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| Lufel | Gallery | Quotes | Confidant | Party |
Lufel is a playable character from Persona 5: The Phantom X.[nb 1][1] He is a mysterious being with ties to Mementos. He lost his memories after entering the real world aside from a strong drive that believes humans should embrace their desires.
He seeks out the protagonist with the intent of nurturing him to awaken his persona and would have stuck with him since. During the group's activities as Phantom Thieves, Lufel acts as their guide. To his teammates, he's also known as Cattle during missions.
Appearances[]
- Persona 5: The Phantom X: Playable Character
Design[]
In the Metaverse, Lufel is an anthropomorphic and bipedal owl-like creature. He has bright blue eyes and yellow sclera, a white mask almost shaped like a barn owl's head, a yellow beak and blue-tipped feathers on the top of his head. He wears a black zip-up hoodie with white and red trim, gold buttons on the hem and sleeves ending in quilted mittens.
In the real world, Lufel resembles a great horned owl with blue-tipped tufts of feathers on his face. He also still wears the red goggles, and his beak is now black instead of yellow.
In the Metaverse, Lufel can transform into a red and white car. Its design is based on the Renault 4. The triangular grille represents his beak and the headlights represent his eyes. Attached to the roof of the car are a pair of red devil horns, while a black devil's tail is attached to the back.
Personality[]
Lufel possesses a wealth of knowledge of the Metaverse. However, he seems to have some amnesia, with gaps in knowledge regarding his purpose and origin. He mainly remembers his mission to help the humans of Tokyo to regain their desire, and that he made a promise to meet with the protagonist. He is calm, steady, self-reliant and a very reliable partner.[2] Lufel accompanies the protagonist in his daily life, such as when he is performing various activities around Tokyo.[3]
He shows a sense of pride and vanity towards in his appearance and is prone to using overly-technical or antiquated terminology. This can give the impression of being arrogant (or that he's trying to seem impressive). However, he is generally very polite and respectful, and is not prone to talking down to others. He seems somewhat cautious, as he warns his party members against entering Mementos from anywhere that is not close to any train stations out of fear of being trapped or swarmed by enemies in unknown areas of Mementos upon entry. He also frames his relationship with his fellow Phantom Thieves as being akin to equal business partners, instead of framing as deals or under the pretense of master and apprentices.
However, in spite of his mysterious and professional personality, he can sometimes be rather excitable, even having a bit of a short fuse. For example, he has a strong passion for meat, and he is prone to getting annoyed when others ignore his advice or treat him like an animal, insisting that his avian form in the real world is a deliberate disguise, and that he is not literally an owl. He is also often the subject of a running gag of people being shocked on his anthropomorphic appearance in the Metaverse, followed by being compared to creatures or fictional characters in ways that annoy Lufel, which causes him no end of consternation.
As his knowledge of the Metaverse isn't complete (partly due to his amnesia), and he often finds himself relying on intuition and gut feelings, and while he is generally pretty good at intuiting plausible theories (even when working with incomplete information), he is honest when he has gaps in his knowledge. As such he will caution others to take his theories with a grain of salt. His amnesia is a source of insecurity for him, leading him to be reluctant to share any insights have any gaps in information on occasion, especially if his amnesia seems to be the cause. Though inexperienced with the human world, his observation skills extend outside of strict matters relating to the Metaverse, as he shows a strong sense for his party members' personal strengths and weaknesses, as well as his own. However, he is inexperienced with human interaction, leading him to be somewhat awkward and out of touch at times, and his verbosity tends to leave others confused.
Besides having knowledge about the Metaverse, he also has the innate ability to sense strong desires (or lack there of) in humans. This ability extends to being able to sense the qualities and potency of these desires, such as when person's desires are being stolen, or manipulated by someone else. This sense seems to extend to Treasures as well (as they are the manifestation of a Palace ruler's twisted desires), has a sense for Mementos and the Metaverse as whole to some extent. This allows him to sense the current number of treasures that exist in the Metaverse. He is also able to be heard by some normal people in the world, even if they haven't awoken to a Persona or been to the Metaverse as long as those people have sufficiently strong desires or have access to the Metaverse Navigator. This connection to human desires seems to inform his personality and world view, as he often pontificates about strengthening desire, and what certain human behaviors indicate proof of strong or weak desires, and much of his understanding of the inner workings of the Metaverse, Shadows and Personas is framed around the concept. As such, he places great importance on respecting the desires and free will of others, and is against coercion or forcing people into things they do not wish to do.
He is shown to be familiar with Wonder's vision ability, having experience with similar visions himself. However, he remains unclear on their meaning, due to his amnesia.
Profile[]
Persona 5: The Phantom X[]
"Prologue: Discover the Secret World"[]
Lufel is first seen seeking out the protagonist in Shibuya. As he follows him, he notices the protagonist's lack of will, and senses that his desires are being stolen and wonders if he is indeed the one he is looking for. However, when he senses that the protagonist continues to question his reality in spite of this fact, Lufel concludes that he is the person he's been looking for. He approaches the protagonist on the train ride home and inexplicably, the protagonist can understand the apparent owl. Stating that he has kept his promise to find him, he cryptically warns the protagonist of the difference of being invisible and not being present at all. After the protagonist accidentally activates the Metaverse Navigator on the train, he is transported to Mementos with Lufel, who makes his introductions. He tells Wonder of the existence of the Metaverse and the nature of Mementos as the manifestation of the public's collective unconscious. He adds that the world is in danger due to the masses having their desires and hope stolen at an alarming rate, and that it is ultimately a threat to the world. He warns that if a person loses all their hopes and desires, they become mere shells and lose any reason to live. However, before they can talk for long, the two are cornered by Shadows, and Wonder is defenseless against them. Finding his resolve and desire to live, he awakens his Persona. Lufel is impressed by the protagonist's innate power, stating that he had a hunch that he might be the person he was looking for to help him with his mission to protect the world's desires. The two face off against a powerful Shadow called a Shedim, which Lufel realizes is the very being responsible for the recent loss of desires in the area. After making their escape, they arrive in Shibuya. Lufel, now in his owl form, tells the protagonist to get some rest, and that he will provide more explanation when they can meet in private.
The following morning, the protagonist is woken by Lufel, who has come to answer the protagonist's questions, and make a request of his own. However as the protagonist has school, they agree to meet during lunch.
“Mission 1: Traces of Dreams”[]
As they agreed earlier that morning, Lufel and the protagonist meet on the school rooftop during lunch. Lufel explains the nature of Mementos, the Metaverse, the rampant loss and distortion of desires, shadows, and Personas. In particular, he explains that Mementos is dark and without light due to reflecting humanity's collective lack of hope in the future, all stemming from their loss of desire, and specifies that when a shadow's desires are distorted, they begin to rampage, which can cause harm even in the real world, as it leads shadows to rob people's shadows for their desires. In cases where a person's shadow goes berserk, it causes the individual to become corrupt and abusive, and start to exploit and impact the desires of the people around them. Lufel formally asks the protagonist to work with him as a Phantom Thief to combat this issue, by way of stealing the distorted desires, or treasures of corrupted individuals. The protagonist isn't sure he's interested, and Lufel states he'll look for him in Shibuya regarding his answer.
At Shibuya, Lufel points to his target, Takeyuki Kiuchi, who has rather abruptly become a Phantom who harasses and intimidates innocent women by bumping into them on the street and near subway stations. Lufel explains that Kiuchi is unlikely to be caught by law enforcement, due to a legal loophole of plausible deniability and the police outright losing their desire to apprehend him. This lack of justice would go onto make the victims and their loved ones lose hope, and thus lose even more desires in the long tun. He reveals that the cause stems from Kiuchi's shadow self in the Metaverse, and that it cannot be solved by reasoning with Kiuchi in the real world (as he would not listen), and that trying to physically stop him would only lead to violence. The protagonist suddenly has a seeming vision of the future, where Kiuchi pushes a mother her infant child down the stairs, which results their deaths. Realizing that he might be the only person who can intervene, the protagonist finally agrees to help Lufel to steal Kiuchi's shadow's distorted desires and stop his rampage, formally beginning their partnership to stop the threat of the Phantoms.[4] The protagonist chooses to go by the the alias "Wonder" in the Metaverse as per Lufel's suggestion. Conversely, Lufel takes on the code name "Cattle," stemming from a vague hunch he has.
When he and Lufel are surrounded by a horde of Shadows in Mementos, Joker suddenly appears in front of him from behind and this time, they fight together in unison. Immediately afterwards Merope summons Wonder into the Velvet Room, and introduces him to the concept of Phantom Idols, cognitive forms of people Wonder knows in real life who happen to have strong desires, all born from his cognition and given Personas by Merope, they will aid to aid him in battle. Wonder wonders if the Joker who helped him before was actually a Phantom Idol, though Merope isn't sure what he means. Later, Igor warns that development of your own desires can sometimes come at the expense of the desires of others.
The following day, after Kiuchi injures Tomoko while going after Motoha, Motoha approaches the protagonist, asking him if he is familiar with Kiuchi, having seen him seemingly talk with the man the day prior. Lufel (who Motoha is somehow able to understand) explains their intentions to use the Metaverse Navigator to enter Mementos, stop his rampage and change his heart. He asks Motoha what she plans to do about this hopeless situation. Motoha doesn't understand, and grows frustrated when Lufel suggests she move on if she lacks the proper resolve. After another close encounter with Kiuchi, and not wanting Motoha involved for her safety, Wonder and Lufel promptly begin their exploration of Kiuchi's Palace. Meanwhile, Motoha decides to act, and uses the Metaverse Navigator as well and runs into Cattle and Wonder. However, she is soon captured and imprisoned by Shadow Kiuchi's minions. Kiuchi blames Motoha for ruining his life, something Motoha has felt guilty for for years. However, she soon realizes that Kiuchi lost out on his dream as a result of his own behavior, and she and every other woman he assaults is merely a scapegoat for him. Concluding that all the guilt she felt was unwarranted, she decides to fight back and awakens to her Persona. She decides to help Wonder and Cattle stop Kiuchi.
During their exploration of the Palace, Cattle admits that he isn't sure how he knows so much about cognition and the Metaverse, suspecting that he might have lost most of his memories after traveling to the real world. Wonder and Motoha (now under the alias of Closer), state that they are going to help Cattle regain his memories, feeling indebted to him for his help. Cattle is grateful, and states that he will happily return the favor.
When the group reaches the core of Kiuchi's palace, Lufel explains that they need to make the real Kiuchi feel threatened to manipulate his cognition into physically manifesting his treasure, which will allow them to steal it. To that end, the protagonist and Motoha create calling cards and proclaim their intent to steal his distorted desires. Lufel spreads the cards through Shibuya Square, creating a spectacle, enraging Kiuchi, and causing his treasure to manifest.
“Mission 2: Battle of Dreams & Flavor”[]
After beating Kiuchi, Lufel reveals that he senses seven total treasures out in the Metaverse. With Kiuchi's defeat, there are only six left. Lufel asks if the other two want to keep assisting him in finding palaces and stealing treasures, wanting them to understand the risk and not feel overly obligated or pressured. Motoha is unsure at first, but eventually both Motoha and the protagonist agree to keep working with Lufel in the Metaverse.
Later, while walking to school, Shun Kano takes notice of the protagonist and Motoha, having met them at the restaurant the night before. He becomes confused over whether he heard two or three voices, suggesting that he is able to hear Lufel's voice. After school, the group discuss finding more palaces, with Motoha suggesting that they work together instead of solely relying on Lufel, which Lufel accepts due to the lesser risk on his part. Meanwhile, students near them discuss the food critic Hiromu Miyazawa being a "certified Phantom." The three explore Mementos after school, with Lufel revealing that Kiuchi's defeat has unlocked a new level of Mementos due to their sheer impact on the public's consciousness, and states that there might be real world effects as well.
When they return from Mementos, Motoha contemplates trying Victory Kitchen again, having been unimpressed with the flavor and wondering if the other flavors are less mediocre. However, Shun notices them, and retorts that all the flavors are all similarly underwhelming. Motoha and Shun get into a conversation over the apparent decline of the ramen shop's flavor, despite the public's belief on the contrary. Motoha shares her fond childhood memories of Victory Kitchen's old recipe, which resonates with Shun, leading them to form a comradery. Lufel begins to sense Shun's passion and strong will.
Shun reveals that Victory Kitchen is actually a branch of another resturant Heritage Kitchen, opened to train new chefs, and that Shun was one of those trainees under the owner, a man named Yamagoshi, who Shun sees as his father figure. Shun worries for Yamagoshi, as his health is worsening due the added stress from Miyazawa's influence. Lufel reveals it is a product of Yamagoshi's desires being stolen, and that he senses the reverberations of exploited desires around Victory Kitchen. After obtaining further information from Yamagoshi's apprentice, Masa, the group to investigate Miyazawa, and they discover his Palace.
After Miyazawa underhandedly manages to get Yamagoshi to transfer Heritage Kitchen to him after Yamagoshi falls ill, he challenges Shun to try to win the restaurant back on a segment on his show called "Flavor Fight." If Shun can win Miyazawa over with his Victory Kitchen ramen and get him to say "Thank you for the Meal," he will hand over the restaurant and swear to leave Heritage Kitchen and Victory Kitchen alone for good. Knowing it is undoubtedly rigged, Shun agrees to it, feeling that it would be better for him to become shamed instead of Yamagoshi and his associates.
After failing to persuade Shun to back down from the challenge, the protagonist sees another vision, this time about Shun losing the challenge and decrying Miyazawa for throwing away "the life of Victory Kitchen." Shun is labeled as the next certified "Phantom," and Yamagoshi dies from a sudden heart attack. Back in reality, Lufel notices the protagonist's expression and infers that he's seen another vision, and implores the protagonist to act if he has any solutions to their current predicament. The protagonist then decides to call Yamagoshi for advice, specifically asking about "the life of Victory Kitchen." Yamagoshi then remembers a gift he intended to pass down to Shun: a prized specialty mandolin or shaver box used to shave katsuobushi to make dashi for ramen, pivotal to making Victory Kitchen's signature broth. He asks the protagonist and Motoha aid Shun and tell him about the mandolin.
When the protagonist and Motoha Arai are on their way to Shinjuku to deliver Yamagoshi's message to Shun, the train stops due to an incident on the tracks. Due to the urgency of the situation, Lufel instructs his teammates to use Metaverse Navigator on the train, against his own advice to not enter Mementos while not near the station. As they discuss this, a girl with purple hair takes notice of Lufel inside the protagonist's bag and reaches for her sketchbook. Upon activating the app, the group disappears while the purple haired girl looks away, leaving her confused. They are immediately attacked by shadows upon arrival, leading Lufel to reveal that as the reason as to his specific advice regarding entering the Metaverse.
When Miyazawa commits to lambasting Shun's ramen (in spite of his genuinely enjoying the food), he goes to call the police against the protagonist and Motoha for "breaking into" Victory Kitchen. Shun seems stalwart his plan to take the fall as to not bring further shame to Yamagoshi and his fellow apprentices. However, Lufel senses his strong desires, and speaks to Shun. When Shun is able to hear Lufel, Shun is able to understand, and words seem to get to him, and he agrees follow Motoha and the protagonist as they make their escape. In the fray, Shun accidentally activates the Metaverse app, which lands the group right into Miyazawa's palace, as they were right next to Victory Kitchen upon entry.
After defeating Miyazawa and changing his heart, the group discuss the fact that both Kiuchi and Miyazawa seemed like they could have been normal people that had somehow had their desires not become twisted. Though uncertain of the fact, Lufel shares that when he touched Miyazawa's treasure, he sensed that his desires may have been manipulated by an outside influence, leading him to speculate that there might be some sort of mastermind behind the incidents. He also points to how Shadow Miyazawa alluded to some unknown party before he faded away after his defeat.
"Mission 3: Concerto for Rulebreakers"[]
During the Phantom Thieves' exploration around Akashi's Palace, the protagonist sees a vision of Akashi stalking and then violently stabbing Riko from behind, as Motoha's screams her name in horror. After Wonder shares this with the group, Lufel speculates that the visions might be precognitive in nature, and Closer points out that such visions allowed the group to learn of Yamagoshi's gift to Soy. Soy argues that none of his visions have actually come to pass and that the visions may be figments of Wonder's imagination borne from his anxiety. However, Wind acknowledges the possibility of them being supernatural (though is skeptical that Akashi would do anything so rash), and suggests that Wonder's premonitions aren't set in stone but are instead possible outcomes representing worst case scenarios. Wonder then considers an alternate possibility: that the visions aren't necessarily precognitive, but are actually events that have actually happened at some point. Closer offhandedly suggests that Wonder may have been sent back to prevent those bad futures, jokingly comparing it to some time travel manga tropes. Though the matter isn't fully settled, Wind concludes that, considering how supernatural the Metaverse is to begin with, how the visions have allowed the Thieves to obtain critical information in the past, it would be wise to consider Wonder's visions seriously going forward.
After they manage to defeat Shadow Akashi in the Palace and taken both of his and Katayama's treasures, Lufel reveals to the protagonist that he is aware of, or more exactly, has had experience with visions similar to his. Though he remains unsure of the meaning behind of them.
“Mission 4: The Melancholy of the Masked Actor”[]
Lufel senses Shoki Ikenami's strong desire to defy Takami Shimotsuna and continue to act in the joint theater production between Kiga High School and Kokatsu High School. When the Phantom Thieves agree to steal Shimotsuna's treasure, they are abruptly sent to Mementos while still at Kokatsu, leading Lufel to chide the group for ignoring his advice to only enter the Metaverse while near a train station. However when they discover that Shoki was brought along, the group conclude that Shoki must have somehow received and accidentally activated the app.
Collaboration Crossroads of Fate[]
Persona 5 Royal - Research Lab (part 1)[]
The story begins with Lufel having a dream where he had seen the whole world gone to ruin (similar to few of the protagonist's visions) much to his shock. He is left wondering if his lost memories are somehow related to the nightmare.
Etymology[]
Lufel may be derived from the English word "ruffle," referring to the feathers of an owl. Both his Japanese and Chinese names are also one character off from the spellings of "Lucifer" which have been used in more recent Persona games, ルシフェル (Rushiferu) / 路西菲尔 (Lù xī fēi ěr).
Lufel's code name, "Cattle," is a reference to Rob Roy MacGregor, on who his Persona is based. MacGregor was a cattle dealer who operated an extralegal protection racket over the cattle herds of Scotland's lower gentry, which he used to provide for the families of his tenants and clansmen. During a time when cattle theft and operating protection rackets were common ways to earn a living, MacGregor became a respected cattleman. When he borrowed a large sum to increase his own cattle herd but was forced to default on the loan when the person he entrusted with his money disappeared, he was branded an outlaw and his family was evicted from their home, which was then burned down entirely.
His code name in Japanese (キャトル, kyatoru) means the English word "Cattle," but is also the Japanese representation for the French word Quatrelle, which is the spoken aloud alternate name for the Renault 4 ("4L"). The Renault 4 is a small economy car produced by the French automaker Renault between 1961 and 1994, which serves as the basis of the vehicle Lufel can transform into.
In Other Languages[]
| Language | Titles | |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese
|
ルフェル (Ruferu) | キャトル (Kyatoru) |
 Korean
|
루페르 (Rupereu) | 캐틀 (Kaeteul) |
  Traditional Chinese
|
路菲爾 (Lùfēi'ěr) | CATTLE |
 Simplified Chinese
|
路菲尔 (Lùfēi'ěr) | CATTLE |
Trivia[]
- Similarly to Morgana who borrows the arm motions of Takeshi Hongo of Kamen Rider to transform into his car form, Lufel's transformation references Hayato Ichimonji of the same series.
- Outside of initial main quest, Lufel can be the temporary Navigator if there is no available or unequipped Navigator characters in the team formation. He only delivers Navigator dialogue in battle, and will faint like normal if he loses all his HP.
- In the Synergy Link, Lufel's idle animation has a habit of sleeping when its daytime and awake in evening.
Notes[]
- ↑ from Japanese name ルフェル; the character was does not have an English name at first, though it has been mistranslated as "Luffy." But, during P5X News Vol.2 Livestreams, it has been confirmed to be pronounced as "Lufel" in both JP and EN.
References[]