Mementos

Mementos, also known as the Prison of Sloth or the Prison of Regression, is a location in Persona 5.

Appearances

 * Persona 5
 * Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers
 * Persona 5 The Animation
 * Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

Persona 5



 * Background Music: "Mementos", "Freedom and Security" (Depths), "Life Will Change" (Qliphoth World)
 * Available: May 7 (December 24 for the depths)
 * Deadline:  Few days after December 24 (Rearrest)
 * Owner: The people of Tokyo/Yaldabaoth
 * Location: Shibuya Railway

Mementos is the Palace for everyone's hearts. Free missions unrelated to the story are done here so that they can steal the hearts of humans on these missions. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts explore the dungeon by using Morgana's bus form. While it is initially an optional place meant for grinding levels and solving optional missions, it later becomes the final dungeon when Yaldabaoth awakens his true form, the Holy Grail, within it. It appears to be a massive series of subway tunnels with wooden train tracks in place of rails, with various features of a prison such as chains or bars. Where a Shadow Self inhabits the area, the walls develop red cracks that resemble a spider web or fractal patterns, and the veins that power Yaldabaoth's regeneration become prominent.

While optional, spending some in-game days to explore Mementos is strongly recommended in order to cut a significantly huge amount of time reaching its depths. Exploring it is also required to advance various confidants, as heist requests related with those confidants will be issued, which must be cleared before they can be progressed further.

The Shadows in upper Mementos resemble those of black humanoids with numerous masks, but the ones in the depths resemble security guards. The Shadows in the Qliphoth World resemble robotic, faceless angels.

Mementos is divided into multiple "paths," each of which has its own unique architecture and floors, referred as "areas." They are randomly generated and areas open up as the fame of the Phantom Thieves grows with each Palace they defeat.
 * Path of Qimranut: Consists of 2 areas.
 * Path of Aiyatsbus: Consists of 7 areas. (rest on area 4)
 * Path of Chemdah: Consists of 8 areas. (rest on area 5)
 * Path of Kaitul: Consists of 10 areas. (rest on area 6)
 * Path of Akzeriyyuth: Consists of 12 areas. (rest on areas 4 and 8)
 * Path of Adyeshach: Consists of 13 areas. (rest on areas 5 and 9)
 * Path of Sheriruth: Consists of 14 areas. (rest on areas 6 and 10)
 * Path of Iweleth: Consists of 1 area and acts as an entrance to the depths of Mementos, within which the Holy Grail has hidden itself.

Its enemies are affected by weather in reality:
 * Thunderstorm: Increases appearance of rare enemies and items.
 * Torrential rain: Same as thunderstorm, but to a greater effect.
 * Pollen warning: Enemies may fall asleep in dungeons and request Eye Drops in negotiation.
 * Heatwave: Enemies may suffer Burn at the beginning of battle.
 * Flu Season: Enemies may suffer Despair (dying after 3 turns) at the beginning of battle.

All bad weather conditions also boost the appearance rate of rare Personas.

On December 23rd, the Phantom Thieves discover that Mementos continues to be exploited as their efforts of changing the heart of Masayoshi Shido was denied and covered up, and thus they resolve to take the public's Treasure on the next day so that it cannot be used for such purposes again. The game forcibly sends the protagonist into Mementos and prohibits them from going to the overworld due to the thieves trying to avoid detection by law enforcement, although they can temporarily leave it to shop with Takemi or Iwai. Also, while the protagonist is unable to advance time any further, Caroline will provide free healing at the entrance of the Mementos Depths. The moment the party reaches the deepest parts of the Depths to engage the Holy Grail, the protagonist enters the endgame and will no longer be able to shop.

After the Holy Grail expels the party from Mementos, the real world begins fusing with it. The public is completely oblivious to its appearance in the real world and only those who had formed a Confidant with the protagonist can notice the changes. Due to the Holy Grail manipulating the cognition of the masses, one by one, starting from Futaba and ending with the protagonist, the party vanishes from the real world writhing in pain but are actually transported into the Velvet Room, where the true identity of the Grail is unmasked impersonating as Igor. "Igor" orders Caroline and Justine to execute the protagonist, but they found that they cannot be in good shape fighting him. Realizing that the Igor was fake, they tell the protagonist to perform a guillotine fusion that turns them back into their original form, Lavenza and the two confront and expose the Holy Grail/fake Igor. The Holy Grail then gives the protagonist a chance to join him and gain fame to restore everything back to normal, but makes him a terrorizing force in the city where people lack free will and his teammates presumably still imprisoned.

If he refuses, the Holy Grail will release the real Igor and he returns to continue his duties and lets the protagonist free his teammates which were confined in special cells, and it is revealed that the Velvet Room is fused with Mementos when it is captured and infiltrated. Upon escape, the party finds themselves in the Qliphoth World, and they begin the ascent to take down the Grail. Like Caroline before her, Lavenza remains at the start of the area, providing free healing when needed, as the protagonist can no longer access any other parts of the real world until they finish.

During the ascent, the Thieves will confront the four archangels before the final battle against the Holy Grail commences. While being Shadows, these Archangels act in a way similar to their original Shin Megami Tensei counterparts. For each Archangel they defeat, the cognition of the masses awakens and the people of Tokyo begin to be more aware of their surroundings, even panicking as all electronic appliances and radio equipment such as phones refuse to function.

The party finally reaches to the Holy Grail who is still impersonating Igor, but he quickly drops off his guise. During the fight, a party member is sent to sever the ties between the Grail and the will of the people, preventing it from healing. However after it is defeated, the Grail merges with the temple and reveals its true form, Yaldabaoth, the God of Control. He reveals himself to be an administrator of the collective unconsciousness and and claims that rehabilitation is useless and society will regress to the level of apes, in which the party denies him, calls his experiment a rigged game and challenges him to one final confrontation.

Despite their efforts, Yaldabaoth's Rays of Control knocks them unconscious, seemingly rendering him victorious. However, Morgana now makes an announcement to the public and tells them to cheer the Phantom Thieves. The public at first were doubtful but began to cheer them on as Yuuki Mishima encourages them, bursting the Phantom Thieves' popularity from 0% to 100% in an instant. The protagonist's confidants unanimously support him and his teammates and they cheer them on. The reverse manipulation of the masses' cognition allows a comeback, and the protagonist awakens Arsene into Satanael who finishes Yaldabaoth with one Sinful Shell. Yaldabaoth ruefully acknowledges Igor's claims and reverts back into the lifeless Holy Grail, cementing the Phantom Thieves' final victory.

After the Holy Grail and its true form Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, is defeated, Mementos dissipates and Tokyo returns to its former state as if the destruction never happened. The Metaverse is sealed from the real world and Mementos is exiled from reality forever. Due to the masses liberated from its control, they were more willing to speak of Shido's crimes and are willing to support the protagonist's release from juvenile hall afterwards. However, the disappearance of Mementos comes with the side effect that Morgana will disappear due to his existence being tied with it, but due to him forever being in the Thieves' hearts, he returns to the real world as a normal house cat.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Mementos appears briefly during the prologue sequence, where the Phantom Thieves are seen making a routine trip. While driving the Mona-Bus through the area, both Morgana and Makoto suddenly lose control of the Mona-Bus and it barrels straight into the depths of Mementos. The Mona-Bus eventually comes into contact with a glowing screen and drives into it, thus sending the Phantom Thieves out of Mementos and into the world of movies.

Missions
Mementos is also the setting of missions, called "requests," some of which are needed to progress Confidant links. After finding out a target's name in the real world, the protagonist must find and defeat the target's shadow in Mementos in a boss fight to make the target have a change of heart.

"Beware the Clingy Ex-boyfriend" acts as a tutorial mission while other missions are received through Yuuki Mishima's chat messages, certain Confidants or certain part-time jobs. Due to plot reasons, the protagonist can only access and complete missions up until December 23rd.

Several Mementos bosses are susceptible to Confusion. This weakness is one of the fastest methods to obtain money in Persona 5. A boss confused with the spell Pulinpa by a Persona with Confuse Boost and a high Luck value can drop up to 150,000 yen per turn at around a Luck level of 70.

Missions marked with an asterisk contribute to the progression of the Moon Confidant.

†While the final mission can be accessed as early as December 3rd, the protagonist must finish Shido's Palace to unlock it.

List of Enemies
In general, shadows that spawn in Mementos are the ones that were already encountered in previous Palace dungeons, with some shadows being exclusive to Mementos. Mementos will generate new floors based on story progress and act similar to Devil's Peak and the Mikage Ruins from Megami Ibunroku Persona. The Reaper can also spawn if the party stays in the same floor for about 2 minutes.

Exclusive to Mementos

 * Slime
 * Obariyon
 * Kodama
 * Ippon-Datara
 * Sudama
 * Fuu-Ki
 * Sui-Ki
 * Kin-Ki
 * Choronzon
 * Pisaca
 * Legion
 * Hope Diamond
 * Crystal Skull

Trivia

 * Mementos is a randomly generated dungeon like Tartarus and the Midnight Channel. However, the Depths has a fixed layout and its own set of puzzles like the Palaces before it.
 * Mementos becomes mandatory in December, as it generates a new palace to be entered by the Phantom Thieves.
 * Mementos, like all other Palaces, symbolizes one of the Seven Deadly Sins-in its case, Sloth or Apathy. Theologically, Sloth is the most complex of the sins, encompassing laziness (the desire to perform evil deeds or let them exist unopposed because it is easier than doing good), cowardice (evil born of fear) and despair (disaffection from life motivating selfishness and abandonment of moral and ethical duty). Acedia (Apathy) is the neglect to take care of something that one should do. It is translated to apathetic listlessness; depression without joy. It is related to melancholy: acedia describes the behavior and melancholy suggests the emotion producing it. In early Christian thought, the lack of joy was regarded as a willful refusal to enjoy the goodness of God; by contrast, apathy was considered a refusal to help others in time of need. When Yaldabaoth awakes, and the Conspiracy starts invoking its power to control Tokyo directly, it is shown in the city's populace choosing to believe an obvious lie (that somehow, the Phantom Thieves are not responsible for the high-profile reforming of several individuals), rather than a cutting truth (that Masayoshi Shido was a terrible leader, and yet most of Japan still voted for him because of nothing but raw charisma), showing cowardice. As the Phantom Thieves manage to find their way into Mementos' core, it's also revealed that the Shadow Selves that had inhabited Mementos have been willingly imprisoned by Yaldabaoth, choosing to let him dictate the future rather than allowing fallible humans to make their own decisions, showing both the laziness and despair aspects.
 * The overall design of Mementos is reminiscent of La Mappa Dell'Inferno painted by Botticelli and based off of Dante Alighieri's written work The Divine Comedy.
 * Unused files in the game indicate that it is intended to have a bad ending for failing to complete the Mementos Depths before the deadline or re-arrest. This unused bad ending is near-identical to other pre-Shido deadline bad endings, although the police officers congratulate the protagonist for having been "chosen by god" and is now an inmate for an eternity, and Sojiro wishes that he could be an inmate and sighs that the world is already in ruin, which ties to the personality of people being distorted by the Holy Grail.
 * The minibosses of Qliphoth World Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel consist of the Personas needed to fuse Michael, including Michael himself.
 * The music for Mementos Depths is used for the bad ending credits roll for Persona 5. It also uses similar choruses as "Tokyo Daylight," furthering the connection that Mementos is controlling Tokyo.
 * If the protagonist dies in Qliphoth World, a unique game over screen will be triggered, with a new Game Over message and Lavenza and the real Igor will be inside the Velvet Room instead of the former residents. Lavenza expresses disbelief for the protagonist's death and Igor senses a calamity drawing close. He is then given the option to restart the boss battle if applicable, restart from the Shibuya Square or return to the title screen.
 * The paths of Mementos are named after the, specifically the versions given by William G. Gray in his book The Tree of Evil. This ties into the ultimate master of Mementos being Yaldabaoth, as the Qliphoth is taken to be the "shadow of God," just as Yaldabaoth is only a deluded impostor of Ain Soph, Kabbalah's name for God as he was before the creation of the world. In the Japanese version, names of these paths are given their literal meaning:
 * Unused dialogue in the game indicates that there are more Mementos subquests intended than in the final game.


 * Mementos appears as a stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It has three separate color palettes depending on the background music selected for the stage, drawing color schemes and motifs from Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5