Persona 5 - Madarame
Having the end game weapons does make it easier to run through the palace in one go. There wasn’t much to do in this palace except to get to the end. The only reason I did not complete in a single day was due to mandatory break where the team has to go back to the real world. Since this is the subconscious of the villain, the events of the real world change the structure of the palace. This will come into play a few more times later on, but not as much as I wanted. This is such a cool concept. Doing something in the real world changes how the villain perceives himself and the world around him. And that change is manifested in the palace by making it easier to traverse. I wish there were optional events the player could use to trigger these changes. As it stands, all the time it happens is mandatory.
When confronted, Madarame talks of a mysterious black clad figure. He thinks the mysterious figure is also part of the Phantom Thieves. The Thieves were baffled by this. They have no idea who this is. This is the earliest Akechi’s presence in the metaverse is mentioned. He has been active in the metaverse for a while at this point. He is probably keeping an eye on all the people who are criminally attached to Oshida. Both Akech and Oshida will become known much later during the story of the game, even though both have already appeared or mentioned by this time.
Sayuri is the last famous piece of art Madarame has produced. It will later turn out even this was not his creation. This is a portrait of a woman looking lovingly to one side. Whatever she is looking at is not in the frame. The portrait is famous for the mystery of what has elicited such a strong look of love from the woman. Some say she is a mother looking at her child, while others contend she is looking at her lover. There is only a black cloud where the object of her affection should be. This piece has also been famously stolen. During part of the game, Ann has to open a door within Madarame’s house. This is the instance of causing a change in the real world to trigger a change in the event. When the door is opened we see there are multiple copies of Sayuri sitting inside. Madarame has been running a scam with this piece. The picture was never stolen. He has made multiple copies of it. He tells art collectors that the piece has been recovered but he can not come out and say that because he would owe money to the insurance. So he wants to sell it because he is in a bad shape financially. The collector buys the copy from him but does not tell anyone due to the respect Madarame commands. He has been doing, among other things, to fund his lifestyle.
Portion of the money he gets from this scam goes to Oshida (I will explain who he is when the time comes, I promise). This is probably why Oshida is using Akechi to spy on Madarame within his palace. But Akechi apparently is not as good at keeping himself hidden and Madarame has noticed him lurking around here. This is the first palace where the Thieves have come into direct collision with the machinations Oshida has put in place. Kamoshida was not important enough to garner any attention from the higher powers at play here. He was a school teacher who turned out to be a rapist.
During this play through, the life simulator parts of the game hold more appeal to me. I have already seen the dungeons, and have collected most of the personas I can. I am trying to get through the palace in the least amount of days possible. This way I have most of the time left over to upgrade my social links. Having maxed out the social skills in the last playthrough has helped quite a bit. It means I don’t have to worry about spending time reading books or bathing and stuff. Also all the social links aspects are open to me right from the start. There are still time gates for some of the friendships. Some friends just don’t become available until a certain date. There are others which can not proceed until certain story events take place. Even with those there is so much to do. I don’t think there is enough time to do everything even in two playthroughs.
My playtime is significantly less this time around though. On my initial run, I beat the museum in about 20 hours. This time I got done in about 10 hours. At least some of it is from skipping all the cutscenes. Another chunk of time is saved because I have better understanding of each palace. I don’t waste time figuring out where to go this time around.
During the boss fight, Madarame turns into paintings. Each one has different weaknesses and strengths. A party attack of any kind will inevitably heal at least one of the paintings. His manifestation is not as grotesque as the previous boss, but it is definitely more challenging. This battle foreshadows the final boss battle. The mechanics are pretty much the same albeit this battle being the simpler version. Madarame is beaten, Yusuke has joined the team and now we wait for the teacher to have a change of heart.
04-29-2020
