Persona 5 : Second playthrough

 Persona 5

"The Second Strike"

In this opportunity, i would like to post what happened during and after the second playthrough of my Persona 5 has finished. Be warned that there might be several spoilers abound in this post though, as several screen-shoots i take happens to coincide with several game-changing events that i went through. Also, i would like to post another opinion and several guides to get several elusive trophies that was really hard to get.

Again, i would like to stress how great the game is. Just visit my original review of the game here to see my full review of the game, spoiler-free of course.
 

First up is the Persona that i take all the way from the first dungeon (Kamoshida's palace) up to the final boss fight. I actually resolved to use a beefed-up Arsene from the second boss-fight (Since my Arsene, at that time, was level 20 and Kamoshida is only level 15, it would be cheating) and from then on, Arsene grew to be a very powerful persona for me. His agility was so high that i get to move first, faster than Yusuke. Sadly though, i didn't get to use him during the extra boss battle against Caroline and Justine, as well as the Reaper.

This is the final stats of my Arsene before the final boss battle.

That's right, i managed to defeat that high-defense Reaper and Caroline & Justine in a fair combat. It was a very tough fight, but i managed to beat them both. However, Arsene was not the one to take all that glory. Yoshitsune was the one who was responsible for defeating Caroline & Justine. His Hassou Tobi damage is overpowered against the twin warden, though it took me two tries to finally defeat them. Yes, i even get their all-out attack. Be careful though, as the twin warden knows the weakness of your party and even uses Baton pass (To a very bad-ass scene) and when they think you are holding out long enough, they knock you down with a persona (For me, it was Ardha) and then dish out the final all-out attack to finish me off during my first try. (Pity i wasn't able to screen-shoot it. Here is a screen-shoot i take from the Megami Tensei Wikia. I was too focused on battling them and forgot to capture any screen-shoots.).

Credits to Youtube video for this picture.

And for this one, it's from Megami Tensei wikia. Look at their expression though...

You're da man though, Yoshitsune.

As for the Reaper, it was Satanel's glory moment. That's right, i managed to fuse Satanael, but we'll get to that later. Since the Reaper has the Firm Stance ability, which halven all damage it took at the cost of unable to dodge, almost all damage comes in the form of only two-digit number. However, Satanael's Megidolaon, combined with Arsene's Debilitate, as well as Concentrate, was able to dish out 200-300 damage every 3 turn. That was very tough, and the combined use of several items also played a huge part there. Megido Bomb, Magatamas, Crackers,etc, deals flat amount of damage to the Reaper. Switching out Haru for Makoto also pays off, as her Marakukaja saved the life of my party member, with Morgana on Mediarahan duty and Yusuke on dishing out item damage, as well as Masukukaja. Though i managed to get that Firm Stance item from him after i defeated him, and that experience is so wow. I heard that he was able to be despaired during Pollen Warning season, but i wasn't able to do so.

This was from the first attempt at defeating him...

And it ended in a disastrous, 6-Soma wasting moment where i eventually load back from my previous attempt.

And this is the succesfull one. As you can see, i replaced Haru with Makoto for her Marakukaja.

Next up is Satanel himself. I played the entire second playthrough with the mindset of fusing Satanel himself, the ultimate persona of Persona 5. Of course, finding the money to fund the fusion itself was pretty tedious, and requires me to grind at least 100.000 yen every 20 minutes or so in Shido's palace. Thankfully, the Sun, Star, and Fortune Confidant helped me in this campaign. Their confidant abilities was very helpful. No thanks to Ryuji though, as his Insta-kill confidant ability pretty much makes it harder to grind the money. By the time i finished with fusing Satanael, i was left with only 10 more persona to create. And finally, by the time i reached the last dungeon, before confronting the final boss, i was able to reach that 100% Persona compendium milestone. A true achievement for me. Let me remind you, creating it was easy, gaining the fund was the challenge.

I can say my Satanael is pretty strong here, with that Ali Dance.

This is the moment i get that trophy there.

Next up is the confidant. I was able to max-out ALL of the confidants in my second playthrough. And of course, you can do it in the first playthrough, but it would require and extensive scheduling and that will drain me of my enjoyment, so i just choose to do it in my second playthrough. With that in mind, my mindset was set on maxing-out the social stats first (Knowledge, Guts, Kindness, Charm, Proficiency) before going for maxing out all the confidant levels. Be careful when maxing out Yoshida, the Sun arcana confidant, as he is unable to be maximized after the elections had begun. Thankfully, he was easy to rank up and available during almost every sunday night.

Pardon for the spoiler, but the trophy came out during this scene.

And who do i romance this time? Of course, it was none other than Futaba Sakura. Maxing out Yusuke's confidant list finally allowed me to realize how learning Ann's true personality actually makes her no longer beautiful (This is true, hillariously true for me.) and i choose to stick with Futaba, whom i thought very relatable to me. To be honest though, i wanted to max out Shiho, Ann's friend, but she just had to go after that Kamoshida incident. When i first saw her, i have this sense of sympathy towards her and was moved by Ann's level 8 Confidant rank scene. If she was a party member, or a confidant member, Shiho will surely be my first choice.

The Sojiro-protagonist event that mirrored 22 Jump Street was fake though... My heart was broken.

For my second party member, i went with Morgana (Obviously), Yusuke Kitagawa, and Haru Okumura. Again, Mercurius is so bad that i just wanted to have Zorro during my final boss battle. Zorro is more bad-ass than Mercurius in my opinion. Haru was much better than Ann thanks to her Heat Riser ability and Yusuke's speed is so quick that whenever i switched out Arsene, he gets to go first. Kamu Susano-O and Astarte was pretty much worser than Goemon and Milady though. In my opinion, ALL of the party members persona was much better during their first form as opposed to their evolved form. Except Satanel, of course. Satanael is Arsene's evolved form and he was bigger than a bus.

However, i still think Makoto was the better party member than Yusuke, thanks to her Marakukaja ability. Marakukaja is way better than Masukukaja. Oh, and why must Ryuji has Matarukaja? I really hate him and hated him even more thanks to that fact. Thankfully, my Asura had Matarukaja and Marakukaja to cover both Ryuji and Makoto's absence. I think only Ryuji will be missing from my party member from now on. I just hate him. Go here and you know how bad i hated Ryuji. TvTrope practically list everything on why i hate that guy.

My last persona line-up before facing the final boss

Look at Yusuke's face though...

I wanted to screencap their victory pose, but Morgana and Yusuke made it really hard.

Speaking of Ryuji, this scene always crack me up. Dead Ryuji for the win.

Now, let us speak about other trivial trophies. During that second playthrough, i had this goal of capturing all the mundane trophies, yet one trophy managed to elude me. The all-request trophy. I missed working on the flower shop during 8/5 and as a result, i lost my only chance to get that trophy. And i was able to work that quest during the first playthrough... How unsightly of me.

For those trophies, i achieved them during the final months during Shido's palace invasion. From fishing, homerun, and amongst others. Allow me to elaborate.

First is regarding the fishing the guardian trophy. For this trophy, i captured the Guardian after about 5-6 attempts at fishing. You will need to read the fishing book that allows you to use the Third Eye ability. After that, you need the most expensive bait, and the luxurious fishing rod (To make it easier to catch, as the Guardian struggles so much) before you can catch him. Then, when you get to fish with those equipments on, use Third Eye and fish until there is a fish that turns gold when you view it through the Third Eye view, that's the Guardian. All that's left is just to catch him. Oh, the chances for that fish to appear is higher when it is raining or snowing.

The Guardian was smaller than that found in Persona 4 though.

Next is the Homerun trophy. Not much to say here. You just need to hit a Homerun for this. However, there is an easy trick to get this happen. First, after playing the baseball game,visit the bookstore (Shinjuku one) and purchase the baseball book. Reading it allows you to use Third Eye in the baseball game. Then, use the Third Eye on the game to slow the ball down before it comes, aim it low, around below half of the ball before hitting it. It will make hitting it higher and allow you to score a homerun easier. The timing is a bit hard, but once you get it, it'll be fun.

I actually played the game twice so as to capture this picture. And due to that, i missed the trophy.

Next up is the futaba navigational message trophy. I don't even know how i get this one. It just randomly pops up during the final boss fight, but i think it has to do with the fact that i switched to Ryuji in a memento and during the first Reaper fight and he actually died, causing Futaba to deliver her line. Yeah, i think that was the moment.

Notice the trophy on the upper right?

Last is about the Infiltration tools trophy. I obtained this trophy after carefully picking up all the necessary materials and crafted all the infiltration tools and got this before going to Shido's palace. It was frustrating to obtain the trophy, but it was worth it.

Morgana is so hillarious during this particular scene

That was the last mundane trophy i managed to obtain during the second playthrough. I missed the fulfill all request trophy, as well as read all book trophy, but since reading them books was really tedious and that request was an unfortunate event, there was nothing i could do. However, i was pretty much satisfied with what i have achieved in the second playthrough.

All in all, the second playthrough was pretty fun, and i was able to fulfill most of my goals, such as leveling-up Arsene, obtaining Satanael, and maxing-out all confidants rank. Makoto was again, as adorable as ever thanks to her antics, which i failed to mention above, but i still think Futaba is better, and Shiho is way better than them. And of course, Ryuji was as annoying as ever, his confidant rank doesn't even contain any character development, just him helping the track team that's all. Best confidant rank is Haru and Yoshida now after finally seeing their rank-up.

Overall, i enjoyed it. Can't wait for the third playthrough, though i will not post it here again, as it will just me having fun playing the game.