Recap / Dragalia Lost Caged Desire

"PERSONA!"

Event Date: January 2021
Event Type: Raid, Collab
Element: All
Friendship Character: Sophie
Theme Song: Lyn - You Are Stronger

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This event contains examples of:

• Berserk Button: Luca presses it when he calls Morgana a tanuki instead of a cat... and then gets pissed that he even called himself a cat!
• Brainwashed: The distortions of the collective unconscious allow for the theft of Desires to inflict this upon the victims, reducing them to mindless worshippers of the Monarch. This only functions in the world of Dragalia Lost due to interactions between the local mana and the EMMA app, which was installed on a smartphone Emile found.
• But Now I Must Go: Once Emile destroys the smartphone, the way back to the Shibuya Jail opens up, so soon as the Dyrenell Jail disappears, so does their way home, so the Phantom Thieves have to leave.
• Call-Back: Emile's Trauma Cell has the party go back to Dornith Mountain, where he lost to Euden in Chapter 4.
• Crossover: With Persona 5. The addition of Sophie has it promoted as one for Persona 5 Strikers.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Emile has this reaction to Euden giving him a You Are Not Alone speech.
  Emile: "Stop it. STOP! Do you really think I will take your hand? I don't want to be understood by YOU, of all people! I HATE you, Euden!"
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Players can still get a taste of Joker's playstyle in the first level even without having rolled for him or even leveled him up.
• How We Got Here: The story jumps from Joker rescuing Euden in Emile's Jail back to a few days earlier when Euden and Luca accidentally crossed into the Metaverse.
• In Medias Res: The story opens up with Joker coming to Euden's rescue in Emile's Jail.
• I've Never Seen Anything Like This Before: After everything Ann went through back in her home game, being confronted by being in a literal fantasy world is this for her.
  "*sigh* And here I thought nothing could surprise me anymore..."
• Never My Fault: Emile blames all of his failings on the fact that all of his older siblings have all the raw talent in the family; he also blames Euden violently for his loss of Mercury and Jupiter. Emile actually has talent in the arts, but such rarely has any place in politics.
• Rule of Symbolism: The party learns from the Phantom Thieves that the Cores aren't jewels but more Treasures that make them see themselves as Monarchs. In Emile's case, they've found a wooden sword, a stringed instrument and a painting of the castle. Euden relays how Emile was a gifted painter and could play any instrument, as well as put on plays.
• Schizo Tech: While there have been androids in the past and also in Dragalia's VERY distant past, what seals the deal that Emile is the Jail's Monarch is he has a smartphone, something that's not from the Dragalia universe (the closest equivalent would be Nadine's Clix). Especially when it came from EMMA. The smartphone shatters after Emile throws it away and the characters presume it made out of mana.
• Start of Darkness: He was already a jerk to begin with, but Emile's defeat after failing to secure Jupiter in Chapter 4, then having his own soldiers trash talk him, compare him unfavorably to his more successful siblings older and younger, and that they're only using him to get cushy positions anyway sent him off the deep end.
• Trojan Prisoner: Euden allows himself to get captured so he can not only have a face to face meeting with Emile, but also to give him the Phantom Thieves' calling card.
• Villain World: The Dyrenell Jail turns Sol Alberia into this, making a statue dedicated to Emile appear in the courtyard. Soon as everything goes back to normal, the statue disappears.