December 6th¶

It is finally time to bring down that punk in the new Palace, so get ready, but before you do, check out Iwai’s shop to see if you have any weapons or armor to buy. Also, it’s a wise idea to stock up on some items from Takemi’s Clinic, especially some of the more expensive ones, if you can afford it. If you’ve been utilizing Kawakami at night, as well as Haru’s crops, you should have a fair amount of SP-restoring items. You’ll be needing them, as this next Palace is quite long and skills are definitely getting more expensive at this point.

When you’re ready, meet up with the others and infiltrate the Palace. As you remember from last time, you need five letters of introduction in order to get inside the main door, and you have intel on the five people who have it. So, start off by travelling to the Central Passage safe room. From there, look for the stairs on the southern side of the room to enter the restaurant area.

Restaurant Area¶

When you first enter, you will see your party mentioning getting some intel from the “patrons” of the area. There are a few NPCs you can talk to, but they don’t really offer much of anything worthwhile, so it’s best to ignore them for now. There are enemies walking around on the top floor, as well as on the bottom floor, so be on the lookout for them, especially since there aren’t many places for you to hide. Your goal right now is to go to the bottom floor and check out the door in the southeastern corner, which leads to the dining room.

When you do check it out, you find out that you need a membership card in order to get in, but things get a bit confusing here, as the next event won’t trigger just by examining the door. You actually need to enter the dining hall and go to the desk there to be denied access by the worker. Once you do that, return to the upstairs section of the previous area and look for someone you can talk to in the northwestern corner. You’ll overhear that the passenger dropped his membership card, which is the perfect opportunity for you to get one.

Activate Third Eye and you should see some footprints now, so follow them as they go downstairs and to one of the bars. Talk to the bartender and tell him you’re looking for a membership card and he’ll hand it over. Head back to the dining room and you’ll be able to go in this time, where some scenes will occur and you’ll get into a battle with Politician Ooe. He isn’t too bad, as he tends to stick to using Concentrate, stack it with Tarukaja and use Rakunda on someone before unleashing Bufudyne, likely on the same person. He is weak to Psy skills and absorbs ice, so don’t use the latter. You will receive a letter of introduction for winning and can move on to the next area.

Mid Starboard Hallway¶

Take the elevator in the dining room to come to this area and if you have a look at the map, it looks pretty large. Go east for now, bypassing the door since it’s locked, and when you enter the first room, your party will turn into mice. Apparently, it looks like the statues are the cause of you being turned into mice. Being a mouse has two big disadvantages, as enemies will wreck you and you won’t be able to open any doors. If you exit to the south, you’ll revert to a human, but both doors you come to at the end of the hallways are locked.

Have a look at your map and you should notice that the room where you turn into a mouse is highlighted gray. Head back there and look in the southeast corner for a vent you can go into as the mouse, so go through it to come out in a hallway north of one of the locked doors. Take care of the Shadow here, then unlock the door to the south. The room to your east has another statue and there’s no vent to crawl through this time, so ignore it and head north from the door you unlocked. It’s important to note that the loading here means that the enemies will respawn, so be careful if you go back and forth. Although this entire portion is one big area, it is actually split into three tinier ones with loading zones (all doors).

In the next hallway, the door to the east is locked, so you will have to head into the room to your west. This room is fairly large and has multiple enemies patrolling it, plus you’re turned into a mouse again. There are actually multiple exits here, but two lead to dead ends. Near where you entered is another vent along the northern wall, but you have to navigate past two Shadows to get to it, as well as time your entry to avoid one of them. This will put you in the northern hallway (watch the enemy), where you can unlock a door to your west.

Continue in that direction and you will eventually come upon what looks like a lantern/lightpost in the northwestern room. This is actually a switch and upon hitting it, the rooms with the statues will no longer be gray on your map. Hmm, that certainly is interesting. Double back to the east and in the northeastern room is a chest, that contains a Soul Food (SP-restoring item). Continue south and unlock the door there, then go and enter that big room with four enemies in it to see that you no longer turn into a mouse. So, that’s what that switch does and it disabled the statues in all of the rooms in this area.

There’s nothing in that big room, so venture south just to the east of it and then head east from there to find another door to your south, which is an area you couldn’t explore because there was a statue in the room. You can unlock another door to your west and when you come to the first split here, go all the way west and north to unlock another door. Don’t go all the way back east yet, as there’s a chest in the southwestern room ( Black Robe ). Now, run to the room in the southeast to find another elevator, which will take you to the Pool Deck area.

Pool Deck¶

When you first enter here, there will be a man you can talk to in front of you, as well as a locked chest right next to him ( Life Jacket , Diamond and Garnet ). There is also a Safe Room nearby, so it might be a good idea to save your game before moving on. Head north and down the stairs to come face-to-face with the gigantic pool. Despite the peaceful scenery, there are actually Shadows patrolling the area around the pool, so use your Third Eye to get a bead on them before you end up getting ambushed. It’s not a good idea to get rid of them, as they will respawn after speaking with the Former Noble.

Speaking of which, he can be found in the southwest corner of the map, lounging on a chair. Of course, he completely ignores you, so you decide to get some intel from other people around the pool. There are a few people you can talk with, but the one you want is in the southeast corner of the map, and she mentions something about renting swimsuits, sparking an idea in Ryuji’s otherwise empty mind. Go up to the bar and ask about renting some, only to find out you need to show a boarding pass, which you don’t have. Guess it’s time to break into the changing room, although the front door is out of the question.

If you look under the stairs you used to enter this area, there is a covered vent you can crawl through to get into the changing room. Interact with one of the stalls to initiate some scenes that will eventually lead into a mini-boss battle with the Former Noble. This boss can be a little annoying, as he knows Marin Karin, which can Brainwash a single character. He can make you more susceptible, too, by using Foul Breath; later on, he can use Stagnant Air to make the whole party more susceptible to ailments. The Former Noble also has access to Mapsiodyne, so Makoto might be vulnerable if she’s in your group. Having your character with either Energy Shower or Amrita Shower, alongside with something that nulls Brainwash, will be ideal. He is weak to electrical skills and absorbs ice, so don’t use the latter.

Upper Starboard Hallway¶

Welcome to another hallway of nightmares, as you probably already figured out what’s going on in this area. The door to your east is locked, so you can only go north for now. When you get to the northern hallway, you will be turned into mice again, so wait until the guard moves east before hurrying up and ducking into the southern hallway to turn back into a human, where you can take out the enemy. Ignore the door to the east in the hallway where you’re a human, as it’s locked and head back out into the mouse hallway.

Across from the statue that is turning you into a mouse is a small vent you can go through to reach the southern hallway, where you can take out the next enemy and unlock the first door (yes, there’s another locked door to the east of the first one). There will be another small vent that allows you to do the same thing with the second locked door and third enemy. Continue south, being mindful of the guard at the top of the stairs and ignoring another locked door to the east, then west and unlocking the western door at the end of the hallway. Going south will load you into a “new area.”

The first room you appear in will have a lantern that disables the statues, so hit the switch and enter the room to the west, going north to grab a chest ( Parapsy Ring ). Now, go back and hit the switch again to turn the statues on, then go back into the western room, using the small vent on the southern side to head south. Unlock the door to your north, then return to the lantern to turn off the statues again. This will allow you to continue east in the lower section, where you will want to take out the enemies before doing anything else. Unlock the door that leads back into the room with the statues switch, then turn it back on and head to the room in the southeast to find a vent.

Unlock the door to your west, then continue east to another mouse room. There’s another vent on the south wall for you to crawl through, leading to a hallway with a chest at the end ( Idaten Ofuda ). You now need to venture back to the statues switch, turn them off and head north from the last mouse room. Make sure you unlock the door near the large room, which has a few Shadows in it. Fight them if you want, or sneak to the eastern end, where you will come to an elevator leading to the next section.

Entertainment Hall¶

You’re introduced to a new type of enemy Shadow here, ones with guns, which can shoot you from a distance if you happen to get spotted, so be careful from now on. There’s nothing at the top here, so go down the stairs and you’ll come to a Safe Room right there. There’s really nothing to do here, so head to the north, but before going in the door here, look under the stairs to the south of the door for a chest with some Classified Armor in it. Before you go in the door, someone stops you and sends two Heretic Goats for you to fight. They are weak to Bless skills, so use those to quickly take them down.

It turns out that guy was the Cleaner, who is supposed to be the final target. Anyways, go through the door to enter the Entertainment Hall, which is where your next target is supposed to be. There’s nothing on the top floor, but you will find a locked chest at the north end of the bottom floor ( Gilgamesh Axe , Garnet , and Magic Ointment ). You’ll find a bigger area through the opening nearby, which will have multiple floors again. There’s really nothing of value, other than some breakables, on these floors, although there is another Safe Room on the second floor.

Go to the very bottom for a scene, that will bring you into a fight with the Shadow TV President, who will be accompanied by two Raging Bird Gods. All of them have pretty high health, but your first priority should be to get rid of the Bird Gods, as they know Mediarama and will use it. They are weak to gun attacks, although it might be more useful to use gun skills instead of your firearms, as they might deal more damage (at least, on your own character). The TV President is weak to ice (he has Evade Ice, which is annoying)-, but absorbs fire, so you can knock down all of the enemies for an All-Out Attack.

As far as attacks go, the President will use Reverse Rub to inflict rage on the Bird Gods and boy, do their physical attacks hurt when raged. His other attacks include Swift Strike, Tempest Slash, Miracle Punch and Mazionga. Outside of Mazionga, all of his other attacks are physical, so having a Persona that nulls, repels or drains it will be extremely helpful here. Once you win, head back up to the safe room to heal up and save, then go through the door nearby to progress further into the dungeon.