Foreshadowing / Persona 5

Persona 5 foreshadows many of its plot points, whether subtly or overtly, and here's a list of examples. Beware of unmarked spoilers!

The Traitor

• Despite his appearance on the main poster and the cover of the game, he's the only Phantom Thief who doesn't appear in the opening of the original game (though Royal prominently features him and Kasumi, in addition to more frequently showing Makoto, Futaba and Haru).
  • On the title screens of both the vanilla game and Royal, Crow is always in the back of the group and keeps a noticeable distance from everyone else, to the point that he's hard to spot on some screens.
• Royal introduces a new retro game, Featherman Seeker. It starts off with the premise of the player character training to become the Sixth Ranger of the Feathermen. However, it's later revealed that the player character is actually a monster created by the evil organization to destroy the Feathermen. At the last moment, the player character sacrifices himself to save the Feathermen... exactly like what Akechi ended up doing.
  • Furthermore, the leader of the evil group is known as "Alya", the other name of the star Theta Serpentis. The Gnostic Yaldabaoth is represented by a serpent with the head of a lion. Her last words is to lament that she created Gray Pidgeon from a human because she doesn't believe they have a sense of justice anymore, something that's similar to Yaldabaoth's pessimistic views about humanity's capability for change. Sure that, Akechi is a pawn of Yaldabaoth's "game".
• After defeating Shadow Madarame, he warns you about another Metaverse user on the loose. The party then goes to the TV station field trip, where Akechi overhears the group discussing pancakes by the hallway. Except it was Morgana who said it, and only those who have been to the Metaverse can understand him, indicating that he's been spying on the Phantom Thieves when they were dealing with Madarame. Just like Akechi, Madarame also happens to have ties with Shido, namely fundraising his campaign with Sayuri forgeries.
• Around the time of Kaneshiro's Palace, there's a cutscene in which Akechi comes across Makoto, seemingly by chance, and takes it as an excuse to be needlessly snide and insulting to her, calling her a "good girl type of pushover", despite being very polite and charming in his previous appearances. It's an early indication that Akechi is a lot more two-faced than he's initially presented as being.
• At one point, you have the option to respond to his statement that Joker and his friends are suspicious by saying that he's the suspicious one. For a second, Akechi freezes up in shock before laughing it off. For a moment, he may have thought the Phantom Thieves were on to him and panicked before realizing Joker was being sarcastic.
• Shortly before the climax of the fifth Palace, Kawakami comments during a lesson on the danger of crows — cunning creatures who shouldn't be underestimated.
• The library carries books on the Persona of each party member as they join, including Arsene, the protagonist's original Persona. You can never check out a book on Robin Hood. ^NoteThis one is downplayed, as Robin Hood's book is actually in the game, as "The Hero With a Bow", but is Dummied Out due to a programming error, and was eventually made available in Royal.
• In Vanilla's version of the chat program, everyone's icon is a color of the rainbow (protagonist's is red) except Akechi's, which is a shade of gray. In Royal the icon is more brown matching his trench coat, still not matching the rainbow, but showing he's on the lighter side in this game.
• Just like Shadow Madarame, Shadow Kaneshiro makes remarks that there's another Metaverse-user running around. Shadow Kaneshiro also warns the Phantom Thieves that 'a chance encounter with them may prove fatal.' Sure enough, encountering them does prove fatal in the Bad Ending.
• Akechi claims that he awakened his Persona off-screen while confronted by Okumura's killer. Off-screen awakening has never happened in the story before. Even Haru, who did awaken her Persona off-screen, couldn't actually summon it until she joined up with the Phantom Thieves.
• In Royal, the voiceover for the "I am thou, thou art I" screen when you establish the Confidants of Akechi or either of the Royal-exclusive characters (Maruki and Kasumi) sounds noticeably slower. This indicates that they are integral to the new scenarios.
• In Royal, during Akechi's rank 8 Confidant which can only be done after he joins the party, his voicework is subtly more sinister than normal, and at the end he outright tells you to your face that he hates you for all of your talents. While Akechi might not exactly hate you to some extent, this acts as a glimpse at his true personality, and it foreshadows Akechi's great inferiority complex.
  • During said scene, Akechi pulls a gun on Joker to provoke him into a duel. Instead of his usual sidearm, said gun is a silenced pistol - the same kind of gun used by the Game-Over Man when you fail to complete a Palace within the time limit.
• This even extends to the costume DLC. In the Raidou set, he gets the clothes of General Munakata - one of the game's main antagonists. In the Persona 2 set, he's the only one wearing the uniform of Kasugayama High - a reform school. In the SMT if... set, he gets Ideo Hazama's clothes. In the Catherine set, he wears Thomas Mutton (Dumuzid)'s white tie suit.
• In a very subtle bit of Gameplay and Story Integration, you can't ever Itemize equipment that's exclusive to Akechi in the Vanilla game.
• The first time you enter Sae's Palace, Akechi comes up with the codename Karasu for himself (before the other Thieves decide Crow suits their aesthetics better since none of them have Japanese-sounding codenames). Ryuji asks if his outfit is all black, which Akechi denies and affirms it's white. It's not until later that we learn Ryuji was technically right on the money and that Akechi's white outfit was nothing but a facade.
• The entire "Russian Takoyaki" incident during the School festival is one big case of this. Akechi, trying to intimidate the thieves, takes one of their takoyaki, not realizing that it's incredibly spicy. However, it's later revealed that the thieves were one step ahead of him, knowing his entire plan in advance, and coming up with their own counter-plan to it. Much like the Takoyaki, the Phantom Thieves unexpectedly proved to be too spicy for Akechi to handle.
• At the school festival, Akechi confronts the Phantom Thieves and speaks of the criminal who killed Okumura and framed them for this death, while also blackmailing them into a deal where they must work together and then disband afterward. The whole time it looks like they have no choice but to go along with it, but there are subtle hints that the Phantom Thieves have their own plan and are using Akechi's trap against him.
  • Immediately after Akechi and the group left after the confrontation, Joker stays behind with Morgana, who wonders why he's doing so. Then the scene begins to white out, and it appears as if the two are talking, but nothing can be heard. This is where Morgana brings up that this can't be the first time Akechi's heard his voice, due to how he reacted during the confrontation just now, and that the whole thing feels sketchy, with Joker agreeing 100%. They immediately get the whole group in on this as well.
  • Joker and Morgana ask Futaba for a favor, before the scene whites out again. This favor is bugging Akechi's phone, which she accomplishes by grabbing it and pretending to geek out at the model, while the group pretend to be exasperated.
  • When Akechi informs the Phantom Thieves that he would like to trigger a change-in-heart in Sae Niijima, the entire group is noticeably subdued and calm the whole time. They already knew about her Palace beforehand, at least to some degree, and they similarly are fine with Akechi's unusual request to deliver the calling card on a specific day, as opposed to when Joker decides. Lastly, the day that the calling card is sent to Sae, after the group has met up with Akechi, the Phantom Thieves are seen talking together without Akechi present.
  • In the calendar menu there’s a date for when the calling card will be sent for Sae, however on the day after there’s another date called "Plan Execution Date", which has no context since Joker's memory is hazy at this point.
  • After beating Shadow Sae, Ryuji and Yusuke go to grab the treasure while Makoto talks to her sister's Shadow, with Akechi and the rest of the group remaining behind; the former two later come back with a briefcase. Because this is Akechi's first time seeing their methods in action, he doesn't know that the briefcase isn't standard, and that the thing is a fake while they left Sae's Treasure untouched for their plan.
• During the third term, when you first meet Maruki in the laboratory and defeat his underling, he will tell Joker and Akechi that they are one of the people he wished to save. When you go send the Calling Card to Maruki a month later, he will tell you that Akechi is in some sort of degree, manipulated by Maruki's actualization. Sure enough, Akechi vanished in the true reality after Maruki's fall and you're back to Juvie, although if you chose to fulfill his promise, you'll see what appears to be him walking alongside two other men at the end of the credits, although his face is obscured and he leaves the protagonist's view before he could turn around to see him.
• In Royal, each party member will start visiting the Thieves' Den after joining the thieves. The sole exception to this is Akechi, who doesn't appear even when he teams up with the thieves in Sae's Palace; he's planning to backstab them and Joker knows he isn't actually allied with the thieves. Akechi only starts visiting once he properly joins the thieves during the Third Semester.

The Conductor

• Right before you even start the game, Igor will ask you (referring directly to the player) to sign a contract agreeing that everything that happened in Persona 5 is a work of fiction. While other games feature similar spiel, this one is unique that it's interactable, and if you say no, he will ask that you leave and boot you directly to the main menu. This is because "Igor" is an impersonation by Yaldabaoth, and he boots the player out because he thinks they know almost everything that happens in Persona 5 is a sham set up by him.
  • More importantly, if you agree to the disclaimer, "Igor" flat out states that the "ruin" cannot be avoided, hinting that he never actually expected you to win.
• A school lesson in November discusses what each suit of cards represents, noting that the 'hearts' suit represents the Holy Grail, which turns out to be the first form of the Final Boss.
• When you first meet Igor, he says, "Welcome to my Velvet Room" instead of "Welcome to the Velvet Room".
• He is never shown fusing Personas, always leaving the dirty work to Justine and Caroline — who, as Velvet Room residents, would know how to fuse Personas in a pinch.
• In this game, the Velvet Room takes the form a prison, representing the predicament the protagonist finds himself in. This stands out next to the forms it took in the previous 2 games^note An elevator and a limousine, respectively, which instead symbolized the protagonists' means of overcoming the obstacles they faced and completing their journey. Indeed, the false Igor in this game does not want to help Joker escape or improve his situation, but has instead rigged things so that no matter what happens, Joker remains trapped.
• He's extremely vague about what the protagonist's "rehabilitation" actually entails, and dodges the question every time you try to ask him to clarify. Unlike Igor he's also very enthusiastic on what you are doing, while the real one doesn't outright comment on the stuff you do, lest he be expressing any form of compliment on them.
• He actively participates during in-game events, while the real Igor is a mere observer and never presents any form of direct participation towards them.
  • One such example is at Rank 8 of the Twin Wardens Confidant, Igor asks them if something is the matter, and if the prisoner is too much for them to handle, which is an unusual amount of participation from him, since Igor never comments on his attendants' activities.
  • Another example is that he has a Confidant in the first place; Igor never builds any social link with his contractees on his own and encourages you to build links with other people.
• In the game over messages, Igor generally laments your demise. In this game, Igor mocks you and calls your end "foolish".
• Caroline and Justine's hats both have every other letter of the word "OXYMORON", symbolizing that they, like the protagonist himself, are also prisoners of the Velvet Room.
• Caroline and Justine don't treat you any better than people around the streets unlike other Velvet Room attendants who are polite and warm to their guests. Instead, they seem to treat you like a dangerous criminal just like them. Even later on where they open up, they are still naturally snarky and passive-aggressive, much unlike their siblings. Of course, Yaldabaoth impersonated Igor and forced them to act that way for the sake of his wicked "game". Once the Twins are restored as Lavenza, she's a polite and amiable person just like the other attendants.
• In the last Confidant event with the Twin Wardens, they were gripped with the remembrance of something, due to their fusion requests. This is probably to make them remember of the Grimore that the Velvet Attendants have, as well as the fact that they or "Igor" did not create the fusion list.
• The Velvet Key, something the protagonist of every Persona game since Persona 3 gets upon their first visit to the Velvet Room, is never given to the protagonist by Igor. Instead it's given by Lavenza (though it's called the "Cell Key" in this game) on the last day of the game as the Friendship Trinket for maxing out the Strength Confidant.
  • Similarly, there's a component of Igor's usual introductory spiel that's notably missing: his request that the protagonist take responsibility for his actions. (This is so Joker can basically go around privately fighting reprehensible criminals with no accountability whatsoever for a while.) A moment like this does occur, but it's when the police force Joker into signing a confession, which happens chronologically 2/3's of the way through the game, since that's exactly when you will actually have to take responsibility in several decisions that will determine if your life is forfeit, or if you escape the interrogation in one piece, but you're allowed to re-consider (or any other choice that would cause a bad ending) if you chose the wrong dialogue options, unlike in 3 or 4 where any decision to take a bad ending route is final.
  • In fact, while Igor still says that the Velvet Room can only be entered by those who have entered a contract, Joker never signs any form of contract with him at all. Only the player does.
• Right before the arc where the Conspiracy starts using how the Phantom Thieves supposedly declared victory against "Medjed" to frame the Phantom Thieves of false charges, Igor will warn Joker of an incoming overconfidence trap, followed immediately with the Phan-Site poll (Asking if the Phantom Thieves are just) visibly increasing two-fold. The vice versa happens after the arc ends with Okumura's assassination and the public celebrating his death, where Igor warns Joker of a "contingency" and then the poll starts nose-diving instantly right after his speech, with the public suddenly considering the Phantom Thieves as murderers and the SIU taking action to capture the Thieves for false crimes to reflect the changes. It's implied that this is because the cognition-warping from Yaldabaoth already snowballed since the end of the fake Medjed/Futaba heist.
• Unlike other bad endings, if the protagonist happens to be killed by Akechi because he sold out his teammates, the Velvet Room doesn't vanish. Instead, Igor confines his soul in the Velvet Room for the rest of his life and tells him to stay there to repent his actions. Of course, the Velvet Room has been sealed inside the Depths of Mementos, so it would obviously remain even if the protagonist has damned himself.
• Ever since the protagonist was put on probation after trying to stop Shido from harassing a woman, every other person seems to treat him as a really dangerous criminal, most notably at the start of the game where even Sojiro and Kawakami (who warm up a lot after a month or two) didn't hold him in a high regard. When the Phantom Thieves transverse to the Depths of Mementos to free the public near the end of the game, the inmates repeatedly make mentions of a Quarantine Cell where supposedly a very dangerous criminal who can destroy all social order is held. That's actually the Velvet Room and the inmate is the protagonist himself; it's heavily implied that a part of the distortions were Yaldabaoth changing the public's cognition to make them literally think that he is a dangerous criminal who can disrupt the order of society, all for the sake of his own amusement.
• When the Phantom Thieves attempt to find the keywords to Madarame's Palace, the first two distortions that they guess his shack is (after trying "castle" again) are "prison" and "jail". Turns out that's exactly what's at the bottom of the Depths of Mementos.
• If you paid attention to the dialogue of the people who supported Shido in his political campaign close to election day, they don't have much valid reasoning behind it. All you hear from them are something among the lines of "I just felt like choosing him" or "there's no other candidate but Shido". Of course, this isn't ordinary political gesturing, Yaldabaoth was already brainwashing them to prove a point.
• The public response for the protagonist (supposedly) committing suicide in the interrogation room is quite...jarring. Despite the leader of the Phantom Thieves being a criminal of Tokyo-wide fame, it doesn't appear to arouse anything from them other than a cover story, and they quickly shrug it off and turn all their attention to Shido. As mentioned above and below, this isn't normal, and the conductor is making himself more and more visible over time.
• For such a politician that supposedly everybody worships, one might think that a grandiose broadcasting hijack directed against him and his public confession of how terrible he is as a person on TV should ring any red alarms amongst people who saw them happen, be it revolt, disgust, or whatever reaction that could be applied against the Phantom Thieves or Shido. However, this doesn't happen — instead, nobody seems to care or even talk about something this level of jarring (bar occasional remarks of the hijack being petty slander). This did not come from Shido, and the implication was Yaldabaoth is already engineering apathy amongst the masses.
• During an SNS message discussion among the Phantom Thieves, Futaba had been wondering if Shido has been brainwashing the public, and every other Phantom Thief member believed that it was possible considering that Shido's followers and supporters looked like a cult on a party, the media has been talking about him 24/7 and many people don't really have any real reasons to support him other than they didn't think for themselves. On another SNS message near election day, Makoto suggests that Shido can't possibly pull off this scale of brainwashing on his own and something else must be behind it. She's correct in the most horrible fashion possible.
• In every instance where a major target gets their hearts changed by getting their material treasure stolen (which means Futaba, whose treasure is herself doesn't count), they become apathetic weeping husks who don't do anything to atone save for begging for mercy or the police to apprehend them. This isn't how Changes of Heart are supposed to work, although the Thieves' first few targets all had the same reaction so they believed it was normal behavior and they were encouraged to go on basically privately executing reprehensible criminals this way. It turns out that instead of returning to the Sea of Souls (as intended), the Prison of Regression redirects the target's Shadows back into it, converting them into ambitionless members of the general public. The Changes of Hearts that the Thieves do pull out against the minor Mementos targets and the targets in Strikers, however, are portrayals of Changes of Heart that are done correctly.
• If you hear very closely, when you first meet the Grail in the Depths of Mementos, his voice is almost identical to Igor's (a deep and raspy voice), but with added echo effects. This isn't a coincidence.
• Having been sentenced to death by Igor, Joker rebels and summons his Phantom Thief clothes inside the Velvet Room. The Phantom Thief garb only appears when the ruler of a Metaverse location considers you a threat, and also is supposed to protect the person from distortions/being blinded by illusions, metaphorical or otherwise. Joker refusing to lay down and die means he's no longer "just" a prisoner of the Velvet Room; he's now a threat to its master. Igor would never see a Wild Card he's chosen as a threat, so it's virtually Glamour Failure on Yaldabaoth's part - and Joker refusing to go along with "Igor"'s command means he's no longer blind to the truth directly in front of him.
• Pay attention to the cylindrical floor and wall tiles in The Prison of Regression, they have a butterfly mark on it. If you clear a tile puzzle whose activation panel has exactly one of those marks, all of the tiles become blue and interacting with panel a second time will make the butterfly mark glow in a blue light as well. Additionally, if you break a container there, blue butterflies fly out from the container, and said container looks like a cage. This is a very good hint that its true master has compromised the Velvet Room (which is symbolized by blue butterflies) as his base of operations, and turned it into a prison for the most dangerous threats against him.
  • Related to the tile puzzles, they themselves are a hint as to the machinations of the Prison's ruler. Many puzzles are considered games in their own right, whether small or big... just as he observed the "adventure" Joker and company went on as a game, for his own amusement.
  • As for the containers, the most common things given are prison-related items. It seems obvious given the prison setup, but humanity aren't the only ones imprisoned in the Depths of Mementos... the Velvet Room is as well, along with its attendant(s), who's played the role of prison warden(s) for the entire game.
• After Akechi's true nature has been revealed, he does an interview during the time of Shido's Palace, but has an internal monologue about how with the Metaverse Navigator, and the Persona "bestowed upon him by the gods", he's eliminated anyone in his way. Before fighting him in his Black Mask form, Akechi also screams about how his power has been granted by "a God or a Demon". This hints to the major endgame reveal of how Akechi was chosen by the false Igor as part of a 'game', to incite chaos and distortion across the world, while the Protagonist would do the exact opposite.
• During December 23 (Before the Master of Mementos reveals his true identity), Morgana makes a comment saying that if there's a god he must be too harsh on the protagonist. Sure enough, a God (Or a very powerful Shadow, for a more appropriate term) was instigating everything to let the protagonist taste despair and to shoehorn his totalitarian rule as the sole solution of the public's sheer ignorance which he manufactured on his own.
• During a side scene where you bring the Twins to a confessional in Royal, they think that the confession booth is a guillotine to chop them into pieces. You end up doing that to them near the old climax in the game, reverting them back to Lavenza to stop Yaldabaoth.
• And of course, the most obvious giveaway is that his voice is drastically different from the real Igor. This could be chalked up to Igor's original Japanese voice actor having passed away, but the real Igor sounds much more like himself when he returns (or, in the original Japanese, is played by recycled voice clips of his original actor).

Morgana

• Shortly after awakening to your Persona powers, Igor mentions 'Palaces' during a conversation of the Metaverse Navigator. Some time later, Morgana calls them by the same name, which seems like a coincidence. It's not; Morgana was created by the real Igor just as the Velvet Room was being taken over, and therefore already knew the term - even through his latter amnesia - rather than having made it up.
• Morgana believes that his true form is human, reasoning that he's been turned into a cat because of distortions from a Palace ruler. But the entire point of Personas is to protect their owners from those distortions. As Morgana possesses a Persona, he should never have been affected by them. Turns out he was never human to begin with, but a Velvet Room resident created by Igor to guide Joker.
• Just as Morgana is about to lose consciousness, unable to see Haru standing over him, he wonders who's there before unconsciously asking "Master?" (something he later doesn't remember saying). This master is the real Igor.
• Morgana's color scheme is primarily blue and gold/yellow just like most other residents of the Velvet Room.
• While humans need a catalyst to summon a Persona - an Evoker, a Tarot Card, a literal Mask - Velvet Room attendants don't require such; they simply summon them, as Morgana does.

Kasumi

• At the second day of the game, Sojiro would talk about a 15-year-old girl who died in a massive traffic incident. Kasumi is 15 years old in the game's setting.
• During the first hangout with Kasumi at the field trip, the name on Kasumi's student handbook said "Kasumi Yoshizawa". Sounds normal, but the protagonist already noticed something was off about it. It turns out that "Kasumi Yoshizawa" was the name of the dead girl above and this one is Sumire Yoshizawa, whose cognition Maruki warped to make her think that she is "Kasumi" until he could find a better solution. Since Maruki never directly changed the cognition of anyone that "Kasumi" knew, the protagonist was actually wondering if he actually saw a dead person. Furthermore, if you have a very sharp eye, you can actually see that the photo on the notebook is those of a girl with brown hair, something that doesn't match the "Kasumi" you saw (Sumire), but the real Kasumi has brown hair.
• "Kasumi" almost always displays contradictory behavior in her routines or mood during most of her subsequent hangouts with the protagonist. Despite supposedly being a cheerful and happy honor student and an uncontested gymnast, she's almost always in a downer mood when you go see her, is prone to apologizing (sometimes even apologizing when people told her that she doesn't need to apologize), and she's lost gymnastics or cannot perform complex moves because it felt like that she wasn't herself or her body wasn't hers to begin with. Just because Sumire thinks that she's Kasumi and is going around calling herself that, doesn't mean that she actually is, and in fact she still subconsciously acts as if she were Sumire. The following is a detail of the oddities featured in these hangouts:
  • In Kasumi's Rank 2 Confidant, there are multiple leaks that indicate something about Kasumi (Sumire) is horribly amiss, including the aforementioned downer mood and the feeling of not acting like as if she were herself. However, pay attention to the wording she uses when Kasumi was describing her ordeals to Joker:
    • Kasumi said that one of the reasons why she can't act like herself, is because she was growing taller. In January 2, moments before the real Kasumi died, one of the things she told Sumire was exactly that.
    • When she describes to Joker that her coach told her "Kasumi's greatest weapon was always her boldness", it was worded exactly like that instead of "Your greatest weapon was always your boldness". Her coach never recognized "Kasumi" aka Sumire as Kasumi to begin with.
  • In Kasumi's Rank 3 Confidant, she prepares a bento for Joker that looked awful but otherwise tasted fine. (Her Bento, which she made for herself has no issues). This was actually one of the abnormalities resulted by Sumire reacting to a mind who believed that she was Kasumi. Much later on, when the party checks out one of the flashbacks in Maruki's Palace, Sumire (while being addled by Maruki's Actualization) did say that Kasumi cannot cook, but Sumire in that event says that she can despite being affected by the same power.
  • In her Rank 4 Confidant, Kasumi picks glasses with Joker for her father only to pick joke glasses in a fit of indecisiveness. Sumire naturally is a very indecisive and clumsy person unlike Kasumi, who was a lot more sharper and perceptive. True that, in her Rank 8 confidant hangout, she picks an absolutely atrocious outfit to show off.
    • After Kasumi and Joker leave the optics shop she also tells him that she was having anxiety issues, something that Kasumi doesn't have, but Sumire most definitely does.
  • In her Rank 5 hangout, Kasumi tells Joker that she likes going to the batting cages, but unlike how she's supposed to be, she misses not one, not two but six balls in a row despite clearly focusing. Sumire's reflexes are naturally not as great as Kasumi's.
  • Last but not least in a story based hangout, Joker has lunchtime with Kasumi, who tells him that her younger sister died in a traffic accident. Later on, we learn that her sister's name was Sumire. It turns out that Sumire didn't die, and the victim of that accident is actually Kasumi herself, who looks slightly different from the "Kasumi" that the protagonist knows (Sumire). A part of the actualization effect Maruki casted on Sumire is making her think that Sumire died.
• "Kasumi"'s awakening goes entirely unlike the other Persona users; there's no struggle to remove her mask, no blood from ripping it off, then a pink overlay forms on her body and grants her Phantom Thief clothing like a Magical Girl transformation. This is for a good reason, beyond being a Shout-Out to her Persona Cendrillon; it's a fake awakening scene. Her true awakening is done exactly like the others, namely via the struggle and blood seen after ripping off her mask.
• Cendrillon as a Persona also foreshadows "Kasumi"'s true identity. The story of a servant who gets the chance to become a princess is similar to how Sumire always felt like she was in her sister's shadow, and assumed her identity.
• If you pay sharp attention to dialogue involving "Kasumi":, almost no one other than "Kasumi" herself, the protagonist in his dialogue options, and Futaba at one point ever refers to her by her given name, with everyone including Morgana (who was not present when you meet Kasumi) calling her "Yoshizawa-san".
  • To add, Futaba's mentioning of it is a Dub-Induced Plot Hole, as she does not say this in the Japanese version.
  • When Maruki's spell begins to affect the populace, the protagonist can see that her father is calling her "%@re...," implying "Sumire." It turns out that other people still call "Kasumi" as Sumire if they know her, only Sumire and her alone heard people call her "Kasumi".
• Students in Shujin seem to hate Kasumi. There are generally two types of hate comments directed towards her; one type was based on her relationship with Joker, whom the students really treat like some dangerous criminal, and the other type were comments about how she can even get scholarship and honorary student status to begin with. The former is well justified considering Joker was far from releasing himself from the Conductor's clutches, but the latter is actually a bit...off even considering the school's circumstances of housing mean and gossip/drama-happy students. It turns out that they were not jealous of Kasumi getting a scholarship. It turns out that the students still see that as Sumire and they were wondering why a student who was clearly insane and not in her right mind get a scholarship because she was insane. They just didn't tell that right to her face out of respect that her sister, the real Kasumi died a short while ago.
• Crossed with Wham Shot, but during the first infiltration of the new Palace, an image of a girl that looks like Kasumi with brown hair and a beauty mark on her right eye appear. That is actually the real Kasumi, and the one you see with red hair and without the mark is actually Sumire, whom she pushed out of the way of being run over by a car.
• When you first form the Confidant link, you may notice that Kasumi's tarot card is stylistically VERY different compared to the other cards, including a black border instead of white, the person represented is skeletal instead of a normal figure - representing how the real Kasumi is dead - as well as torn corners on the card itself. Once you properly begin the infiltration of Maruki's Palace (if you have progressed her Social Link far enough), this image is replaced with the true version that shares the same style as the other tarot cards.
  • In addition, Kasumi's Arcana, Faith is not a traditional arcana card (hence the lack of a number), but is a part of an early incomplete tarot deck. In a way, the black card can represent her lack of faith in herself (hence her acceptance to take her own lies).
  • The mere fact Kasumi's confidant seemingly only goes up to Rank 5 is already highly suspect, considering it's the only confidant in the game with this property. Sure enough, later story events cause the confidant to open up and reveal an additional 5 ranks, bringing it up to the standard 10.
  • After you reach Rank 5 of Kasumi's Confidant, which is supposedly the final rank, you can still see her in Kichijoji on days when she's available to hang out, just as you can with other completed Confidants. The difference, however, is that while the card icon for Kasumi's Confidant is the same as other completed Confidants, the text for her name is white, rather than yellow (the colors for the names of incomplete and complete Confidants, respectively), foreshadowing that her Confidant isn't over yet.
  • In addition to the "I am thou, thou art I" dialogue using a noticeably different voice and script when you reach Rank 5, you don't get any special rewards for completing it like you would for almost every other Confidant, nor do you get the option to get together with Kasumi like you would for completing any other female character's social link. That's because it's not actually the end of the link - you can only get the correct dialogue, completion reward, ultimate Persona, and romance option later on, when the rest of the link opens to let you progress to Rank 10.
    • Referring to the different script, several of the phrases also foreshadow Kasumi's situation quite clearly: "bond clad in the heart's strength", "the balefire that lights thy path", "a glimpse of the Faith's truth", and "further power to tread the abyss".
  • If you go into the Thieves' Den after reaching Rank 5 of Kasumi's confidant, it will not count towards the "Phantom Thief Grand Union"^note which requires Joker get the Rank 10 friendship event with all 10 romance options award. This is because it's not actually the end of her confidant, and it only counts towards the award once the second half opens up and you can actually reach Rank 10 with her.

The Third Semester

• The new Arcana "I am thou, thou art I" dialogues for Councillor and Faith are voiced differently, showing their importance to the new plot.
• At various points, the game calls attention to the fact that he will only be at Shujin until November 18th, suggesting there are consequences if you don't max out his confidant before then. The consequence, of course, being that you're locked out of the third term events and are shunted down the original ending route, due to Maruki never finishing his paper. ^note Although you must do this to unlock that ending's cutscenes in the Thieves' Den.
• Early on, the game establishes how the Metaverse is navigated - you state the Palace-owner's name, the location of their distortion, and what the distortion is. And as Ryuji proves right at the beginning, it's possible to accidentally enter a Palace by being in earshot of the Meta-Nav and saying the keywords in casual conversation. So how, pray tell, does Kasumi end up in Maruki's Palace? Simple. Pay attention to three lines of dialogue before she enters:

  Kasumi: (on the phone with Joker) Odaiba, in front of the stadium, where we met before.
  Kasumi: I do nothing but cause trouble for Player-senpai, even Dr. Maruki...
  Kasumi: (commenting on a bystander mistaking the building next to her for a research lab) It's not a lab, it's a stadium.

• On April 15, after Ann's Awakening, you actually see the Phantom Thieves fading back into the real world, before the camera cuts to the usual angle from within the alleyway. Among the passers-by is a distinct-looking man, who is eventually revealed to be Maruki. Upon maximizing his confidant, Maruki reveals he witnessed this event, leading to his breakthroughs on the methods of changing one's cognition, which he finally gets to test for himself come Christmas Eve.
• On April 25, during the walk to school the subject of movies comes up, and Morgana can say that when he becomes human again he'd like to go on the big screen into movies. In the third semester, Morgana's human form is based on the appearance of an actor he saw on television.
• The Phantom Thieves' counselling sessions with Maruki are not only recontextualized later with the knowledge that he's finding out what they would want in the ideal world he wishes to create, several of them allude to what he's ultimately planning to do; Maruki talks to Ryuji about his belief making others' dreams come true, and discusses with Yusuke the logic of helping people make the "right" choices in their lives. Ann's session in particular heavily foreshadows the whole plot of the third semester.
  Maruki: You can't change the past, but you still want to keep your chin up and press onward — is that the gist of it?
  Ann: Yeah, that sounds about right. I mean, it'd definitely be better if none of this had happened, but...
  Maruki: (chuckles) I definitely agree with you there. But, it's impossible to wipe every tragedy from history.
  Ann: If only, right? Everyone would be so much happier if we could actually do that.
• A case of Chekhov's Classroom: On June 8th, Maruki talks about authoritarianism and totalitarianism. The conversation foreshadows ideological elements of the last 3 bosses of the game, including himself.
  Maruki: "[Totalitarianism] is a governmental structure that unites its people under a single ideology and authoritarian control of the masses. In theory it brings the people together under one ideal. That definitely comes with logistical benefits... but it also means forcing ideals on people. Assimilating the unwilling. And that's how wars get started. Where does totalitarianism take things a step further than authoritarianism?
  Player: (selects "Controlling public thought")
  Maruki: "A totalitarian government tries to control the culture, morals, and even thoughts of its people. To minimize dissidence, they try to assimilate everyone into one ideology."
• Royal adds a Mementos target relatively early on in the game centering on a Crazy Cat Lady who captures any perceived strays from the streets. She calls them all "Snowball" as the original one has been long gone, and it's revealed she hoards all the cats in Yongen-Jaya to prevent them from dying and getting hurt regardless of how stressed and unhappy the cats are. This echoes Maruki's own well-intentioned extremism in creating his own reality in order to make everyone happy, no matter how hindered they may be.
• There's another clue as to who the instigator of the dream reality is: When it actually spreads out to others instead of simply affecting Joker, he has a nightmare where he must walk out of a deserted Shujin while being guided by a blue butterfly displaying to him the desires of his friends. And the starting point of that event? The counseling room, which is the place where Maruki resides in when he was in Shujin.
• During the first day of January, Kasumi notes that the Meiji Shrine is usually crowded during New Year's. This year however, it's empty. Since people go to the shrine to pray for the Gods so they can have their desires granted, this means that everyone's desires are fulfilled in this fake reality.
• Akechi turning himself in in Joker's place allows Joker to have a longer Christmas date with any girl he happens to be romancing. Several of them remark that the entire date (which includes finding the only remaining Christmas cake in any store by complete chance) feels like a dream. Chihaya will even claim on her date that she sees so much joy and good fortune in Joker's future that it seems "almost unnatural". This is because it's not natural, and Maruki's dream reality has begun to assert itself.
  • In the version where Joker has no romantic date, Sojiro answers Futaba's begging for a Christmas turkey by sending her out on a wild goose chase for one armed with nothing but pocket change, yet she returns moments later having won a whole turkey and a cake from a convenience store ticket draw. The absurd odds of that happening (even to someone who brags in-universe about her maxed-out luck stat) are explained when you learn that reality is being twisted to bring everybody happiness.
• The first enemies you fight in Maruki's Palace is a Biyarky. Not only is this a rare case of a "generic" demon debuting in a Persona game (they appeared in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment), but they and their creator Hastur are all from the Cthulhu Mythos, alluding to the identity of Maruki's Persona.
  • Furthermore, Tentacles are a major thematic element of Maruki's Palace. Many of them are part of the architecture or scenery and "Kasumi" is grabbed by one of these structures at Maruki's command to turn her Persona beserk.
  • Futaba's mother and Maruki worked for the exact same occupation; a Psientific researcher. Futaba's persona is the Necronomicon, which also appeared in the Cthulhu Mythos just like Maruki's Persona.
• The master of the Palace that Joker and Kasumi briefly end up in at one point where Kasumi acquires her Persona is unknown for a long time, but there is one hint from the Shadow that attacks you. It's mostly featureless, but it does have rather odd hair, doesn't it? Hair that looks exactly like Maruki's.
• The name of Maruki's Leitmotif is "Ideal and the Real". Guess who ends up being the creator of the dream reality during the third semester?
• In Royal, pay attention to the side of Leblanc near the door during January 1 when Futaba steps into there, and in January 2 when Sojiro, "Human" Morgana, Futaba and Wakaba are hanging out in the cafe. The "Sayuri" painting is not on the wall where it is usually hung on, which isn't supposed to happen like "Human" Morgana or Wakaba being alive. It's a good hint that since Madarame honored Yusuke's mother in this overlaid reality that Maruki made for him, Madarame exhibited the painting with his consent and his mother's name. In other words, something is amiss.
• In Royal, during the Sphinx fight, there is an extra scenario where it will ask Joker a question that can either smooth or cripple your progress significantly. When she does it, Futaba will tell it that her mother is dead and the wish of her being alive again will not come true, and she can live on without her mother. During the third term, Wakaba is revived by Maruki rewriting history...and it did "come true". It's an illusion however, and she regrets being fooled by it.
  • Another one during that scenario occurs in the fourth question the Sphinx asks: "No matter how much you struggle, you'll never escape me! You'll be tormented by your personal guilt FOREVER!" The available responses are: 1. We've got her back. and 2. Well, if we use the research... with "We've got her back" being the correct answer. Since Wakaba is researching cognitive psience, choosing the second one means you agree with Maruki reviving Wakaba to cope with Futaba's Survivor Guilt in the future, which she does not agree from the get-go.
• In the ending where the protagonist decides to let Maruki overwrite reality, Futaba enrolls to Shujin. In Strikers, Futaba ends up enrolling to Shujin for real.
• There are quite a few hints foreshadowing the reveal that Akechi actually did die and is only alive due to Maruki's reality:
  • In Royal, after defeating Shido, a news report appears on Leblanc's TV describing a dead body that, to paraphrase, had wounds indicating the victim was kidnapped and killed somewhere other than where it was discovered. Once Shido's Palace disappeared, Akechi's body wouldn't have since he wasn't a cognitive being, and depending on how close to the deadline you complete the Palace, enough time could've passed for his corpse to have deteriorated enough to render him unrecognizable.
  • When Morgana becomes human, his appearance resembles the celebrity he saw on television, which indicates Maruki is able to grant any wishes despite involving people he's never met before, even if he didn't realize it yet - he had not met Akechi beforehand.
  • If you ask him how he survived, he brushes the question off and claims it's not important, and he sounds noticeably hesitant when discussing the moment after as if he actually has no idea. Much later on, when he runs into you at the train station the day before you send the calling card, if you choose to ask him what he'll be doing after Maruki is stopped, he doesn't give a clear answer.
  • Aside from Sae taking him in, no one outside the party acknowledges his presence throughout the rest of the story, which is definitely a sign something is off considering he's a celebrity. This hints at Maruki's claim of a "fresh start" between him and Joker (and by extension the others).
  • When you first snap Morgana out of Maruki's reality, he says that you and Akechi have been hitting it off, which doesn't make any sense considering that he should already know they're friends. Furthermore, he speaks about him as if he's just met him which further foreshadows the reveal that Maruki wanted him to have a new beginning.
  • If you open the Confidant menu during the third term, Akechi's description outright says he met an "unclear fate" before returning, which wouldn't really be necessary to add if there wasn't more going on.

Miscellaneous

• In Royal, when Kawakami hands you your student ID, she accidentally hands it to you with a Victoria flyer. She quickly notices and takes the flyer back.
• The original quartet has a short discussion outside the second Palace about how easy it is to mistake the real world for the Metaverse. This comes into play again in the final moments of their gambit against Akechi, counting on him not noticing that he's slipped into Sae's Palace when he moves to kill the Protagonist.
  • This comes up again during the mandatory team meeting before the team starts their infiltration of Futaba's Palace, wherein they talk about how the ruler's knowledge of the city influences the surroundings, which is why Futaba (being a shut-in) has a palace exterior that doesn't match the rest of the city. Morgana comments that someone particularly observant (maybe, say, a prosecutor who has to have a sharp eye for evidence) would have a palace exterior that perfectly matches the outside world... but dismisses this factoid as irrelevant to the Phantom Thieves.
  • Another thing that Makoto brings up during the meeting before the infiltration of Futaba's Palace is that while most people are sociable enough to know the city's layout, some of the upper-class citizens get around by plane or limo and thus don't know or care about city life. Shido turns out to be exactly this sort of person; his cognition of Tokyo is that it is completely flooded.
  • When the thieves enter Sae's Casino for the first time, they note that the Palace also contains an undistorted copy of the police station. This is where they lure Akechi to kill the fake Joker.
• TV programs report on employees of various fast-food companies losing their minds and committing various crimes as early as May, hinting at reveals much later in the story regarding Haru's father being involved with the conspiracy and the nature of Black Mask's abilities.
• On the school trip overseas, Mishima gets dragged around by Ryuji to hit on girls all day long. By the evening he regrets that decision due to seeing Ryuji as too different from him and wonders if getting a girlfriend would be the only way to escape from future events. By the time Valentines Day rolls around, you discover that he is too busy to hang out with you and Ryuji, implying that he got some chocolate from a girl.
• If you choose to spend the last day in Hawaii with a girl, Ryuji will initially be curious about who you were with before abruptly taking it back and saying he doesn't want your girl to come after him with an axe. About a week later the party meets Haru, who is romanceable and uses an axe.
• During the arc where you are being threatened by Medjed, your research reveals that Medjed is the name of an Egyptian god. Then, seemingly unrelated, Futaba's dungeon is Egyptian themed, her room has an Egyptian Poster, and she is a big computer whiz. Turns out that Futaba was the original Medjed before copycats started co-opting the name and she changed to a new, also Egyptian themed, name.
• One of the skits in Mementos has Haru praising the Morgana-mobile's interior, to which Makoto comments "If I were to buy a car, it would be one like this." Sure enough, in the Good Ending's epilogue, Makoto is seen driving a Citroën Type-H, a.k.a. the real life panel van the Morgana-mobile is based off.
• The first time you enter Central Street to buy equipment, an obviously-sketchy man offers you an unspecified part-time job that he claims is easy and lucrative. This guy turns out to be one of Kaneshiro's goons, with the "part-time job" being the drug-running scheme they're using to blackmail students.
• Though subtle, at the buffet on May 5th you eavesdrop on a TV station president and an IT company president. Both of them are members of Shido's conspiracy and appear as minibosses in his Palace. Given that Shido is also in the hotel on that day, it's likely that they were having a shady meeting.
• Caroline and Justine have animations that perfectly mirror each other. It can be easily passed off as them being Creepy Twins, but turns out it was because they're actually one person split into two.
• On August 28th, Futaba visibly reacts with discomfort when Akechi confides to Joker over his coffee that he was passed from foster home to foster home as a kid. It's later revealed during Sojiro's Confidant that Futaba suffered horribly under the "care" of several of her relatives after her mother's passing, her uncle being by far the worst of them all, until Sojiro managed to gain custody of her after throwing a lot of money at him. Furthermore, her mother's killer did use Akechi to kill her, although Futaba has no reason to suspect him at the time.
• On the early morning of October 28th, politician Masayoshi Shido is seen giving a speech in Shibuya criticizing the government for their lack of strong countermeasures against the Phantom Thieves until just recently, calling the current administration obsolete and comparing the country to a "ship that's bound to a rotting dock and destined to sink." Similarly, during the scene in which he's assaulting the woman, he says the masses should keep their mouths shut while he "steer(s) this country." If the player was paying attention to it, it's quite possible to figure out the shape of his Palace before even the party once Shido gets outed as the leader of the conspiracy.
• Some of the lectures and quiz questions on TV foreshadow various events.
  • One early game quiz question asks which statement is true for those on probation, and the wrong answer is that they can't travel, which explains why the protagonist is allowed to go on a School Trip to Hawaii (which is spelled out somewhat more overtly before the actual trip, when Futaba asks Sojiro about it). It also subtly shows how much Sojiro secretly cares for the protagonist, since the answer that probation officers are unpaid is true, proving that Sojiro lied about getting money to take the protagonist in. ^note Although it's up in the air. After all he likely got the money for housing and feeding joker, and it's all but stated he needed the money to care for Futaba, with Joker's lodging and food possibly being a business expense as part of running Le Blanc's.
  • In June, on the same day Makoto makes a deal with the Phantom Thieves, you get a question about who mints the currency — the answer is that the government mints coins, while the Bank of Japan mints paper money. The next dungeon turns out to be a bank.
  • Near the end of the game, a question asks about turning yourself in. The protagonist is forced to turn himself in to ensure that Shido is convicted.
• Just about a few points in the game indicate that the heist on Okumura is the point where the Phantom Thieves are framed for his murder and become actual wanted criminals and everything will be getting worse from there on.
  • When Sae interrogates you, she usually refers to the people whose hearts you changed as targets, since there isn't actually a law against stealing intangible desires. But then when describing the situation with Kunikazu Okumura, she instead describes the act as "crime" instead of "target", and that the testimony will be taken very seriously, indicating that this heist is bad news. Okumura dies after that heist, making what happened to him a clear-cut case of murder no matter how they went about it.
  • In a similar tangent, when summer vacation starts, Igor will congratulate you for purging Futaba's distortions as usual with the other targets. Unlike the other heists, however, he also warns you not to be caught off guard or you will be swept under the rug and the Phantom Thieves' popularity increases by twofold right after his speech ends. True that, a big majority of the Phantom Thieves got caught off guard by their suspiciously ballooning popularity, leading them into the heist that led to Okumura's death being used to frame the Phantom Thieves. It's also heavily implied that the Grail was behind the scenes influencing the public's thoughts to rig the game.
  • Right after Okumura dies, Igor will give you one of his post-heist speeches once the day ends. However, instead of the usual praise, he tells you that your rehabilitation may not go through because of a "contingency", and it's an unexpected situation that is needed in a "game". Sure enough, right after he finishes talking, your reputation was basically gone for good, the public perceive you as dangerous murderers, and the Conspiracy starts targeting you for real. Even worse is that, make the wrong choices in Sae's interrogation, and your rehabilitation will not go through.
• When first volunteering for the alternative politician Yoshida, the Sun Confidant, one listener comments what Yoshida says doesn't matter since everyone will be exploited regardless and one of his hecklers tells him to leave everything to the Liberal Co-Prosperity Party (a.k.a. Shido's political party), with Yoshida remarking making political choices solely based on party is not prudent. These two factors hint at the unwillingness of the population to think and take action for the better to uphold social harmony, even if it means allowing for the conspiracy that has caused said issues to remain in power.
• On June 8th, a text conversation between the Thieves has Yusuke ask for any ideas on a next target for the group. The protagonist is given three possible answers as a reply: a crooked politician, a famous celebrity, or an evil overlord. As it turns out, the Thieves eventually manage to defeat all three of these - Shido, Akechi, and Yaldabaoth respectively.
• In the first week of the game, specifically April 14th, in the train station you can overhear an office worker wondering if the the bus and rail accidents are the result of terrorism via mind control. It is later revealed this is correct, all done as a way of controlling public opinion, which leads to the main dilemma of the end of the game.
• The first Persona awakening, Arsène's, foreshadows the end of the game, as he tells you exactly how he is going to end it all.
  "I am thou, thou art I... Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name, and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!"
  • Every time Joker establishes a new Confidant, a voice speaks that the bond "shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity". These bonds indeed empower Joker in the finale, giving him the strength to shatter the literal chains around Arsène and unleash hell.
• Not long after going into Kamoshida's palace for the first time, Ryuji will text you asking how it's possible for him to get away with what he does. One of the options for responding is that nobody cares. At the end of the game nobody cares that Shido confessed to his crimes, which leads the thieves into the final dungeon.
• At one point, your history teacher gives you a lecture on the French Revolution. Specifically, how many rebels became despots themselves when they took over power. Make a deal with Yaldabaoth and get the Bad Ending, and you do just that.
• During the Summer Festival scene added in Royal, Ryuji says "If it's this hot in July, can you image just how insane the weather's going to be in December?". It's an offhand comment about the weather, but when the Holy Grail merges Mementos with the real world in December, it comes with a Rain of Blood.
• Sae having a Palace of her own may come as a surprise to first time players, but if you pay attention to her demeanor from the fallout of the Kaneshiro arc onward, she becomes increasingly salty over the Phantom Thieves continued success with catching criminals left and right, even becoming quite willing by the Okumura arc to bend if not outright go against the rules of her job to catch them no matter what. Such envious behavior is more than enough on its own to warrant a Shadow doppelganger in Mementos, and is also just distorted enough to become a full-blown Palace with how long Sae's been brooding about her line of work and her position in it, well before the Phantom Thieves intersected with her professional life.
  • This also lines up with a comment Makoto makes during the Casino arc about how she's known for some time her older sister had her own Palace. She watched Sae become a potential target for the Phantom Thieves in real-time!
    • That is foreshadowed early in the game too: Shortly after Makoto joined the Phantom Thieves, she had a conversation with them about their past experiences with corrupt adults. When Ryuji asked her if there was an adult whose heart she wanted to change, she said that was a secret. That was about four months before the Phantom Thieves officially targeted Sae; when Makoto said that she had known about Sae's Palace for "some time," she wasn't kidding.
• In a text conversation after completing Kaneshiro's Palace, Yusuke remarks that loss of the leader does not necessarily mean demise of the group. Mementos Depths kicks off when The Conspiracy manages to maintain their hold on Japan even after Shido's confession. And Shido is only the puppet leader to begin with; Yaldabaoth is the real one behind everything.
  • For that matter, Shido's outfit brands him a Char archetype popularized by Gundam. The original Char Aznable of Mobile Suit Gundam was a major antagonist, but he was always someone else's servant until his own movie. He was a servant of the Zabi family until they tore each other apart, or the AEUG in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Sure enough, Shido is just Yaldabaoth's puppet leader.
• Certain terrain hazards in the Metaverse don't cause actual harm. For example, when Kaneshiro's Palace or Okumura's Palace collapses, the party gets away in one piece despite said Palaces being at heights that are assuredly lethal if one were to fall from them. In Shido's Palace, when Shido attempts to collapse the Palace to kill the Phantom Thieves and keep his treasure, it doesn't work and all the Thieves get out alive. Even Ryuji, who has thought to been made a Heroic Sacrifice, merely ended up in the Diet Building courtyard alive and well.
• A side quest in the fourth Palace has you chase after a bandit who stole something from the Palace's owner. When you return the item, it's revealed that it's a complete map of the Palace which the owner allows you to keep. The map itself is shown onscreen during this event, and there's a huge hole in it which blanks out the head of a sphinx drawing on the side. You later find out the Sphinx was modeled after Wakaba.
• Shortly after Shido's confession, one of the comments on the Phan-Site is "Everyone, just disappear." Later on in the game, after Yaldabaoth fuses Mementos with the real world, the Phantom Thieves start disappearing due to no one believing that they exist.
• When Yusuke shows a photo of Madarame's flagship painting "Sayuri" on his phone to the Phantom Thieves, look closely at it. The top half featuring the woman in the painting and the blue fog on the bottom look completely different. The top half is done with thin, smooth lines and simple colors, while the fog below is a huge white and blue mess, foreshadowing that something might've happened to it...
• When discussing Futaba's Palace and how it affected Tokyo in the Metaverse, Yusuke notes that depending on the person, their palace could have an exact replica of Tokyo outside of the obviously changed part of their actual palace. This becomes relevant during Sae's Palace. Their plan hinges on the police precinct near Sae's law office being identical to the real life precinct despite the vast changes to her office. With this, they are able to trick Akechi into murdering a cognitive Joker instead of the real one without ever realizing he was inside the metaverse, allowing the real one to escape outside the metaverse and go into hiding.
• If you happen to talk with Chihaya around the time school resumes, she admits to doing numerous fortune readings on Joker out of curiosity, only for the "Empress" card to constantly show up, alongside feeling a change from trouble with other women to something totally different. Sure enough, within the month Haru joins the group, not only bearing the Empress as her Arcana, but there are also implications she fell for Joker on the spot upon properly meeting him.
  • Speaking of which, her first fortune read to Joker includes a prediction of Joker's death. This happens if you get a Non-Standard Game Over or the Bad Ending, but her prediction becomes From a Certain Point of View in the good route.
• At the second-to-last day of the game (visiting Tokyo for one last time) in Royal, if you interact with the Outdoors Shop in Kichijoji, Morgana will say that he wants to take a camping car and travel around the country. In Persona 5 Strikers, you do just about that.
• At the start of the game, almost all of Sojiro's lines are laden with negativity... until he gets a phone call after he gives Joker the diary, where he suddenly becomes extremely accomodating and enthusiastic. This hint that there's someone Sojiro actually does care for makes a lot more sense when you learn about Futaba.
• Palaces generally start collapsing as soon as the Phantom Thieves acquire the associated Treasure, i.e. even before they take it out of the Metaverse. The fact that Sae's palace remained intact after the Phantom Thieves "stole her Treasure" is a big hint that they never stole her Treasure at all.
• "Tokyo Daylight", the normal daytime overworld theme, incorporates musical passages from both Shido's palace theme "Ark" (the "chorus") and the Mementos Depths palace theme "Freedom and Security", reflecting the corruption of Tokyo by both Yaldabaoth and Shido.
• One of the earliest questions in the classroom is about the phrase, "My Country, Right or Wrong", where Kawakami asks Ann about both the current meaning (unquestioning support) and the original meaning (My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right). It foreshadows basically the two opposing factions: whereas Yaldabaoth (via Shido) aim to manipulate the masses via unconditional support to Shido's goals, the Phantom Thieves eventually decide to work to free Japan from getting abused by the corrupt authorities by taking things into their hands.