Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Recap
The scene, which is a POV, shows an abyssal area with very little light source. A disembodied voice, which sounds like a youthful girl, echoed “It’s nice to see you again. You’re in peril once again, from the society that you vowed to protect and reform.” The POV looked down slightly, as though the viewer was mentally struggling. The disembodied voice then continued “If you wish, I can show you the events leading up to this point… Would you like to see?” The POV paused movement for a few moments, before it shook up and down in acceptance.
The scene then shifted via dark red liquid to a cinema room, with the screen before the viewer began to play…
The Recap Movie began with Ren Amamiya, who is late on returning home, intervening Masayoshi Shido forcing the woman drunkenly, before being unjustly accused for assault by the corrupt politician and, with reluctance, the woman. After attending the court on being given a probation, which his parents signed with an indifferent expression, he took a train to Tokyo to live with his parents acquaintance, Sojiro Sakura.
After being admitted into Shujin Academy, Ren went by train to the school, where he first came across Ann Takamaki, who shortly was driven to the school by the PE teacher, Suguru Kamoshida. He then encountered Ryuji Sakamoto, who at the time, unexpectedly said the keywords needed to enter the Castle of Lust on the Nav installed on Ren’s Phone. Upon entering the Palace, the two boys were detained in a cell for execution, when Ren first summoned his Persona, Arsenè, to protect Ryuji from Shadow Kamoshida’s Jack’o Lanterns.
After detaining the ‘King’ in the very cell that they were in, Ren and Ryuji proceeded to escape the dungeons, where they first met Morgana, who is also detained by Shadow Kamoshida. Seeing little choice but to accept his offer for escape, the boys freed the feline being from his cell. Shortly after that, they came across another guard, which Morgana summoned his Persona, Zoro, and fought alongside Ren and Arsenè. After reaching the Foyer, Ren and Ryuji bids Morgana goodbye, for now, before they returned to the real world.
As Ren’s first week progressed, he learned that Suguru Kamoshida is abusing students while the staff, parents and especially Principal Kobayakawa turned a blind eye, due to his success with the volleyball team. Not only that, but Ryuji, and later Ann, awakened to their Persona’s Captain Kidd and Carmen, respectively. With the threat of expulsion and being a plaything with Kamoshida, Ren, Ryuji, Ann and Morgana banded together to take Kamoshida’s Treasure to ‘Change his Heart’.
After taking the Treasure, which took the form of a crown, and defeating Shadow Kamoshida’s monstrous form, Ann had the choice to kill the Shadow, but chose to spare him instead, who promised to confess his sins as he disappeared. After escaping the collapsing Palace and waited for the day of the Expulsion Day, Suguru Kamoshida appeared before the school at the assembly and confessed to what he did, despite the principal trying to get him off the stage.
By the time that Children’s Day came, on May 5th, Ren, Ryuji, Ann and Morgana celebrated at the Wilson Hotel, where Ren, Ryuji and Morgana encountered Masayoshi Shido, who doesn’t recognise Ren. After the encounter, the group decided to form as the Phantom Thieves, with Ren as the Leader.
As they pondered on their next target, they encountered Yusuke Kitagawa, who had followed Ann after the group’s first entry into Mementos, the Public’s Palace. Upon learning that Yusuke is a pupil for the Master Artist Ichryusai Madarame, they discovered that the latter has a Palace, taking the form of an extravagant Art Museum and that he’s been using his pupils artwork as his own, with one committing suicide. Although Yusuke declined to be cooperative with the group, they decided to change Madarame’s heart to save him anyway.
Partway on making the infiltration route, Yusuke unexpectedly entered his teacher’s Palace and is forced to accept that Madarame is a fraud. Upon encountering Madarame’s Shadow, Yusuke awakened his Persona Goemon and joined the Phantom Thieves in taking Madarame’s Treasure. After taking a false Treasure, Madarame’s Shadow showed the true Treasure: The Painting ‘Sayuri’, which is actually a portrait of Yusuke’s Mother cradling her baby boy. Upon learning that Madarame left her to die to take the portrait, Yusuke now felt no sympathy for his mother’s murderer and fought Madarame’s monstrous form.
After defeating him, Madarame questioned where the ‘Black Mask’ went, but the Museum of Vanity began to collapse. After the Phantom Thieves escaped, Ren, Ryuji and Ann attended the clean up event, where Ren meets up with the first year Kasumi Yoshizawa, who displayed her athletic proficiency when she grabbed a balloon for a little girl. After agreeing to train with her in exchange for advice, they exchanged contact info as the event ended.
After Madarame’s Public Apology, Principal Kobayakawa pressured the student council president Makoto Nijima to find who the Phantom Thieves are, as Ren, Ryuji, Ann and the other second years took a trip to the TV station, where they first encountered Goro Akechi, who discredited the Phantom Thieves as a bane to society. He then encountered Ren after the shooting, who took a liking to him and exchanged contact info before they both departed.
As the Phantom Thieves pondered on their next target to counter Akechi’s claim, Makoto caught Ryuji’s and Ann’s statements and forced Ren to lead her to the group. After explaining that a Mafia group is preying on Shijun students and that she’ll give two weeks to prove their justice, they have little choice but to comply.
Although they discovered that Junya Kaneshiro is the leader of the Mafia and having confirmed he has a palace, the Phantom Thieves hit a roadblock when the palace, which is literally a UFO Bank structure, is too high to reach, even with Joker’s Grappling Hook. As they retreated to discuss how to enter the palace, Makoto, who is accosted by her own sister and Akechi, recklessly made herself bait and winds up ‘owing’ a 3 million yen debt to Kaneshiro’s Organisation along with the group.
Despite the dilemma they were in, they can now access Kaneshiro’s Palace and took Makoto along. Unfortunately, and naturally at this point, they were set up by Kaneshiro’s Guards and were surrounded at the lobby. As Kaneshiro’s Shadow taunted Makoto of her dilemma, she vents her repressed anger festering within and awakened to her Persona Johanna. After dealing with the guards and literally smashing through the front door, Makoto and the Phantom Thieves retreated for now.
Now officially and ironically joining the group, they worked their way into where Kaneshiro’s Treasure would take shape, which Makoto, whose code name is Queen, helped out with their strategy significantly. After displaying their calling cards throughout Shibuya, the Phantom Thieves fought against Shadow Kaneshiro and his mech dubbed ‘Piggytron’ (even though he hypocritically claims it’s not a pig), though even the gigantic mech isn’t enough to crush the Thieves. After explaining that another intruder is within the palaces, Shadow Kaneshiro disappeared, leaving the Phantom Thieves to grab the treasure and leave the Bank of Gluttony as it was departing from the ground.
After successfully changing Kaneshiro’s Heart, Makoto delivered her ‘accurate’ report to Principal Kobayakawa and affirmed that she’ll go to college under her own merit, before leaving the astonished and weak willed Kobayakawa to report to someone he refers to as ‘sir’.
As the Phantom Thieves got past their Finals, they attended the Fireworks Festival, when it rained out from sudden torrential rain. Shortly after, the International Hacker Group dubbed ‘Medjed’ publically challenged the Phantom Thieves and claimed they will attack Japan unless they reveal their identities to the public.
As luck would have it, a lone hacker called ‘Alibaba’ contacted Ren and offered to stop Medjed before the cleanse. After discovering that Alibaba is Futaba Sakura, Sojiro’s daughter and that she of all people has a Palace, they decided to change her heart. Despite the initial trouble with the entrance, they managed to make a mostly complete route to the treasure. After convincing Futaba herself to allow them access to the inner depths of her Palace, they proceeded to a lone sarcophagus, when they were attacked by Futaba’s twisted cognition of her mother, Wakaba Isshiki, who is in the form of a massive Sphinx.
They initially had trouble with Cognitive Wakaba, when Futaba entered her own Palace and suffered auditory and visual hallucinations from her mother’s supposed suicide. After her Shadow asked her about the suicide note and if her mother truly wrote it, she realised that she had been misled by the adults in suits and awakened Necronomicon. With the odds now shifted in their favour, Futaba and the Phantom Thieves defeated Cognitive Wakaba, which her spirit appeared and thanked her daughter for remembering her true self before departing to the Sea of Souls. After Futaba left and making a hasty retreat from the Pyramid of Wrath, the Phantom Thieves waited for Futaba to make good on their deal, which she did so on the day of The Cleanse, which is the same date as her mother’s ‘suicide’.
Although initially shy with everyone but Ren, Futaba joined the group as the Navigator, as Morgana began to question if he belongs with the others. After the School Trip to Hawaii, where Ren encountered Yoshizawa again and she meets his friends for the first time, Principal Kobayakawa died from an apparent suicide, though the Shujin Students at the assembly held no love for him.
As the group discovered that, due to the Phan Site’s poll function, Kunikazu Okumura is at the top of the rankings and that he has a Palace, they hesitated since they don’t have conclusive proof and that the Public’s Reaction to their reputation is too unsettling. Morgana, disillusioned with the group’s hesitance, left the group to deal with Okumura by himself, since he’s ’small time’.
As the group discovered that Morgana is in Okumura’s Palace, they headed there to convince him to return to the group, but find that he’s joined with a girl in musketeer attire. After departing from the Palace, they discovered that the girl is Kunikazu’s only child, Haru Okumura, but she refused to ally with them. After failing to catch them in Mementos, they caught up with them, being assaulted by a young man revealed to be Haru’s Fiancé.
Revealing that she wanted to change her father’s heart so she couldn’t be married to the horrible man The Phantom Thieves, now rejoined with Morgana, helped her with her dilemma. As they progressed through the Palace, Okumura’s Shadow appeared along with the cognition of Haru’s Fiancé and revealed that he knew of his distasteful behaviour, but is willingly to give his daughter away to secure his position in the political world. Now angry that her father views her as a mere stepping stone, she awakened to her Persona Milady and defeated her Cognitive Fiancé.
After securing a route to the treasure, the Phantom Thieves proceeded to take it after sending the calling card, which Kunikazu had it delivered to the police. Much to the group’s irritation, especially Skull’s, Shadow Okumura did a little ‘Keep Away’ with the Treasure and activated the Palace’s Self-Destruct to annihilate them. After catching up with Okumura and escaping a trap from his facade, they fought his groups of robots and even his cognition of his own daughter, which the real one finished off with a crushing slam from her axe. Although Kunikazu’s Shadow isn’t the one orchestrating the mental shutdowns, he knows who is, but the Palace began to collapse before he could. After taking the treasure, the Phantom Thieves left the Station of Greed, unaware that the Black Mask intruder assassinated Okumura’s Shadow.
As he waited for the change of heart, Ren picked up Kasumi’s Charm she bought back in Hawaii, which he messaged her through chat message. After receiving a call from her after last period, he and Morgana headed to Odaiba, where they wind up in a Palace they’ve never been before. Worried for her safety, they proceeded into the Palace, where they witnessed Kasumi awakening to her Persona Cendrillon. After defeating the Shadows, they escaped the Unknown Palace, where Morgana, now fully understood by Yoshizawa, offered her to join the Phantom Thieves. Despite rejecting the offer (much to Morgana’s surprise) she promised to keep their identities safe. She then gave Morgana a gentle pet and hugged Ren in thanks for coming to her aid, before they went to their homes for the day.
On the day the deadline arrived, the Phantom Thieves celebrated at Destinyland, when Okumura suffered a ‘Mental Shutdown’ on live television, horrifying the group and Haru especially. Things go from bad to worse when the public suddenly turned on the group and the SIU is on the case to capture them; although they planned to get some intel from Akechi, whose stance on the group coincidentally softened, he showed incriminating footage that got them little choice but to work with him.
At his suggestion, they went into Sae Nijima’s Palace to change her heart so the investigation team would back off. After successfully defeating Shadow Sae’s monstrous form, they just took the treasure when an immense police force appeared. Knowing that one of them needs to be a diversion, Joker opted to take the position before he split from the group. Upon being surrounded by guards, Kasumi appeared and helped him out, before she told him about their promise and left as suddenly as she appeared. Although the rest of the Phantom Thieves managed to escape the Casino of Envy, Joker was detained by the police force.
After being injected and beaten, Ren is interrogated by Sae Nijima, who slowly realises with talking to Ren that he isn’t the one inducing the Mental Shutdowns, but Goro Akechi is the true culprit. After avoiding the assassination attempt with a complex plan involving Sae’s Palace, Ren rejoined his team with Sae as their new ally. Weeks until the elections, the group discovered that the orchestrator behind the Mental Shutdowns is Diet Member Masayoshi Shido, who is also the one that ruined Ren’s life. Clear that he is the target, the Phantom Thieves infiltrated Shido’s Palace to save Japan from his regime.
They encountered Akechi in the Palace, who revealed that he’s the illegitimate son of Shido and is planning to kill him for revenge for his mother’s death, before he attacked the group. Despite being a difficult opponent, the group managed to beat him and convinced him to realise his errors. After Shido’s Cognitive Akechi showed up and revealed that he was nothing but a mere pawn to Shido’s plans, Akechi shot the button that closed the bulkhead doors, separating him from the others before they heard two shots.
Believing that he had perished, the Phantom Thieves completed their infiltration route and sent out Futaba’s ‘Futaba Cannon’, exposing Shido on live TV before they confronted his Shadow. Although the fight is difficult, even with Joker facing him alone, the group successfully defeated Shido, before they escaped the Ship of Pride, with a scary moment that Skull had died in the escape before showing up relatively harmless, though he was harshly beaten by by the girls.
Despite their success, the Public’s belief in Shido went even deeper as the Phantom Thieves were barely recognised. Certain that Mementos is the key, they went to the depths to take the treasure, where they discovered that the public is under the sin of Sloth and that the Treasure is a massive goblet-like shape named ‘The Holy Grail’. They were then ejected from Mementos and witnessed the real world merge with Mementos, before they disappeared from the public’s eyes.
Although he was trapped in the Velvet Room and about to be executed by Caroline and Justine by Igor’s orders, Ren rebelled and took the twins attacks, before they realised that they are one and the same. After using the Velvet Guillotine on them, they merged into their true form: Lavenza. She then exposed ‘Igor’ as the being named Yaldabaoth, who orchestrated the events for his selfish ‘game’, before he fled to continue the merge as the true Igor returned to the Velvet Room. After reuniting with the other Thieves and Morgana, who is made by Igor as the embodiment for people’s Hope, the Phantom Thieves proceeded to the merged world to confront Yaldabaoth.
As they struggled to beat the ‘god’, the public became aware of the merge and the group’s efforts to defend them. Spurred on by Mishima and Ren’s Confidants, the public’s belief became so strong that Joker’s Arsenè evolved in Satanael, who not only blocked Yaldabaoth’s attack easily, but executed him with Sinful Shell. After the ‘god’s’ defeat, the cognitive world began to disappear, along with Morgana, who tearfully bids his friends farewell.
After departing from Shibuya, Sae approached Ren and explained that his statement is needed to charge Shido for his crimes, but that he will be detained as well. Before he could reply, Akechi surprisingly appeared and took the offer, which Sae accepted and then proceeded to conclude the case.
Upon the day after New Years, Ren joined with Kasumi to pray at the shrine, when their friends arrived shortly after, but Ren was perplexed that they were talking about subjects they didn’t have. Also, when he met Yoshizawa’s father for the first time, who almost immediately took a liking to him, he heard a distortion when Kasumi’s Father called her by her first name.
On top of that, the young man in Cafe Leblanc is revealed to be a humanised Morgana and that Wakaba Isshiki, who was deceased, is perfectly alive. When Akechi appeared, now having a deadpan expression, he talked with Ren about the inconsistencies before concluding that the world is distorted. After Kasumi alerted her senpai about an anomaly in Odaiba, Ren and Akechi went to Odaiba to meet up with Kasumi, where they saw the Unknown Palace in clear view. Now certain that the ruler is the cause of the world’s distortion, the trio entered the palace, where Kasumi is astonished with Akechi’s true sadistic behaviour.
Upon encountering the Palace Ruler, who is none other than the councillor and friend of Ren, Doctor Takuto Maruki, he reveals that ‘Kasumi’ is actually her sister Sumire, who refused to be herself and is captured by Maruki’s Guard, who is taken down by Joker’s and Crow’s improvised Showtime. After setting the date for their next encounter, Ren and Akechi went their different ways with the former convincing his friends of their personal distortions.
Seemingly failed to convince his friends, Ren and Akechi returned to Maruki’s Palace at the chosen date, where they refused his ‘sanction’. Unfortunately, Sumire, desperate to not return to being without her deceased sister, attacked Joker as Crow backed off, not wishing to kill her. Maruki, upon seeing Sumire defeated, summoned tendrils and caused Cendrillon to go berserk. As Joker and Crow, disgusted with the doctor’s ‘salvation’, struggled with the battle, the rest of the Phantom Thieves appeared and shifted the odds. After freeing Sumire, who is unconscious, Maruki sets the time for their next encounter as the group left the Palace.
After much discussion with each other and meeting Lavenza in Shujin’s Nurse’s Office, they agreed to change Maruki’s heart with Akechi’s help; Sumire joined shortly after, inspired by the group’s undaunted decision, and is dubbed ‘Violet’ by Joker. As they worked on the infiltration route, including heading to a remade Mementos to clear an obstruction in the Palace, Ren and Sumire slowly grew closer until the latter confesses her love for him. After reciprocating the same way, they became a couple, but chose to keep it secret from the others.
After finishing the route, they gave the calling card to Maruki, who admits that Akechi’s status in the real world is unknown and accepted the imminent fight. The Phantom Thieves confronted Maruki in the Laboratory of Sorrow, who fought with his Persona Azathoth and later Adam Kadmon, before being defeated by a well placed shot from Joker’s Handgun. While escaping from the disappearing world, Maruki tried to stop the group from leaving, which Joker confronted him and, with their powers lost, hit each other at Maruki’s request. As he fell from the platform, Ren caught him in the wrist, not wanting to lose a good friend, which moved Maruki enough to see how his Sorrow almost got the whole to not move on.
Upon returning to their true reality, the rest of the Phantom Thieves discovered that Akechi is still gone and Ren is in prison for the statement against Shido. Seeking to get him free, they and Ren’s Confidants worked to get him out, which is successful. On the day of his return to his hometown, Ren took a lift with a reformed Maruki as the Phantom Thieves acted as a diversion. As Ren and Morgana were on the platform, they encountered Sumire, who is there to see her boyfriend off before they shared a kiss. As she left, Ren and Morgana went in to their seats, barely missing someone looking like Akechi passing the window before the train departs.
Months later, Ren joined his friends for the Summer Holidays, save for Sumire, who is out of the country to make her late sister’s wishes come true, when they wind up tackling some Change of Hearts similar to their methods. Upon accessing the Metaverse via an app named EMMA, Ren, Morgana and Ryuji encounter a girl named Sophie, an AI designed to be humanity’s companion. Along with the others, they also encountered a Public Security Investigator named Zenkichi Hasegawa, who offers to protect them in exchange for solving incidents cropping around the state.
Although they initially declined, they accepted after changing their first target, which the police force are more convinced that the Change of Hearts are their doing. After getting some transportation, they managed to change the hearts of two more targets. The Phantom Thieves were then caught in the trap, save for Oracle, who ironically her lack of exercise saved her from being trapped. After informing Zenkichi, they returned to the Jail, where the Monarch, who is Zenkichi’s daughter Akane, scolded him for his past actions. Upon accepting with his past behaviour and renewing his resolve, he awakened to his Persona Valjean, before wiping out the guards and freeing the Phantom Thieves.
After changing Akane’s heart, the group traveled to Konoe’s Jail, who despite giving a good fight, is defeated and confessed on live TV. Even so, the EMMA app activated by itself and the Phantom Thieves confronted the creator of EMMA, Kuon Ichinose, who also created Sophie but discarded her. Resisting the reprogramming attempt due to her time with the Phantom Thieves, Sophie’s Persona transformed into Pandora. Upon encountering the core of EMMA, revealing itself as the Demiurge, Oracle and Ichinose helped to expose the Demiurge's weak points and defeat the threat once and for all.
As the Summer Holidays draws to a close, Ren and the other Phantom Thieves took a group photo before they depart in their seperate ways. As Ren and Morgana took the train home, the former got a message from Sumire, who asked if he’s okay and promised to comfort him if he isn’t. With a gentle smile, Ren exchanged messages with his girlfriend as Morgana noticed with a smug grin.
The Recap Movie finished, the camera revealed a beaten up Ren Amamiya, like he’d been from the unjust interrogation, who saw the same glowing butterfly flitting before him. The voice, who he recognised as Lavenza’s, explained “Trickster… My Trickster… You are going up against unfair odds yet again… But I sense a strong power accompanying you to your destination.” The butterfly landed on Ren’s right palm, before it continued “You must stay alert, fellow Trickster… You must…” Ren then heard something whisper in his ear “WAKE UP.”