For the sake of convenience, the Protagonists will be referred as P5 Hero, P3P Heroine, P4 Hero and P3 Hero.
This page contains unmarked spoilers. Read at your own risk.
As they were exploring Mementos and inside the Mona-Bus, it suddenly accelerates uncontrollably as if it were attracted like a magnet. The Mona-Bus runs a end-of century drive...and lands them into a theater screen initiating a countdown, landing them onto a city.
The city is definitely not the real world, as the Thieves are in their Metaverse clothing and Morgana in Thief form and not cat form. They awake and since the Metaverse Navigator stopped working because they are no longer inside it, they ask the police in the strange city for directions. The police instantly recognize them as fugitives and give chase, then as they run they encounter strange shadows - Ones that look nothing like the demon shadows they had encountered but are like masked puddles of sludge. They defeat some of these Shadows and to make matters worse, their guns don't work here. A massive Shadow resembling a large obese man in a Chicken outfit now appears from nowhere and pursues them. That enemy was clearly too strong for the Thieves to deal with; While it looks silly, it almost seemed that it is much stronger than the Thieves and there is no choice but to escape. They run and run and landed in front of a screen in a strange theater.
The Thieves are all in their usual outfit, but Morgana is still in his Thief form and not his cat form, indicating that they are still not quite back into the real world. The theater almost looks deserted. It seems that nobody is here, but it's clearly a lavish theater. Something is further amiss; Makoto and Haru were missing. They tried to search the theater for them. As they check the gates of the Cinema, it was locked inwards and apparently they are special locks that cannot be opened even with Morgana's supreme locking skills. As they investigate the projection room...
A large, black and strange object appeared in the dimly lit room. As it turns its back, its face resembled a Shadow's Mask. The Thieves were ready to fight it, but they cannot since they are in their usual clothing and it just seemed immobile and stuporous. They tried to talk to it but with no avail, and they poked it and it just bounced like jelly. The Thieves cannot interact with this thing at all and they simply left the projection room. Their search for their comrades were eventually of no avail and they go back.
As they go back to the theater, something began to rear their ugly heads. Could it be a ghost? Could it be a shadow? The Thieves cannot fight it here...if they see an enemy they are dead. Putting up a battle stance, they prepare for whatever enemy comes out. However, what rears out from the theater seats are just a duo of woman. One of them is an affable-looking white clothed middle aged woman with black long hair, while the other being an extremely anxious young girl with white, short hair and a beret with a film reel on it. They don't even look like a bit of hostile at all. The older woman introduces herself as Nagi, the theater's curator who is trying to protect the young girl known as Hikari. She claims that all of the theatergoers in the it suddenly vanished a while ago and Hikari remained under one of the seats. As she was extremely anxious, she had the duty to protect her and tried to brush out some of her anxiety. As for Hikari, she just seemed to be extremely distant and withdrawn that it's nearly impossible to get her talk, and when she hears about friends something just seemingly ticks her off. The thieves put down their hostility and asked them for Makoto and Haru's whereabouts, in which Yusuke drew their appearances and shown it to the two women. Despite just staring at the party most of the time in Nagi's introduction, she knows about this...but instead of directly telling the Thieves about it, she whispers to Nagi about them. After the whispering ends, Nagi tells them that they are in a movie called "Kamoshidaman." ....Kamoshida? Isn't that the obnoxious pervert school bully of Shujin? The movie now airs....
In the trailer, a giant burglar appears and wrecks stuff in the city and what is definitely Kamoshida appears in the middle of a terrified crowd, goes into a hotel and transforms into the almighty superhero KAMOSHIDAMAN! A super strong and almighty hero of absolute justice he beats the burglar quickly with his supersonic fists, and throws it into a dad buying his daughter a toy and killing him instantly. The girl wanted to say that Kamoshidaman was wrong, but it doesn't matter anyway since he cannot do anything wrong and anyone who points out otherwise is a criminal and must be smitten! The hero of absolute justice - KAMOSHIDAMAN!! Now airing!
Just...why is Kamoshida here? The Phantom Thieves had got him done and there is no way he can come back as a superhero of justice. He's just an odious bully who sexually harassed Ann's friend, crippled Ryuji and tried to get the P5 Hero expelled from school. It turns out that the movie was originally not Kamoshidaman nor does the Superhero in that movie have anything to do with Kamoshida, and he only looks like Kamoshida when the Thieves appeared in the movie. Nagi then talks of a projectionist called "Doe"; it turns out that that strange black thing in the projection room is not an inanimate doll but a living creature and a projectionist, and the theater transformed because of him, trapping the two women inside and placing strange locks on the Cinema gates to prevent anyone from escaping. Apparently, Hikari was really scared of him that she couldn't go close to him. It seems like that he triggers something in her. Therefore, Nagi has distanced herself from the creepy object and so does anyone else in the Cinema. Hikari now then whispered to Nagi again, and she suggests that both woman cooperate with the thieves to get out of the Cinema. Nagi agrees and goes to the concession stand with Hikari, in which they had never heard of the Phantom Thieves. Nagi also states that the strange chicken man is an Film Obscurite Etendue or FOE, an extremely powerful shadow that is not possible to directly confront in this level. The Thieves were also given a notebook that somehow ended up in the theater, but Hikari does not remember what this is; It seems like the girl is amnesiac? After all of the preparations are complete, the Thieves begin their operation to save Makoto and Haru while Nagi and Hikari watch.
While Joker begins to be called inmate by the familiar looking twins, the other thieves do not recognize them. Futaba even calls them adorable in which they act high and mighty to obscure their embarrassment. They then call Morgana to lead the Thieves to the Velvet Room, he didn't want to but for whatever reason, he feels like their orders are absolute. Just what has happened...? Can Morgana be...
As they enter the Velvet Room, Caroline and Justine introduces them to the films called "sub-personas" which can be used to enhance a persona's power by giving it extra HP, SP and attacks. Alongside them, A strange tall man and a bubbly and funny woman, both in blue appeared out of nowhere. The man introduces himself as Theodore and the woman Elizabeth. Theo stated that they appeared from the Velvet Room with their guest disappearing and the Velvet Room merged into a theater and took its form. When he asked Nagi and Hikari about the girl's whereabouts, they do not know them at all and Yusuke affirms that they are in the movie. The party is sent out to find her back, as Futaba takes her time to cheer up Hikari as she reminds her of what she was in the past and Morgana officially joins combat.
As they enter the movie again, the LCD monitors on the city's buildings display that Kamoshidaman already kidnapped Makoto and Haru via the FOE they encountered during their escape to the theater simply because they trespassed into the city and were known as criminals. The "superhero" was in fact nothing other than a bully and a dictator in a superhero outfit who just bullies his citizens, and has did nothing good for the city at all. He then sends warning posters for the police to capture the rest. Exploring deeper to the labyrinth, they find the girl that Theo is talking about and she summons a Persona, greatly shocking the Thieves. There are other Persona users out there!? Needless to say, they help her confront the Shadows and after beating them, she introduces herself as the P3P Heroine and they return to the theater. Theo now takes over the shop from Nagi and Elizabeth forces him to wear another embarrassing outfit; A popcorn cup mascot.
The party finally reaches the Center Plaza where Makoto and Haru tries to question Kamoshidaman about Shujin Academy and the volleyball team. Oddly, he seems to know nothing about it. What seems to be Kamoshida is in fact, not him, but a fake taking his form. The party attempts to fight Kamoshidaman as they reach the plaza, only to no avail, as he seemingly binds the entire party fight off the bat to prevent them from attacking him, then severely damages them with one Supersonic Hero. With no choice, the party was forced to retreat and tries to devise a plan around it.
In fact, the golden statue on the Plaza Square is Kamoshidaman's power source and it's really light. It's so light that it seems like as if it was made of styrofoam, to the point that a weak gust of wind almost topples it. How about shutting down the electricity and tying it to a stack of balloons to sent it away?
The party returns and successfully completes their operation, right before 5 seconds away before Makoto and Haru get executed. 5...4...3...hmm? The lights go off and on the back a calling card was given to Kamoshida. When the electricity goes back, the P5 hero appears from behind and the statue was already replaced by a sheet of cardboard, with the real statue flying away and bundled by balloons. He tries to get the statue back, only for the P3P Heroine to trample him with just a pair of her feet.
Without the statue to help him, Kamoshidaman is just a joke. He's so pathetic, that his attacks hit as hard as a sponge and his formerly mighty Supersonic Hero hits for the same amount of damage. After his humiliation, he can no longer sustain his authority and people started to doubt his justice. It doesn't matter for him as he keeps rambling about it, then transforms into a monstrous rabbit like creature using a pair of carrots...This is Kamoshidaman's true form, Super Kamoshidaman! It's hideous...but why is this thing even a rabbit?
After a tough fight, Super Kamoshidaman was defeated and the disgraced false superhero runs away, never to be seen and respected again. The party is now able to free and escort Makoto and Haru back to the cinema. With the movie's ending changed, it became an optimal one with credits of the movie displayed, with Hikari watching in surprise. Hikari now began to talk directly to the Persona users, but as they were talking, Doe suddenly steps in and writhes and twitches in an extremely ominous fashion. He began making disturbing screams as Hikari clutches her head in extreme pain. After a while, he pukes a key from his eye, allowing the party to break a lock from the Cinema.
The goal is now clear; Change the ending of each movie so Doe can create a key to break out a lock from the theater gates. Only be removing the four locks, can the invitation to freedom begin.
It was a Dinosaur movie. Taking place in an artificial island where mighty carnivores rule over and oppress weak herbivores, the herbivores cannot do anything but flee from the carnivores. However, a horrible existence has terrorized the herbivore herd...one whose crime is to voice her own opinions. In a place where majority rules over all, this is unacceptable! Can the majority silence this insidious minority and reach the legendary paradise? This is the Dinosaur movie of the greatest scale, JUNESSIC LAND, now airing!
Sounds familiar right? The moral of this movie is technically the same as the previous one, only the authority is the majority in a "democracy." There's no option other than to jump in and get its ending changed!
As the party reaches the end of area 1, A mysterious presence is seen. The presence seems like those of a human...and they are hostile. All of the Thieves are put on guard while the P5 Hero combats the threat alone. The threat is a man with white hair, rushing into the P5 hero with a katana and duels the him as he blocks the knife with his model gun, standing both on even hands. During this time, the man had other companions who looked shock. The "threat" was no threat or are the band of strange people even hostile at all...they were all equals with the Thieves as Persona users and they became friends and were escorted to the theater. Introducing themselves as the Investigation Team, the man is in fact the P4 Hero and his teammates are Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa, Teddie and Naoto Shirogane. Rise was poisoned by the plants in the movie world and was unable to navigate, but the medicine in the theater healed her. Alongside them were two more Velvet attendants; The eldest sister of the siblings Margaret and the angsty poet girl Marie. It turns out just like the Phantom Thieves, they were planning to go to Junes and grind inside the Midnight Channel, only to be teleported into somewhere else from the TV screen and into a movie. Now what remains is Yosuke Hanamura; the team's second-in command, who was left missing. The current mission is to find him as fast as possible.
As the party transverses the labyrinth, they find "Yosuke"...although he seems a little bit different. It was a dinosaur that had Yosuke's head and he said he doesn't know anything about humans, but is interested to know more about them. Apparently, the herbivores and feared of being eaten and believed that they have no power to deal with the carnivores, so they just kept running away from the carnivores. He had suggested a place called "paradise" which is supposedly a safe heaven where no carnivores can reach, and all of them are trying to flee to there. As they talk, the herbivore pack notes a threat and all of them ran and abandoned Yosukesaurus, leaving the party to fight a few shadows. Once they are gone, Futaba notes that Elizabeth had been hugging the ticket vending machine all the time and asks them to retreat and check. It turns out that Elizabeth had unlocked Special Screenings and had changed into a Climax Theater costume, and she now hosts special screenings as a service.
Back to the labyrinth, the party witnesses a group of herbivores that refused to save their friends from a carnivore's gaping jaw, leaving her to be eaten. It turns out that they don't even try to save their friends because everyone agrees with it. Further on the real Yosuke will be seen defending one of the herbivores all by himself from a carnivore. In order to break him free, Teddie throws a rock on the carnivore to distract it and it keeps chasing the party, until it meets an electric cage with the P5 and P4 heroes performing an unison attack to down the carnivore instantly, allowing it to be safely contained in an electric cage. However, at this time the dinosaurs began to distrust humans and they all voted to flee from the humans as well. Since all of them voted, Yosukesaurus voted to lynch them as well against his own will. Forced to retreat to the theater, Yosuke introduces himself and joins the party. It turns out that the dinosaurs are not as weak as they seem, since as dinosaurs, they do have some physical strength and can topple down trees to impede the party's progress, which were all chopped down by Haru's axe. They also had a nice taste of a Mystery Food X that actually tasted great.
The party finally reaches the Isle's End, which is said to be the "dinosaur's paradise." Unfortunately and ironically, it turns out to be simply a dead end clearing that traps the carnivores, allowing all of them to be easy prey for any intruding carnivores. The herbivores and outraged on Yosukesaurus on the decision and voted to ostracize him from the group because he made it without knowing "paradise" was not what it seems As the Persona users arrive, they even blindly put the blame on the Persona users because humans wrote the book that marked the dead end clearing as a "paradise," forcing Yosukesaurus to go berserk as he transforms into a carnivorous dinosaur resembling Shadow Yosuke. The other herbivores jump in to help him fight, and it turns out that he is fighting only because other Herbivores are fighting, forcing the party to defeat the other herbivores to restore his sanity. After they are all defeated, Yosukesaurus becomes sane again. As he and the herbivores tries to promise amends with the party, an earth-trembling footstep begins to approach...This is definitely a carnivore! The now reformed Yosukesaurus charges the dinosaur head on and was flopped into the ground by the carnivore's immense strength...but at this time, all of the herbivores, who previously doubted about directly confronting the carnivores, charged against it en masse, enabling the Persona users to repel it. As the carnivore flees, the herbivores promised to do good and speak their heart, which they previously didn't as they don't even believe the things that they voted for each other's detriment are legitimate and simply followed everyone else. As the ending changed, Hikari watches with a smile and she no longer gets a severe reaction upon hearing friends. Doe steps in and does the same thing as before, creating a key and assisting the party to escape, breaking the second out of the four locks.
Another movie with the same moral as the previous two...the party is just getting sick at that. the P3P heroine noticed the white robot resembles Aigis...Is Aigis and all of her S.E.E.S comrades there? Since Futaba likes Sci-Fi, she requests to go to the labyrinth in-person.
The first thing that the P3P Heroine notices is that there's an Evoker on the floor, the very same one that she uses to summon her Personas. Without this item, members of S.E.E.S cannot use Personas, indicating someone from her team is in great danger. As they got past the first gate, the members of S.E.E.S were there and the party helps them defeat the overwhelming amounts of black, personality-less robots. The P3P heroine greets her "comrades"....only to realize that they are no comrades, since they do not recognize her at all. Only she recognizes this version of S.E.E.S, and it's pretty evident that they are just identical but different people from her reality. The worst realization has came...the P3P heroine was alone all the time. Without her comrades supporting her, she was merely a depressed Stepford Smiler. Just as confused as her, S.E.E.S tries to find ways to assist the heroine. They also reveal that just like the Thieves and Investigation Team, they were climbing Tartarus, only for the staircase to the next floor to collapse with a movie screen initiating a countdown as the only way out. Meanwhile, the P3P heroine's tells that S.E.E.S that she picked an Evoker. As Aigis and the leader are missing and the former uses in-built Evokers, this is in no doubt the leader's, indicating that he is in big, big trouble.
Returning to the labyrinth, the party encounters the robot in the trailer, a white robot resembling Aigis. The other robots are telling the robot, codenamed UIY-2249 to undergo initialization. The party rushes in to kill the Robots and rescue UIY-2249, and she expresses self-loathing and asks why the party won't let her be initialized as the Overseer has ultimate authority and he cannot be resisted. The party convinces her to join them, in which she agrees. She has no combat ability however, but the party lets her develop her personality unlike the Overseer which actively restricts it.
The Overseer calls the other robots to hunt down UIY-2249 via a broadcast as the previous wave of robots failed to capture her. When S.E.E.S encounter the Overseer, the first thing that came in mind for them was their punny chairman Shuji Ikutsuki, whom the Overseer even shares his terrible puns; They are so horrible that even people that had never encountered him think they are stupid, yet the robots without personality are programmed to laugh at them, but UIY-2249 doesn't since she has one. How can he possibly become an AI megalomaniac? It turns out just like Kamoshidaman and Yosukesaurus, he only took this form because that's how S.E.E.S sees an non-authority parent as. That isn't Ikutsuki, but they are in for a really nasty surprise back there...
Since the Overseer refused to name UIY-2249 as anything other than code, the party tries to give it nicknames. After a series of odd and funny nicknames, Futaba suggested the robot to be named "Ribbon."
Finally reaching the research lab, there is a really strict testing mechanism in order for them to permit access. The three trials are "Power," "Knowledge," and "Adaptability," all of them which must be completed.
- The "Power" test requires the Persona users to carry 1000kg of boxes to a scale, although each party member can only carry boxes worth of 40kg and is joined by Ryuji, Kanji, Teddie, Chie, Shinjiro and Akihiko.
- The "Knowledge" test requires the Persona users to answer a series of questions, but it randomly selects people and each person must submit a different answer. Then there will be two doors, one of them will allow the group to pass, other will lead to certain death. It is joined by Mitsuru, Naoto, Akechi, Makoto, Morgana and Yosuke.
- The "Adaptability" test requires the Persona users to cross an extremely narrow bridge across a boiling cauldron, back and forth once. It is joined by Haru, Ann, Yukiko, Yusuke and Ken.
Regardless of path, the P5 hero can be in any of the examination games with Ribbon joining in.
Finally reaching the research lab, they come across the leader and Aigis. As the leader lost his Evoker, this left Aigis overheating on Orgia Mode in front of a group of drones, as her attacks seemingly have no effect. The party helps save the duo as the leader is mysteriously attracted by the P3P heroine, as they felt familiar with each other. After dealing with the drones, they retreat to the Cinema; It was revealed that the leader and Aigis were surrounded by robots and were captured by the Overseer, in which they attempted to escape but were quickly overwhelmed by security drones and he dropped the Evoker in the labyrinth entrance. The leader introduces himself as the P3 hero, and deduces that the P3P heroine is his alternate variant in another reality.
As the party builds Ribbon's personality, she began to feel more emotions, even petting Koromaru and calling him fluffy and cute. They also climb pipes, something which the Persona users other than the Phantom Thieves never dealt with before. The entrance to the boss floor is locked by a keycard lock and next to it is the Overseer's room. As they confront the Overseer, he demonstrates his powers by seemingly knocking out her for good and attacks the party alongside a drone. He was defeated and in fact, Ribbon was not knocked out, but put onto forced sleep. Futaba just flipped a switch and she snapped out of it, and the Overseer's body dropped a keycard that can be used for the next floor. Despite the master of the reality was supposedly removed, the central announcement continues as the Overseer was no real leader, but a Mother Computer was behind it and using it as a puppet and a medium.
While arriving to the Central Server in the research lab depths, the party was instantly caught attention by a group of disposed robots — and that's what the Overseer meant for "Initialization." They aren't just made normal, they are made empty husks and to be trashed of. The shocking truth made Ribbon realize the definition of "sadness."
Finally reaching the Mother Computer, a security barrier only allows a person with a specific codename that the party does not have to enter. However there is a glitch; If there are 2 instances of the same person, they can break the security system. Fortunately, the P3 hero and the P3P heroine are the same people but also different, allowing them to break the security as Aigis decodes it. Breaching the final line of defense, they finally confront the true ruler of this reality; the Mother Computer!
The Mother Computer, an almighty god-like AI that has a hologram head of Ikutsuki. Unlike other boss, he is as dissonantly calm as he is cold, wishing to create a world devoid of any personality and individuality regardless of consequences. It flat out calls Ribbon an irregular and attacks the party, initiating its elimination. During the battle, it demonstrates its capabilities of infinitely healing itself, and the fight seems desperate. However, Ribbon gave Futaba the idea to lift the healing system by hacking Ribbon into the Mother computer by hitting it with certain elements. After two attempts, it seems successful...until the Mother Computer does an urgent recovery and heals all of his HP!!
The situation has became dangerous. There is absolutely no way to hack the AI over and over as it keeps rewriting its programming. To make things worse, the Mother Computer reverse hacks Ribbon to force her to forget her individuality, driving her into despair as she tries to remember her experience with flowers and Koromaru. Finally in a breaking point...she awakens Orgia Mode and severely damages the AI enough that it can no longer auto heal and was severely damaged to an irreparable point. After the Persona users dealt the finishing blow, Ribbon collapses into the floor lifeless as Futaba and Aigis tries to rescue Ribbon. Perhaps strangely, the credits now roll and Hikari sobs in tears. Did the persona users fail? Will all of them be trapped for eternity? Is this a game over? It turns out that Hikari wanted to kill her self because people saw her as abnormal, just like Ribbon. However, Doe suddenly springs out and reveals that the movie has not ended! It turns out that Ribbon simply overloaded from Orgia Mode and cannot boot herself due to an error in her startup code; By plugging her into Aigis, Ribbon's code has been refreshed and she now promises to build a new Utopia where more and more robots with personality will appear.
As Hikari watches the ending, her depression is mostly cleared. She can now socialize with the party properly, even recognizing them as friends. At the same time, Doe does his usual procedure of spilling out a key...but then he talked.
"Hikari...You cannot...remain part of the audience forever..."
As he talked, the two vanished, as if Doe kidnapped Hikari into somewhere. Why is this thing suddenly making its move all along? What can it possibly do to the girl? Why is it even here? With the whole theater sent on panic, there is no choice but to break the third lock and find out.
"Please...come see the movie...no matter what..."
This means that she is definitely in this movie! The persona users watch its trailer, which reveals that it is a musical with a forlorn Hikari, surrounded by three copies of her past selves telling her to give up personality alongside several disturbingly cute cartoon characters and creepy singing flowers. To make things worse, the movie name is in black scribble and its title card is simply "???." There is no choice other than to enter the movie, save Hikari and unravel the truth behind the girl.
The dark secrets of the movie world is about to unravel....
——Hikari's Childhood: Primary School
One day, the class rabbit of Hikari's primary school fell ill and died due to food poisoning. The teacher told all of the students responsible for the rabbit to apologize, but Hikari refused, as the teacher gave the students bad vegetables to feed it. She warned the other students not to feed it with such food, but none of them heed her words and the rabbit fell ill and died. The teacher didn't accept the apology, and blamed Hikari for the poisoning incident. Eventually she humiliated Hikari alongside the entire class, calling her a bad girl and she was the reason that the rabbit died, even though she didn't cause its death. She was eventually forced to say sorry and her teacher stopped the humiliation party.
——This was such an awful thing to do to a young kid. The teacher was considered as nothing other than a hero of the class and she cannot possibly do anything wrong. The real Hikari appeared and asked the primary school copy why did she even do that. In fact, she saw a movie where a teacher transformed into a Superhero and she began to believe that all teachers are superheros, unaware that the current teacher was definitely just a dictator. In reality, she did not want to say "sorry," she wanted to outright resist the teacher. The teacher's copy is enraged and transforms into a Shadow to attack, and the party defeats it.
In reality, Hikari was not kidnapped by Doe. Doe was in fact, benevolent despite his creepy appearance. She wanted to go there after seeing all the movies and both had a mutual consent to go in and recollect the memories and everything she yearned and strived for and forgot due to dissociative amnesia. Kamoshidaman was in fact, just Hikari's primary school teacher, who took the form of Kamoshida due to the Phantom Thieves arrival, and the rabbit form symbolizes the baseless crimes that Hikari is forced to admit. The citizens of that movie represent the students who blindly follow the teacher.
All of the movies are merely cognitive worlds that embody Hikari's depression and traumas that resulted in her borderline suicidal mindset, making it similar to both a Palace and a Midnight Channel area. As the Mtaverse Navigator does not work, it is still not a Palace.
As the party goes near the staircase to Act 3, a flashback of Hikari's past appears before the Persona users. After the rabbit incident, the young Hikari lost all of her motivation about heroes. However, she wanted to watch a movie, and thus the man talking asks her to go out for a movie that Sunday. She really wanted to watch a movie and expressed to him about her wish to become a movie director.
Now Hikari officially reveals her passion about movies, as she talks about them non-stop, to the point that other people tend to be put off by them. The Persona users however are interested, and they had a movie talk in the Act 3 entrance. Unfortunately, she still didn't remember why she truly liked movies aside that she's been watching them since she was young.
——Hikari's Childhood: Secondary School
In secondary school, there are bullies that would deface the desk of students with insults and throw litter on top of them. Hikari helped one of the students, Miyuki to clean her desk and invited her out for a movie. Hikari asked her to watch a movie about herbivores gathering their power to drive away carnivores and help their friends. She wanted to go, but the other friends refuse because Miyuki seemingly got on their nerves. At the next day Hikari got the same defacing treatment as Miyuki and she asked her friends about it. In reality, the bullies will also bully anyone who befriend people that they had bullied, which means that in order to prevent them from being bullied themselves, they had to ostracize a person; Miyuki or Hikari. They at first wanted to only lynch Miyuki, only for Hikari to voice her own opinion as a voice of reason. She suggested that nobody should be lynched, which all of the other students disagree. All of the students voted to kick Hikari out, and eventually even Miyuki joined in...Leaving her with no friends for the remainder of her secondary school period and to be bullied around like trash, there is no wonder that the word "friends" alone has such a severe trigger reaction on her.
——How horrible can people abuse this girl? How far they can get with it? The damage to Hikari's heart is completely and utterly horrible to be exact, and there is no doubt that she is the depressed mess that she is right now. In reality, Hikari just didn't make it clear. She wants to be friends with Miyuki and the other student knows about it. She challenges and denies the copies of her secondary school "friends," and they transform into Shadows to attack.
It turns out that Junessic Land is another one of those cognitive worlds that took the form of movies, and the Carnivores are gyarus and bullies. However, what truly caused the trauma are not those bullies, but her "friends," and they take the form of the herbivores and are the Greater Scope Villains of the reality.
Another flashback took place at the step towards Act 5. The man in the previous flashback was filming her and he was noticed by her. Unlike the previous time, she began to express what kind of abnormality she was, but the man cheered her up by saying she was "special" instead. Hikari now tells him that she wanted to become a movie director and she wanted to film all sorts of fiction and non-fiction movies.
In spite of this, she still has one really important thing that she can't remember.
As they enter Act 5, the party began to wonder why she was trapped here. She reveals that she wanted to escape reality, and at first she felt that the theater was good as she could watch movies as long as she wanted. However, this was no longer the feeling now.
——Hikari's Childhood: High School
This has nothing to do with Hikari's high school, but more to do with her home and her relatives. Since she has to film movies, she doesn't study a lot. Her father is a busy person and cannot take care of her for an extended amount of time, only able to see her every so often. Therefore, there are often relatives that would keep tabs on her house. One day, she was filming and wasn't studying, so her relatives asked her about it. They told her that if she doesn't work or study hard, she cannot possibly succeed in society, then they asked her future occupation. She said that she wanted to become a movie director. When her relatives heard that, unlike her father they were scornful. They said that a movie director has no future and future can only be obtained by getting a good resume then a "normal" job.note
They then outright scolded her for being a bother for her father despite he was the very one who told her to do that, and they wanted to talk matters with her parents, but cannot since her father is busy and her mother was absent. Therefore, they instead tried to punish her by confiscating her father's camera and called it a "hunk of junk." Just like the teacher and students before, they humiliated her by called her "abnormal" afterwards and her uncle even tried to tell her that "this is for your own sake."
——This is just awful. The pressure from this girl doesn't only come from school, it even comes from home and from relatives that only care about her getting as many money as possible instead of a creative job. Since the event, Hikari's self loathing took full effect and she believes herself as nothing more than an irregular, an error and the trash of society. A being that has no worth, and whose individuality only causes trouble for other people and makes her the depressed wreck she is.
Deep down, she never though of that. She wanted to get the movie going, and refuse her relative's standards. The relative copies are angered and transformed into Shadows to attack.
It was revealed that A.I.G.I.S was another one of the cognitive worlds taking the form of movies. The A.I. Overlord was her relatives, while the high school Hikari is Ribbon. At the same time, the P3P Heroine reveals about her loneliness and depression, caused by being alone. Since she was the only party member without her friends, she felt like that she was out of place and abnormal in this journey. She just felt confused, lonely and alienated, but thanks to Hikari and the other Persona users, this has been overcame.
Another flashback appeared near the end of this floor. Unlike the other flashbacks that are heartwarming, this one just seemed...ominous.
After the accumulated stress, denial and humiliation that she received in her entire childhood, she began to believe everyone hated her for everything she strived for. Movies, becoming a movie director, wanting to help people....all of these actions bring nothing but disgust and scorn by others. Collapsing into a fit of depression, she closed herself in her room and never got out of it. The man appeared and gave her a notebook to cheer her up, but she didn't do anything other than whimper. Then his voice became ominous....
"Why...Why...WHY....."
Hikari suddenly felt extremely awful as she tried to recollect what happened. The party has reached the 7th act, which is just a small room devoid of any enemies.
——Hikari's Childhood: Downfall
What appears to be Hikari's father arrived, saying that people might had been gone awful on her but they are for their own good. She remained catatonic and speechless. He tried to pressure her, only to receive no response. He then asked her:
"Why do you have to be like that?"
In reality, that was the exact phrase that every other people who hated her, including her teacher, "friends," and relatives said when she stood up against them. All of those people appear behind her as terrifying hallucinations repeating the same phrase, driving the hapless girl into a complete breakdown. The fact that the tormentors turned an innocent girl into a near-suicidal mess just by using words and that alone is completely terrifying.
——In reality, none of that happened. Or more accurately, her father never scolded her for once. The false father became angry and transformed into a Shadow and attacked the party.
After defeating it, it reveals to be just Doe impersonating a Shadow to test Hikari's memory. He spoke her name then fled without responding to the party.
As the party reaches the depths, the disturbingly colorful and whimsical fairytale landscape does a 360 degree contrast, transforming it into a monochrome landscape filled with dead flowers tearing blood. This should give you a really good idea of how horrible for her was to be "denied" by her father, the only person who genuinely cared for her.
Now reaching Doe, the Persona users were ready to smack him down, only for Hikari to step in and talk to the strange creature. She confesses why she was there and why she was fearful of Doe, and that's because she is trying to destroy her own heart and she couldn't face her traumas head on, as Doe is the embodiment of them. He asks her what she wanted to do, and she said that she wanted to escape the Cinema and change the ending. Since one of Doe's job is ironically keep her in just to prevent her from receiving more pain and moving forward, this effectively denies him and he goes berserk, transforming into a large Eldritch Abomination with film tapes swiveling around him. Despite the film tape and Doe being destroyed, Doe's headless body fights back and binds them with a move called "Infinite Despair," an uncurable bind. Hikari steps in to help the party by using Hikari's Cheer, allowing her to reactivate party members so they can defeat Doe.
The party successfully defeats Doe and the truth of her breakdown was made clear. In reality, the "Why do you have to be like that?" asked by her father was not a denial. It was in fact, merely "Why do you have to withdraw yourself?" and a genuine attempt to break her out of her shell. Her father, in fact, is as always, her beloved parent and nothing else. Now having regained all of her memories and sanity, she steps in to share a hug with Doe, who transforms into her father. After confessing to him, Doe transforms into the last key himself and aids their escape. Doe was nothing other than a cognitive copy of her father created from a combination of both her desire to live on, as well as the desire to just withdraw herself. In both senses, he is Hikari's protector and tormentor.
In reality, Hikari's Father was her beloved parent that is a projectionist that would always invite her to movie nights, and he wished for her to be loved by everybody and become a bright person like the main character of a musical, which is the reason why this labyrinth is one. He also wished for her to live her own path. Unfortunately, what was taught by her father to be loved by people seemingly just make people hate her, and in order to prevent him from being enraged by her, she never once spoke to her about other people. Eventually everything built and built, which only got worse recently, as even her relatives denied her worth. She was fully convinced that individuality was useless and had reached her breaking point, in which her father asked her "Why do you have to be like that." The words had fully convinced her that her father treated her as an embarrassment and crushed her sanity to the point that she didn't do anything other than withdraw herself in the Cinema and created the movie labyrinths to prove that she is truly worthless. In reality, that was just unjustified self-hatred, and her father was actually expressing concern with that phrase. The credits roll and the movie name in black scribble reveals itself to be "Hikari." As she has been given back her heart and life, "to be continued" was shown afterwards.
When the gates are opened...
It wasn't a portal to the real world. The front gate was merely a door to a strange realm that takes the form of a street made of negative film. Nagi suddenly appears in the air, lets out an evil laugh and transforms into something that looks malicious; with red hair, red lipstick and beads on her hair.
The thing reveals herself to be Nagi's true identity, the Mesopotamian god of storms and justice — Enlil! This being is the manifestation of humanity's desire to end all of their pain of being torn apart by society, and she curates all the theaters in the entire district. While she did take all of those people including Hikari on goodwill, it turns out that the movies are all just nothing but the negative memories of people; All of them are exactly the same script, with those who were oppressed by society portrayed in the most unsympathetic light possible. The people are also not real people nor are they directly trapped by Enlil; Enlil is more or less just the operating core and not an individual. The trapped people are still moving and living in real life and what is trapped is their souls; Without a soul, the people become catatonically depressed and withdrawn and will stay that way until they leave. They are merely manipulated by their weakness, as the doors save for Hikari's theater had no locks, and the locks there were added later to help Hikari rehabilitate. After explaining everything, Enlil suprisingly lets them leave and flees.
Realizing "Nagi" — or Enlil, the only person she thought that she could trust was nothing other than a phony that kept her and thousands of other people of varying ages and gender that suffered from the same fate as her depressed and withdrawn, she decided to rally the party into freeing the others so they can return to the real world. There are also further consequences; If the district is not removed, it will bleed into the real world, albeit not in Enlil's plan. Enlil herself only wanted to bring salvation to the catatonically depressed, but the method must be stopped.
As the party ventures to the deepest floor of the Theater District, they step in to confront Enlil only for her to avoid direct combat, sends a pair of weak Shadows against the party, then explain to them that people are weak and show them a man that lies down catatonically depressed, saying that he's too scared to leave. She then teleports them back away to Hikari's Theater.
The truth of the Theater District is now revealed; The floor of the district is not a normal floor, but instead is made out of collected pure negativity taking the form of movies. Its true identity is the Akashic Record of all negative memories, in which all of the positive elements are cut off and only negative memories remain. The film flows into the theaters and become the only movies broadcasted there, and the real Hikari was tricked into almost truly giving up her life because her soul watched the movies for an extended period and prevented it from returning to its body. Fortunately, thanks to Doe overwriting the movies with exclusively her memories and dragging in Persona users alongside them to change their endings and cognition, she managed to regain her life back.
As they devise the plan, all of the persona users and Hikari announce themselves to be the "Grand Phantom Thieves" — The final operation begins!!
The projection room had four film reels, just enough to replace all of the four negative projectors with Hikari's edited films, all of them who can brainwash the people trapped in theaters, but to make them think positively instead of negatively. A special operation is made to replace the projectors in the labyrinth depths into Hikari's films. For each film that is used to replace the projectors, they will come to life and take the form of heavily watered down negative projections of former bosses to attack. They are all defeated and overwritten with Hikari's movies, and there's the last thing left...confront Enlil.
When the party reaches Enlil, she seems to be not there...only to suddenly appear on top of the monitor set. The party sends her a calling card, as the movie world begins to be purified and the pure negativity replaced by Hikari's movies.
As the movies began to change, the trapped souls witness in shock and awe while Enlil is clearly furious. She steps down and combats the party in human form, and the party stalls her to get the movies broadcasted long enough for them to take effect. In the middle of the battle, she casts a dangerous attack that nearly cripples the entire party.
While confronting Enlil seems to be fruitless, Hikari now steps in and rallies the trapped into living on. As the movies began to take effect, they begin to gain the will to escape. Enlil seems to be into the idea, only to reveal that she is actually angered and reveals a crazed expression, transforming into her real form; a masculine eagle god. When the party almost defeats her, she removes all combatants from the party and Hikari steps in to confront her alone. She at first chastises Hikari, but stands completely still afterwards, allowing a four way unison attack by the protagonists to finish her off.
Seeing that nobody would want her "salvation" anymore, Enlil transforms back into the form of Nagi, recognizes humanity's infinite possibilities and vanishes into white light, removing the district core. Now fully recovered from demotivation, all of the theatergoers return to their realities and the district collapses.
The P3 and P4 cast return to reality, with the P3P heroine and P3 hero bidding farewell to each other before they return. The P5 cast were the last ones to depart, but the experience has made Akechi realize how abhorrent he was and he didn't want to return to the way he was: a psychopathic killer and hitman.
As Hikari returns to reality, it was morning again and her soul has returned to her body. She does not remember why she cried, and she wanted to meet her father. As she met him, he wondered why she was so worked up when she used to be depressed and withdrawn, and she passed the events as a dream and made amends with him.
The P3 cast return to the Iwatodai Dorm and the P3 hero has brought a CD for everyone to watch, with Yukari and Fuuka having bought snacks for them as they watch the movie with Mitsuru's permission.
The P4 cast return to the Dojima Residence and were greeted by Nanako. She cooks dishes alongside the P4 hero while a dinosaur movie began to broadcast on TV. Yosukesaurus appears in the movie, but they do not recognize him.
The P3P heroine returns to the real world after a nap. She woke up and her real S.E.E.S comrades greet her, saying that they got a sci-fi movie and invited her to watch it. The rest of the contents are the same as the male protagonist, but she also got an unexplainable familiar feeling... It was like she saw something that bothered her.
The P5 cast finally return to Cafe Leblanc with Akechi relapsing and absent and Ann coming in after a late photoshoot, having picked up a pamphlet for a high school student movie festival. They decided to attend it, only for Hikari to step into the dais of the festival auditorium. This seems to make the P5 hero remember something...
