Elf: Fair enough. I suppose you have a strong enough point - which I agree with - that the narrative's desire to play up the softer side of Berkut risks blurring the fact that he does Really Evil Shit. Sigh.
Persona 5
I'm at Palace 4.
* Palace 2.... OK was right, grinding a single level did the trick. Getting MT damage moves on Ryuji & Fox did absolute wonders. That and realizing Ann is *trash garbage* in that fight and should ride the bench. You just aren't sustaining your way through, but blitzing is viable. MagicFanatic mentioned that he won at L16, but it involved a demon negotiation rare item drop I didn't have that was Masukukaja in a can + get some clutch dodges off. Makes sense. Anyway, once you survive the first phase, it's mostly all downhill for that boss, although I suppose Joker could potentially require emergency coffee (I didn't).
* Palace 3... okay, the RANDOMS are badass as usual (I died a good number of times... surprise Angels blow you up with an Almighty Self Destruct OHKO if you let them get a turn... Orthus doggies are terrible death if you don't ambush them and have Fox in front... Onis can just Rampage hax with critz to take out Joker if you don't have phys nulling up against them... getting unlucky vs. mass-Rage is terrible... the super-high level dudes weak to Psychic are extremely badass if they get going or get a crit...), but the Palace boss was an absolute breather compared to the first 2 palaces. OK's topic claims that his Fear is 80%, but it didn't land in like 5-6 attempts, so either I was outrageously lucky or that hit rate is way worse. On the bright side for the boss, March of the Piggy is probably NOT physical, or else I made a terrible error... his first one I'm pretty sure I had the great phys-nulling Shiki-Ouji up and it still did normal damage (aka good thing he was debuffed AND everyone was guarding). Of course you'll never see any other Marches after the first if things aren't going completely to hell.
* Plot-wise, I was a little disappointed with the Palace 3 showdown too? I can tell they want to set up the Next Plot, but at the cost of the power of the entire idea behind the game. The Palace 1 boss was a knock-down, drag-out struggle that started in cutscenes before, during, and after the fight, complete with party members wondering if they should just kill Shadow Kamoshida and drive him crazy & call it a day, and having to slowly *convince* Shadow K to reform (on pain of getting killed, sure, but still). Palace 2 boss also had a highly personal confrontation that was a Big Deal. Palace 3... they just kinda vaguely talk about the mysterious intruder, steal the treasure, then call it a day? I want bitter, painful reformations and guarantees on threat of aikodoy doom here.
* Much like the rest of the Internet agrees, Makoto is awesome. Some great work there. I very much like how everyone can be abrupt and/or horrible with her as a convenient authority figure that isn't actually very powerful and thus take out frustrations on, which drives her a tad batty. That said, pretty weak Confidant Social Link so far? Just leave it at Makoto chillin' with Joker, which may or may not involve branching out. I also agree with Jo'ou that the stat wall is a little weird. It'd be *fine* if the Charm requirement was linked to Makoto herself not going to bother with any but the best (you are aiming high here, and don't have as much as an "in" as you might with Ann), similar to the Knowledge requirement, but linked to... some random idiot who you've never met and don't care about on some idiotic fake double date and isn't impressed by your picture or something? Wat. (Making the Charm be related to Makoto herself sells it as more "the steepest mountains are the most rewarding to climb" or the like.) That said, Jo'ou mentioned it being a solid take on the High Priestess arcana - how so? I'm curious. (I'm pretty sure that Pope Joan did not actually exist, and if she did exist, she was not a motorcycle.)
* The depiction of Tokyo is pretty good so far too (although I suppose Djinn would be able to say more). Related to the above, though, the bit in Makoto's Arcade trip where she was pleasantly surprised at the number of females there seems a little too true - maybe I hit the wrong arcades, but most of them seemed to be all guys, unlike the one in-game. And the Pachinko sections were all creepy middle-aged guys gambling to machines themed around anime middle schoolers while smoking. That said, their depiction of late-night Shinjuku seems entirely accurate, at least the part north of the station. That might be the only place in the world I've been propositioned for prostitution quite so openly.
* I also really like how the game's writing is smart in all sorts of ways to account for how the characters themselves would perceive events, including misconceptions. The 6th PC is worried that all your Crazy Hijinx recorded on your phone will be tracked. (It won't, because it's a mystic not-really-an-app, but this is ENTIRELY LEGIT a fear. I hope they're using Igor's app for their text message conversations, too!) The Principal of Shujin is baffled and annoyed at why something as idiotic and false as the Phantom THieves is getting pressure from up high to make him do something (very much a shit rolls downhill event, as mastermind -> ICU Director -> Principal -> Makoto in terms of who gets to make whose life miserable.) Our Hero sassing Sae for missing out on some details in her home life.
* Palace 4: Well this is a change of pace. Anyway, the randoms suuuuuuuuuuuucked here and I was worried the game was gonna roll over, and then I ran into the Tomb God miniboss. Rats & Megidos of doom that probably OHKO your team if he isn't debuffed, and do like 500 damage to rat'd PCs. And if it is debuffed, then you better hope you were healed up! This will be interesting. (I have a plan, though. Recruit random mask, Gallows the recently fused Principality, get the Media upgrade whatever it's called, Mediaran I think? We'll see. That and run Fox for this fight, ice-weak summons & all.)
