Persona 3: Reload - Stream Summary So Far... Pt. 2

 

I've been getting a bit slow at writing these summaries, aren't I? Well it occurred to me very shortly into the first stream after my last stream summary for this game that I hadn't set the criteria for my gold, silver and bronze goals, so I immediately went on to setting those first thing, but Persona 3 is such a big game it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what milestones there were without spoiling the game for myself, so I went with some very safe, but potentially maddening milestones here...

🥇: Earn 90% of all XBox achievements

🥈: Earn 60% of all XBox achievements

🥉: Earn 30% of all XBox achievements

Ahhhhh, I feel much better getting those out of the way, I feel like you should feel better too... don't you just feel better? Anyway, onto the mandatory spoiler alert then on to the stream write up!

*This post contains spoilers for Persona 3: Reload - Read at your own risk!*

When we last left off, the protagonist had joined the student council and this had become my newest social link in the game. Whilst I became overcome with worry that my work on the council would mean I had no time to save the world against shadows and prevent Apathy Syndrome from destroying Japan, I was given a gentle reminder by Mitsuru that my work with the council didn't need to be a constant thing. Phew!

You mean I can still save the world? Result!

As my route in Tartarus had been blocked however, and going by the online statistics I was already ahead of the average level most players were on at this point in the game, I decided to kill the time by working on my social links, earning some money... you know, the normal things. This did mean I had to avoid some awkward questions regarding my own personal prowess, but ya know, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs! The protagonist was even told by Junpei about a special "definitely not a World of Warcraft ripoff" game that he could play in his room and ended up making a friend, and when he wasn't doing any of this, the protagonist spent his time studying. Before I knew it, it was no longer April and it was now May. Yukari thought it was crazy

Tell him nothing! It's just a normal routine!

Hiring me will Costa... Ha ha, geddit?

Got to love the lack of commitment to the specific year

I spent the whole day at my desk

Yukari couldn't believe it was May already

Whilst the lead up to May was fairly uneventful other than joining the school council and grinding the levels in Tartarus, and it was all getting a wee bit suspicious. I mean, the first couple of months was all stalkers and weird shadows but now it was school councils and homework, so what was going on? Well on the 2nd May I was once again awoken by the strange little boy who seems to live in the protagonist's closet and this time he came to inform him that on the next full moon there will be an ordeal he would have to face, but refused to elaborate. How very irritating...

Worst. Alarm Clock. Ever.

But I had no time to dwell on the full moon now. That was a week away still and there were more important issues that required the protagonist's attention... students were requesting to abolish school uniforms as a thing! This madness had to end and swiftly!

What fresh hell is this?

After I put an end to the students hopes and dreams of casting their uniforms into the proverbial fire, the full moon was finally upon us, and the strange stalker kid in my closet was totally right, something weird was happening that night, specifically with the monorail and it seemed there was a shadow party happening on there. Interesting fact - apparently electronic equipment doesn't work during the Dark Hour, except for Mitsuru's magical bike which she admittedly did say was an exception. Oh and the SEES command computer that was just idly working away in the background.

This electronic contraption sparks conversation!

This electronic contraption does not.

Overlooked details aside, Yukari, Junpei and the protagonist were sent to investigate and eliminate the shadows infesting the frozen monorail because it was apparently an extra abnormal reading. Fortunately we could walk on the tracks themselves to reach the monorail because, as already stipulated, all the electronics except a couple of exceptions had stopped completely meaning we ran zero risk of being flattened by a high speed vehicle.

Junpei - always itching for a fight

Moi? Listen, there's enough rumours going around about us...

As the protagonist and his friends boarded the dark hour monorail, it began to move which was... not totally unexpected, but slightly surprising given the fact electrical devices except the SEES computer and Mitsuru's bike don't work during the Dark Hour, in fact I was starting to suspect that electrical items actually did work and it was just a huge conspiracy.

Tin hat moments aside, we came to realise very early on that there was a very powerful shadow right at the front of the leading monrorail carriage. Junpei couldn't wait for his friends and so very foolishly led the charge by himself to take on the big bad shadow, leaving the protagonist and Yukari to fend for themselves. Ironically this was done in an attempt to show why he would make such a great leader. Mercifully there were only a few encounters they had to defend themselves against with just the two of them and the shadows weren't amazingly strong, however it did come to Yukari's attention that the monorail was speeding up as we got towards the front.

Pictures really don't do the speed this thing was going any justice

When Yukai and the protagonist finally caught up with the impetuous Junpei he had already reached the super strong shadow at the front of the monorail and the three combined their strength to take out the "Priestess", a powerful shadow that had been named after the arcana card. The battle was fairly straight forward aside from the countdown that appeared on the side, indicating how long it would be before the monorail crashed and killed everyone in a fiery explosion, and whilst the boss had no notable weaknesses to exploit neither was it a huge threat other than the fact that it sped up the monorail once it's health had been lowered to particular thresholds. In any case it was no match for our combined might and we smote the shadow, saving the world for the time being and stopping the monorail in its tracks.

I gave up probing for weaknesses in the end

Ah, the ol' "I'm losing so better cheat" tactic...

First major shadow defeated

And thus ended the first, what I would call "chapter" of the game. Now, for full disclosure, I did play one further stream after all this had happened before my special birthday stream, however as it has taken me a full month just to write this and I believe this to be a good finishing point for this article... I'm finishing it. I will hopefully finish writing the next part of my adventures on stream a lot quicker than this, and I apologise for the inability to keep up with my own schedule!