TAKE YOUR TIME.

Hub blog for the Persona 5 AU ANOTHER STORY

[p5anotherstory]

This is a story you’ve heard before. A story about teens rebelling against humanity, not wanting to be anything but stepping stones by the adults that tower over them. Though there is something…. Different from a glance. While things may seem similar, I can tell you this is a whole new story of itself. So why not sit back, relax, and take your time, baby. PERSONA 5: ANOTHER STORY takes place seven years before the initial events of Persona 5 and is in a universe where the characters seem to share names with people you think you may already know of. However, no one in this story has any relation to a canon character unless stated otherwise. Sojiro Sakura has moved to Shibuya Japan by his parents to live with his Aunt Futaba. Not because he’s a criminal, but because his parents are in crippling debt. Though little do they realize that the city they send their son to just so happens to be the same city where the most powerful man in Japan lives. One who assists those in debt, only to become more and more ruthless the longer they miss their pay dates. A man who uses this as a way to be seen as a God by the people beneath him - because well, that’s exactly what he wants to be, and that’s very well how they seem to worship him. There he’s granted with a strange application, one that can lead those to another world where you can change those with distorted hearts. Through his school life and ventures through this new world does he make countless new friends, ones he never seen himself making before. And through this group of friends does he form what is soon referred to as THE PHANTOM THIEVES OF HEART. Swearing to change the hearts of the masses of these rotten adults. All while learning more about eachother along the way and paving the way soon for another generation of thieves.

[p5anotherstory]

In ANOTHER STORY there is a mechanic different from how to interact with the PALACE LEADER'S SHADOWS to prepare them for their CALLING CARD. Every shadow holds their own Arcana, that of course being one that’s in the REVERSE category. Though some leaders can be quite hostile (an example being ones like Ryuji, Makoto, and even Ren) there are still ways to bond with them through learning about the pasts. It may not be directly, but if you are to interact with specific items a FLASHBACK scene will trigger, giving you more insight into the Shadow. This is much like the scrapped idea that after obtaining a WILL SEED you were to get more insight into the Palace Leader’s past regarding their distortion. Interacting with these items will effect how the leader interacts with the party, and even will lessen the security, making things far more easier in retrospect. Once your bond is MAXED with the Shadow will you successfully obtain their item of sin, said item being extremely helpful when it comes to the final battle after sending the calling card. These items usually being related to the Palace Leader’s main attack affinities and in the end will nullify them, give special stat boosts, or even heal HP or SP greatly occasionally.

[p5anotherstory]

The Metaverse updates as the world "updates", and in the early 2000s it's far diffrent than it is in the mid 2010s when we see Joker and his PT using it. The  2000s was home to flip phones, and then eventually smart phones as the years went on twords the end of the decade. At this time period was the Metaverse set up as working through a text based feature. Voice commands wern’t implemented yet, and instead an email would need to be sent through the application that’d show up on your phone. You’d still need the same set of codewords as would be used in the future. The two codewords of distortion being that of where the palace was located or what it is, and the sin represented with the palace leader. Finally it would then be addressed to the palace leader ; So like as follow [email protected]. Once the email has been sent, if correct will you get a confirmation on screen that this email is valid, and then be able to enter the palace.

[fukushn]

I hate how figuring out the year gap between P4 and P5 is, because going by release years dosen’t work when there’s a big factor that Rise is 20, meaning P5 is 4 years after P4 Another Story is 7 years before P5, meaning AS is 3 years before P4 and takes place in 2009.

[p5anotherstory]

Oh yeah, and takes place at the same time as P3

[p5anotherstory]

I’m mobile, and while we’re far from covering what happens in Ren’s palace, Rae just came up with a big brain idea. Since I (Aku) proposed the idea that AS may not have a Yaldy fight, since Igor is not possessed, but instead it’s another fight against Ren, since he is trying to become a God and all.

So after his first boss fight his shadow goes berserk and fuses the real world with Mementos as a last ditch effort to mention he’s not giving up.

So the Phantom Thieves go through a whole ‘nother palace in this fucked up fused Mementos, and in the end have to fight Lucifer (shadow Ren) who’s appearance now takes on a God, and who is twice as powerful.

[p5anotherstory]

Thanks to @etherbonded for helping us extend our timeline for AS by not only giving us their Goro who does make an appearance as Himari’s son, but is also the Justice from 7 years after Another Story. Where it’s p5 but all canon divergent with Goro being more of a good kid. Also Ether gave us not only Himari, but their interpretations of younger Sojiro and Wakaba, who indeed grow up to be the ones that you see in the P5 story.

[p5anotherstory]

Unlike in regular P5 where characters are slowly shown to us, does Sojiro instead see everyone around town as early as the beginning of the game. Infact, when Sojiro is on the train heading to Tokyo, if you look around you can see Goro and Masayoshi on the train together. Of course there are moments where you may not catch or understand these on your first findings/playthrough. Things like passing by a corridor on the first floor where the third years are, or around the student council room where you can hear Masa and Kaneshiro talking about student council stuff. You may notice Kunikazu reading in the library, but one thing that may come as a surprise is the rare occasions you may see him at the gate talking on his phone. At night, you have the chance to catch Goro and Masayoshi biking or walking together, aswell as the occasions of seeing them at restaurants you may go to with confidants / at work if you work at a restaurant. You can see Mishima hanging around mainly in Shibuya and Shinjuku walking around, perhaps even with Ohya or Toranosuke. Chihaya can be seen around Shibuya in her costume, at her table trying to give people tarot card readings, aswell as Hifumi being seen at the park playing Shogi before you get access to the church. Iwai and Shinya can be seen together around in shady places, talking about video games or model guns. Haru and Kunikazu can be seen walking around in silence, and if you try to talk to them the security guards around them will glare at you. Groups of friends can be seen going to the train station before you even meet or befriend them, though when you do know them and get their confidant, more than just the PT related ones can come up and talk to Sojiro, counting the adults even who are going that way for work; ie, Sojiro can run into Ann, Shiho, Sumiere, or even on the rare occasions Mishima. You can see the entire PT aswell as Maruki (before he joins) and even Murkuro go to visit Sumiere for a session, all minus Masa of course. This or some even may decline a hang out session due to being busy and mentioning needing to see the councilor. 

Makoto and Goro can be seen in alleyways smoking together, but Sojiro can’t eavesdrop on them unless he has max courage. On the day the PT are celebrating their first change of heart, both Ren Goro can be seen in the background but that would be something you'd only notice on a second run of course. Yuriko’s image can be seen on TVs along with Akira as expected - sometimes even Shido may show up as a reference to how he’s Akira’s competitor in the race due to Himari playing a role in the DLC

[p5anotherstory]

ARC 1 ;; THE GALANT FOOL  & THE WARLORD OF WRATH  // Sent to Shibuya to live with his aunt Futaba due to his parents crippling debt does Sojiro enroll into Shujin academy where he’s immediately met with one of the biggest problems many of the students seem to be having; one that’s unknown to the teachers even. The track coach Ryuji Sakamoto, known for being a delinquent in his past is overworking his team to their limits to make sure they succeed and come out on top. Sojiro learns about this from both his classmate Sadyo Kawakami, and volleyball star, Suguru Kamoshida. It seems like both of them have their own past with him; Sadyo even being Sakamoto’s main target along side Toranosuke Yoshida, another classmate of Sojiro’s.  Both Sojiro and Suguru are mysteriously transported to what appears to be a warship, a whole new world where they’re met with mysterious creatures that cause Sojiro’s rebellious nature to come out and awaken to his his persona LUGH. Meanwhile, while investigating the warship after successfully escaping from being captured by Sakamoto’s men do they run into another person who seems to have the same powers as Sojiro himself.

He helps the two escape the palace, mainly due to the fact that the two of them mention that they didn’t mean to come into this strange world. Through out their escape does the masked boy teach Sojiro the minimal ropes alongside his own Persona BALOR from the looks of it. Suguru does stand off to the side watching them fight, seeing as he’s unable to fight without a Persona- but absolutely tries to help somewhat with trying to spike his volleyball he always has on hand at these shadows - surprisingly enough, it works. It’s not long before the end of their escape where they’re stopped once more by Sakamoto’s guards before they can get to their escape route. Here does Suguru’s rebellious nature come out, awakening him to his own Persona CHAQUEN before the three can successfully route an escape from the palace.

Eventually as the two arrive back in the real world do they meet up with the mysterious boy who had helped lead them through the palace to properly escape. He is introduced as Masayoshi Shido, a third year. He does not elaborate or explain why he has these powers aswell. That night does Sojiro have a dream where he wakes up in a strange empty mansion, outside the windows show that it’s right on the cliffside near a beach. The weather outside is hazy, almost unable to make out anything else. Here he’s introduced to this world he’s in between dreams and reality known as The Velvet Room. Unlike Persona 5, he is met by Igor rather than a devious God that has taken over the man’s body. His assistant is none other than Lavenza, still in her true form and not split into two.  The next day arrives and Suguru insists on investigating more in what they saw, the two second years soon learn that the track team truly is being overworked to their absolute limit and that something has to be done. When telling Masayoshi about this he of course knows exactly what to do, already having much experience in the metaverse himself. It’s then set in stone that the three of them will go back to the palace to take down Sakomoto and steal his treasure. Masayoshi ensures the two that he’ll fight along side them, but also act as a navigator since he dosen’t want the two to waste their time running around getting lost in the palace. Back in the Metaverse are they instructed to start going by codenames, especially with the fact that they’re dealing with someone from their school. Thus Sojiro goes by the codename of BOSS, Suguru as CAPTIAN, and Masayoshi as JACKAL. The infiltration of the warship begins, starting their first heist as thieves. Soon to their surprise do they see that they have another familiar face amongst them unknown to having been transported to this world. Sadyo Kawakami is found to be captured much like Sojiro and Suguru were, and while she’s being restentlessly taunted by the track coach who gives her grief day in and day out does something snap inside of her despite all her initial weak feelings that cloud her thoughts. Sojiro yells to her that she needs to fight back - and fight back she does. MADAME is born along side her Persona VENUS.  When questioned how she got into the metaverse does Saydo explain that she had heard the three of them talking about Sakamoto, and might have been eavesdropping on them to see what they were up to...in the end she got sucked into this world. All of that aside do the four continue their heist, never once stopping at their true goal to stop the WARLORD OF WRATH and have him ATONE for his SINS.

[p5anotherstory]

Important things to know about the AU is that it's difficulty is ramped up more compared to the usual story of Persona 5. Each arc can end in either a Good, Normal, or Bad Ending. The prior two endings over all effect the final ending you receive, the bad ending of course results in a game over. Not only are the shadows stronger, but so are the palace leaders. Ryuji isn’t a tutorial boss and instead shows off all his strength as the sin of Wrath and is just as hard as any future bosses may be. Choices you make from how you respond to others, to who you choose to hang out with also effect your game play. Choose how you hang out with and when carefully since this AU plays into the DOUBT mechanic with your confidants, resulting in you loosing the ability to use their benefits if they fall into said state. Finally, something positive to note that’s different about the AU- is that Sojiro is able to romance any character regardless of their gender. There may be some adult confidants such as Ann, Shiho, Sumiere, Goro, and Mishima who are adults, but there are none that are underage. Be the true Casanova Sojiro always has been.

[cnfidant]

              PERSONA 5: ANOTHER STORY PLAYLIST

                                                      Music to rebel to

Opening // Title Screen // Walking around Tokyo // Leblanc // Meeting // Encounter // Tension // Suspense // Awakening // Battle Theme // Mid Boss // Boss // Final Infiltration // Have a Short Rest // Confidants // School Days // Downtime // Clinic // Maid Cafe // Confession // Date // Resolution/Regret // Palace of WRATH // Palace of VANITY // Palace of GLUTTONY // Palace of SLOTH // Palace of GREED // Palace of ENVY // Palace of PRIDE // Palace of SORROW // Palace of LUST