The Nakabachi Kingdom is a location in Persona 5 Tactica and the third Kingdom of the game.
Appearances[]
Details[]
One of the Kingdoms built by Salmael using Toshiro Kasukabe's cognition. It resembles a hellish version of the high school Toshiro Kasukabe attended, ruined and riddled with magma flows, symbolizing his hatred of the place and Nakabachi. Battles only occur inside gates containing an infernal hellscape-like terrain covered with speakers.
The Kingdom is seemingly ruled over by a cognitive copy of Ichiro Nakabachi, who supposedly controlled the school by turning the student-like rebels against each other by using them as spy networks. In reality, cognitive Nakabachi is an easy target, and the real leader is Shadow Toshiro, the Shadow Self of Toshiro Kasukabe that is a manifestation of his hidden resentment and guilt. The rebels here take the form of students in clothing resembling those from Toshiro's high school, and also act as the Legionnaires of the Kingdom due to both Nakabachi's manipulations and Toshiro's personal beliefs that his actions resulted in people getting horribly hurt.
Initially, the Kingdom has a red skyline, with the high school building complex being its main body and a pile of speakers at the school's courtyard. However, after cognitive Nakabachi is defeated and the real ruler makes its presence known, the school that forms the building collapses, and it transforms into a clock tower with a night sky background. The face of the clock tower is perpetually pointing at 6:00 until Toshiro saves Erina, at which the minute moves by one minute. It is perpetually snowing inside the Kingdom regardless of the time.
Cognitive Nakabachi resides within the music room, which can only be accessed through picking up four keys, all of them which represent Toshiro's relationship with Eri Natsuhara, an upperclasswoman that he is friends with. These include a bandage that she gifted to Toshiro during their first meeting, an empty student council suggestion box representing the time where Toshiro and Natshara were first informed of Nakabachi's manipulations, a calling card written by Natsuhara which represents her and Toshiro's first confrontation against Nakabachi, and a voice recorder that contained evidence of Toshiro and Natsuhara's final confrontation against Nakabachi which would cause him to be booted off the school. Once these items are gathered, they form the music room key, allowing the party to confront Nakabachi.
Cognitive Nakabachi mostly acts nothing like his real-world counterpart as he is a decoy set-up by Shadow Toshiro to use as a scapegoat. After he's defeated, he reprimands Toshiro of his "worst crime," the tragedy where Nakabachi was driven to madness by a lynch mob organized by the students that Toshiro and Natsuhara had nothing to do with, causing the man to absent-mindedly try murdering Natsuhara by pushing her onto an incoming train, causing her to be gravely injured. The Kingdom then transforms and Shadow Toshiro makes his presence known and abducts Erina. Several rebels then turn on the party as a manifestation of the lynch mob that turned on Toshiro as a scapegoat for Nakabachi's fallout. After a retreat, the party reach the true leader's room, the student council president room to confront him.
Once confronted, Shadow Toshiro attempts to kill Erina and teleports himself and the party onto the balcony where the boss encounter would take place. Despite attempting to psychologically break and torture Toshiro while incapacitating the rest of the Thieves, it only resulted in Toshiro's awakening of his persona, Ernesto. With Toshiro being a party member, the party confronts the malevolent Shadow, who first fights on foot, then transforms into a massive, bloodied corpse of Eri Natsuhara that represents Toshiro's hidden resentment against her and the guilt of the fallout caused by outing Nakabachi. Despite all of this, Shadow Toshiro is defeated and is never heard of again.
It was by this time where Salmael exposes himself right in front of the party, explaining his intentions in a vague manner and offering the party a chance to escape if they give their will of rebellion to him. They refuse and the godly being vanishes to await confrontation. When the party is wondering how to reach him, Lavenza offers them to use the Velvet Room, which has taken the form of a train, as transport to Salmael's Kingdom.
Trivia[]
- Each time the Rebels say the ruler's name, it is muffled with a noise. It's initially presumed to be an effect of Nakabachi's blackmail, although it's implied that they're actually saying "Toshiro."
- The tragedy involving Nakabachi, Toshiro and Natsuhara occured at 6 o'clock. This pertains to the clock on top of the transformed Nakabachi Kingdom (which goes forward one minute after Toshiro saves Erina and overcomes his past) and the news report at the start of the game that teleported the Phantom Thieves from Café Leblanc into the Kingdoms (the television acted abnormally after the news anchor says the time being 6 o' clock).