So, lemme explain a few things about this game and this walkthrough before we get started. First off, this walkthrough is gonna be really friggin anal about following a schedule. The purpose of this is so you guys can max out all of your social links (what social links are will be explained later). However, this means that your ingame time will be scheduled down to the day. If you just want dungeon/boss tips just find the appropriate section in the walkthrough (they will all be labelled so just Ctrl-F if that's all you want). This guide will also allow you to finish all of the quests and also get all the extra free items that I am aware of. All social links will be covered in this walkthrough, including those that are split across different playthroughs (i.e., Kou's story vs Daisuke's and Ayane's vs Yumi's). If you just want to know what to answer for the specific S. Links, please click the S. Links link at the top of this and every other walkthrough page. Another note I'd like to point out is that a lot of conversations might have certain personality trait (Courage, Understanding, etc.) roadblocks but don't actually affect anything in the game (for instance, at school the day after saving Chie she talks about how you have nothing to hide. One of the responses you can give ("Falling for me, eh?") requires a certain rank in Courage before the game will let you say that, but all of the possible choices have the exact same result). Others may seem like they net you a negative response (such as when Yukiko asks you how you are getting along with Chie, answering "I don't know yet" gets you a sort of :\ face from her) but don't affect your social link progression. Sometimes I might mention these in passing but for the most part, if I don't tell you to give a specific response you can just answer whatever you want. Also, some replies will put points into progressing one of your aforementioned personality traits and I will certainly prompt you with the right answer to get those points.

So, let's get started. Look, I don't know how many of you guys reading this are hardcore gamers but "Expert" mode doesn't mean what it usually does. See, in dungeons there are no random encounters (OK, granted, very rarely a chest will have enemies hidden inside instead of loot, but like I said, very very rare). Like Chrono Cross, the enemies appear on the field map. You get a chance to hit them on the field to get a pre-emptive strike on them in the actual battle. However, the field map monsters come in varying sizes, and the larger they are the more aware of your existence they are, and therefore you have less of a chance to get this pre-emptive strike. This also gives them a higher chance to get a pre-emptive strike on you instead. As far as I can tell, the only difference between normal mode and expert mode is that in expert mode almost all of the field enemies are very very large. Like, that's it. Other than that, they are the same monsters in battle, same number of monsters, same EXP, etc, as in normal mode. They have a bit more HP and might hit a bit harder but this is pretty negligeable (in my opinion anyway). I ran a normal mode and expert mode game side by side to write this walkthrough and if you'll notice further on for the "my current level" things once we get to dungeons they are pretty much the same for normal mode and expert. So. Do with that what you will. Well, here we go~

After the cinematic, you find yourself... inside a limo? With some chick and some weirdo. The weirdo is Igor, who's in charge of this limo (called "The Velvet Room," and its appearance is based on the heart of its current guest, i.e. you. So... I guess you really like limos? Prom must've been awesome for you then ^O__o^;; ). The chick is Margaret and she refers to Igor as her master. He never really orders her to do much of anything but that's what she calls him. Get used to being around these two cause not only does Igor enjoy frequently kidnapping you while you're asleep, but you'll be coming here quite often of your own free will throughout the game (or, since I'm telling you what to do, perhaps not really free will... :op ). Igor informs you that any guest in the Velvet Room is there because they are bound by a contract. After you introduce yourself, Igor informs you that you will soon embark on a journey, during which a great misfortune and mystery will occur, and that your so-called contract probably involves solving this mystery. He also tells you that "if the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost." TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY. There are certain things you must do in the storyline. While dying in battle will mean game over, as in other games, you can also die if you don't take steps to solve this mystery. This game, unlike most RPGs, actually takes into account the passage of time (in the form of ingame days, not IRL hours) and if you don't complete certain tasks by the deadlines for those specific tasks, it will also result in game over. This is what he is talking about. After that, he lets you go, but says that you'll see them again.

You find yourself on a train, headed to a new town. Your parents are travelling overseas on business so you've gone to live with your uncle and small cousin in the middle of nowhere until they get back, which will be about a year from now. As the scenic countryside rolls by, you start to doze off and get visions of... the chick that politician guy was having an affair with? Uh... Well, they do say that you tend to dream about the last thing you heard or saw... darn you media, you're affecting our dreams! At the station you meet your uncle Dojima Ryotaro and your cousin Dojima Nanako. Like I said in the first paragraph, if I don't specifically tell you what to reply what you say doesn't affect anything, so answer whatever you want. ... as Nanako slaps her father on the ass. ^O__o^;; On the way into town, you stop at a gas station, where the attendant is pretty frank with you about how little there is to do out here in Inaba. ... also, judging by the buzzing of the controller I think he just gave you the flu. ^x__x^;; During dinner, Dojima gets called away to work. Nanako informs you that he's a police detective and that this tends to happen a lot. The crazy love triangle continues to make the news for whatever reason. *agrees with Nanako about how boring it is* So. Now that we can finally move around of our own free will, here's a quick tour of the Dojima household and what you can do there. Directly on the left is a calendar and phone, which you can use to save your game. There will also be save points later on that I'll point out to you when they show up. Further left is the table where you guys eat dinner. Nanako can usually be found here at any time of day or evening, staring at the telly. Inspecting the telly will allow you to check the weather forecast which, if you didn't have this guide to follow, you would be checking every day like as if you had OCD cause the weather will soon become very important. Behind Nanako and the table is the sofa. Rarely Dojima can be found here, but usually if he is home he will be sitting at the kitchen table (right side of the screen) reading a newspaper. On the other side of the kitchen table is the fridge. Sometimes you can check it to eat strange things that you really shouldn't be eating, which will give you points towards Courage. Sometimes when you come home Nanako will tell you that she went shopping, so checking the fridge on those days will allow you to make lunch to take to school with you, which you can then share with one of your friends. On that note, lemme explain personality traits and Social Links.

You can't really check right now cause the game won't let you access the menu yet for whatever reason, but eventually you can access the menu using the triangle button. One of the menu items is Status, which will show you basic details for each of your party members (current HP/max HP, current SP/max SP, current lv, EXP til next lv). If you then press the square button when looking at your own status it will bring up your personality traits status. There are five personality traits (Courage, Diligence, Understanding, Knowledge, and Expression) which each have five ranks to them. As previously mentioned, some conversation responses will give you points towards the next trait rank. Also as previously mentioned, some responses are trait rank locked, so you can't give those answers without having a high enough rank in that trait. Some of these answers affect your Social Links and some do not. Those that do will be mentioned here and the others are irrelevant. Now, what the hell are these Social Links? Well, Igor explains them later but since they are kinda related to personality traits I'll explain them here. In battle, you can perform basic melee attacks with your equipped weapon, however stronger enemies aren't gonna get one-shotted by these. Most of your fighting will be done by using things called Personas. I'll explain Personas in much more detail when they become relevant later on but for now I'll just give you a quick overview. You could maybe think of Personas like Pokemon, cept they aren't alive. I guess maybe Yugi-Oh or whatever would be a better comparison as they are "monsters" that exist on cards, but like Pokemon they gain EXP through being used in battles. Also, the Persona cards are divided into groups based upon the Tarot Arcana (so like the hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades suites in a regular deck of cards would each be a different Arcana). Tarot has twenty different Arcana instead of just four: Magician, Chariot, Strength, Sun, Priestess, Star, Emperor, Empress, Justice, Hierophant, Moon, Devil, Death, Temperance, Lovers, Fortune, Tower, Hermit, Fool, and Judgement. Each Arcana is also linked to specific people you can meet during the game (yes, I said "can." That means that it is quite possible to miss a few S. Links if you're unlucky enough, but that's what I'm here to fix~). The bonds you create with these people are your Social Links. Igor will tell you that the stronger those bonds, the stronger the Personas that you create linked to that specific Social Link will be (I'll explain more about creating (or "fusing") Personas when it becomes relevant). However, this isn't quite accurate. The Social Link ranks go from 0 to 10. If you have rank 0 in a Social Link, you can still fuse a Persona of that Arcana but you won't get any bonus EXP for that Persona. That's really all that Social Links do. They give the Personas of that Arcana that you fuse bonus EXP upon fusing them, and the higher your rank the more EXP they get, so you could be, say, lv 20 and fuse a Persona that after the bonus EXP is applied will end up being lv 30, for example. Persona stats do increase each time they level so in that sense Igor is right, but the way he says it can be confusing. So, how are personality traits and Social Links related? Well, Social Links increase in rank based on how much that person likes you. Just like in real life, what you say to them determines this. The best responses will give you more points towards ranking up, however some responses will have the opposite effect and might even sever your bond with that person, causing you to halt all progress in that link until you fix it, which is a pain in the arse. Also, some responses to Social Link situations can be trait locked, and some other Social Links cannot even be started without having certain ranks in certain traits. So you're gonna want to keep an eye on your traits and I'll let you know from time to time what rank you should be in your traits.

OK, back to the game! If you open the fridge you'll see what I mean by random things to eat, although this one actually won't do anything. I just want you to have the experience of opening a fridge~ :op The last place on this floor is to the left of the fridge. This is the door to the outside. You can't really do anything with it right now but in the future you'll be allowed to go out at night to work or go fishing and you do so by inspecting the front door. To the left of that are some stairs going up which will take you to your room if you inspect them. You can also hit the square button at any time on the first floor and choose "Your room" to go there. Right in front of you is your sofa. Later on you can buy books that can increase your personality traits and you read them by inspecting the sofa. Next to the sofa is a table. If you have certain jobs you can inspect the table to do those jobs. In the back corner to the right of the door is a shelf that you can put some stuff on later. Further into the room from there is your telly, which you can also use to check the forecast. At the bottom right is your futon where you can sleep. Sometimes you'll have dreams that can give you points towards one of your Social Links, but it's random each time (even sleeping on the same day on different playthroughs will have you dreaming about different people). To the left of your futon is your desk where you can study for exams (and yes, there are exams in this game ^@__@^;; ). Well, the game won't let you do anything except sleep tonight, so have at it.

Suddenly, you find yourself in a weird place full of fog. ... man, my controls are all wonky. Can I access my menu yet, game ^=__=^;; No? OK. ^=__=^;; Well, this place is just a single path with no branches or enemies or anything so just follow it to the end. Along the way, some random voice starts talking to you. At the end is a weird square door, which you should go through. The owner of the voice appears (for various values of "appear" anyway) and you enter into battle. This person does not attack you and barely takes any damage, so you can choose whatever skills you want. I'm going to quickly explain the different types of attacks while we're here though. Choosing Attack from the menu will do the basic melee attack I was telling you about before. It costs nothing to use it but it isn't very powerful either. You can score a critical hit with this attack but while I'm not very good at math I don't think it's even a 50/50 shot to crit using these attacks. More like 20/100 maybe? I dunno. Math. Stop making me do math. >:( Guard allows you to protect yourself from harm. This greatly reduces the damage you take from all types of attacks, including attacks that you are weak to (and also nullifies your weakness to those attacks but your guard goes down again after you are hit once or it becomes your turn in battle again, whichever comes first). I'll explain more about strengths and weaknesses to stuff later. And again, since this person doesn't attack at all you don't need to guard right now. Skill allows you to use the skills that your current Persona knows. Considering this is a dream or something, you don't have a Persona right now but you still get some skills you can use. Right now you only have three: Zio, Cleave, and Rakukaja. You can use the square button to get a short description of what each skill does. In the list along with the skills are icons associated with each skill and how much they cost to use. Anything that has an SP cost uses Spirit Points (or magicka/mana/energy, whatever) when you use those skills. Most skills fall into this category. Rakukaja has an icon next to it that is a shield with a cross on it. This icon indicates a buff or debuff spell. Attack magic like Zio will have an icon next to it telling you what kind of element that spell is linked to, which becomes important later. The elements are fire, ice, lightning, wind, darkness, light, and almighty. Zio has a lightning bolt next to it, so it's a lightning attack. The other skill I haven't mentioned yet is Cleave. These types of skills are different. Note the icon next to it cause you'll want to not mistake these skills for magic skills. This icon indicates a physical attack skill. If you'll look at the cost it says HP, not SP. That's right, in order to use a physical attack skill (as opposed to the Attack melee skill in the main battle menu) you have to sacrifice your HP to do so. This can add up even during the same battle and the game doesn't magically restore your HP at the end of battle or when you level up, which is why I said you should pay attention when you see this icon. The game won't let you kill yourself by using these skills (i.e., if using the skill would immediately kill you the game won't let you use it) but you could lower your health down to 1 HP and the game wouldn't see a problem with it. This leaves you very vulnerable to being murdered by your enemies though. Speaking of being killed, some games will allow the main character to die and not care as long as someone in the party is alive, but in this game if your character dies it's game over, even if everybody else in the party is still alive and has the ability to res. Anyway, again, this person you are fighting doesn't attack at all so do what you want. After three attacks of any kind (or just guarding for three turns if you want to go that route for whatever reason), they cast Bewildering Fog, after which no attack that you use from any menu will connect. After making two such futile attacks, the battle is over and you wake up to Nanako calling you down for breakfast.

After breakfast, Nanako shows you where your school is, and off you go. ... who rides a bike while wielding an umbrella?? I mean, really... whatever, it's his own fault, so we'll just leave him to contemplate what he's done to himself ^<__<^;; Once at school, your homeroom teacher introduces you to the rest of the class. Man, this guy is a douche. YOU CALLIN ME A LOSER!? (yes, tell him this, it will give you points towards Courage). Look, you better get used to this dickface and his obnoxious rants cause he's gonna be your homeroom teacher for a loooooooooooong time... and no, he is never in a good mood. Man... why do we get stuck sitting next to the ugly chick? Or is that a dude. I can't tell with that man-hair. After class is over, some announcements come on, and some cop cars drive by the school. Apparently something's happened nearby that requires police involvement. ... aaaaaaand of course nobody listens to the announcement and bugger off to gawk at whatever's going on. *sigh* middle of nowhere towns, I swear ^<__<^;; Man-girl and Friend come up to you and decide they need to walk you home. Look, Chie, the fact that you're nosy as hell proves you've "got no upbringing" so you can drop the act already ^<__<^;; Someone please explain to me why it's OK for her to kick him in the balls before even knowing what he did? Eh, wimminz, whatCHA gonna do, amirite. Plus, considering this is the second time in a couple of hours he's gotten hit in the balls I don't know how he even still has feeling down there. I mean, either this is a really off day for him or this sort of thing happens on a regular basis. Anyway, here we go on our uncaring way with some violent girls. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG. Er... if something does go wrong, can it happen to this creepy-creep who shows up out of nowhere? Srsly dude, get a clue and gtfo. Eugh, what's with those dead fish eyes get awaaaaaaay from me you sketchy creep. ^>__<^;; *renames Friend as Princess Oblivious* Is it just me, or is Chie kinda a bitch? Oh good, a distraction. ... uh... well I guess murder would be a distraction from just about anything ^.__.^;; Oh hey Dojima, sup? Wow, someone's in the wrong line of work, huh. ^<__<^;; The girls decide perhaps they should go shopping some other day and leave you to your own devices (and murder saves us from having to carry tons of bags of clothes! HURRAY FOR MURDER! ^<__<^;; ) At home, the news informs you that the announcer chick from that political love triangle was the murder victim. Yet another night where you can't do anything other than sleep... well, at least we didn't have any weird dreams this time.

... what, really? Does he even know how to ride a bike ^@__@^ Of course, obnoxious Chie decides that for some reason Yosuke should buy both of them food. Fortunately, either Yukiko actually has "upbringing" or she really has better things to do, and leaves. Unfortunately, you're still stuck with Chie. *sigh* Apparently she also has zero tact. Soon some girl who's only slightly less ugly than Chie shows up, and turns out to be equally as bitchy, bad-mouthing Yosuke to you, a guy whose name she doesn't even know ^@__@^;; I love her super-obvious super-fake "I'm just kidding~" response... oh yeah, I guess I should explain what a senpai is. Technically it's what you call any upperclassman (at least, anyone in a higher grade than you, including university and grad school) although it can also be used when speaking of someone who knows more about a certain subject than you, not necessarily school-related (like when Dojima mentions his "senpai" later on, he's talking about his mentor on the police force). In this case, Saki is a third year student while you guys (including Yosuke) are second years. Chie what in the name of cheesecakes and misery are you talking about... you sound like the blurb on the back of some terrible chick flick. And now you've switched to sounding like a different, terrible chick flick. Magic soulmate-revealing television! And magic wish-making Nanako at home! Ask, and ye shall receive, or something. Although I think she was hoping for a more energetic version of her father. Typical crazy news vulture, I mean, reporter... hum, I guess Ugly Chick found the reporter's body. Who even wanders around town staring up at TV antennas anyway. That's like the most random place to be looking at. Well, I guess we're going to be trying out that terrible chick flick plot tonight. Have fun with that. To our room we go! To love and romance and other girly things for reasons! Ack, what the... CHICK FLICKS GIVE MIGRAINES! I KNEW IT! And also explode telephone poles I guess? What's up with you, telly? I'ma poke you til you explain yourself. Pokey pokey... YEAAAAAAARGH! Ow, my chick flick-induced migraine became a chick flick-induced concussion ^T__T^

Sup, coolest teacher evAr? Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? *psst, that's you* Sometimes at school teachers will ask you questions, and if you get them right you get points towards your next Knowledge rank. Sometimes they will ask your friends though, and apparently your friends don't know anything about anything and always end up asking you for the answer. Giving them the right answer gives you points towards your next Expression rank. Sooooo~ the answer to when did Anno Domini begin is "When Jesus was born" for points towards Knowledge. This may be a super-easy question but some of them are kinda obscure. You and rumours, Chie... do you have nothing better to do. The conversation quickly turns to the weird telly rumour we tried out last night. ... Chie... it means you're a straight male. Duh. ^<__<^;; You then inform your new friends that your television tried to EAT YOU. I love that they're totally fine with this soulmate on the telly rumour but don't believe us about our carnivorous television. Hey hey hey, pokey pokey is our schtick! You guys get your own schtick! Like Chie's schtick can be being a man-Chie, or being an obnoxious bitch, and Yosuke's can be repeatedly getting hit in the balls I guess? Look I don't know OK, just stop stealing our pokey pokey. You're doing it wrong anyway. See, watch, this is how you pokey pokey. *WMMN* HOW YOU LIKE DEM APPLES? ... yes Chie. Don't you know? All flatscreens have the ability to eat people now. It all started when a scientist-slash-TV-repairman had a psychotic break and doused a television with the T-Virus... ... ... *shoves Chie into the television* What, no, aaaaaaaggggghhhhh! She managed to pull all of us in with her. Sorry guys. *THUD* Answer "Are you guys OK?" for points towards Understanding. After wandering around a bit, trying to find an exit, you find some really screwed up room ... I love that Chie's first reaction to the room is "It's a dead end!" and not "What in the nine hells is up with this insanity room with posters with the faces torn out, paint all over the walls, and a frickin noose hanging from the ceiling?" And what does she care if he takes a piss inside some psycho room inside the telly... I mean, it's not HER room. Jeeze. After returning to the entrance, suddenly something rises up out of the fog... omg~ it's so cute, can I keep it~ Chie, what is your damaaaaaage, nothing you say ever makes sense even in conteeeeeext~ The giant talking plushie informs you that someone's been throwing people into the telly. I dunno Chie, if you threatened to fight me I'd yell at you too. Just a thought. Aweeeeeeeeeh, sad bear face. He conjures up some OG televisions and then shoves you through back to Junes. Freeeeeedooooooooom!

Yosuke realises that the faceless posters in the weird room inside the telly were of Misuzu Hiiragi, the wife of that politician dude who had an affair with the dead announcer chick. He wonders if that room is somehow connected to the announcer's death, then quickly decides he'd just rather forget today even happened. You all decide to call it a day cause too much television is bad for your health apparently. At home, Dojima informs you that Saki (Ugly Chick, who found Mayumi Announcer Chick's body) has gone missing. The news reveals that Mayumi had been staying at the inn run by Yukiko's family. You know, Chie's friend, the one who isn't annoying? Dojima has you take some cold medicine, which means you're going to sleep like the dead tonight. So off to bed we go... uhhhh... Guys? I think Inaba needs a new exterior decorator. These random corpses hung up on random places just clashes with the scenery, don'tCHA think?

Um... Red Umbrella... White Umbrella... Hey. Hey hey hey guys I was just kidding about the T-Virus infecting the telly thing. No, really, I swear ^o__o^;; At school, an assembly has been called, during which the principal informs the school that Saki's body had been found earlier this morning and the circumstances surrounding her death are currently under investigation. Well... I guess she's not missing anymore, dad. Way to do your job, Dojima. ^=__=^;; After the assembly you overhear some girls talking about how Saki's death seems to be eerily similar to what happened to Mayumi, and also that Saki had appeared on the Midnight Channel (that magical soulmate-revealing television rumour thing that gave us a migraine). Come to think of it, that girl we sort of saw on there did sort of look like her. Yosuke also seems to think it was her, and concludes that if that weird room in the telly had to do with Mayumi's death that maybe the TV world will have some clues to the circumstances of Saki's death. He wants you guys to come investigate with him, since the police wouldn't ever believe a story about there being a whole nother world accessed via jumping into televisions. By the way, none of your responses for this part matter at all, including telling Chie to go with or stop Yosuke. She still claims that you're there to stop him when you go to Junes even if you answered "Go with Yosuke." Once you get to Junes, no matter what you say you're still going in, however answer "I'm worried about Chie" for points towards Understanding (even if you don't pick this answer she still stays behind, just fyi). Yosuke hands you a golf club (don't worry, unlike future weapons you acquire you automatically equip this one) and three Medicines (restores 50HP). Bai Chie~ Have fun standing around a department store holding a rope like a weirdo. Well, there's the giant plushie again, who's not too happy to see you. Apparently he thinks you're the ones throwing people into the telly. He also tells you that when it's foggy in your world the fog clears inside the TV, and that it gets really dangerous here when that happens. He's still thoroughly convinced that you guys are the murderers, for some reason. Yosuke gets pissed off and literally tears the bear's head off... only to find that there's nothing inside. ^o__o^;; The bear then asks you to find the real murderer, and you remember what Igor told you about a contract. Well, yep, this is that contract, finding the killer, solving the mystery. Teddie says the only clue he has is the location where the last person came in (apparently Saki). He also gives both of you some glasses that makes the fog irrelevant. ... Yosuke, you just looked inside Teddie and saw that he was empty. Why are you surprised that he can't fight? Crazyface. Your face is full of crazy.

We end up in front of some sort of copy of the store Saki's family owns. As Yosuke moves to enter the store, Teddie stops you. Aaaaggghhh, sadfaced goop monsters of doooom! Dear voice inside our heads: Why do you keep giving us migraines? It is counterproductive to, well, pretty much everything. Well, welcome to your first real fight. You're alone for this cause apparently when Yosuke was acquiring a golf club for you he didn't bother getting something for himself to use. Well as promised earlier, time to talk about strengths and weakness. Most Shadows (the monsters in this game) are "normal," and therefore react the same to anything you hit them with. However, as Teddie informs you, some Shadows have weaknesses. What he doesn't tell you is that some have strengths too. So here's an example. The enemy you are fighting now, Slipping Hablerie, is weak to lightning specifically (which is convenient as that's the only magic you can even use right now). You'll notice that your battle menu has other options now as well. The one we're interested in for this explanation is Analysis. Right now if you use that it won't tell you anything at all about the enemy you are fighting. However, you often get repeats of enemies in dungeons and the stuff you use on each enemy is saved in their Analysis (or, as Teddie would say, he remembers everything you've ever used on that particular enemy) and therefore when you use Analysis on the same enemy type in the future it will tell you what attack types you've used on it and whether they were strong to it or weak or what. Now, back to this enemy. As I said, this one is weak to lightning. This means that if you hit it with any lightning spell or lightning item it will be a critical hit. Critical hits (whether via magic, special physical attack, or normal melee Attacks) knock down the enemy or enemies that they hit. This allows you to take another action instead of your turn being over as it would under normal circumstances. You can get as many "free actions" (or as the game calls them "1 more") as there are enemies on the field, but if you hit an enemy that's already down you won't get another free action from that even if you crit (unless it's a multi-target spell and also hits a non-downed target). So in this case, using Zio will down the enemy you use it on, and then in the Analysis it will show "Wk" under lightning, meaning it is weak to that specifically. The flip side to this is that enemies can also have strengths or nulls. These show up in Analysis as "Str" and "Nul" respectively (only after you use that magic on them of course). Str means that that enemy takes less damage from attacks of that type, whereas Nul means they will take zero damage from attacks of that type (when you use something they are Nul against in battle a black shield with BLOCK written on it will appear on the enemy you used it on). Another type is Rfl, which is Reflect. This causes that type of attack to not even hit the enemy at all and instead reflect the attack back at you. This could be good, bad, or irrelevant, depending on your Persona type, as your Personas each have different strengths and weaknesses, and this is not determined by their Arcana type but is instead different for each Persona. It could be bad because you might end up with a Persona that has magic that it itself is weak to so if it gets reflected you will crit against yourself, causing you to be downed. It could be irrelevant if your Persona is Str or Nul vs that magic. But it could be good because the last type is Abs, which is Absorb. This means that that Shadow or Persona absorbs whatever that magic type is, and instead of taking damage is healed by it instead (obviously this is only good if you're the one doing the absorbing).

OK, let's get on with this fight! Use Zio once on each of the balls of sad-doom to get two free actions. After that, use a regular Attack from the main battle menu on one of them to kill it. The other one will get back up and hit you but trust me, we are going to need our SP. Just use a normal attack on your next turn and it will be dead. You get two Medicines from the fight (hurray) and level up. Oh, one thing about levelling. You'll notice that the game said "You are now able to create Personas up to lv2" which, if you were listening to what I was saying before about Social Links and bonus EXP, might seem like I was lying. I wasn't though. Each Persona has a starting level, which is not lv 1. This is also the level they join you as if you "catch them in the wild" (yeah I'll quit with the Pokemon references later when Personas become a little more relevant). So if you are lv 10 you can't fuse a Persona whose starting lv is 11 or higher, however if you fuse a lv 10 Persona when you're lv 10 and it belongs to an Arcana that you have a Social Link of, then you can totally end up with a Persona that's higher level than you. The game is just talking about the starting level when it tells you what level of Persona you can fuse after you level up. Moving on. Apparently you're a teacher now for some reason. Look, I know "sensei" is used in Japanese to refer to someone who teaches you something even if they are not technically a teacher, so like if you have a math tutor you could call them Sensei, but in this scenario I have no idea why that would even be applicable. As you try yet again to enter the store, some voices start talking out of nowhere, badmouthing the store Yosuke's family owns and also badmouthing Saki. Inside the store, one voice rises above the rest. Apparently, it's Saki's dad's voice and he's really cranky that she's working at Junes. Soon, Saki's voice takes over. Apparently, she hated Yosuke cause her working at Junes made everyone hate her. I told you she was a bitch. HEY, BITCHFACE. How is it HIS fault that you CHOSE to work there?? Nobody put a gun to your head and was like, if you don't work at Junes I'll make you a literal airhead instead of the figurative one you already are. How bout you take responsibility for your own idiotic actions instead of hating on other people just cause they have a crush on you. World doesn't revolve around you, Saki. Especially now that you're dead~ She should've been happy that someone, anyone, actually thought she was attractive. ^=__=^;; OK, rant over, I promise. (at least in terms of Saki. I make zero guarantees about rants involving Chie :op ) Ha? Random questionable Yosuke voice out of nowhere? What's up with this guy? It's like watching someone argue with their reflection in a mirror. A posessed mirror. ^O__o^;; After Yosuke tells his lesser half that he's not Yosuke, Shadow Yosuke turns into... a giant camo frog? OK... well, this is what we were saving our SP for so don't hold back!

Boss: Shadow Yosuke, the Ninja Camo Frog
Skills: Winds of Oblivion (wind), Power Charge (greatly increases Attack)
Weakness: Lightning

Shadow Yosuke starts things off with a bang by hitting you with your current weakness: wind. Knocks you right on your arse. Fortunately, instead of being smart and hitting you while you're down he uses his free action to power up. Once it's your turn again it's time to repay the favour. Hit him with Zio to send him rolling onto his back. For this fight and this fight only I'll give you turn-by-turn instructions on what to do. Usually I'll just point out weaknesses, strengths, patterns, and other stuff and give you advice. Alright, with your free action use Cleave on him. Usually hitting a downed enemy with their weakness will cause them to become dizzy, resulting in them being incapacitated for 1+ turns, but this doesn't always happen and Shadow Yosuke doesn't do that at all. He now whacks you with a regular melee attack, which still hits pretty hard. Use Zio again, then use your free action to use a Medicine on yourself by choosing Item in the main battle menu. He now guards, which is his tell for using Winds of Oblivion on his next turn. As I said before, guarding will negate weaknesses, so not only will using Zio on him now do absolutely nothing to him, you can negate your weakness to wind by guarding when he guards. This attack should only do like 4 dmg to you now instead of the like 20 it hit you for the first time he used it. Zio then Cleave him again, after which he'll power up again. Zio and Cleave! He'll whack you again, but don't worry about healing this time as he is almost dead. Zio and Cleave again, then guard on the next turn to avoid his wind attack again. Yes I'm aware you're almost dead but cast Zio and Cleave again and he'll be Cajun-fried frog legs and you'll win with like 10HP left but we're not doing any more fighting today so don't worry about it. Look, I know you have Rakukaja or whatever that raises Defense but it is a really expensive spell and doesn't actually help much in this fight. Also you might be a little nervous about cutting it so close to the wire with your HP but trust me you are going to be glad later that we saved as many Medicines as possible. You might think that Zio-guard would be smarter than Zio-Cleave but this is faster and there's nothing else to fight after this so don't worry about it. Also, if you're playing on normal mode you'll have more HP left over than this but the fight is not that much different.

Huzzah, level up! For your Persona too, so you can see how the stats can increase when you level. Not all the stats increase when you level though. Usually it's only 2-3 stats that go up. Also, really quick, St is Strength, Ma is Magic, En is Endurance (like defense and also determines max HP), Ag is Agility, and Lu is Luck. After the battle, Yosuke tries to deny his Shadow again but Teddie says doing that will just make it attack again. Once Yosuke admits to his Shadow being a part of himself, he gets his own Persona. So one quick thing about Endurance that I was talking about earlier. It helps determine HP for your other party members because their HP/SP stats are linked directly to their Personas. However, they only get the one. They can't switch between them like you'll be able to once you acquire more of them. Therefore your HP/SP is related to whatever level you are, independent of the level of your currently equipped Persona, and as far as I can tell your specific Endurance stat is just defense instead of defense and HP-related. Anyway. Yosuke and Teddie theorise that maybe Saki and Mayumi died cause they were attacked by their Shadows and couldn't defend themselves. You decide to head back to Junes, but on the way back realise that since you have the power to enter the telly and you have Personas to fight with, if anyone else gets thrown into the telly there's a very good chance that you could save them before they end up being killed by their crankier halves. Teddie also tells you that you have to enter the TV world from the same place every time otherwise who knows where you'll end up. Upon returning to Junes, Chie assaults Yosuke with his useless rope and runs off crying. Cause, ya know, hitting someone in the face with a coil of rope is the best way to show them you were worried about them. On your way home you find Yukiko sitting by herself on a bench, wearing a kimono in the rain for some reason. Apparently this is what she has to wear while working at the inn. After a bit, you part ways, only to find that apparently right after you last saw her Yukiko was interviewed by the same creepy, overly-enthusiastic reporter from before about filling in as manager for her mum. Man, what kind of super-creep hits on a high schooler. And now, we finally get to access our menu. YAAAAAAAY. *switches the camera reverse on before it drives her insane*

Let's quickly go over the menu since we're finally able to use it. If you already know or don't care, just click on the link to the next page cause this is the last thing I'll be talking about on this page. First off, opening the menu will show you how much cash you currently have at the bottom-left of the screen. The first option is Skill. It will show you all of the skills of all the Personas you currently have with you in one giant long list without any separation or clue as to which skill belongs to which Persona. Currently you only have one with you so the list is pretty short (for now, DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN). When you have other people in your party their names (and lv, HP, and SP) will be listed on the left side and you can scroll between their lists using the up and down arrows. Using the X button with a name highlighted allows you to scroll through the entire list for that party member. Using the square button there will allow you to see the skill description, and using X will allow you to use that skill, if applicable. This is useful if you want to use magic to heal yourself outside of battle. And yes, I'm aware that you still only have 10 HP, however your HP and SP will automatically refill when you sleep so don't worry about it. The next option is Item, which shows you eeeeeeverything in your inventory. Consumables (like Medicine) are listed first, then quest items (they use the same icon as consumables), then Key Items like books and non-equipment/consumable presents from people, and lastly crafting materials. Right now the list is pretty barren but when you get a lot of stuff use the left and right arrow buttons to move quickly through the list, and the L1 and R1 buttons to jump between the different categories (consumables, key items, crafting materials). From here, using X on a consumable will allow you to use it on a party member while outside of battle. Next is Equip, which is used to equip weapons, armour, and accessories. The males and females in your party often wear different armour based on gender, and their weapon types are specific to them (so you always use swords, Yosuke always dual wields knife-like objects (or wrenches if he's bored I suppose), etc), but anyone can wear any accessory as long as it's not a present someone gave specifically to you (for example, sometimes Nanako makes you random presents that are actually accessories, and only you specifically can equip them). Persona allows you to check the stats, strengths and weaknesses, and EXP til next level of your party members' Personas (which is the same as the EXP til that party member's next level), and the stats, strengths and weaknesses, and EXP til next level of all of the Personas you are currently carrying (selecting your own name will take you to a list of your Personas. In that list, pressing X with a Persona highlighted will equip you with that Persona, and pressing Square with a Persona highlighted will show you the specifics for that Persona. From there you can switch between the stats of all of the Personas in the list using L1 and R1). Status for your party members is almost exactly the same as viewing their Persona. You still see their current EXP and EXP til next level, but instead of the Persona's stats you'll see their current/max HP and current/max SP. Checking on your status will show the EXP til your next level, and as I said before pressing Square when looking at your status will show you your ranks in the personality traits. Lastly, System lets you return to the title screen, configure your game options, or check your quests. Newly-acquired quests will say "New" next to them, quests you haven't discovered yet will be dark orange and say No Quest, active quests will be yellow (even if you already have the item for the quest if you haven't handed it in it is still considered active) and highlighting that quest will give you a short summary of what it is, and lastly greyed out quests are completed quests. There are 50 total quests in the game. And now, head up to bed cause it's time to sleep and to move on to the next walkthrough page.