and Lucifer defeat Merkabah. After destroying Mikado, the two begin a new war against God. In both Law and Chaos routes, Isabeau returns to stop Flynn on behalf of humanity, but after he defeats her, she commits suicide. In the Neutral route, Flynn and Isabeau join forces against Merkabah and Lucifer, enlisting Masakado's help against them. After Merkabah's defeat, Isabeau evacuates Mikado's population to Tokyo. After Flynn defeats Lucifer, Masakado uses his fully awakened power to remove and assimilate the enclosing dome, which erases Mikado and restores daylight to Tokyo; bringing the people of both sides together as one in a united Tokyo.In post-apocalyptic Tokyo, Nanashi is killed by demons. In the afterlife, a demon named Dagda offers to resurrect him in exchange for his service as a Godslayer. Shortly afterward, Nanashi and his friend Asahi are manipulated into unsealing Krishna, a malevolent deity who intends to destroy the universe and recreate it in his own image. Krishna takes Asahi hostage in order to force Flynn to surrender to him, intending to force Flynn to become his own Godslayer. He also unleashes the monstrous serpent Shesha to begin harvesting human souls for his plans. Nanashi and Asahi set out to defeat Krishna and Shesha. Nanashi and his companions defeat Shesha, defeat Krishna at his base in Tsukiji Konganji, and rescue Flynn. The party then sets out to defeat Merkabah and his angels, as well as Lucifer and his demons. Nanashi has the option of siding with Merkabah, Lucifer, or humanity. Supporting Merkabah will destroy Tokyo and transform Mikodo into the new Kingdom of God, while supporting Lucifer will destroy Mikodo and plunge the world into anarchy. Nanashi can lead humanity to victory if they kill both Lucifer and Merkabah in a massive three-way battle. During the celebration afterwards, Flynn murders the surviving Demon Hunters. He reveals himself to be Shesha, reincarnated in Flynn's form, and explains that Krishna faked his own defeat to manipulate the Hunters into eliminating the angels and demons; the real Flynn remains in Krishna's clutches. Shesha murders Asahi and transforms into the Cosmic Egg, a giant object that will hatch into Krishna's new universe when the full moon rises. The party storms the Cosmic Egg to defeat Krishna and his Divine Powers once and for all. Inside the Egg, Dagda reveals his plan to hijack it and create his own universe where all humans are completely independent from one another, and demands Nanashi's aid in his plan. Dagda's mother Danu opposes him, and wants Nanashi to destroy the Egg. If Nanashi rebels against Dagda, Danu revives Dagda in line with their ideals, and Nanashi kills Dagda's dark side. The true Dagda then resurrects all of Shesha's victims, including Asahi. If Nanashi sides with Dagda, his friends turn against him, and he is forced to kill them all. In either case, Nanashi then makes his way to the heart of the egg, where Krishna and Flynn are. Krishna forcibly fuses with Flynn to become Vishnu-Flynn and battles Nanashi, who defeats Vishnu-Flynn and separates the two. If Nanashi sided with his friends, Flynn finishes Krishna off. Nanashi then destroys the heart of the egg, ending Krishna's plans for good. As the group begins to celebrate, Stephen appears and reveals that there is one more enemy standing between humanity and true freedom: YHVH, the creator god. Stephen opens a portal to YHVH's universe, and Nanashi and Flynn invade his realm. They undergo a trial from YHVH's second-in-command Satan, and are deemed worthy to confront YHVH. Satan temporarily resurrects Flynn's old friends Walter and Jonathan to aid them, and the group battles and destroys YHVH once and for all. Afterwards, humanity is finally freed from the gods and a new peace is forged by Tokyo, Mikado, and the demons. If Nanashi sided with Dagda, Flynn is killed in the battle and Nanashi executes Krishna. The Cosmic Egg hatches into Dagda's new universe, and he appoints Nanashi as its new Creator. Afterwards, Stephen appears and explains that the new universe cannot fully come to fruition until YHVH is killed and the old universe destroyed. Dagda resurrects Flynn and a companion of Nanashi's choice to be brainwashed into serving as his Godslayer and Goddess, respectively. After defeating the remaining Hunters, Nanashi invades YHVH's universe and kills Him. The old universe dies and is reborn as a new universe where humans are free from all outside influence. Dagda fades away, leaving Nanashi to rule his new creation.The Throne of Creation grants vast power to reshape the world to their liking to the one who assumes it. In a world of myriad gods, known as Nahobino, many have fallen in pursuit of the throne, but it would eventually belong to the God of Law, who robbed the Knowledge of his underlings to prevent anyone from being able to take it for themselves, reducing the "Nahobino" to demons. Their Fruit of Knowledge was secreted away by the Creator. Eventually, a serpent, or rather the God of Chaos Lucifer, would tempt the mortals to eat their Fruit of Knowledge, with the promise they'll become more like God, but his true intentions were to revive the war of the myriad gods, infusing humans with Knowledge closer to gods. In a fit of rage, the Creator would banish humans from his paradise. This would make the humans target for demons, as their key to becoming Nahobino again is through the fusion of their other half that wields their stolen Knowledge. On the other hand, angels, another breed of demons, would be loyal to the God's creations and laws, obeying him without question. That would also mean becoming a Nahobino would be smearing their loyalty and honor for them, and as such are opposed to it. After a war between angels and demons, titled Armageddon, spanning 18 years before the events of the game, humanity would be wiped out from the face of the earth in the matter of moments. Additionally, Lucifer would declare that he has slain their God, leaving the victory to the side of chaos, with Lucifer using the God's Knowledge to transcend to a higher plane of existence. However, the God's Shekinah Glory has reshaped the world back into its original form as if nothing happened, but that reality is only an illusion, and the desolated Tokyo is still active behind the scenes. In the regular world, where the public is oblivious to the truth, various murder incidents caused by mysterious figures would begin to bloom within Tokyo, leaving the city in a state of alert and unease. A global force by the name of Bethel, aware of the truth, who has also participated in the war, worked in secrecy to protect their world against these demons, taking the side of the angels. The Japan branch in particular has lost most of its fighting force in Armageddon. The protagonist, a high school student living an ordinary life within that reality, has also had his school, as an oblivious authority, attempt to take countermeasures against these incidents, having students follow a buddy system on their way back to the dorms. After having to look for other students who wandered off, with one looking for the other, they wander into another world called the "Netherworld," or "Da'at." After being confronted by demons, a mysterious man Aogami locates him and, under the pretense that the protagonist's life is endangered, he follows his order, fusing with him and becoming a Nahobino. While exploring Da'at, the protagonist encounters the other students who've made their way into Da'at as well: Yuzuru Atsuta, an honor student at the protagonist's school, Jouin High School, who has also worked with Bethel, as well as Ichiro Dazai, an ordinary student, but one that doesn't have confidence in himself and doesn't know what is right or wrong. After returning back to their world, Prime Minister of Japan and chief of Bethel Hayao Koshimizu offers the protagonist to work for them, and Ichiro joins in as well as he wants to help protect Tokyo. Meanwhile, as the students return back to their normal lives, a victim of bullying, Sahori Itsukishima, draws in demon Lahmu looking for his human's Knowledge to become a Nahobino, eventually entering their world and raiding Jouin High School with other demons, who kidnap various students from the academy, taking them with them in Da'at. Lahmu's tempts his own target, Sahori, with her Knowledge, using her vulnerabilities and fears to prey on her, getting her to join him, tempting her to get him to kill her bullies in vengeance, robbing her of any choice in their bargain, kidnapping her back in Da'at. Her friend Tao Isonokami, and the Saint of Bethel, deeply worried about her, joins the protagonist in their mission to help the kidnapped students, as well as defeat Lahmu and rescue Sahori. Bethel and staff locate the kidnapped humans, the help of a fairy village in Da'at, its demon villagers aid its injured students, giving them a place to rest until they're ready to go back home. Meanwhile, with Lahmu found, even though the protagonist defeats him, Lahmu has successfully fused with Sahori, becoming a Nahobino of their own. The protagonist and Aogami step in his attempt to kill Tao, getting themselves killed instead. Tao would then hear the voice of a higher being, finding her role and becoming a goddess, sacrificing her life to revive the rest. Back on their feet, the protagonist approaches Lahmu, slaying him and Sahori in the process. The protagonist would eventually step in the turf where the angels and demons would hold their war, and the region of the root cause of humanity's extinction. He would helping the angels in getting past the other side's obstacles, eventually infiltrating the Demon King's Castle and slaying their leader Arioch, defeating the forces of chaos. But once Bethel has won, the branches almost instantly disperse, with most now interested in taking the Creator's throne for themselves, as he's now conclusively dead, with the Nahobino's very existence proving that fact. Bethel Japan also concludes that's their best course of action, as the fake Tokyo is starting to fade away, with the Creator's Shekinah Glory wearing off, and the existence of the Nahobino being irrefutable evidence of the death of the Creator. The protagonist, already a Nahobino, still needs three keys to access the Empyrean, each representing traits necessary for a God in their leadership: Austerity, Benevolence and Harmony, having to take the keys from other regional representatives of Bethel: Vasuki, Zeus and Odin respectively. Upon reaching the Empyrean, the protagonist and Aogami will be confronted by 3 other pairs that share the same Knowledge and are befitting to become Nahobino:
Depending on what side the protagonist chooses to support, the ending of the story will be greatly influenced. But if the protagonist claims the throne while on the side of creation, he will be forewarned by Lucifer of the endless cycle that will continue, with Da'at recreated, and the Nahobino of that world will inevitably slay him together with the world he would shape. Lucifer, referring to this as the "Mandala System," proposes to the protagonist he slays him if he wants to destroy this cycle and earn the freedom Lucifer searched for and found. Doing so will grant the protagonist permanent freedom to carry on without forthcoming resistance. Observing the state of the world he has shaped, he holds firm to his beliefs in the face of conflict. But depending on whether uncertain criteria is fulfilled, if he chooses to destroy the throne, Nuwa will propose another possibility to the protagonist that he may uptake. The protagonist will then be able to instead choose to create a world for humans only, instead of destroying the throne altogether. In this path, the protagonist will still be confronted by Lucifer.The player character is an unnamed college student who is attacked by demons and saved by the timely appearance of a mysterious demon-hunter named Kyouji. Shortly thereafter, Kyouji is found dead under suspicious circumstances. The protagonist is then trapped inside of a warehouse and murdered by Sid Davis, a deranged serial killer and self-made priest. Rather than crossing the river of Styx, the hero finds himself in the reanimated body of the slain Kyouji, and escapes from the hospital. With the help of Rei Reiho, Kyouji's assistant detective, the protagonist seeks to save the life of his girlfriend and to stop demons from wreaking havoc. Soul Hackers takes place in Amami City, a city fully connected through a colossal electronic network. The protagonist is a young man that belongs to a group of amateur hackers called the Spookies. While using his skills to hack his way into getting a beta invite for the new virtual world Paradigm X, he makes contact with a mysterious being named Kinap. Through a series of vision quests, the protagonist learns the secrets behind Paradigm X and the actions of a group called the Phantom Society that are working to steal souls through it. He and his friend Hitomi Tono, who has been possessed by the demonic entity known as Nemissa, work together with the Spookies to put a stop to the Phantom Society's plans. In a war between Devil Summoners, artificial intelligence Aion predicts the end of the world creates and sends out agents Ringo and Figue to avert the world's fate. Aion has picked up on several targets, particularly Devil Summoners, whose deaths would take part in causing the end of the world, and Ringo is assigned to revive them using her "Soul Hack" ability. The game begins by introducing the player character, Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, a high school aged detective who is also a Devil Summoner. He wears a black school uniform and hat, as well as a black purple-lined cap and a sword. He also has a pet cat named Gouto-Douji, who can talk, but only other Devil Summoners can hear him. Raidou is working at the Narumi Detective Agency headed by lead detective Shohei Narumi. Raidou is there under the orders of the Yatagarsu, a mysterious organisation dedicated to protecting the future of Japan from otherworldly threats. As the assigned protector of the Capital, Tokyo, it is Raidou's job to dispel any demonic or otherworldly threats to the city. During a routine investigation for the Agency, Raidou and Narumi meet with their client, a young high school girl named Kaya Daidōji. She mysteriously requests for the pair to kill her, but before Raidou and Narumi can enquire further, soldiers in red armour and capes appear, kidnap Kaya, and fight off Raidou. Just as quickly as they appeared, the soldiers vanish, along with Kaya, leaving Raidou and Narumi stunned. Narumi believes it is their responsibility to track down Kaya's whereabouts and solve the mystery of her request, as the Agency technically accepted the case and it is obvious to the pair that something strange is afoot. This course of action leads Raidou searching across Tokyo for clues, all while demonic appearances across the city increase in frequency. He investigates a number of notable locations, including Kaya's family mansion, a strange 'Dark World' version of Tokyo, where no humans reside and demons roam freely, as well as multiple military bases where it is clear the army is planning something big. The case also leads him to meeting a variety of people in Tokyo, including Tae Asakura, a local journalist and friend of Narumi. He helps her get a breakthrough in a case of a demonic murder spree, and frequently helps Raidou by providing him with information. He also meets the historical figure Grigori Rasputin, despite the fact that he should be dead by this point in time. The two form somewhat of a rivalry throughout the game, as they're both powerful Devil Summoners. He is a recurring character in the story, and also makes appearances in the sequel, Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon. Overall, the story follows Raidou through his investigation as he scours all of Tokyo for clues, while meeting various important people in the city and uncovering something greater than either Raidou or Narumi could ever have suspected.The player controls Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, a young devil summoner charged with protecting the Capital. He is aided by Gôto-Douji, who is Raidou Kuzunoha the first who has been punished for a crime in the past. Raidou works under Detective Narumi from the Narumi Detective Agency. Kichou "Tae" Asakura, a young news reporter provides him leads to solving the detective's cases. In the story, Akane Narita, daughter of the finance minister, asks Raidou to search for a man named Dahn. Along the way, Raidou meets with Geirin Kuzunoha XVII, a member of a separate branch of the Kuzunoha clan, and his apprentice, Nagi. Story The game takes place in modern Tokyo after it is put in quarantine Devil Survivor is set in modern-day Tokyo which is put in quarantine after a demon outbreak, resulting in the area not having electricity and several people not having access to their homes. The game's protagonist is a 17-year-old student whose name and actions are decided by the player. He is joined by computer hacker Atsuro Kihara and everygirl Yuzu Tanikawa as the group become able to summon demons using electronic devices known as COMPs created by the protagonist's cousin, Naoya. The group later joins forces with Keisuke Takagi, Atsuro's school friend who has a strong sense of justice; Midori Komaki, a cosplay idol, personifying her role in protecting the innocent from demons; Eiji "Gin" Kamiya, the manager of a local live music bar; Tadashi "Kaido" Nikaido, the charismatic leader of the street gang, the "Shibuya Daemons"; Mari Mochizuki, an elementary school tutor seeking the demon that killed her lover; Misaki Izuna, a military officer overseeing the quarantine; Amane Kuzuryu, the daughter of the leader of the Shomonkai, a religious cult that seems to be behind the demon outbreak; and Black Frost, a demon that helps other weaker demons from ruthless human attacks after being saved by Midori. Other allies include: Yoshino "Haru" Harusawa, a singer who believes her song was responsible for the demon outbreak; Yasuyuki Honda, a company man trapped in the quarantine while his son, outside it, is undergoing a serious operation; and Shoji, a female journalist that had been investigating the events leading to the quarantine before it started. Story As they try to learn the mystery of the lockdown, they encounter several playable character allies. With their help they defeat the threatening demon Beldr. This causes the protagonist to become a part of the War of Bel in order to free the world from the demons making him thus a target for all other Demons that are in competition with him with the seventh day being day in which he will face the next Bel. Through their investigation, the Protagonist and his allies find that the demon outbreak is a result of a planned battle between angels and demons, as a measure to judge the worthiness of mankind. If, after seven days, the demons are not stopped, the angels will destroy mankind. The Japanese government had been aware of this event for years, and had enacted the PSE Law as a safeguard, which embedded remote-controlled electromagnetic devices in every consumer electronics; if the demons outbreak cannot be stopped, the government can use these devices at the last moment to destroy all living things within the quarantine, human and demon alike. In the fifth day, the gang meets Naoya who reveals his intentions for his cousin to win the Throne of Bel. It is also revealed he worked with the Shomonkai to create the programs to summon demons as to bring about this event, initially through the keyboard used by Aya, one of Haru's band members. The Shomonkai sought to bring the king of demons Belberith to the world in order for the demons to win the battle, and Naoya required the Protagonist and his friends to survive long enough for this event to happen. Depending on the path players take, the Protagonist comes to learn that Naoya and himself are the reincarnations of the biblical Cain and Abel, respectively which is why the Protagonist can become the new Messiah. Numerous choices made by the player will affect his friends and allies, and there are several endings to the game. Preventing the demon uprising can be accomplished in several ways; if the player follows Amane, he defeats the remaining Bels and takes control of demons in the name of God; if the player follows Naoya, he takes control of demons as the Lord of Bel and declares war on God; if the player follows Atsuro, the party convinces Naoya to reprogram the demon summoning server to allow all of humanity to access demon-based technology, creating a third technological revolution; if the player follows Gin, with the aid of Haru, the party permanently banishes demons from the human realm. The player can also follow Yuzu and break out of the lockdown to save themselves, allowing demons to escape Tokyo and wreak havoc upon the world.After signing up to a mysterious website called Nicaea mysterious beings called the Septentriones start attacking Japan, they appear once a day and so it is the player's duty to defeat them as they appear and uncover the mysteries as to why they're attacking humanity.
1st Day - Sunday's Melancholy In a land known as "The Junkyard" several tribes are locked in constant war with each other. As Serph, the leader of the Embryon, the player and the tribe are engaged in battle with the rival Vanguards, when the player comes across a mysterious egg-like artifact. During the conflict the artifact begins to undulate and glow as both sides try to convince the other to remove it. After a sudden explosion of light, the tribes begin horrific transformations into that of demons. Soon after, Serph awakens to find many of his enemies eviscerated and an enigmatic girl sleeping in the crater left by the blast. Upon her discovery the ruling body of Junkyard, the Karma Temple, institutes a new law: whichever tribe brings the girl to them shall be allowed into Nirvana. Only by devouring the other tribes can the player learn of the mystery surrounding the demonic transformations, the girl, and of the land known as Nirvana that will lead everyone to paradise. Directly following the events of the first game, Digital Devil Saga 2 focuses on the cast as they emerge from the Junkyard into the strange world promised as Nirvana. They find that the land has become uninhabitable due to the sun and the streets are lined with what appear to be human statues. Together, Serph, Argilla, Cielo, and Gale, as well as the newly introduced Roland seek to find answers for the existence of the Junkyard as well as the truth behind Nirvana. Set in 1996, Megami Ibunroku Persona centers around the protagonist and his classmates at St. Hermelin High School in Mikage-cho (Lunarvale in Revelations: Persona). Hidehiko Uesugi talks all of his friends into playing a game called "Persona", which is played much like the ritual game "Bloody Mary". While playing, the students lose consciousness and meet Philemon, who gives them the ability to summon reflections of their personalities, which are known as Personas. A short time later, the protagonist and several of his friends go to visit Maki Sonomura, who is ill and bed-ridden. During their visit, they discover that the town is changing and demons are roaming the streets. The party is told by Maki's mother, an engineer working for SEBEC, that the culprit behind the incident is Takahisa Kandori, president of the company. After taking Maki's mother to the school (the only place in town safe from demons), the protagonist's actions decide the course of the story. If the protagonist opts for going after Kandori, it'll start the SEBEC Chapter which is the main storyline of the game. Alternatively, the protagonist may opt for investigating a series of incidents that occurred in the school eight years ago and start the Snow Queen Quest, an alternate storyline unrelated to the SEBEC incident. SEBEC route After rescuing Masao and infiltrating SEBEC, the group confront Kandori. After cornering him inside the DEVA System, a girl in black called Aki appears and knocks the party unconscious. When they awake, they find themselves in a duplicate, idealized version of their world. The group eventually find and corner Kandori, whose ultimate goal was to become a deity and find meaning in life. After an initial fight, Kandori is possessed by his Persona Nyarlathotep, then finally defeated. Before dying, Kandori reveals that the Maki who has been traveling with the party is the "Ideal Maki", a version of herself from the true Maki's heart. Aki and a girl in white called Mai are also pieces of Maki, and the idealized Mikage-cho was created by Maki, and brought into reality when she unexpectedly linked with the DEVA System. The group must help Maki avoid Kandori's path towards isolation and his current actions. The group manage to convince Ideal Maki to overlook her original self's unconscious actions and join them in fixing the problem. After rescuing the true Maki's self from the Sea of Souls, where all human life begins, the group must then confront Pandora, an aspect of Maki that wants to use the DEVA System to destroy everything. When Pandora is defeated, all the pieces of Maki merge back into one, reversing the effects on the town and restoring her to full health. Philemon meets with the group and congratulates them on their success. Snow Queen Quest Persona 2: Innocent Sin begins three years after the events of the first Persona, in 1999. The location is Sumaru City, a large fictional metropolitan area set in modern day Japan. Sumaru City becomes cursed after events during the beginning of the game that cause any rumor that spreads enough to become true. The silent protagonist of the game is Tatsuya Suou. Tatsuya is dragged into the plot by Lisa Silverman, a fellow student who idolizes Tatsuya, when conflict between Seven Sisters High School (Sevens) and Kasugayama High School (Cuss High) begins. The two come across Eikichi Mishina, the self-proclaimed boss of Cuss High. After getting into a fight, the three play a game summoning the Joker, a mysterious antagonist rumored to appear before anyone that calls him. Anyone who fails to tell Joker their wishes, either because they lack one or refuse to tell him, has their "ideal energy" stolen, reducing them to ambition-less shells called Shadow Selves. Once summoned, Joker claims that the three students had done something terrible to him in the past, and is angered when they do not recognize him. Swearing revenge and wielding an odd Crystal Skull, he departs, leaving the trio confused and eager to learn more about him. Later on they make a point of saying that Tatsuya and the Joker look alike. Eventually, the three students are joined by Maya Amano and her friend, Yukino Mayuzumi, who returns from the first game and is already familiar with demons and capable of using her Persona. The five then search for Joker, the source of all rumors that spread becoming reality. Their search leads the group to clash with a cult-like following known as the Masked Circle. It is later revealed that the original Masked Circle was the group of friends including Tatsuya, Maya, Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun when they were all kids. After debunking numerous rumors and defeating several members of the Masked Circle, the group meets with Joker, who then reveals himself to be Jun Kurosu, the fifth childhood friend and member of the original Masked Circle. Eventually, the widely spread rumor that the Fuhrer had survived World War II with his secret forces, the Last Battalion, surfaces and his forces invade Sumaru City. Tatsuya and the others fight off both remaining Masked Circle members and the Last Battalion soldiers to obtain the crystal skulls, defeating their own Shadows in the process. Towards the end of Innocent Sin, Tatsuya and the others board an alien spaceship known as the Xibalba, another rumor that had spawned into reality. In the deepest parts of Xibalba, the group finds the Fuhrer, wielding the Spear of Destiny (the spear that pierced Jesus Christ that is said to leave a mortal wound the second it strikes flesh) and defeats him. At the conclusion of the game, it is revealed that all of the events had been orchestrated by Nyarlathotep in an attempt to show that the negatives of humanity would outshine the positives, contrary to Philemon's beliefs. Nyarlathotep then takes his true form and fights Tatsuya and the others. After the fight, Nyarlathotep manipulates Maya Okamura into striking Maya Amano with the Spear of Destiny, killing her quickly. With the prophecy fulfilled, the Earth's rotation suddenly stops, destroying everything on the surface of the planet, save for Sumaru City. Philemon tells Tatsuya that there is a way to prevent Maya's death and stop Nyarlathotep from destroying the world. Tatsuya agrees to create a new timeline in which Nyarlathotep is not successful, in exchange for everyone's memories.Eternal Punishment begins when Maya is sent to write a story about the Joker phenomenon: according to rumor, if someone phones their own number, the Joker will kill on request. Going to Seven Sisters High School, she, Ulala, and Katsuya find the school principal murdered by the Joker. The Joker then attacks them, forcing each of them to summon their Personas. After the Joker knocks them out, Philemon contacts them and warns of a growing danger to the city. After waking, the three pursue the Joker into the school clock tower, where he attempts for force a student to remember the events of Innocent Sin. They are saved by Tatsuya, who tells Maya to forget about him. After Katsuya is removed from the case by his superior Captain Shimazu, he teams up with Maya and Ulala to find the Joker. They eventually ally with Baofu, who believes that Tatsuya Sudou and his father Tatsuzou Sudou are involved with the Joker. Going to the mental institution where Sudou is held, they discover that Tatsuzou sent Taiwanese Mafia hitmen to kill Sudou. Once confronted, Sudou admits that he is the Joker, and reveals that he is attempting to trigger the reappearance of the Other Side. Pursuing him to the Sky Museum, the party runs into Tatsuya and saves Jun from Sudou after Sudou sets the building on fire. After escaping with the museum's visitors on a blimp, an injured Sudou makes a final attack that damages the blimp before Tatsuya kills him. When the party regroup, Tatsuya has vanished. Upon their return, the party continue to investigate Tatsuzou's activities, and find that negative feelings are turning other people into new "Jokers", who are in turn being kidnapped by Tatsuzou's agents. The party eventually learn that Tatsuzou and a secret organization he leads, the New World Order, are manipulating Sumaru's government, corporations, and media for his own ends. After this, they hear of two others, Kei and Eriko, investigating the New World Order and their links with the Joker curse and an increasingly prevalent fortune telling craze used to manipulate the spread of rumors: they are involved due to the possible involvement of Kandori, a former enemy of theirs, who is posing as Tatsuzou's secretary. Depending on the party's actions at this point, either Kei or Eriko will join their party as they go to investigate the holding area for the new Jokers. Upon arriving, they find Eikichi captured by Kandori while looking for a friend. While Kandori attempts to awaken Eikichi's memories of the Other Side, Tatsuya intervenes and enables the party and Eikichi to escape. The group then save Lisa and her girl group from their promoter, another Order member, with help from Tatsuya, who again vanishes afterwards. Through a friendly informant in the Police, they learn the New World Order's ultimate goal: to raise Sumaru City in the rumor-generated spaceship "Torifune", and trigger the destruction of the Earth's surface by sacred dragons by creating a concentration of Kegare to create a new world free of sin. The only way to stop the plan's fulfillment is defeating the Order. After failing to corner Tatsuzou and puzzled by Tatsuya's motives, the party finally persuaded Tatsuya to reveal the truth. During the original confrontation with Nyarlathotep, Maya was killed, prompting the rest of the group (Tatsuya, Lisa, Jun and Eikichi) to reset events. Tatsuya refused to forget the events of the Other Side, creating a dangerous loophole: if all the other members of the original group could be forced to remember, the Other Side would be brought back into existence, destroying the present reality. After revealing this, Tatsuya is allowed to join the party in place of either Kei or Eriko. After returning to Sumaru proper, the city is raised by Tatsuzou as part of Torifune. Successfully infiltrating Torifune and defeating Tatsuzou and his "god" Gozen, the city returns to the surface, but the party are drawn into the Collective Unconscious by Nyarlathotep. Making their way into his domain, they discover Nyarlathotep has kidnapped Eikichi, Lisa and Jun in an effort to force their memories of the Other Side into reality. Defeating the Shadow Selves guarding them, the party saves each of them, then confronts Nyarlathotep, who mocks Tatsuya for refusing to fulfill his part of Philemon's agreement. After Nyarlathotep is defeated, Tatsuya fulfills his side of the promise for Jun, and after saying his final goodbyes, separates himself from his This Side self to return to the Other Side. Soon after the city returns to normal and though many people will never know the truth about what happened, the party returns to their normal lives. The final scene shows Maya about to walk across the street, until she spots This Side's Tatsuya on a motorcycle. Instead of talking to or befriending This Side's Tatsuya, she decides to move on as she walks across the street before Tatsuya drives off. The game ends with Maya smiling as the credits begin to roll.Set in 2009, Persona 3 begins with the protagonist returning to the city of Tatsumi Port Island ten years after his parents died from an accident. He is introduced as a transfer student that has just moved into the Iwatodai Dormitory, but arrives late. A mysterious boy, calling himself Pharos, introduces himself to the protagonist and asks him to sign a contract that states he will accept full responsibility for his own actions. He is quickly brought into SEES (Special Extracurricular Execution Squad), a club at Gekkoukan High School which disguises itself as a completely normal after school club, when his awareness of the Shadows and the Dark Hour is revealed. The Dark Hour is a secret hour which only a select few with the "potential" are aware of; the rest "transmogrify" into coffins. Shadows are also causing many people to become victims of Apathy Syndrome, a mysterious condition that puts them into a vegetative trance-like state in which they lose the will to live; victims are referred to as "the Lost." The protagonist discovers that he can summon multiple Personas into battle. After awakening to his Persona ability, the protagonist is transported to the Velvet Room, which its proprietor, Igor, says is a realm between "dream and reality." Igor explains to him that his Persona ability is special: he is the only member of SEES capable of wielding multiple Personas in battle due to possessing the Wild Card. In-game, the Velvet Room is where the protagonist may fuse two or more Personas to create a new one. Igor also encourages the protagonist to meet people and form bonds with them, which are known as Social Links. According to Igor, the power of his Social Links will determine his potential in combat. With the help of their Personas, SEES is able to explore a mysterious tower called Tartarus, which mysteriously manifests during the Dark Hour at Gekkoukan High School. They must also defeat Greater Shadows that appear every full moon and attack the city, believing that by killing all twelve of them, they will be able to end the appearance of the Dark Hour. SEES summons Personas using gun-shaped items called Evokers by shooting themselves in the head, an action reminiscent of suicide. Members of SEES are all attending Gekkoukan High School:
During the Dark Hour, SEES begins to encounter a mysterious and somewhat hostile group called Strega, consisting of Takaya Sakaki, Jin Shirato and Chidori Yoshino. Strega also has Persona summoning abilities and are Artificial Persona Users, meaning they can summon Personas without Evokers, although they have to take Persona Suppressors, drugs that keep their Personas from killing them. After several Full Moon Operations, Mitsuru is forced to reveal to the team the origin of Tartarus and the Dark Hour which she has been hiding from SEES. Ten years ago, the Kirijo Group, a research company founded by Mitsuru's grandfather, Kouetsu Kirijo, began amassing and containing Shadows. They studied and performed experiments on them, in order to harness their power. However, the experiments went awry, allowing the Shadows to escape and assemble into twelve larger creatures. Each is affiliated with one of the twelve Major Arcana. SEES' leader, Shuji Ikutsuki, informs them that if they defeat all twelve of the greater Shadows, then Tartarus and the Dark Hour would disappear forever. As the year continues, the group adds a few more Persona-users to their team who have the "potential":
However, while Ken struggles to go through with his plan, the two are interrupted by Takaya. He reveals that the suppressors that Shinjiro was taking would inevitably kill him anyways, rendering Ken's plan for revenge moot. He draws his revolver and shoots Shinjiro to incapacitate him, questioning the two as to the whereabouts of their Navigator. Ken falsely tells him that it is himself. Takaya then prepares to shoot Ken as well, citing the boy's intentions to take his own life when his revenge was done as excuse enough. However, as Takaya attempts to shoot Ken, Shinjiro jumps in front of him, taking a second, fatal bullet and sacrificing his own life. Just before he dies, he tells Ken to make his own life matter and asks Akihiko to take care of Ken. With his last strength, Shinjiro stands up and takes a few steps away from SEES, telling them "this is how it should be," and collapses on the floor. This final sacrifice later wins Ken's respect and inspires Akihiko's resolve. SEES falls into a period of depression; Mitsuru and Akihiko take the loss of Shinjiro hard, and Ken as well. Mitsuru and Yukari also begin to bond closer together. On November 3rd, SEES fight Takaya and Jin, and they supposedly kill themselves by falling off the Moonlight Bridge. They also defeat the final Greater Shadow. However, while celebrating their victory on November 4th, SEES realizes that the Dark Hour still remains. They learn they have been misled by Shuji Ikutsuki; by destroying the Greater Shadows, they have freed parts of a being called Nyx who will bring about the end of the world if it is fully restored. It is revealed that the Kirijo Group was attempting to do this ten years ago, but Nyx was released prematurely in a laboratory accident that also created the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Aigis, a robot designed to fight Nyx, battled the being but was unable to fully defeat it, instead dispersing parts of it into the Greater Shadows, and installing the last part into that of a young boy nearby, revealed to be the protagonist. Ikutsuki programs Aigis to capture the party and he takes them to the top of a tower where he hangs them on crosses, and attempts to sacrifice them using Aigis. Ikutsuki shoots and kills Mitsuru's father, Takeharu Kirijo, and orders Aigis to kill SEES, however, Aigis' will proves too strong and she frees them instead. Ikutsuki falls to his death (it is ambiguous if it was an intentional suicide or him being unwary that there's no footing behind him). On November 9th, SEES learns about Ryoji Mochizuki, a mysterious teenage boy who has enrolled at Gekkoukan High a few days after the defeat of the final Great Shadow. Aigis seems to be wary of Ryoji, claiming he is dangerous. On November 22nd, Fuuka senses a Strega member outside Tartarus: Chidori. Throughout the year, Junpei and Chidori have entered a sort of romantic relationship. Junpei runs to Chidori, and the rest of SEES follows. Chidori turns hostile and attacks the party. Takaya and Jin arrive and reveal themselves to be alive, and Takaya claims Chidori has been "poisoned" by them. Takaya shoots Junpei and Chidori saves Junpei's life using her Persona's healing powers, but she had to sacrifice herself in the process. On December 2nd, Ryoji and Aigis face off at the Moonlight Bridge. Aigis is heavily damaged by Ryoji and is no longer a playable character for this month. SEES meets Ryoji, who tells them he is the "Appriser" who has been born from the union of the twelve Shadows. Ryoji tells SEES that he is Death incarnate, the Harbinger, and that if they do not kill him by December 31st, he will unwillingly usher in Nyx and the end of the world, known as the Fall. Ryoji also reveals that a decade ago, he was defeated by Aigis on the Moonlight Bridge and he has been dormant in a child (the protagonist) - this was also how the protagonist's parents died. On December 30th, after recovering from her injuries after fighting Ryoji, Aigis returns to SEES. On December 31st, the protagonist is given the option to kill Ryoji at this point. If the protagonist kills Ryoji, the members of SEES lose memories of the last year, such as the Dark Hour and their relationships with each other. They lead normal lives, living in blissful ignorance, until the inevitable end of the world occurs and all of humanity dies. The protagonist, Yukari and Junpei see Aigis watching them, but have forgotten who she is and believe she is just some girl who lives in the same dorm. The same goes for Akihiko, who they simply know as the captain of the boxing team, and Mitsuru, as student council president. Mitsuru was led to believe her father died from sudden illness, as that's how the Kirijo Group covered up his death, and since those in the Dark Hour forgot their memories, it seems no one knows the truth of how he died. The protagonist, Yukari and Junpei also enjoy their times singing karaoke, albeit not realizing it might be their final. True ending Takaya Sakaki creates a religious cult centered around the coming of Nyx and the Fall as a salvation, with himself as the high priest and Jin spreading rumors around the network. Takaya begins using his preaching and his religion to manipulate and control those who are emotionally vulnerable, full of fear and scared of their impending death. In a newspaper interview, Takaya claims that the world is in a state of turmoil, and that there is little chance for hope. He then claims that a magnificent being is the only salvation for humanity, which is identified as Nyx. Takaya then states that he has received a blessing from Nyx, and has learned of her divine power. He further manipulates the public by stating that there are also 'those who have been blessed by Nyx' that use this 'blessing' for their own selfish goals. SEES deduces that Takaya is attempting to make the public hate SEES by stating that they are, in fact, the ones responsible for everything. Throughout January, the mental condition of Tatsumi Port Island residents goes hectic. The amount of Lost drastically increases and Apathy Syndrome is everywhere. Graffiti, litter and trash fill the streets, with no one bothered to clean it. Takaya's followers begin distributing brochures and pamphlets about the impending apocalypse and Nyx's salvation. On January 31, 2010, SEES climbs to the top of Tartarus to face Nyx. They are faced by Jin and Takaya along the way; both are defeated in order for SEES to reach the top. On the top of the tower, SEES encounters Ryoji, now in his true form of the avatar of Nyx. Though they defeat it, the avatar is able to still call forth Nyx; the moon splits open, revealing a strange device that begins to kill people across the Earth. The protagonist uses all of his Social Links gained from SEES and other friends to create a seal to lock Nyx away forever, though sacrificing himself to do so. The world returns to normal, though the memories of the past year are lost to the members of SEES. As they finish school, they come to realize that they each promised to gather on the school's roof should they make it to graduation day. There, they find the protagonist lying in Aigis' lap, smiling at the brief reunion with the other SEES members. Aigis tells the protagonist that she will always be by his side, protecting him. The protagonist peacefully drifts into sleep.The events of The Answer begin on March 31, 2010, a few weeks after the end of The Journey. During the opening sequence, it is revealed that the protagonist peacefully died in his sleep while he was resting with Aigis at the rooftop of Gekkoukan High. A confused SEES can only speculate that his death is related to him using his life force to defeat Nyx. The school year has ended, and the dormitory they stayed at is to be closed down soon. Aigis reveals to the group that she will not be attending school next year. During their last dinner party, the SEES members discover that they are trapped in their dorm, and that the day March 31st is repeating itself. Later, a large door-like hole opens in the floor of the dorm, and SEES is attacked by Metis, an anti-shadow weapon similar to Aigis. In the midst of fighting Metis to protect her friends, Aigis' Persona, Athena, transforms into Orpheus, the original Persona of the protagonist. She also gains the protagonist's Wild Card ability. Aigis is able to subdue Metis, whose actions were an attempt to end the time skip and save Aigis, who she calls her "sister." Underneath the dorm is the Abyss of Time, the cause of the time skip. The Abyss contains seven doors, the insides of which contain multi-floor dungeons, similar in design to Tartarus; it is in these areas that the game's combat takes place. At the top of each dungeon, SEES witness an event from the past of each member. After seeing several of these flashbacks, SEES discern that the events shown in each door relates to how that member had awakened to their Persona. At the top of the seventh and final door, SEES fights a Shadow-like version of the protagonist. After defeating it, each of them obtain a key. By combining the keys, they would be able to end the time skip and leave the dorm. However, Metis presents SEES with an alternative: instead of unlocking the front door of the dorm, they may also use the keys to travel back in time, to before the fight against Nyx and the death of the protagonist. Yukari wants this alternative because she wants another chance to save the protagonist, which Mitsuru supports her on. However, the rest of the team feels this is too dangerous, which spurs tension between the group. Now unable to agree on how to use the keys, SEES determine that they must fight each other to decide. Aigis, Metis and Fuuka claim all eight keys, which fuse into the Final Key. Yukari attempts to steal the key from Aigis, but Metis reveals that it's impossible. Yukari finally admits her grief over the protagonist. She made a promise as well, but unlike Aigis, it was to herself. She promised to try to change the world into a peaceful one to make people stop wishing for the Fall, but admits she can't be that person and doesn't care about anything but seeing the protagonist again. The party, feeling her sorrow, comforts her. With her resolution strengthened, she decides to respect Aigis' decision of leaving the past the way it was. After debating on what to do now, they discover a third, new door in the Abyss of Time, which the group uses (without the Final Key) to travel to the moment the protagonist sealed Nyx from the world. Metis explains that the purpose of the seal created by the protagonist was not to seal away Nyx herself (who is not inherently evil), but to prevent humanity's despair from calling out to Nyx and bringing about the Fall once more. The subconscious will of mankind to despair and wish for death constantly rebirths a monster called Erebus that summons Nyx to destroy the world; Metis implies that Erebus's contact with Nyx is what caused the Fall (that was prevented by SEES.) SEES realizes that the wishes that created Erebus also came from them, and so they fight it, and are able to defeat it. Mitsuru points out that Erebus will return regardless, as humans will never stop wishing for death. After breaking the time loop and exiting through the front door of the dorm with the Final Key, Metis, Aigis, and the rest of SEES are summoned to the Velvet Room, much to Igor's (pleasant) surprise. It is here they learn of Metis' true origins: that she is a manifestation of a part of Aigis's personality. Distraught over the death of the protagonist, she no longer wanted to live like a human, and wished to return to being a machine. However, after being set free from the Abyss of Time, Aigis changes her mind, deciding to continue to attend school like before.Set in 2011, the game starts with the protagonist (who is named by the player) being sent to the rural town of Inaba from the big city, since his parents are working abroad. He is living with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima and his younger cousin Nanako Dojima, and attends Yasogami High School, where he becomes friends with Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi and Yosuke Hanamura. His uncle Dojima is a police detective, whose primary assistant is a man named Tohru Adachi. On his first day arriving in town, the protagonist has a strange dream that teaches him to use a Persona, specifically his first one Izanagi, in battle. Through Chie, the protagonist and Yosuke come to realize that an urban legend called the Midnight Channel is true; if you stare into a turned off TV at midnight on a rainy day, you will see a strange figure in there. Shocking the once sleepy town, a TV announcer, Mayumi Yamano, is found dead, hanging upside-down from a telephone pole. When the protagonist first watches the Midnight Channel after hearing the rumor from Chie, he finds that he has the power to physically go into the TV, but his TV is too small to support him. When the protagonist reports this to his friends the next day, all three of them decide to then go through one of the large TVs at Junes; all of them make it through, and subsequently find a strange bear named Teddie; the group is let out by this same bear after wandering the strange world in fear, as well as finding out there are no exits except for the bear's TVs that he can create. The next day, the body of Saki Konishi, the girl who discovered the body of Mayumi, is found dead on an antenna as well. This greatly upsets Yosuke, Saki's co-worker at Junes. Yosuke and the protagonist plan on returning to the television the next day, with Chie acting as a rope lifeline. Inside the TV, the protagonist and Yosuke find that there is a pathway to an area resembling Inaba. There, in this realm created by the true feelings of Saki called the Twisted Shopping District, Yosuke's repressed feelings of how he was not really liked by Saki, whom he harbored an unrequited deep crush on, manifest into a clone-like figure of himself. Yosuke's inability to accept the clone's claim that he did not enter the realm for Saki's death (and how it was all about adventure for him) allows it to become Shadow Yosuke. When the protagonist defeats it with Izanagi, Yosuke accepts his true feelings, allowing the Shadow to manifest into Yosuke's Persona, Jiraiya. The protagonist learns that he has a special power named the Wild Card which allows him to wield multiple Personas (unlike all the other party members who only have one). Eventually, a shadowy figure begins to appear on the Midnight Channel, which is feared by the group to be Chie's best friend Yukiko who just made a recent appearance on the news, though she is still present in the real world. Unfortunately, Yukiko is kidnapped eventually, and afterwards clear and vivid images of her appear on the Midnight Channel. With Teddie giving analytical support, the protagonist and Yosuke decide to venture into the TV World (specifically Yukiko's dungeon Yukiko's Castle) and use their Personas to fight. They both warn Chie that she shouldn't enter since she lacks a Persona, though she ignores the warning. On the 2nd floor of the castle, Chie is caught up with and her emotions manifest and battle the pair as Shadow Chie who revels in Chie's jealousy of Yukiko; though after its defeat, Shadow Chie turns into Chie's own Persona, and Chie joins the trio as the third combatant. The trio eventually finds Yukiko, along with another 'Yukiko': Shadow Yukiko. Shadow Yukiko expresses her disgust with inheriting the inn, and playfully confesses to the protagonist, Yosuke, and Chie. Calling Chie her Prince Charming, Shadow Yukiko asks her Prince Charming to take her somewhere far, far away to escape her fate of inheriting the Amagi Inn. Confused and shocked, Yukiko begs Shadow Yukiko to stop. Ignoring Yukiko's pleas, Shadow Yukiko taunts Yukiko, asking why she would want her to stop confessing her true feelings. Shadow Yukiko exclaims that she is Yukiko, and is merely expressing her thoughts. Yukiko denies Shadow Yukiko's claims, and tells her that she is not her. Fueled by Yukiko's denial, Shadow Yukiko transforms into a caged bird and attacks the party. The trio eventually manages to fend off the shadow, and with Yukiko eventually willing to face herself, the shadow transforms into Yukiko's Persona. The protagonist and the group see another strange figure appear on the TV, and suspect it to be a biker who recently appeared on the real-world news; Kanji Tatsumi. While looking for the boy, the group spots a strange, blue-dressed slender young man who seems to be following him. They are unable to keep close enough an eye on Kanji to prevent him from being kidnapped, and once he is, he begins to appear clearly on the channel. The team ventures into the Steamy Bathhouse, where they find Kanji facing his Shadow, manifested from him questioning his sexual orientation, possible homosexuality, and being ridiculed by girls for possessing stereotypical "feminine" interests such as sewing. Kanji reluctantly accepts his Shadow and receives his Persona. When Kanji is rescued, the group comes to realize that all 4 of the kidnap victims — Yamano, Saki, Yukiko and Kanji — appeared on real-life TV before appearing on the Midnight Channel. Additionally, Yukiko and Kanji's first appearances on the channel were blurry and out of focus, though those appearances happened before they disappeared. After they disappeared, their appearances on the Midnight Channel became clear and in-focus and representative of their inner emotions. Therefore the group concludes that the victims will first appear on the real-world TV, then appear in a blurry form on the Midnight Channel, then they will be kidnapped, then have vivid appearances on the channel until they die on the next foggy day. Also, the Shadow forms of the victims are their true emotions, which gain their power from their host's inability to accept them (since each victim denied their Shadow form). It comes to the attention of the town that a local celebrity model, Rise Kujikawa, is coming to Inaba. However, the group becomes worried when they see an indistinct silhouette on the Midnight Channel that seems to resemble Rise. The group is unable to prevent her from being abducted, after which she begins to clearly appear on the Midnight Channel. When she is confronted in her dungeon, the Marukyu Striptease, she refuses to accept her shadow form; it engages the group in a battle, but eventually, it uses the move Supreme Insight to become invincible. The group is unable to do a thing about it, but Teddie steps in and uses his inner power to destroy the monster. This results in his body being completely and utterly flattened, almost killing him. Eventually, Teddie's inner emotions about himself manifest and create Shadow Teddie, which battles and loses to the group. Teddie gains his own Persona after its defeat, and so does Rise. Rise takes over Teddie's role as the analytical support, while Teddie joins the group as a playable character. Teddie also gains a human body in the real world. The group, for the second time now, encounters the slender teen from before, who has now taken an interest in Kanji, the next victim. After Rise's rescue and recovery (and Teddie doing "training" in the TV World to repair his exhausted body and prepare him to be a playable combatant), the foul-mouthed and largely unpopular schoolteacher Kinshiro Morooka — despite never appearing on either the news or the Midnight Channel beforehand — was found dead in a manner similar to the first two victims. The group is shocked at how the killer's pattern has completely been abandoned. The strange slender teenager the group encountered before reveals himself to be Naoto Shirogane, a young, aspiring detective whom is assisting the P.D. in the case. He comments that the police have found a suspect who has confessed his guilt, though they have not yet revealed his identity — Naoto does say that he is a student from another high school. As summer break starts, a clear and vivid image appears on the Midnight Channel (not preceded by a blurry image) showing a strange boy taunting the protagonist to "come and get me." An investigation around town by the party to find the boy's identity reveals him to be Mitsuo Kubo, the very suspect the police are searching for. The group defeats his shadow form inside his Midnight Channel dungeon, Void Quest, and pulls him out of the TV and hands him to the police as the true killer. During the group's summer break and the beginning of the second semester, they begin to befriend Naoto who has enrolled as a student, and are relieved that the case is closed. However, Naoto points out the incongruities in the case - namely how Morooka was simply beaten to death with a blunt object. Naoto's suspicions that Kubo is a copycat killer are proven correct when he, after appearing on the real world TV to bait the killer (having arrived at the same conclusion regarding the killer's pattern), is kidnapped and thrown into the Midnight Channel. When the group goes out to his dungeon, the Secret Laboratory, to save him, they find that in reality, Naoto was born female and took on a male identity to avoid the sexism of the police department. After Naoto's shadow self is defeated, she embraces her female identity, and joins the group with her own Persona, her excellent detective skills proving a valuable asset for the rest of the investigation team's journey. On October 20th, the protagonist receives a mysterious letter addressed to him — the sender's name and address are nowhere to be found on the letter which only reads: "dont rescue anymore" with no capitalization or punctuation. The group notices that this letter being delivered to the protagonist means that the culprit is aware of their activities. November 5th marks the start of the climax of the game, when another letter is addressed to the protagonist; it reads "if you dont stop this time someone close will be put in and killed" again lacking any capitalization, punctuation or grammar. Unfortunately, Dojima sees the letter and sends the protagonist to the police station, his suspicions about him being involved in the case (what with him and his friends being found at crime scenes) now affirmed true. Nanako is then reported kidnapped and is indeed seen on the Midnight Channel that night; the group, using Naoto's deductive reasoning, find that the culprit should be a small-time suspect in the first murder, Taro Namatame, since he uses a delivery truck, something that can both hold a TV with access to the TV World and is not suspicious to ordinary people. No signs of force entry were found at the Dojima house as well, a clear indicator that this was someone who knew Nanako (like Namatame). When Dojima gives chase to Namatame, the cars collide seriously injuring Dojima while Namatame and Nanako disappear into the Midnight Channel through the large TV in Namatame's truck. As Dojima rests in the hospital, the group comes to the conclusion that Namatame must be the real killer. He and Nanako are tracked down in the next Midnight Channel dungeon, Heaven. When confronted, Namatame claims that he is actually "saving people," leaving the group confused, but no less enraged at him. A shadow (Kunino-sagiri) stems from Namatame and attempts to attack the group, but after it is defeated, the team escorts both Nanako and Namatame out of the dungeon. Both are sent to the hospital injured, with Namatame being in too unstable a state of mind to make any statements to police or the group. Unfortunately, at this time, the same type of fog that courses through the Midnight Channel that reduces visibility without special glasses is found running through the real world. The team goes through a stressful period as they wait for Nanako to recover. Dojima and Nanako are periodically visited in the hospital by the group. More and more people begin falling ill over the fog, and the doctors comment that there is actually no visible evidence on Nanako to indicate what is causing her sickness (though this is almost certainly because of how the fog's supernatural powers and the technology of the hospital don't go hand-in-hand). December 3rd is the final turning point in the game. On this day, after the group rushes to the hospital when Adachi calls them to tell them that Nanako's condition has worsened, Nanako appears to succumb to her wounds and die. Furious, an emotional Dojima attempts to walk into Namatame's ward and kill him, but is stopped and dragged away by guards. The group enters Namatame's room, observing that he is mentally unstable and incoherent. As Adachi told them earlier, there is almost no evidence that the police can use to convict, or even further detain Namatame, and the story about people entering the TVs would never hold up in court. The group sees a Shadow manifestation of Namatame on the Midnight Channel gloating about his actions and daring the group to do something about it. Yosuke proposes that they murder Namatame now by throwing him into the TV while they have the chance, in order to bring justice for his victims and ensure he can't claim more. The player's decision decides what happens next.
If Namatame is spared, but the protagonist cannot convince the group that they need to dig deeper into the case, or if the protagonist is able to do so but can't correctly guess the killer's identity 2 days later, then Nanako comes back to life but remains hospitalized. The game ends, with Teddie again returning to the TV World (as well as never finding out that Nanako is alive), and the mystery goes unsolved. Namatame pleads guilty to the kidnapping charges, but not guilty to the murder charges, as reported on the news. The same downbeat credit sequence plays again, another indication to the player that this is not the true ending.
Now, the protagonist must guess the identity of the real killer from a list of 26 suspects in the game's narration. If they fail three times, they will get a bad ending as listed above. The correct suspect is Tohru Adachi, Dojima's assistant. Once confronted, Adachi escapes into the TV World. When the group finds him in there, he explains his actions. It was during an argument he had with Yamano that he discovered his power to push people into the TV, so he accidentally pushed Yamano in, causing her death, and was excited by the thrill. He later deliberately pushed Saki into the TV after she slapped him and rejected him. He then manipulated Namatame into kidnapping the rest by encouraging them to put them in a "safe place," correctly predicting this would put the idea of using the TVs as a safe haven in Namatame's head. However, he himself threw Kubo into the TV World since his false confession would stop Namatame's actions, and for the thrill of having some direct involvement. He claims that he did this all so that he could sit back and enjoy the juxtaposition of Namatame and the group's efforts; after the group goes through his dungeon, he states that it's humanity's desire to allow the fog to settle in to settle their emotional distress. He then fights the group using his own Persona, Magatsu-Izanagi, and loses. Afterwards, the group then fights the spirit that used Adachi as a puppet; Ameno-sagiri. 3 months after its defeat in March, Nanako is released from the hospital. Now, the protagonist can either go home without causing the trigger events; if he does, the "Normal Ending" that shows the true credits plays. However, if the protagonist (after first seeing all his maxed S. Links) insists that he meet the group at Junes, then the group begins to acknowledge the incongruities in the theory of Adachi being a lone wolf; how did he and Namatame get the power to enter TVs in the first place? How did the protagonist himself? How did the Midnight Channel and its rumors get started? By retracing his steps from the first day in the game, the protagonist comes to realize that the real antagonist and conductor of the game is the Moel Gas Station Attendant, or really, the god Izanami. When the attendant shook hands with the protagonist back on the very first day of the game, this gave him the power to fight with Personas, and it reveals having done the same with both Adachi and Namatame. The group confronts Izanami in the final dungeon, Yomotsu Hirasaka. After exposing the goddess form of Izanami using Orb of Sight and revealing its rotting Izanami-no-Okami form, the party puts up a hard fight, but Izanami attempts to send the protagonist to Yomi using her "Thousand Curses," but all of his teammates, one by one fall protecting him, causing him to be inevitably dragged down as well. Forging the power of his Social Links, the protagonist returns to the battleground awakening his ultimate Persona, and Izanami casts Oho-Ikazuchi to kill him, but fails, causing it to be killed in one Myriad Truths attack. Killing Izanami prompts her to remove the fog and states that she will no longer interfere with humanity and allow them to make the decisions that bring them happiness, then fades away. After defeating the true culprit of the murder case, the Midnight Channel turns to what it was a long time ago according to Teddie; a beautiful world of joy, that Teddie can now return to in happiness. Teddie returns, and the protagonist leaves by train, with his friends saying joyful goodbyes.The story of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth revolves around a rumor that involves the so-called "Seven Wonders of Yasogami High," a mysterious clock tower, and a labyrinth that appears out of nowhere on the school grounds, during the Yasogami Culture Festival. According to said rumors, whoever hears the sound of the tower's bell will die. The bell's chime is also heard in Tartarus by the members of SEES, who find themselves transported to Yasogami High. The only way to return the world to its original state seems to be hidden within Zen and Rei. However, both of them have lost their memories. Persona 3 Route After two days of being bedridden due to a cold, the P3 Hero decides to head out to Tartarus with his team. Everyone is gathered in front of its entrance while they wait for him finish his visit at the Velvet room. At that time, Fuuka notices a spider, but quickly brushes it off as her imagination. Back in the Velvet Room, the P3 Hero is speaking with Elizabeth who notes that her Master is not present. She says that the only Persona she can fuse at the moment is Legion. Theodore appears to bring assistance, also refuting that Elizabeth's statement is not true, and that she can in fact fuse other Personas. Suddenly, the Velvet Room blacks out, and when the light returns, everyone in SEES is already inside causing confusion amongst them. The Velvet Room (which is an elevator) then falls. Upon stopping, the group steps out only to be greeted by what appears to be a Cultural Festival. They immediately split up to investigate the area, learning that there seems to be no exit, and that the school is called Yasogami High. There is one area they haven't explored, however, as it contains Shadows within -- an attraction called You in Wonderland. As they were about to enter, two students -- Rei and Zen appear, and tell them not to go in as it is dangerous. They reassure the two that they are capable to protecting themselves and invites them to tag along and escape the area... Persona 4 Route Both Routes The story begins after the P5 hero wakes up from a dream where a blue butterfly shows him a quote projected on a theater screen during a nap in class at Shujin Academy. Alongside Morgana, he gathers the other Phantom Thieves in Café Leblanc to explore Mementos. These members include Morgana, Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, Yusuke Kitagawa, Makoto Niijima, Futaba Sakura, Haru Okumura and Goro Akechi. While exploring Mementos, the Mona-bus suddenly veers out of control, and sends the Thieves into a movie screen initiating a countdown. The Thieves quickly find themselves in a city where they're still wearing their thief outfits, and the Metaverse Navigator has stopped working. They try and ask the city's police for directions, only to be attacked by strange Shadows. It's soon revealed that their guns do not work in this reality. To make matters worse, a large Shadow resembling an obese man in a superhero chicken costume appears and pursues them, forcing them to escape via a movie screen into a Cinema. Unfortunately, they soon find that Haru and Makoto were left behind. They also find locks on the front doors, barring their escape. Though the Cinema seems deserted, the party quickly notices that a strange, black creature is in the projection room. It does not talk and does not interact with them, standing completely still. When its body is touched, it bounces. Morgana then notices figures standing up from the theater's seats, and tells the party to investigate. They find a woman in white, who introduces herself as Nagi, and a shy schoolgirl named Hikari. Nagi is the curator of the Cinema, and claims all of her customers aside from Hikari suddenly vanished. They are locked in the theater just like the Thieves and cannot leave. With no other way forward, the team investigates each labyrinth after rescuing Haru and Makoto. Each movie revolves around a moral centered on discarding individuality and becoming one with others. Throughout the game, the Phantom Thieves are joined by Persona users from different timelines: the P3P heroine in Kamoshidaman; the Investigation Team in Junessic Land; SEES in A.I.G.I.S. All of them land in the movie world after routine trips to the collective unconsciousness, namely the Velvet Room, Midnight Channel, and Tartarus. Velvet Room attendants from other timelines—Elizabeth, Margaret, and Theodore—join Caroline and Justine in assisting the party. The party's goal is to derail each movie's distorted moral codes by giving them happy endings while Hikari and Nagi watch. Upon returning, Doe grants them a key to unlock one of the four locks on the theater's front gate. After completing A.I.G.I.S, Doe supposedly kidnaps Hikari, causing panic in the Cinema, and both are confirmed to be inside the fourth movie. Its trailer displays a suspiciously cheery and whimsical fairy tale landscape, with a forlorn Hikari being surrounded by three copies of her past selves. They repeat the messages of individuality being useless, everyone doing the same thing means it cannot be wrong, and authority is justice. A message at the end states that Hikari has decided to discard her self to become "normal," and the movie's name is obscured by black scribbles. The party enters the movie reality to save Hikari from Doe. As the party explores the labyrinth, which appears as a cheerful, yet highly unsettling fairytale landscape, they encounter musical-like stages; each of them representing a personal trauma that Hikari experienced in the past, starting from primary school to her eventual breakdown. As soon as they reach the first of them, they encounter a younger version of Hikari being tormented by a copy of her teacher, followed by the real Hikari appearing. The copy transforms into a Shadow and attacks the party. After defeating the Shadow, Hikari reveals that she was not kidnapped by Doe, but had instead voluntarily entered with him so she could face herself and remember the events that ruined her life. The party now accompanies her to travel the Labyrinth, as the truth of this reality unravels; the movies are actually cognitive worlds created from Hikari's heart. Kamoshidaman was created from her resentment of being falsely accused of poisoning and killing the class rabbit by her primary school teacher and class, Junessic Land was created from her alienation by her secondary school friends because of their own selfish reasons, and A.I.G.I.S was created by the rejection of her desire to become a film director by her relatives. Her father, however, supported Hikari's endeavors throughout her life. He was the only one who provided unconditional support and inspired her dream of becoming a movie director, so she decided to create a movie and send an invitation letter for her father to watch her creation. All of this comes to a standstill after an incident related to her relatives. The combined traumas in the form of repeated emotional abuse has consumed Hikari with extreme depression, self-loathing and grief. Giving up the meaning of her existence, she locked herself in her room and never came out. Her father tried to give her a notebook he bought as a gift, but she remained unresponsive due to her depression. He then asked her "Why do you have to be like that?" As all of her tormentors asked her such a question when they emotionally abused her, she began to believe that her father was the same. Presumably due to the belief that her father was talked in by her relatives, the perceived denial from her father caused her to be overwhelmed by a series of traumatic flashbacks that completely broke her down. The party enters the depths of the labyrinth, which in sharp contrast from the cheerful-looking upper levels, appears as a monochrome and sinister flowerbed with the flowers having hollow eyes and tearing blood, symbolizing its owner's desire for self-destruction as an end to her pain, and the viewing of her life as torture. Doe appears in the center clearing. Hikari claims that he is not an enemy and confesses all of her self-destructive behavior, also stating that she will never forget him. He expresses a desire to keep her forever in the Cinema to end all of her pain, which she denies. He becomes berserk, transforming into a morbid abomination. When the party destroys his head, his remains spill ichor that triple binds the party. Hikari steps in with a new skill to aid them, using her support to remove binds from party members and they defeat the rampaging Doe. Doe calms down after he's defeated, and the reality of Hikari's breakdown is made clear; when her father asked "why do you have to be like that", he was only asking after her wellbeing, and her breakdown was nothing more than her misinterpreting his words. Hikari steps in to hug Doe and he transforms into her father, revealing that Doe is nothing more than a cognitive copy made by her, twisted by her distorted perception that her father is a terrifying figure, but also from her admiration for him and her suppressed desire to break free from her shell. She tearfully repents for her erroneous perception towards her father and Doe transforms into the key required to remove the last lock along with her invitation letter. Hikari then confesses to the party about the reality of her distorted self-destructive desires and thanks them for changing her heart and giving it back, completing her rehabilitation and allowing her to escape from her living death. The credits roll with Nagi watching alone, with the movie's true name revealed as "Hikari" and "To Be Continued" shown afterwards. The party completes all of the movies and removes the last lock with Nagi's full approval and permission. Hikari expresses a will to escape the Cinema and Nagi, despite being upset, approves. However, as they open its gates, they find that they are inside a twisted landscape, with Nagi dropping her guise, transforming into a malicious-looking version of herself with red hair. What seems to be Nagi reveals herself to be Enlil, a god created from humanity's desire to end all of their pain. She reveals that the Cinema is in fact a part of her domain in the collective unconsciousness, and she advises the party to leave and stop bothering. She also claims that weak humans should accept her salvation plan, which comes in the form of drawing in depressed people into the Cinemas within her domain. Enlil reveals that Hikari was only one of the souls trapped, and those of many others suffer the same fate. The Cinema acting as the hub of the game is merely Hikari's Theater, and each of the other theaters contain a person who suffers from the pain of living just like Hikari did. She also reveals that she did not prevent them from escaping, but they simply expressed a lack of desire to be free from their self-imposed imprisonment and also a lack of enthusiasm to live, effectively playing themselves into her plan. Despite showing extreme arrogance, Enlil still lets them leave anyway, but Hikari convinces the party to stay in order to confront Enlil, so others can be freed from her domain. The party ventures through Enlil's domain, known as the Theater District, finally reaching its depths. While they're more than ready to fight her, she displays a lack of desire to directly confront them, instead sending out a duo of Shadows to deter the party. Once they are slain, she applauds them for their courage to stand against her but displays that others do not and teleports them back to Hikari's Theater. It is revealed that the movies in the Cinema are an Akashic Record of negative thoughts flowing from the projectors at the depths to the Cinemas, in which Enlil believes that having them watch such movies can relieve the pain of living. However, this only feeds into their negative impulses and makes their collapsing mental health worse. In the projection room, they find the edited versions of Hikari's films and devise a plan to replace the negative film projections in Enlil's domain with them so they can reverse the negative movie's effects on the theatergoers. Every Persona user and Hikari now automatically recognize themselves as the Phantom Thieves and executes the plan to replace the four projectors, defeating the projections of Kamoshidaman, Yosukesaurus, Mother Computer and Doe in the process. After the negative films are replaced, the party and Hikari confront Enlil and send a calling card to her. She reads the calling card and is severely angered as the Theater District begins to be purified by the edited versions of Hikari's movies. The purified movies display Kamoshidaman expressing a desire to protect the weak, the Herbivore Dinosaurs and Yosukesaurus begin respecting each other's opinions, Ribbon teaches a group of robots with personality to love flowers, and the high school copy of Hikari makes Doe vanish by expressing the will to escape the Cinema and for her father to watch her movie. Enlil is enraged as her "salvation plan" crumbles and combats the party in human form. She exerts a terrifying power that wounds the entire party, but Hikari begins to rally those trapped into escaping the Cinema, and the edited movies start to take effect. Enlil views Hikari's actions as a betrayal and is further enraged, causing her to reveal her true form, an angelic, eagle-like god. She proclaims that the party's hope is completely pointless and states that they are foolish for opposing her. Despite the party's greatest efforts, Enlil removes all combat members on the field, leaving Hikari and the navigators helpless. The navigators tell Hikari to leave, but she ignores the warnings and steps in to confront Enlil alone. Because of her belief and trust in the people who helped her regain her memories and saved her life, Hikari is able to bring the party back. In complete bewilderment, Enlil is left defenseless as all four protagonists unleash a unison attack. Despite her defeat, Enlil is still determined to go on, but the party and all of the trapped people persuade her into surrendering and giving up her "salvation plan." She returns back to the form of the black-haired Nagi and vanishes into light, finally acknowledging the possibilities and strengths of humanity, but not before leaving a warning that she will return as long as people wish for her to. The Theater District is destroyed and all the trapped souls return to their realities. However, the memories of the Persona users' adventure will be wiped, and nobody will remember anything that happened. Hearing this, Hikari breaks into tears as her first friends will no longer be able to recognize her anymore. She wants to give P5 hero her notebook as a memento, but he returns it to her as it was her most precious memory, and without it, her movie will never be complete. Accepting the truth and moving on, she exits the Cinema back to her reality. In order, SEES and the Investigation Team leave and return to their realities as well, with the P3P heroine and the P3 hero expressing sadness as they part, still holding a feeling of recognition towards each other. The P5 cast returns to reality last, with Goro Akechi reluctant to leave, indicating that he is still the traitor and did not want to return to his old self. As Hikari's soul returns to her reality, she wakes up in bed, puzzled by tears she has no recollection of, yet her Change of Heart is still intact. She meets her father in the living room. He wonders why Hikari is so worked up all of a sudden since she used to be extremely withdrawn. She expresses the desire to continue production of the movie she created before she fell into depression with full approval by her father. The two then have a chat with each other. In Iwatodai Dorm, P3 hero decides to rent a DVD after a sudden urge to watch a movie. He invites the group to watch it with him, as everyone is home. With Mitsuru's approval, everyone brings snacks and drinks to the lobby, and settles in to watch. P4 hero and Nanako Dojima cook food for the Investigation Team, who soon arrive at the Dojima Residence. The group sees that a dinosaur movie will air soon, and, encouraged by Nanako's enthusiasm, decide to watch it together. The P3P heroine wakes up in her room after falling asleep while studying. She wonders at a dream she possibly had, but is interrupted by Yukari and the rest of SEES, who invite her to watch a movie with the rest of them downstairs. Wondering at her sudden silence, she explains that she feels like she's finally home, and that she's been waiting to see them for a long time. But she soon brushes this off, and eagerly agrees to watch the movie with them. In the attic of Leblanc, the Phantom Thieves (sans Akechi) decide on what they wish to do, as there's still plenty of time before their deadline. Ann shows the group a flier for a high-school student film festival someone on set gave her. Ryuji inexplicably feels as if they must go, much to his confusion. The rest express the same desire, and they all agree to attend together. After watching the movie "New Cinema Labyrinth," Hikari is introduced as its director. The P5 hero shows surprise at seeing her, then smiles. Whether or not he remembers anything is left ambiguous.At the start of the game, the protagonist is seen infiltrating a casino, with his teammates guiding him via voice. The police spot the protagonist, and they begin to close in and nearly capture him. Eventually, he reaches the other side of the casino and one of the guards reveals themselves to be a Shadow, which bursts into a Moloch to attack him. He defeats it and proceeds to nearly escape the casino. However, once outside, he is outnumbered, cornered and arrested by the police. Detained, the protagonist is brought to the interrogation room in the police station where the officers drug him, beat him and manipulate him to signing his name on a falsified confession of the alleged crimes he's committed thus far. Afterward, Prosecutor Sae Niijima asks him about the events of the year. For most of the game, he is testifying the events for her in the interrogation room, and his testimony might overturn the seemingly hopeless situation, or cause his demise. The story focuses on the 16-year-old protagonist after he is transferred to Shujin Academy in Tokyo, Japan, after he is put on probation after confronting a man harassing a woman, and subsequently being detained by the police because of the alleged injuries he's inflicted on that man. During his probation, he stays with his parents' friend Sojiro Sakura who owns a coffee shop called Café Leblanc, where he lets the protagonist live in an upstairs storage room. He heads to bed, and in his dreams he is summoned to the Velvet Room, where he is also on probation, set by Igor, the master of the Velvet Room. The two wardens that guard the place, Caroline and Justine, are also introduced. He proceeds to wake up to the next morning in reality shortly thereafter. On his first day headed to Shujin, the protagonist meets his classmate Ann Takamaki, who gets a ride to the school, and problem student Ryuji Sakamoto, who helps him find his way to the school. However, after Ryuji complains about the physical education teacher Suguru Kamoshida, who was the man who gave Ann a ride, he and the protagonist accidentally activate a mysterious app on the protagonist's phone, sending them to a castle full of hideous monsters. Just as they are about to be executed by a Mr. Kamoshida lookalike, the protagonist awakens to his Persona Arsène. Arsene and the protagonist save himself and Ryuji from death at the hands of the Shadow minions. While trying to escape, they also encounter a talking, cat-like creature who calls himself Morgana, who they make a deal with, helping one another in the process. He teaches them about the nature of the Metaverse, ranging from Palaces, Personas (his own being Zorro) and Shadows; Soon thereafter, he joins the protagonist in the real world disguised as an ordinary housecat. Over the next few days, while trying to adjust to life as a student, he and Ryuji revisit the Palace for clues to unveil Kamoshida for who he is. There, due to Ryuji's will to rebel against unjustness, since his name is already tainted because of his past within the school, he awakens to Captain Kidd. The two are later taught by Morgana that the Palaces are the representation of the distorted desires of the people around them, and discover the only way to get rid of a Palace is to steal its owner's hidden Treasure, changing their heart in the process. In addition, it's revealed that the Kamoshida found in the Castle is his Shadow self; the manifestation of his true personality if allowed to do whatever he pleases. Although the risk of causing a mental shutdown within the user and erasing their desire to live causes them to hesitate at first, this reaches a level of urgency when their attempts to reveal that Kamoshida has been physically and sexually abusing students in his role as volleyball coach backfire, as they and Yuuki Mishima (a member of the volleyball team who is being abused) end up confronting Kamoshida in his office, with him announcing they will all be expelled at the next board meeting for attempting to defy him. They are soon joined by Ann, who is accidentally drawn into the Metaverse with them, and discovers the truth about Kamoshida's true personality after witnessing her friend Shiho Suzui attempt suicide due to Kamoshida's advances, gaining the Persona Carmen as well. She awakens to her Persona to enact revenge on Kamoshida, to ensure her friend Shiho isn't taken advantage of ever again. The group soon names themselves the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" during their quest to steal the treasure from Kamoshida's Palace, leaving a calling card to prove their existence to the ruler, a necessity to causing his treasure to manifest a physical form, and ultimately preventing the protagonist, Ryuji and Mishima's expulsion from school when Kamoshida admits guilt in his abuse of the students. The protagonist, Ryuji, and Ann also promise to help Morgana with his own quest: to investigate the depths of Mementos, the collective unconscious of society, in order to recover his lost memories and discover his origins. Meanwhile, Mishima promises the protagonist that he will make up for his mistakes in helping Kamoshida by opening a Phantom Thieves fansite, as he has surmised that the protagonist is responsible for the change of heart, allowing the public to air possible grievances linked to people's Shadow selves becoming distorted. While investigating Mementos, the team discovers a Shadow self, who when defeated reveals his distortions were born from mistreatment by his former art mentor, Ichiryusai Madarame. They are soon entangled in this situation when Ann is approached by Madarame's current pupil, Yusuke Kitagawa, who wishes Ann to model for him. They discover that Madarame has been plagiarizing his students' work for his own personal gain, and try to get this information out of Yusuke to no avail, but they do discover Madarame's Palace, a massive art museum displaying all of his students as his previous "works of art." In their ploy to reach the treasure, Ann agrees to model for Yusuke while Morgana attempts to pick a lock on a door in the real world, ultimately revealing the truth about Madarame to Yusuke. Ann and Morgana panic when Madarame threatens to call the cops, and in desperation, traveling to the Palace and taking Yusuke along with them, where he confronts Shadow Madarame, revealing his own part in the death of Yusuke's mother, thus allowing Yusuke to no longer make excuses for the truth. He awakens to his own Persona Goemon, to ensure that no one else mistakes "beauty" and "vice." After stealing the treasure and defeating Madarame's Shadow, the real Madarame publicly apologizes for his plagiarism, and Yusuke joins the Phantom Thieves, seeking to develop his own art style in the wake of being abused for so many years. A few days later, teen celebrity Goro Akechi appears on TV, denouncing the Phantom Thieves as criminals who tamper with people's hearts. During that time, the Shujin Academy student council president, Makoto Niijima, has been pressured by Principal Kobayakawa to seek out the identities of the Phantom Thieves to assist the police, unaware that the principal has ulterior motives. She successfully deduces that the protagonist, Ryuji, Ann and Yusuke are the Phantom Thieves in question, and blackmails them into uncovering a criminal ring that is shaking down students. The protagonist talks to various people, eventually meeting with journalist Ichiko Ohya, discovering the crime ring is lead by Junya Kaneshiro, but their inability to meet with Kaneshiro in person leads to Makoto confronting Kaneshiro herself, putting all of them in trouble when he blackmails them for millions of yen, proclaiming he will release pictures framing them of doing illegal acts. However, this brash action on Makoto's part allows them to discover the nature of Kaneshiro's Palace being a bank covering Shibuya. Shortly thereafter, Makoto's disgust at the nature of Kaneshiro's actions, and her own perceived ineptitude at solving the problem awakens her Persona Johanna, vowing to be the subservient honor student no longer. With Makoto's help as a strategist for the Phantom Thieves, they successfully steal Kaneshiro's treasure, freeing them from his blackmail and leading to his arrest. Over summer vacation, the Phantom Thieves are taunted by the hacker collective Medjed when they are suddenly approached by another mysterious hacker named "Alibaba" who wants them to steal a heart: their own. Alibaba's actions lead them to discover that Alibaba is none other than Futaba Sakura, Sojiro's adoptive daughter who has become a shut-in after the trauma of witnessing her own mother's death and being blamed for it by men in black suits who read her a fake suicide note, it exclaiming it was her daughter's fault she killed herself. In her Palace, which represents a "tomb" she feels trapped in, they discover that Futaba wants her treasure stolen in order to free herself of her suicidal thoughts and her guilt towards her mother's death. When Futaba discovers she too can enter her own Palace, she is confronted by her own Shadow while the Phantom Thieves face off against her cognitive view of her mother Wakaba Isshiki, who has become a monstrous beast in her mind. When Futaba finally accepts that she is not at fault for her mother's death and that she was murdered, and did not commit suicide, her Shadow transforms into the Persona Necronomicon, allowing her to help the Phantom Thieves turn the tide in battle against the monster, and successfully changing her heart and freeing her of her guilt. The Phantom Thieves also discover that Wakaba was researching cognitive psience, which has some connection to the world of the Metaverse, which includes Mementos, Palaces, and Personas. As summer vacation winds down and Futaba spends her first day outside, the Phantom Thieves bask in the glory of their newfound fame, spanning from going to the beach and going on a school trip abroad to Hawaii. They make additional use of their status by implementing a poll on the PhanSite, asking users to vote on the group's next target. However, due to the influence of their fame, they started to simply enjoy the attention, thinking about the next biggest target instead of saving people in need. This includes a depressed Morgana, who, after being unable to find any viable information about who he is for months, began to worry about his identity, role and worth in the group to a harming degree. However, upon their return from their trip from Hawaii, the group is brought back to their senses when they discover Principal Kobayakawa mysteriously died en route to the police, which forced several third-year students to act as chaperones so other teachers can stay behind and respond to police inquiries. During their meeting on the winner of the new poll, Kunikazu Okumura, they suddenly begin to question if they should target him solely based on the general public's say. However, their aforementioned thirst for popularity sparked a misunderstanding and an argument between Morgana and the rest of the group, with Morgana's identity crisis ultimately leading to him leaving the group in order to prove himself, asserting he'll catch the supposed culprit behind the mental shutdowns all by himself. Worried about him, the Phantom Thieves investigate Okumura's Palace, which resembles a space station. On they way, they discover that Okumura views his employees as replaceable robots. Although this spurs them to infiltrate his palace, they discover Morgana has taken a new Phantom Thief under his wing, who is able to get through the Palace's biometric scanners, and the next day they discover she is none other than Okumura's own daughter, Haru Okumura, who claims to also want to change her father's heart to end his mistreatment of his employees. However, upon trying to get them to join their side and work together, Haru refuses as they don't know what they want, and will instead tackle the issue on her own with Morgana. However, Haru's claims on why she wants to steal her father's heart are only a superficial reason, as she's only spurred by his selfish attempts to use her for his own means by arranging a marriage with Sugimura, the son of an influential politician. Because she didn't admit these motives to herself, her Persona is very weak and unstable, thus meaning she isn't a optimal fighter against Shadows. Eventually, Morgana's ill-feelings towards the others are mended through their shared desire to help Haru after her confrontation from her abusive fiancé. Additionally, Haru encourages Morgana to overcome his fears of who he is, allowing himself to rejoin the Phantom Thieves. Haru joins the team as well, later awakening her Persona Milady's full power when confronting the cognitive version of Sugimura in her father's palace. Together, the Phantom Thieves manage to steal Okumura's treasure and give him a change of heart, but after they leave, a mysterious figure kills Okumura's Shadow. While the Phantom Thieves celebrate Haru's success at Tokyo Destinyland, they watch in horror as Mr. Okumura suddenly collapses on live television after suffering a mental shutdown, since the Shadow self in the Palace was killed. The general public gradually believes the Phantom Thieves to be responsible for his murder, rendering them infamous and detested. During the ensuing investigation, Haru overhears that Principal Kobayakawa also received a calling card, leading her to question if the Phantom Thieves were behind his death as well, which they all know is not the truth, as he was never targeted, nor sent a calling card by the Phantom Thieves. The turn of events has also boosted Akechi's popularity, leading Makoto to request he visit them for the cultural festival. He hesitates, but eventually accepts her offer. During a speech on stage at the festival, Akechi reveals he has surmised the identities of the Phantom Thieves, but before he announces this he receives a call, and asks the gang to speak to him in private. He reveals to them all that he has identified them as the Phantom Thieves, and even has evidence of them entering the Metaverse. He says he has also deduced that they cannot be responsible for the murders and mental shutdowns, because he too has entered the Metaverse and encountered the true culprit, only surviving because he obtained his Persona Robin Hood to defend himself. He convinces them to infiltrate the palace of public prosecutor Sae Niijima, Makoto's sister, because he has discovered that she has had her sense of justice twisted to the point that she needs a change of heart, and will falsely convict someone of being the Phantom Thieves without their intervention. Inside Niijima's Palace, which has turned the district courthouse into a rigged casino, they discover the source of her twisted desire to obtain a guilty verdict no matter the cost, and successfully defeat her Shadow self. They convince her to change her ways, when suddenly the Palace is infiltrated by dozens of police officers from the real world. The protagonist agrees to go off on his own to distract the cops, allowing his friends to go free, when he is captured and told one of his teammates has sold him out. In police custody, the protagonist is drugged, beaten and forced to sign a false confession. Shortly afterward, Sae comes into the room to interrogate him, which has been seen in a series of flash-forwards since the protagonist began his probation in Tokyo. This brings the game back to where it started and concludes it. Depending on how the protagonist responds to Sae's questioning, he either reveals the names of his friends and accomplices, leading to a "bad ending" where he is assassinated by the traitor, or the drugs begin to wear off and he remembers the truth, convincing Sae to take his cellphone and show it to Akechi on the way out of the interrogation cell. She questions the move heavily, but ultimately agrees to aid the protagonist since her time is up to interrogate him any further. After Sae leaves, and passes Akechi in the hallway, Akechi speaks to the protagonist himself, taking the guard's gun and murdering the guard and the protagonist. The next day, the news announces that the leader of the Phantom Thieves has apparently committed suicide in custody; however, on the Phantom Thieves' side, everything has actually gone according to plan. They all meet at Leblanc days later, where it is revealed that the protagonist is alive and well. The Phantom Thieves never stole Sae's treasure, allowing them to use her Palace to deceive Akechi. As everything outside of a Palace looks as it does in reality, the Phantom Thieves intentionally allowed the protagonist to be captured; as Sae interrogated him in the police station, a cognitive duplicate was created within the Metaverse. When Sae showed Akechi the protagonist's phone, Futaba remotely activated the MetaNav and transported them into her Palace; Akechi then proceeded to kill the cognitive duplicate of the protagonist, assuming that he had killed the real one, while Sae rescued the protagonist and brought him to Leblanc. The Phantom Thieves explain that they knew Akechi was conspiring against them from the start, after Morgana recalled Akechi had heard him speak months earlier at the TV station, when people who haven't entered the Metaverse can only hear him meow in the real world. With Sojiro and Sae's help, the Phantom Thieves realize that they have been manipulated by Masayoshi Shido from the start, as he has been conspiring to use the Phantom Thieves to bolster his popularity among people to become prime minister, and he has been using Wakaba Isshiki's research on cognitive psience to manipulate the Metaverse to his own ends as well. All of the other Palaces they had infiltrated had some sort of direct connection to Shido's plans: Principal Kobayakawa knowingly let Kamoshida abuse students and tried to use Makoto to silence the controversy surrounding the school, Madarame's plagiarized art helped fund Shido as did Kaneshiro's blackmail schemes, the Medjed impersonator was one of Shido's cronies who intended to admit defeat on the day of the cleanse in order to bolster the Phantom Thieves' popularity (Futaba's hacking into them was an unexpected event, but was ignored as it worked in their favor,) and Okumura was a party to the conspiracy, using it to further himself until he became a liability, leading to the hacking of the Phantom Aficionado Website to push Okumura to the top of their rankings so that the Conspiracy could frame them for his murder. A confrontation with Shido later leads the protagonist to remember that Shido was the one who led to his false arrest earlier in the year, all as part of his attempts to keep his record spotless and win the election to Prime Minister of Japan with no opposition. After figuring out his cognition of the National Diet, the Phantom Thieves infiltrate his Palace to find a cruise ship sailing through a sinking Japan, where they confront Cognitive beings who Shido has managed to turn into powerful Shadows to protect him. Once they defeat all five men, they are confronted by Akechi who has realized that the protagonist never died. He fights the Phantom Thieves, revealing his innate power to drive people's hearts mad, and admitting that he is the one behind all of the mental shutdown incidents before. This is all part of his plan to get Shido into power and then hold power over him when he reveals to the new Prime Minister that he is his bastard son, all in revenge for driving his mother to suicide. When he is finally defeated by the Phantom Thieves, he drives his own heart mad and summons his true Persona, Loki, to battle them once more. After they successfully defeat him again, Shido's cognitive version of Akechi appears to kill the real Akechi for failing him, as Shido has already surmised that he is his son, and hence cannot have any loose ends that might threaten his power. Akechi, however, has realized the error in his ways and makes amends with the Phantom Thieves, locking him up in a room with the cognitive version of himself while saving the others. The Phantom Thieves then make it to the site of the treasure, and return to the real world to film a video broadcast to all of Japan that their leader is still alive and they will make Shido pay for his misdeeds. They successfully defeat Shadow Shido, but this makes the real Shido realize that something is amiss, so he attempts to kill the Phantom Thieves by taking a poison that will temporarily kill him upon ingestion, destroying his Palace and everyone inside. The Phantom Thieves barely make it out alive, and Shido's aides discover that they successfully changed his heart, and later he admits all his wrongdoings live on television after his party's victory in the Diet, making his aides panic. However, the public seems to think that Shido was simply ill, and believe the Phantom Thieves neither had anything to do with it, nor existed in the first place. This leads the Phantom Thieves to investigate Mementos on Christmas Eve in order to enact a change of heart on everyone by stealing the public unconscious's treasure. Delving into the depths of Mementos, they discover that the people of Tokyo have suddenly decided to allow themselves to be imprisoned by the impositions of society at large, that it is easier to allow themselves to give into a greater force controlling them, than make their own decisions on their lives. They soon encounter the public's treasure, a giant Holy Grail. However, they soon find out it is the true ruler of the prison, which speaks to them and demands that they submit to its power. They are unsuccessful in defeating the Holy Grail, as it is protected by the masses' support. They are ejected from Mementos, only to find that the real world and the Metaverse are beginning to fuse together, with the masses being ultimately ignorant to the state of affairs. As the Thieves have left the public's cognition, they become erased, as they do not have any place in the fused world now. The protagonist awakens in the Velvet Room once more, where Igor berates him for failing, and orders Caroline and Justine to execute him. With the inmate left nearly dead, the two girls realize that something is amiss. They understand once more their duty is not to kill, but to rehabilitate, commanding the protagonist to fuse them together just as they had fused Personas for him over the past year. This transforms the two of them into their original form: Lavenza. She then reveals that "Igor" is an impostor who has rigged all of the past year's events against the protagonist, in a game to decide the fate of humanity with both the protagonist and Goro Akechi as the "players." The terms of the game were supposed to be that if Akechi won, the world would be destroyed and rebuilt, and if the protagonist won, the world would stay as is. However, the false "Igor" rigged the game, now refusing to allow the protagonist to win. The false "Igor" then presents the protagonist with a choice: either allow him to control humanity and become his assistant, restoring the world to normal but not allowing the people to think for themselves, or refuse to assist him altogether. The false "Igor" says the Phantom Thieves will gain fame and praise in exchange as well, should he accept this deal. Should he accept, the bad ending will start playing, but not before Lavenza express her shock and disappointment to him for accepting the false god's deal. Should he refuse, "Igor" leaves to become one with the Holy Grail once more, and Lavenza reveals the true Igor has been trapped here all this time and that the protagonist's friends are alive elsewhere in the "jail" of the Velvet Room. After freeing his imprisoned friends via convincing them to not give up, they regain their rebellious spirit and all convene in the Velvet Room. Lavenza and the real Igor explain the situation to the Phantom Thieves, urging the protagonist to not let the world end in ruin. Morgana has finally remembered that the real Igor created him using the hopes of humanity's freedom, to find the true Trickster and aid him on his journey to stop the evil entity behind the Holy Grail. They all agree to help, and they are led out of the Velvet Room by Morgana. When they exit the Velvet Room and end up back in Shibuya, Morgana glows a bright light, bringing the Phantom Thieves back to people's minds, albeit vaguely. The Phantom Thieves go on their true final mission to fight the mastermind, the Holy Grail and the false Igor. Doing so, they travel to the depths of Mementos, defeating the Shadows of the 4 archangels; Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael on the way, and make it to the Holy Grail once more and battle it. However, it soon transforms into its true form, the God of Control, Yaldabaoth, who punishes the Phantom Thieves with the various Seven Deadly Sins. After a valiant effort, they nearly defeat him, but are then knocked down by his Rays of Control. However, Morgana helps the general public remember the Phantom Thieves, and subsequently, the protagonist's allies and Confidants rally them into rebelling with them. Hearing the cheers of the entirety of Tokyo on their side and freed from Yaldabaoth's control, the Phantom Thieves stand their ground once again and the protagonist awakens his ultimate Persona Satanael. Satanael conjures a bullet made from the Seven Deadly Sins and shoots it towards the now powerless God of Control to deal the final blow. Reverted to its former state as a lifeless grail, Morgana takes it back home. This causes the collapse of the Metaverse entirely, and Morgana, subsequently tied to the other world, bids his friends a fond farewell, with the rest of the Phantom Thieves saddened by this fate. With everyone saved, and the real world back to normal, the gang decides to hold a party to celebrate their success on Christmas Day. However, the protagonist is approached by Sae, who tells him that in order to prosecute Shido, he must turn himself in to the police to provide testimony so that none of his friends face arrest, due to the fact that Akechi, the perpetrator behind the mental shutdowns, has been reported missing. The other Phantom Thieves learn about this terrible news the next day, and, although unable to use the Metaverse anymore, under Ann's suggestion, they spend the next month trying to free him via ordinary means, as do all of his other Confidants. By spring, Shido has successfully been tried and the actions of the protagonist's friends led to the woman he saved the previous year recanting her testimony against him, overturning his original conviction and clearing his record. Now a free man, the protagonist returns back to Café Leblanc reunited with everyone. Morgana returns as well, now simply a talking housecat, having survived the collapse of the Metaverse as the rest of the Phantom Thieves kept him in their cognition. He decides to spend the rest of his life with the protagonist to "keep him in line" and to see if there is truly a way for him to become a human. After saying his goodbyes during his last day in Tokyo, the protagonist heads back to his hometown with his friends at his side. Bad Endings Sell out your friends: During the interrogation with Sae, the protagonist makes the deal with her to reveal his accomplices. Akechi arrives and convinces Sae to leave. Akechi kills a police guard, shoots the protagonist in the head, and makes the scene resemble a suicide. The protagonist finds himself in the Velvet Room, where the residents berate him for his failure to complete his rehabilitation. Igor tells him that ruin will come momentarily and confines the protagonist to his cell for the rest of his life. Should the player choose the incorrect decisions that would lead to the protagonist selling out his accomplices, a prompt will appear asking if they are sure that they are making the right choices in order to prevent them from triggering this ending by mistake, since the player might otherwise trust Sae with the information. Make a deal with the False God: The protagonist strikes a deal with Yaldabaoth, and the world is changed back into its normal, non-hellish form, although the people in it are "distorted masses." The Phantom Thieves are praised and gain fame. However, the people are trapped by their lack of free will, abandoning their ability to think for themselves. The protagonist smiles maliciously at the end, indicating he too has became a puppet of the false god. Just like the bad ending trigger above, if the protagonist agrees to strike a deal with Yaldabaoth, the protagonist will have to confirm this option once choosing it. Game Over In the special game over scenes, the police come to the café and arrest the protagonist. The reason for the protagonist's arrest and Sojiro's reaction depends on the Palace. The scene then fast-forwards to Sae's interrogation, revealing that the previous scene was a misremembered memory from the protagonist. Sae determines the protagonist is too drugged to remember the events properly and leaves to give him time to remember what really happened. Akechi, as a mysterious figure, enters the interrogation room after she leaves and assassinates the protagonist.
Months after the events of Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts plan to go on summer vacation as the protagonist and Morgana reunite with them upon their return to Tokyo. Despite their celebration, during that night, Lavenza appears as the Velvet Room's sole resident and warns the protagonist of a "potential calamity" that may "consume the world whose heart he strove so greatly to change." The next day, the protagonist, Morgana and Ryuji travel to Shibuya's 705 Building in order to buy camping tools in preparation for their travels. They do it under the advice of EMMA, a popular digital assistant notable for its incredibly accurate predictions and answers to everyday life. On the way, they pass by a public event hosted by an idol known as Alice Hiiragi, who appears to be very popular. They attend the event and Alice gives the protagonist a card to her "Wonderland." This card instructs the reader to input the keyword "Wonderland" in the EMMA app. After doing so, the three find themselves trapped in an unknown location in the Metaverse in their Phantom Thief attire, along with three other men who get attacked by Shadows and have their Desires stolen in the form of gems, with the instigator being none other than Alice herself. The trio attempt to escape, but they are eventually ambushed and captured by the Shadows. They are brought to Alice's Shadow self, who then decides to dump them into the underground waterway. There, they encounter an A.I. called Sophia, who claims herself to be a friend of humanity and has no memories of herself. Capable of fighting by manifesting some Pithos as a pseudo-Persona, she helps the group escape from the area, upon which Sophia, being comprised of data, turns into an A.I. over the "EMMA" app on the protagonist's phone. Back in the real world, the three boys gather the rest of the group and tell them about their discovery. Upon further investigation, they find that most of Shibuya has fallen into a fervor about Alice. After obtaining enough information on the matter, the protagonist and Ann visit the TV station at Akasaka Mitsuke to personally meet Alice, who would then be attending a talk show. There, they witness the host attempting to talk about Alice's crush, only to be suddenly silenced and have his heart changed into falling in love with her. The show is interrupted, and Alice's manager tries to stop her in the hallway, only for her to show her true colors by physically attacking him and taking pictures of him with the intention of humiliating him. Ann and the protagonist witness her, and successfully stop her from doing any further harm for the time being. It turns out that Shibuya is being overlaid by a Metaverse structure known as a "Jail," which is abused by its ruler to mesmerize its entire population. The Phantom Thieves reform and put off their trip until Alice is neutralized. The night after the party explores the Jail's outskirts, they run into a member of the Public Security Bureau, Zenkichi Hasegawa. When the party returns to Café Leblanc, he takes the opportunity to blackmail them into cooperating, as the police believes that they're the ones responsible for the recent mass Change of Heart cases happening all over Japan. Although he suspects another culprit is responsible, if they do not cooperate, they risk being arrested for the incident instigated by Alice yesterday, while she escapes unscathed. Suspicious of Zenkichi's motives, they decline his offer, intending to clear their names on their own accord. Barging through the castle, they eventually reach its core and discover that there is no Treasure, and instead witness two Shadows dropping gems which evaporate into the pink fog above the Jail, which they refer to as Desires. It turns out that the Monarch is sealed inside a bird cage, a device that traps them in a past trauma or disdainful experience and prevents them from moving on. A vocal clue hints the party towards where they need to go to unlock the cage; a school where Alice was bullied in, but they do not know what school she attended until Zenkichi arrives, where they deduce that Alice is actually an alumna of Shujin Academy: she was actually badly bullied by jealous girls at school for having a crush. This results in a confrontation with a powerful Lock Keeper Shadow, representing one of these bullies from Shujin. Back in the real world, the Phantom Thieves hijack a broadcast to issue the calling cards on Alice, who evokes her Shadow self to defend her Desires. Freed from her cage, the gang then confronts her at the rooftop, where it turns out that unlike the previous targets, Alice is not malicious, but was driven by desire of revenge against the bullies who took away her crush and her future. Refusing to become another forgotten victim, she transforms into a monstrous rabbit-like creature, but is defeated and convinced by Ann to release all of the Desires. The next day, Alice confesses to her crimes on live television. Although the Phantom Thieves assumed that their names were cleared, Zenkichi tells them that suspicions instead have intensified, as the calling card they submitted had made the police suspect their involvement behind the change of heart cases. They have no other choice but to accept Zenkichi's pending offer. Told about the other world, he agrees to protect them from the police as long as they cooperate with him. He suggests they travel to Sapporo soon to deal with another mass Change of Heart incident. Futaba investigates Alice's phone, discovering that someone had been monitoring her actions on the app, but does not know who the person is. The Phantom Thieves decide to borrow an RV from Sojiro as their means of transportation, with Makoto serving as the primary driver. Back at the Police Station, Miyako Kaburagi, the chief of the Public Security Bureau, warns Zenkichi that he has to take down the Thieves, should any suspicions arise. She also advises him to take a break in Kyoto to take care of his daughter. Weary from the road trip, Sophia suggests they stop in Sendai for food and rest, but soon detects the presence of another Jail. The group stops at Mt. Aoba and decide to eat at a nearby restaurant, where they encounter a woman who introduces herself as Kuon Ichinose. During their trip, the group notices numerous posters advertising a book called Prince of Nightmares. They later find a crowd assembled for what appears to be an autograph signing. This causes the Phantom Thieves to suspect that Ango Natsume is the Monarch of Sendai and begin to investigate. On the way, they attend a book-signing event hosted by Natsume, but he does not appear to say anything suspicious. After the event, they examine the book by buying a copy, curious as to see what made it so popular. To their surprise, the book is full of plagiarized excerpts, cementing their suspicion even more. Zenkichi meets with the Thieves at the RV, where he confirms that Ango is indeed suspicious, as his novel is only popular in Sendai and that everyone who added him as a friend on EMMA began buying numerous copies of his book, running into debt. With Zenkichi's help, they manage to get in contact with Ango by attending his party to celebrate a million copies sold and obtain his keyword, "Prince of Nightmares." Exploring Sendai's Jail, they also discover that like Alice, Ango had no malicious intentions; being the grandson of a famous writer, his publishers staged the competition he participated in to profit off of his name. Having learned of this, Ango used the EMMA app in order to make his readers love his novels and to take the money from his publishers. Ready to send their calling card, the following day, as Ango heads to the store, he finds them plastered all over his stall and its contents evoke his Shadow self. Upon defeating Ango's Shadow self in his bird cage, he promises to redeem himself after Yusuke convinces him to restart anew in the arts, citing his friends as the reason why he was able to move on. The following day, Ango holds a press conference in which he confesses that he had plagiarized his writings but promises to reimburse all of his readers, vowing to never write again. Yusuke walks up to Ango and convinces him to keep writing. Ango then retracts his statement and promises to return to writing once he clears up his name, vowing to create a novel that would honor his grandfather's legacy. Clearing the case, Zenkichi commends them for their efforts and points them to Sapporo for their next investigation. He also has them attend a lecture hall on his behalf to investigate Akira Konoe, the CEO of Madicce and see if he would reveal anything about EMMA. The visit is fruitless, as Konoe does not reveal anything out of the ordinary. As the Thieves decide on what to do, a woman who introduces herself as Kuon Ichinose and the creator of EMMA learns of their identities. She had sold it to Konoe for money, making him the legal owner of EMMA. She offers to help the Thieves, who accept, seeing that the coder of EMMA may be able to detect abnormalities in the app. Arriving at Sapporo, the Thieves begin exploring the city, and meet Mariko Hyodo, who then recognizes Haru and is delighted to see her again, apologizing for her father's death. Zenkichi then contacts the group, informing them that Mariko is the suspect, having obtained an abnormal amount of supporters in a short amount of time. Haru finds it hard to believe that an old family friend would be a Monarch, having known her for her kindness as a child. After temporarily investigating Sapporo Jail, back in the real world, they find Mariko reprimanding one of her staff for being tired, despite the man being in danger of collapsing. Haru scolds Mariko for treating her staff terribly, becoming upset at how Mariko had turned cold and wonders what made her so cruel. Returning to the Jail the next day, they discover that Mariko's hostility came after she approved of an ice sculpture from a company that bribed one of her staff members, which collapsed and killed a young girl. She wept for the child's death, but did not know of the true culprit until she stumbled onto a conversation between one of her staffers and a shady person, who had approved of the deal. The staffer then threatened to link her to the incident if she tried anything against him. Although she stepped down, the incident made her bitter and she used EMMA to force the previous mayor to resign and brainwash voters into supporting her. After defeating the Lock Keeper, the Thieves have Zenkichi vandalize one of the campaign stops by plastering calling cards there, evoking Mariko's Shadow. The Thieves return to the Jail and defeat Mariko's Shadow. Haru convinces Mariko's Shadow of the error of her ways and to remember what she stood up for, who then realizes the error of her ways and that she never needed the strange power in the first place, releasing her Desires while telling Haru that she is proud of her and that her father would be too. The following day, Mariko steps down as mayor and a candidate for the election, revealing the truth of the ice sculpture scandal, and turns herself in to the police. Zenkichi is able to schedule a time for Mariko and the Thieves to meet, upon which Mariko apologizes to Haru for her actions, but promises to help her in any way she can. The mother of the deceased girl then arrives and urges Mariko to remain in the election to campaign for what is right and what she stood up for, which she accepts. After leaving Sapporo, Zenkichi tells them that they are heading to Okinawa, much to the group's surprise as it is a very long trip. Zenkichi offers to drive in Makoto's place for the time being, but they make a brief stop to Kyoto. On the way, Zenkichi's daughter, Akane, calls him, but since he is driving, the protagonist answers for him. Akane mistakenly believes that Zenkichi does not care for her or his wife and angrily hangs up. The group then learns that Zenkichi's wife, Aoi, had died in an accident. Arriving at the cemetery, the Thieves explain to Akane that Zenkichi was driving and unable to answer, and apologize for whatever misunderstandings they caused. They also learn that Akane is a big fan of the Phantom Thieves, and due to Zenkichi's supposed lack of involvement in investigating his wife's death, she believes that the Phantom Thieves will prevail over the police force. As the party arrives at Okinawa, they first tour it to enjoy their vacation, but that night, they discover that its residents are brainwashed as they attack their camping van, although they're able to escape. They soon discover the presence of a Jail in the vicinity, but also that there is no Monarch. However, they do find old recordings where the head researcher of Madicce, Shuzo Ubukata, lost his sanity when a greater power told him to hand out his Desires, and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, leaving the Jail without a ruler. Sophia also hears voices that only she can hear, running ahead of the group. Once they reach the abandoned bird cage, a voice resembling her own can be heard, claiming that Sophia is useless because she cannot state her purpose as the Lock Keeper appears and attacks the party. Upon defeating it, the Desires are returned to Okinawa's populace. Although the facility has lots of incriminating evidence, they are worried Zenkichi will be unable to use it as it was illegally acquired. He then tells them that after clearing the Jail, the police found Shuzo's body, which means that the evidence can be legally used. When they investigate an abandoned apartment, they discover that Konoe is cooperating with politician Jyun Owada to change the hearts of his political enemies (largely consisting of unscrupulous politicians) in order to help set him as the next Prime Minister. As Zenkichi leaves, the party makes a brief stop at Fukuoka, only for Zenkichi to phone in and tell them that he has an important incident back at Kyoto. Returning to their destination, Zenkichi reveals that Owada is actually a former lobbyist of Masayoshi Shido, the corrupt politician who terrorized Japan a year ago. Konoe issues an arrest order against the Phantom Thieves for supposedly hacking the EMMA application and murdering Ubukata. In reality, both are fabricated cases and it's heavily implied that Konoe was the one who drove Shuzo insane. Owada, being accompanied by a National Police Agency head brainwashed by Konoe, bribes Kaburagi with a security bureau head seat if she arrests the Phantom Thieves, which she reluctantly accepts. Kaburagi arrives there that night with a heavily armed police force, only to be stopped by Zenkichi, who alerts the Phantom Thieves of the police's presence; though the Phantom Thieves escape, he is subsequently arrested. While being interrogated, the police also begin to search and clear the Hasegawa residence, where an officer told Akane that her father is an accomplice of the Phantom Thieves. Akane pleads for someone to save her, only for EMMA to respond and unwittingly create a Jail in Kyoto. Back at Madicce headquarters, Konoe asks EMMA for ways to catch the Phantom Thieves. EMMA proposes to him that he should use the Jail of "an associate of the Phantom Thieves" to catch them instead, implied to be Akane. Konoe tells EMMA to turn that person into a Monarch so they can induce a Change of Heart on the Thieves; if they can't, they are to be eliminated. The party receives an obviously faked SNS message from Akane, telling them that she's been kidnapped. Despite initial doubts among the group, they accidentally say the Jail's keyword and get dragged in anyway. Because of the Phantom Thieves' insistence, EMMA manages to bait and trap all party members with a heavily distorted Shadow Akane with all her negative traits exaggerated. Futaba is the only one who was able to escape, as she couldn't catch up with the rest of the group due to her low physical stamina. Thankfully, Sae, having been contacted by Makoto, arrives in time to get Zenkichi out of the station. Once he's freed, he enters the Jail alongside Futaba. As Zenkichi lacks a Persona and the abilities of the Phantom Thieves, he is forced to rely on Futaba to navigate the Jail's grounds while avoiding the Shadows patrolling the area. He eventually reaches everyone, where Akane is furious at her father for his inability to investigate his mother's death and arrest the true culprit. He admits that he was unable to protect Akane, because once he tried to investigate Aoi's death, he was dismissed for being her husband and then blackmailed with a death threat on Akane's life. Akane refuses to hear his pleas, being engrossed in Konoe's savior complex. She was more concerned about the reputation of the patsy killer's family than her mother, and rambles about a plan where she would change the Phantom Thieves' hearts, then change the heart of her mother's killer. This revelation results in Zenkichi awakening to his Persona Valjean, allowing him to save the imprisoned Phantom Thieves, officially joining the group in the process. When they encounter Akane at the end of the Jail, she delusionally calls the Phantom Thieves fakes and sends out cognitive copies of them to fight the originals, claiming that the copies are her "friends." The protagonist deals with his doppelgänger while the rest fight their own fakes. Once Akane's cognitive thieves are destroyed, she calms down and gets a Change of Heart. Zenkichi returns back to his residence, where he finds Akane sleeping. As she wakes up, the two have a long talk about recent events, vowing to avenge Aoi and bring Owada to justice. Sae contacts the group and is relieved to see them all doing well, having discovered that the evidence submitted did not have a judge's seal and was fabricated. Zenkichi's involvement with the Thieves has also caused the police to attempt to cover up all traces of it, meaning that they are now free for the time being. To prevent the Conspiracy that terrorized Japan from re-igniting, the party travels to Osaka to confront Konoe. Needing Konoe's keyword, they contact Ichinose for help due to her relations with him, where she digs up his business card, and tells them that his keyword is "Zephyrman." With the keyword in hand, they enter the Jail. While exploring the castle, they also find that Konoe has a bird cage and are confused by its presence, having believed that Konoe knew how the Jails worked. Touching the barrier, they learn that Konoe's father was an abusive husband who killed his wife as he believed she was a burden on his money, and tried to do the same on his son. During a beating one day, before Konoe's father could act on killing him, he was distracted by the sound of Zephyrman on TV. Realizing no heroes would come to save him, Konoe seized the opportunity to escape his torment and killed his own father. To avoid any repercussions, he staged the incident as a home invasion. He did not have evil intentions with EMMA; he wanted to change the world and saw himself as the only hero who could make the world a better place, to free the wronged and traumatized persons from the world's injustice; his cooperation with Owada is a ruse and he intends to change his heart after eliminating the Phantom Thieves. Now learning of Konoe's traumatic past, the Thieves defeat the Lock Keeper and decide to send him a calling card. Zenkichi meets up with Kaburagi, who tells her that he intends to arrest Owada with Konoe's aid. Kaburagi allows Zenkichi to do so after seeing his renewed resolve, giving him his badge back, but warns him that he has three days to do so, and that she won't cover him if he fails. The following day, the Thieves allow Zenkichi to write the contents of the calling card, before wondering how to send it. They then notice a blimp flying in the air advertising EMMA, and decide to hijack it. The Thieves drop the cards at night all across Osaka. In Konoe's condo, he reads the card, but is unaffected like the previous targets. However, it causes him to ask EMMA about the status of the Thieves in Kyoto's Jail. EMMA fails to give a response, causing Konoe to realize they have escaped, which manifests his Shadow. Returning to the Jail once more, the Thieves confront Konoe at the top of Madicce's headquarters, where Konoe reveals the contents of "Operation Oraculi"; after buying it from Ichinose, he sent it to the research facilities on Okinawa to experiment with the creation of the Jails by developing cognitive psience, resulting in Shuzo's death. He intends to spread the Jails and Monarchs all over Japan, and then the world to make it a place free of crimes. The party calls him out on this claim, as he is taking away their free will and that he is acting like his father. Konoe then calls in a Zephyrman mech and pilots it, but the mech is destroyed in the ensuing battle. He then fights them on foot, but is subsequently defeated by them. Konoe gets a change of heart after hearing from Sophia that the Monarchs he had installed did not appear to like their role, along with Zenkichi telling him that he was eliminating the heroes by robbing people of their free will, putting him in the footsteps of his father. He promises to purge EMMA from Madicce's servers and atone for his crimes, imploring them to tell the people who the true heroes were as he releases his Desires. The following day, Konoe holds a conference in which he reveals the truth about EMMA, along with being responsible for Shuzo and his father's deaths. The Thieves are delighted to see that Konoe's heart has changed, believing that the mastermind has finally been defeated, and that their names will be cleared. Zenkichi and Kaburagi head to Madicce's corporate quarters to bring in Konoe for questioning. Elsewhere, Owada tries to convince the Commissioner General to pin all the evidence on Konoe, but to his horror, finds that the Commissioner General has had a change of heart. To celebrate their victory, the Phantom Thieves make their way back to Yongen-Jaya, but under Sophia's proposal, take a midway stop at Yokohama to view the summer fireworks. However, when Sophia was about to plan a route to go back home, she suddenly sensed a Jail under Tokyo itself, with EMMA's central server in Tokyo Tower being the source. Zenkichi also phones the protagonist that EMMA has fired itself up again, and not even Madicce personnel can shut it down. The party and Zenkichi rush to the Tower, discovering a massive group of people standing under it, waiting for salvation and the ultimate answer to happiness. The EMMA application greets the party to the "Promised Land" and automatically drags them in with the Metaverse Navigator. Said promised land is actually the Jail of the Abyss, which takes the form of an area resembling the Depths of Mementos. The voices that only Sophia can hear also return. Once they reach the center of the Jail, they find EMMA, which has now evolved into a physical God known as the Ark of the Covenant. It briefly greets them and vanishes, followed by Ichinose appearing before them, exposing herself as the mastermind. Ichinose explains that she used the EMMA application as a front to help her research human desires and find the ultimate answer to happiness. She sold it to Konoe so EMMA could use him to spread itself to the public. The Change of Hearts were actually performed by overwriting all other desires with the one "true" desire, and it was a default ability on the application even before Shuzo and Konoe meddled with it. However, the Jails were not responsible for EMMA's current state; instead, daily counseling from the application by the public triggers the changes. The public's cognition had also considered EMMA a granter of wishes, so she was capable of firing herself back up on her own volition and preventing the servers from shutting down. The Phantom Thieves tell Ichinose that she's just brainwashing people, and Sophia denies the premise of her actions to be "salvation." She snaps, and announces her special role that she is sent here by EMMA to kill the Phantom Thieves. Ichinose uses the basis that Sophia is actually a failed EMMA prototype and demonstrates it by commanding her to attack the party. The Thieves are hesitant to hurt one of their own, instead attempting to find a way to pacify her. During the scuffle, the protagonist is hit by Sophia and begins bleeding. Noticing the blood dripping from her friend's face, Sophia hesitates and falls off the platform, apologizing for harming them. After the initial confrontation, the researcher drops off her pretenses and exposes herself as a misanthrope without a heart, before summoning a diamond to knock the party off the cliff and to the bottom of the Jail. The Thieves are able to recover Sophia, but decide to deal with Ichinose first and fight their way back up. When the party returns to Ichinose, they attempt to convince her that the human heart is undeniable, angering her. She summons a massive herd of Shadows to buy time for her to charge up the diamond again; despite Futaba's attempts to stop the sequence, Ichinose is able to power it once more, only for Sophia to return in time and block the attack. She attempts to convince Ichinose that EMMA is a misguided creation because it does not understand the human heart, and thus is unable to understand humanity. Ichinose reveals that she shut off her emotions for unknown reasons and refused to display any even if her parents died, and because of this, people around her saw her as being abnormal. In order to see if she was indeed abnormal for "lacking a heart," she created Sophia to understand the human heart, only for her to scrap Sophia because she asked a question that caused her to snap. This led to her working on EMMA instead, who wasn't able to understand the heart, but only desires. Unfortunately, due to lacking a heart, EMMA believes that humanity's true desire is for it to think for them, since it only collects the queries and not their contents. Ichinose continues to attempt to brainwash Sophia to no avail, instead causing Sophia to realize the true meaning of the human heart and fully awaken her Pithos into Pandora. The turn of events sends Ichinose into a fit of rage. She summons a Hecatoncheir and additional Shadows as a last-ditch deterrent, but her distraction over Sophia's newfound heart allows Futaba to disable the crystal and the Shadows fall soon after. Once defeated, Ichinose begs for her death, but is convinced by Sophia to ditch her heartless former self, and then breaks out her first tears. The party is glad to see how Sophia has grown and that she has changed her first heart, before escorting Ichinose out of the Jail. Once the party and Ichinose return to the surface world, more and more people flock to Tokyo Tower waiting for salvation. The city blacks out and a massive tree of light sprouts out from the tower, melding the Metaverse with the real world once again with an Eden-like structure, the Tree of Knowledge. The party scales the tree and reaches the Ark of the Covenant, only for it to outright refuse combat and ask them to hear the public's voices. The Ark traps them in an infinite path of fog, but the party is able to escape from it. Once the protagonist returns back to reality, a desire fog can be seen, which must be materialized by sending a calling card to it. However, EMMA knows exactly how a calling card works (and thus cannot be affected by it herself) and the Desires lack an owner. Ann deduces that the party should send the calling cards to the public instead. Returning to EMMA's servers, Futaba tries to hack the system, but finds herself outplayed by its security protocols until Ichinose arrives and begins helping her, eventually replacing EMMA's interface with a calling card notice, summoning the False God Demiurge from the Ark and defeating her after a grueling fight and a 10-man All-Out Attack. The Demiurge and the tree have vanished, the crowd near Tokyo Tower reverts to normal, and the destruction was undone as if it never happened. Zenkichi parts ways with the Thieves, thanking them for their assistance in the case and now full of resolve to put Owada behind bars for good. Returning to Leblanc for a celebratory meal, Sophia tells the group that she heard the Demiurge admitting that she and the Phantom Thieves' assessment of humanity was correct, hoping that they can continue the work in her stead. The next day, before the party splits ways, Ichinose requests to meet them in Shibuya's central square. To their initial disdain, she does not appear on time, but instead they witness the news announce Owada's arrest by the police for his crimes due to Konoe's testimony, along with suspicion that he was involved in the turmoil last year and ordered his secretary's death. Ichinose then arrives and greets the group, apologizing for her tardiness as she was held up in the police station longer than usual. Despite admitting her crimes to the police, they did not believe her testimony and let her go; with this, she decides to go on a journey of self-reflection. Sophia then asks the protagonist if she can accompany Ichinose on her journey, hoping to help her and others with what she learned from the Thieves. The protagonist gives her his approval, with everyone promising that they would reunite someday. As Ichinose and Sophia leave, the protagonist gets an email from Sophia and opens its contents, revealing a photo of the entire group, which she has labeled "Treasure."|-|Last Bible= The Last Bible series is set in a fantasy world patterned after the ancient Middle East. In this world, humans have learned to call upon the energy of the world, called Gaia. The hero, El, has studied Gaia, but on the day of his graduation, strange creatures begin to appear. Together with his companions, he sets out to defeat the Gaia Masters that are bringing monsters to their world. |-|Last Bible II= Ages ago, people lived on what was then known as the Fifth Planet. They were able to use telepathy, teleportation, and telekinesis powers that were once reserved for gods alone. They called the powers Gaia, and adept users were known as Gaia Masters. Despite wielding these powers, the fall of the Fifth Planet forced them to flee to Terra, the Third Planet, to dwell with the beasts. War soon erupted between the humans and beasts. Both sides fought desperately for control over Terra. In the end, there was no victor. The battles ended up leaving the humans and the beasts decimated. The survivors did not have the strength to keep fighting. They no longer fought for control of the planet. They merely struggled to stay alive. 2000 years later... |-|Last Bible III= The game takes place many years after Last Bible II. People are living in relative harmony with the beasts. In the intro, a war hero named Alek Messena reaches the gates of the underworld. Before he collapses, he says that he hopes that his old friend (Glen Larsford) will survive. The player begins the game as Glen's son Ciel. Ciel lives a rather peaceful life, playing with his friends and brother and going to school to learn how to make use of his potent gaia (a supernatural form of energy). Occassionally, people mention a devastating war, known as the Polisian War, that came to an end about fifteen years ago. Ciel discovers that the formerly warring (and now united) Polisian States are working to spread their gaia prohibition law and end the threat of war once and for all. Some of Ciel's classmates live in the Polisian States, which make use of Phelesteau, a perpetual engine that provides free energy for everyone in the city, under one condition: that they never release their gaia within the city limits (or be thrown in prison). After his village is attacked by soldiers who came to kill his father, Ciel is forced to uncover the mystery of what happened between Glen and Alek's old team, the Phelesteau engine and the Polisian States. |-|Another Bible= Taking place in the world of Granas, there was once a great war between humans and demons. After a long conflict peace was restored between humans and demons. Eventually a demon cult appears and call out to the demons to free themselves of the humans, and so the demons began to oppose the humans. The protagonist, Cassiel, lost his parents and decides to abandon his hometown to travel. After rescuing the heroine, Pythia, their journey becomes one geared towards saving the world. |-|Last Bible Special= The Demon King, Graias, has captured the holy city of Jerusalem. The hero, Mattel, has been given the ability to control demons by the pope of Constance. Now he must gather together a party to challenge four dungeons to save the world. First comes Ignis temple a former temple whose treasure, the sword of flames, is now in the hands of monster called Vitriol. Second is Athanor Tunnel, a former royal crypt haunted by a reaper named Nigredo who attacks anyone who dares to trespass on the burial site. Third comes Hoenheim Lab haunted by the crazed ghost of the great sage Hoenheim. Hoenheim attempts to use his magic and demons to stop the party from progressing. Upon defeat he reveals that he was beaten and robbed of the knowledge to create demons twice before. The second time was Graias but the first was by the former bronze guard commander of Constance who is now the pope: Paragon. Hoenheim passes on while claiming that the power to control demons is being abused for selfish ends by both sides. Finally the party arrives at Jerusalem and battles to the top of the Dungeon to confront Graias. However, rather than attack them, Graias attempts to reason with Mattel. He claims to be a servant of the Goddess of this world, and that his actions are due to trying to stop the plans of Paragon. The goddess intended for this to be a world where humans and demons live together in peace, but Paragon intends to destroy all demons and make the world a realm for only humans. What happens next depends on the players choice. If Mattel refuses to listen or agree with Graias views, they fight and Graias falls in battle. Dying Graias proclaims to Mattel that he was misled by Paragon whose goal of human supremacy will now be realized. However he also claims that he will eventually be reborn and return the world to the state the Goddess wished for. If Mattel is convinced by Graias, he changes sides and returns to Constance whose temple has transformed into a small warp filled dungeon. At the center Mattel confronts Paragon, who denounces him as selling his soul to the devil and attacks him but is defeated. Dying Paragon bemoans that his plans of creating a paradise for humans with himself as the true king are ruined. Either way the game ends with Mattel standing triumphant in the light. }} |
Multiverse
The Megami Tensei Multiverse collectively refers to the multiple worlds and universes included in the Megami Tensei series. Nearly all Megami Tensei games heavily feature connections to other worlds and universes which suggests that the games may not occur in the same "universe" but that they still take place in the same over-arching multiverse. However such games as Persona 3, Persona 4, & Persona 5 are in a separate multiverse, along with Last Bible being in it's own separate multiverse, apart of the overall collective Megami Tensei franchise but not in Shin Megami Tensei's multiverse.
A basic rundown of the multiverses' size at the moment shows us there are infinite universes, then the Expanse, a place that transcends the past, present, and future of the multiverse, then we have Akarana Corridor a void that transcends time and space, with it requiring a special ritual to enter, where even the Herald of Yatagarasu cannot put Radiou into this place[1], putting it beyond even The Expanse. Then there is YHVH's Universe, a place that is more vague and more infinite then anything prior. Finally, there is The Axiom's realm, so far beyond everything that it even transcends the infinite Cycle of Transmigration[2], where one can catch a mere glimpse of The Axiom[3].
Terms
- Observation: Observation is a concept in the main Megami Tensei multiverse, it was a power given to humans by The Axiom. Characters from the Persona 3-5 multiverse, have a similar ability known as Cognition. As described by Stephen, "observation" (sometimes described as "understanding") is the ability humans possess to give structure to the formless. In this instance, "observation" has nothing to do with sight, but rather human perception. It is an extension of the philosophical concept of "qualia," or individual, subjective experiences. For example, the sensation of seeing color is not easily communicated, yet something humanity possess a shared understanding of. Likewise, YHVH only exists because of this shared observation.
- Cognition: Cognition refers to the concept of humans perceiving the world and viewing what they see as reality. When enough humans collectively perceive something that concept becomes "real," influencing both the world and themselves. This concept is strongly hinted to be related to previous situations seen in Persona games. It also refers to when a person is interpreted by other people or society, given form based on those perceptions. The apparent appearance may be identical, but the personality or the physical capabilities can be vastly different than the original. A cognition is not to be confused with a Shadow Self, though one's Shadow Self can also take on properties based on other people's interpretation of the person, and some cognitions such as Sphinx Wakaba and Doe take traits similar to their host's Shadow Selves. Furthermore, some cognitions can also be fused with Shadow Selves or are sometimes even Shadows themselves, such as the nobles in Shido's Palace or the carnivorous dinosaurs in Junessic Land.
- Gods: Gods, also known as Deity, is a classification of races in the Megami Tensei series. It encompasses all races that are associated with other gods and deities, exclusively the most important. Megami Tensei is a composite pantheon due to all Gods being created from the observation of humanity thus every religion exists inShin Megami Tensei.
- Demons: In the Megami Tensei franchise, "demon" refers to any supernatural entity that can bring harm to human beings or interfere with their lives in one way or another. This includes more conventional malevolent demons, folktale creatures, deities, urban legends, and Judeo-Christian angels. Although classified as demons, angels tend to differentiate themselves from demons, and likewise the demons view them as separate. Angels also includes demons that have submitted to God and have become His servants.
- Shadows: Shadows are the monsters in the Persona series and share most of the enemy demons common in the Megami Tensei franchise. They are born from humans, and carry with them human emotions, which are mostly negative. Strong-willed Shadows attract lesser Shadows, which later create stronger Shadows.
- Humans: Humans is a species in the Megami Tensei series. Out of all species they are the weakest, but the ones with the greatest potential to grow, and have the most powerful ability of observation in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. In the Persona franchise they have the power of Cognition.
Power of the Verse
Megami Tensei as a series, including its own spin-offs, is widely regarded by their potency and versatility of their abilities with it having plethora of thanks to the power of Observation and the existences of mythological, demonic entities. To start off, fodder demons such as Jack Frost are 8-C via having access to Bufu skills, which can completely freeze people, and other demons having access to Agi skills, which can vaporize people. Jack Frost specifically having the power to generate snow storms, making it 6-C via Environmental Destruction. In his stronger form, King Frost, he has the ability to freeze the entire earth, which is High 6-A. Lastly, Black Frost is considered to be a much bigger threat than Loki, who is 2-C via being able to sustain his own universe[4]. There does exist a Jack Frost who is Low 1-C+ via contending with the end game cast of DDS, who defeated Demi-fiend, along with defeating Beelzebub at the end of Jack Bros. Most protagonists (minus Persona) in their end game state are Low 1-C+ via either wielding Masakados equipment or defeating YHVH or entities affiliated with him. YHVH is a being who created infinite universes that are infinitesimal in size compared to him, and exists as an incomprehensible transcendent being overseeing everything in his creation. a few characters reach 1-C to 1-C+ level via fighting Stephen, who possessed The Axiom's powers, and Matter Lucifer who transcended into a higher plane of existence beyond even YHVH. They are no slouch in speed either, with essentially every enemy being Extra-Temporal through being a natural resident of the Expanse, a place that transcends the past, present, and future of the multiverse, with protagonists usually scaling or using their important hax to keep up with them. Specifically this hax is Observation and it is the core catalyst to humans abilities in Shin Megami Tensei, it is what grants humans the ability to fight demons and even gods, allowing them to negate their physiologies, regeneration, immortalities, and even kill them, which even demons such as Lucifer notes only humans can truly kill a demon. It also allows humans normally of a far lower tier to be capable of fighting 2-C to Low 1-C+ threats such as the protagonists of Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei: IF.
Persona (minus 1 and 2), despite not fully scaling to the stats and abilities from SMT, are still considerably powerful in their own right as they are able to weaponize their own psyche; already granting abilities such as Mind Manipulation and Abstract Existence. Like SMT, they also wield Agi and Bufu skills, which would make their early-mid game selves 8-C. By end game, almost every Persona character reaches 2-C via scaling to Takuto Maruki, who was using Yaldaboath's powers to to rewrite all of reality.
Knowledgeable Members
- GiverOfThePeace (Mainly the Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha series)
- Geo GeoZ (Working on SMT II)
- TheQuirkyBoy (Mainly Persona series, Shin Megami Tensei I & III: Nocturne)
- VileShadows (Mainly Shin Megami Tensei I & II)
- DatOneWeeb (Mainly Persona 5)
Characters
Supreme Being
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The Axiom
Recurring Demons
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Jack Frost
Concepts/Physiologies
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Demons
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Observation
Devil Summoner Series
Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
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Raidou Kuzunoha
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Goutou-Douji
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Herald of Yatagarasu
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Grigori Rasputin
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Raidou Kuzunoha XL
Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
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Raidou Kuzunoha
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Goutou-Douji
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Dahn
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Akane Narita
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Geirin Kuzunoha the XVII
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Nagi
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Lone Marebito
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Raidou Kuzunoha
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Herald of Yatagarasu
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Abe Seimei
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Ayame
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Kushinada
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Ouhan Kurabashi
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Clarion
Soul Hackers
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
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Keiji Minegishi
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Hitomi Tono
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Nemissa
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Zeed
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Carol J
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Mayōne
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Finnegan
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Nishi
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Kadokura
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Raidou Kuzunoha
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 2
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Ringo
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Figue
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Arrow
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Milady
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Saizo
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Zenon
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Iron Mask
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
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Kyouji Kuzunoha
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Rei Reiho
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Sid Davis
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Takashi
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Tenzan Tendou
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Seichii Yamashiro
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Atsushi Nakagome
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei I
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The Hero
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Heroine
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Chaos Hero
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Law Hero
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Pascal
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Stephen
Shin Megami Tensei II
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Aleph
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Hiroko
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Beth
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Zayin
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Daleth
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Gimmel
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Stephen
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
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Demi-Fiend
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Chiaki Tachibana
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Isamu Nitta
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Hikawa
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Yuko Takao
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Jyoji Hijiri
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Futomimi
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Sakahagi
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Raidou Kuzunoha
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Dante
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Kagutsuchi
Shin Megami Tensei IV
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Flynn
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Isabeau
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Jonathan
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Walter
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Navarre
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Hope
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Issachar
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Stephen
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse
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Nanashi
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Dagda
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Asahi
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Navarre
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Isabeau
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Nozomi
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Gaston
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Hallelujah
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Toki
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Stephen
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Shin Megami Tensei V
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Nahobino
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Aogami
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Tao Isonokami
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Yuzuru Atsuta
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Ichiro Dazai
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Miyazu Atsuta
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Hayao Koshimizu
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Sahori Itsukishima
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Amanozako
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Sophia
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Shohei Yakumo
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Nuwa
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Abdiel
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Lahmu
Shin Megami Tensei IF
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Nobu Akiyama
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Reiko Akanezawa
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Yumi Shirakawa
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Shinji "Charlie" Kuroi
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Ideo Hazama
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Akira Miyamoto
Shin Megami Tensei NINE
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Kei Azuma
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Stephen
Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey
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Tadano Hitonari
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Commander Gore
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Jimenez
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Zelenin
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Arthur
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Alex
Persona
Persona
Persona 2
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Persona 3
Persona 4
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Tohru Adachi
Persona 5
Gallery
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Devil Summoner Series
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Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
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Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
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Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Lone Marebito
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Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
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Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 2
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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Digital Collection
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Shin Megami Tensei I
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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoners
References
- ↑ The Herald of Yatagarsu is capable of teleporting Raidou into The Expanse, a place that transcends the past, present, and future of the multiverse but cannot even reach this realm, along with this she exists a plane not apart of the human world, further showing how out of reach this plane is, it requires one normally to discard their human form and transcribe themself otherwise they are threatened with being unstuck from time
- ↑ Yamai: When you reach the battle with VISHNUFLYNN, there is a reference point of the soul, where it either enters or departs from the circle of transmigration. Nanashi is in the middle of that circle, he is a human just like us. That is the reference. Beings like Stephen, Mido, or the Count of Saint Germain left the circle of transmigration, and I think that is why they could get in contact with the Great Reason.
Shioda: In Buddhism, leaving the circle of transmigration equals reaching Nirvana and becoming a buddha.
Yamai: That’s right. This time, in order for the Divine Powers to succeed, various currents of thought from all kinds of countries and religions come into play. The Buddhist view on reincarnation is one of them and our setting is not biased towards it, but the soul itself is something important for the gods. Shin Megami Tensei IV adopts a quantum theory approach according to which gods exist thanks to human perception, and religious beliefs are one part of that. - ↑ Shioda: Professor Matsuda didn’t even have a character design in the preliminary stages.
Miyata: It’s shocking that so few people realised professor Matsuda was actually Stephen.
Shioda: That was shocking indeed, and they even had the same voice actor (laughs). What kind of device is the Shesha radar in Hibiya?
Miyata: I saw news the other day about the success of the detection of gravitational waves and this radar works on the same principle. There is a huge empty lot underneath Hibiya named ‘multi-purpose underground utility conduit’ and it is presumed that that is where Stephen built his detector.
Yamai: Because the device related to the elementary particles is extremely big.
Miyata: He also needed a secure place, and the underground was much safer than the streets dominated by demons. It is explained in the beginning of SMT4A that the multi-purpose underground utility conduit has been abandoned because of the battle of gods and the underground empty space remained as it is. I figured it was just right, since the new headquarters of the Hunter Association in Kasumigaseki is close enough, but I didn’t think gravitational waves would be discovered so fast when I was writing the setting.
Yamai: Stephen travels through various parallel worlds, so I believe it is possible for him to discover gravitational waves, since he makes contact with all kinds of technological developments.
Miyata: Gravitational waves appear anywhere in the universe when stars reach the end of their lives and explode, but every time Shesha warped to a different universe and a different dimension, there were weak gravitational waves released possible to detect.
Shioda: Since Stephen is also the creator of the terminals and the Demon Summoning Program, related to the Yamato Perpetual Reactor, it’s easy to say he is the biggest mystery of the Megaten series.
Yamai: What is clear is that Stephen is the same person across the series. Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei II are related, while Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and Shin Megami Tensei IV are each in their own universes, but we can argue that he is the only one to cross space and time and visit each universe. I think the beginning was the universe created in Shin Megami Tensei, but we have no intention to give a clear answer on such a personal matter. As for the details of his arrival in the Shin Megami Tensei IV world, when he was researching the Demon Summoning Program and the Matter Transfer System he got connected by coincidence to the Expanse, demons showed up and hurt him badly, which led to him being now dependent on a wheelchair.
Shioda: This time he talks about the aim of the Great Reason in the end. Do you think he has met the Great Reason?
*From Dijeh (Basically just a translators note): The term used here is NOT the Great Will. The Japanese for Great Will [of the Universe] is either “宇宙の大いなる意志” or just “大いなる意志” in previous games in the series, while in SMT4F and this interview, the term is 大いなる理; the kanji used are easily distinguishable: 意志 vs. 理. For more about the distinction, see Will and Li.
Yamai: From the perspective of Shin Megami Tensei, the Stephen of Shin Megami Tensei IV is one of the possibilities, but we can say it was possible for him to have met the Great Reason. Of course, from the perspective of Shin Megami Tensei IV’s Stephen, I think we can say Shin Megami Tensei is also a possibility.
Miyata: Stephen’s position allows him to catch a glimpse of a small part of the Great Reason’s movement. When he passed through time and space and made contact with the Great Reason, he interpreted things in his own way. - ↑ Digital Devil Story 2: Warrior of the Demon City Part 2, Chapter 4 "The last demon to appear called himself Set, correct?" "Yes, that's right." "While it's too dangerous to try and conjecture the state of affairs in the demon world based on our own knowledge of this one, my theory is that the demon world is like a colloidal conglomeration of countless mini-universes, each centered around a powerful demon. Most likely, with Loki's death, the mini-universe in contact with Japan or Tokyo vanished, and Set's mini-universe entered to take its place. Demon summoning is just opening a contact point between the two worlds at the same time."
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