(The following is based on a save file of 12 hours and 57 minutes, up to June, the Ninth, 2009, in game date. Language option unchanged from previous chapter, of course.)

Jitte was standard issue for police officers (If we can call them that) in seventeenth century Japan. The metal baton can be seen in Stan Sakai’s graphic novel Usagi Yojimbo, usually used to disarm some sword wielding assailants. In those books, Usagi’s cop friend Ishida also wields it like a badge whenever he is denied the answer he seeks. So if Sakai would ever do the “cop turning their gun and badge in” plot point (Which might be likely with the cop being a Hidden Christian.), all Ishida has to do is drop that baton.

Why was I thinking about cops of late feudal Japan? Well, Evokers sure make S.E.E.S members in Persona 3 look like cops in this late capitalism era that might outlast us all. Your truly once had the wrong impression that Persona 3’s player character is a highschooler who got recruited into a special police unit by actual cops. I mean Mitsuru is jackbooted while Akihiko wears a detective style vest. Combined with Junpei’s chin beard, they all seem like adult ass adults. But S.E.E.S by June is still composed of highschoolers entirely, they just wear Evokers like badges, around their waists on a belt, except Yukari. While plain clothes female police detectives in fiction can be seen wearing miniskirts as their usual workplace outfits, yours truly certainly never saw one wrapping her badge or service weapon on her thigh (Unless it’s covert packing for undercover job where skirts are usually longer and the weapon would be on the inner side not outer). Anyway, this is a story about those cops and their first 2 night shifts.

Found a pattern

Hard road blocks in Tartarus is not the suitable place to pause while the nights of full moon in this game might be. Lunar calendar month has 30 days that can be neatly separated into the beginning, middle and end, with 10 days each other. Full moon appears at the ends of beginnings in April, May and June. The April one serves as tutorial for the game’s turn and command based combat while May and June are time for work and serve as chapter cappers so far.

Those first full moon nights do feel like safe harbors under attack. April sees Shadow coming to the dorm player character stays in. May takes place on monorail, the way to get around. June is about saving a student from getting trapped in Tartarus at school.

So far Tartarus offers 2 kinds of decoration: the school but larger-than-life and the Giger Land. And yes, the rescue mission in June takes place in Giger Land. Both full moon night sortie so far feel like capital A Assignment for the parties are locked. Fair enough for the Mayday since there is problem of being understaffed. But June forces one to take a sausage party of 3 with excuse of Junpei wants a chance and Akihiko wants a piece of the action. Gender is not my problem there, elemental variety is. Yukari’s suite of Projectile, Wind and more healing option is much more preferable to Junpei’s combination of Cut and Fire, which is identical to player character with Orpheus active.

Turns out I do not hate real time countdown as much as I thought. I found the only one in Persona 5 frustrating not because of the clock but how the corporate fat cat in chair rolls: if those robots are not taken out within 2 turns, they will be replaced by fresh enemies player needs to damage all over again. Persona 3 Reload’s May set-piece has a 30 minutes countdown for the boss Prestress, fail state being a clash between 2 carts. A third of her hit points down the countdown would shorten to 13 and 4 minutes respectively. This does provide nail biting thrill and I find it dreadful to imagine how no direct commanding party members in the PS2 original goes.

The Good, the Bad and the Queen

Almost 13 hours in, while the plot has yet to get going, the character arches seem to take shapes. Well, except the regular Joe player character and Yukari the plain Joe. Though the game does acknowledge the fact Atlus drew the player character pretty on one occasion. During a Community (“Social Link” in the English version I believe.) event with the old couple at the second hand book store, the old man would call his wife “men-ku-i”, usually women who like men with good looks, and the player character showing his fresh face does light up her day. A whole happy wife happy life routine. I am going to be off topic here, the old man called his wife “wa-i-fu” in Hira kana during the scene they were formally introduced. This is in line with how “waifu” is used in Japanese media, not what weebs calling anime ladies, but how older men introducing their actual spouses usually to someone young enough to be their child if not grandchild. “Yo-me” meaning “bride” was how otakus called their objects of affection at least the last time I checked back in 2009. No, I don’t know the counterpart to “husbando”, I just think English speakers should drop it along with “waifu”.

Back on topic, 3 party members still manage to feel developed in the relatively short time I spent with them. The 2 boys here because I chose to engage their bonding events marked with double exclamation marks. As for Mitsuru, well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Though I got to say Persona 3 did a much better job laying the ground for party members before they join. Persona 5 might have Makoto and Haru in the background, but other than making one think “why do those 2 have character portraits while others do not”, not much story before they join. While in Persona 3, seeing that Anakin Skywalker looking dude head-butting someone is all I need. Could just be Atlus doing girls in their fiction dirty.

The Good is the latest to the party, Akihiro. The bonding event starts as player character and him go to grab a bit, leading into weird situation of him almost getting a fight because he wants to sit up to bullies. Atlus knew what they were doing when they cast Midorikawa almost 2 decades ago and the actor still does not miss a bit in the remake. Stoic is cool in this case.

The Bad is of course Junpei. The bonding event with him is more or less a dick measuring contest in the arcade. Again, I found it dreadful to imagine how a female player character fit in here, I can find out when I become deranged enough to pick up Portable again. This boy seems to be the one winking at the audiences, since he did throw out the possibility of their exploit being made into a video game. When Akihiro joined, he went “Now a four people RPG party can be formed”. “Just like in the movies” was said by him after the stopping monorail in time situation of full moon night in May, but I guess people of his great grandparents’ age would link exciting swashbuckling adventures to cinema.

And Mitsuru is a motherfucking queen. Makoto in Perona 5 might have the codename Queen, but that lousy undercover cop was just having a bum fight with the lousier Phantom Thieves while the spring chicken Michell Yeoh looking lady in Persona 3 runs a tight ship. Everyone sits down and study before tests under her eyes after all. During the cut scene before full moon night in June, she roasting a student and a teacher in equal measure to get information is impressive that only rich confident girls in fiction like this can be. I do look forward seeing her in the field now someone more suitable is going to sit in the support role chair.

At summer’s doorstep

New uniforms mean new season, as the virtual heat turning up in the game. I do hope when I sit down and write the next chapter of my impression, plot will heat up as well. As the weather is still freezing my ass off here the city housing miHoYo global headquarters., summer time in a game sounds like the best escape one can have.

(To be continued)