"Everyone is capable of changing themselves - your imagination is the only limit."
Takuto Maruki is a major non-playable character in Persona 5 Royal. He is a counselor hired by Shujin Academy to save their PR.
Appearances
- Persona 5 Royal: Major Character; Councillor Confidant, Final Boss
Design
Takuto is a tall, bespectacled middle-aged man with brown, short unkempt hair. He wears a blue dress shirt tucked into his upturned khaki slacks with a checkered dark blue tie. He wears a white lab coat over the top. On his feet he wears open-toed sandals without socks. In his suit's chest pocket, he has a yellow pen and a staff ID that's further tied around his neck with a red strap.
Outside his work uniform, he wears a white ribbed sweater over a dark blue dress shirt, a light brown jacket with dark brown fabric at the cuffs and collar, dark jeans and tan shoes with laces. When he was younger, his hair was shorter and neater, and he wore a white polo shirt with blue trimming and jeans with a black wrist watch.
While maintaining his Palace, Takuto has his hair slicked back. Every item of his clothing is white, with a formal suit, round-necked shirt without a tie, gloves and shoes. Like in his everyday outfit, he has a pen in his jacket pocket.
In the Metaverse, he wears a golden skin-tight priest garb with a tall shield-shaped mask, a white cape and holds a staff.
Personality
Maruki counseling with the protagonist through his problems.
Takuto is a voluntary counselor who cares about the students in the school and sympathizes with Suguru Kamoshida's victims. As a counselor, he is quite friendly to those who reach out to him and is extremely patient, allowing them to control the flow of their conversation. He is alert and quick to pick up on minor comments made by his patients that helps open them up. He is also highly clumsy, quirky and is prone to messing up in comedic situations, unlike most of the other teachers who have no-nonsense, regular personalities. He is quite popular with the Thieves and even Yusuke from Kosei High School comes to Shujin Academy to take his counseling, effectively making him a popular figure among students and one of the Thieves' greatest sponsors. He also appears to be a skilled cook.
However, Maruki was secretly bestowed the magical power to warp cognition thanks to his Persona, who reached out to him because of his extreme grief over his ex-girlfriend's coma. Once he opened a therapist clinic, he used this ability to cope or neuter crippling mental illnesses by granting things that they wanted that would cancel out their depression, although the extent of that power only made them think that they are that person instead of radically changing any qualities that person has, resulting in cognitive dissonance, and he was activating it subconsciously.
In reality, Maruki was one of the original researchers of Cognitive Psience, and he is coming to Shujin in order to validate a research essay that he's been working on. If the protagonist does help him finish this essay and complete his Confidant, a combination of the loss of his ex-fiancée's memories, having his research stolen and funding stymied by Masayoshi Shido, and the Day of Reckoning removing all wisdom from his Persona will turn him into a madman with only fragments of his former self. He conducts his final solution against all desire after Yaldabaoth's fall by granting all of them accordingly with no strings attached and takes his place as the world's savior, as frequent interaction with emotionally suffering people in the past made him conclude that all human desires will inevitably lead to such types of suffering, in a similar vein as his predecessor and successors.
The features of his palace heavily hint at his warped sense of charity. While he desires others to live happy, stress-free, worry-free, hardship-free lives, he feels that situation of conflict and troubles should be outright avoided or be placed in his hands to resolve, developing somewhat of a messiah-complex. His intentions are not fueled by true malice as he genuinely wants to make people happy. This causes an ethical dilemma that is brought up as he still retains his desires to let others decide if they want to accept it or not. With the protagonist spearheading the resistance against his realities, he ultimately leaves fate for him to decide and above all else seeks his approval. He even fears that the protagonist may never accept it, but despite his growing megalomania, he still allows the protagonist to decide on his own by letting him experience the happy realities of his friends and continuously tries to persuade him and the Phantom Thieves, without overtly trying to force them, to join him even during the very apex of their battle.
It is heavily implied that his personality prior to the Day of Reckoning is genuine, and he used to only utilize his powers to make people feel better for a while instead of for complete stagnation. This holds true even for making Sumire Yoshizawa think that she's her twin sister Kasumi. His "Salvation Plan" also used to be validating his cognitive psience research and saving lives with it by preventing depression and other mental illnesses, and not anything as seen in the third semester. In fact, he at first believes that there is no ability to prevent humanity in general from suffering during his conversation with Ann, although a specific Confidant meeting with him has the protagonist teach him how to use Mementos to do so, which he actually does during the third term. It is also implied that Yaldabaoth's advance might have engineered his insanity, as he shows no signs of distortion up until the protagonist maxes his Confidant.
While he acknowledges that hardships are a natural part of life and that some people do come out stronger from them, it is only after his defeat that he completely accepts this. It is in the final clash with the protagonist alone that Maruki's inner most frustrations come out and showcases all of the injustices he endured. The solo fight finally gave him a real opportunity to vent out this inner anger with someone who could truly understand him. It is in that moment that Maruki finally finds solace and can finally move forward with his life.
Profile
Persona 5 Royal
"My "cognitive psience" is the study of people's hearts, and how they guide people's views of the world. Everyone comprehends the world in a different way, depending on their cognition...So basically, if one could tap into a person's "cognitive world"...One would even be able to alter how that person alters reality—in every way."
Prior to the events of Persona 5, Maruki's fiancé's parents were murdered during a home invasion, and Rumi herself was injured in the process, leading to her falling into a catatonic depression. Maruki tried to comfort her, only to unwittingly invoke her trigger phrase by mentioning her family and driving her into a breakdown. In extreme grief, he unconsciously contacted a mysterious entity (Implied to be Adam Kadmon), and made a deal with it so as to allow him to harness its ability to manipulate cognition, dubbed Actualization. First applying this, he purges Rumi of her traumatic memories, but inadvertently also wipes her of any memory she shared with him and alters them to compensate for this. As to not remind Rumi of her grief, Maruki cut ties with her. While he was already researching cognitive psience by then, this further motivated his research so he could help humanity as a whole.
Maruki Awakening to his persona to save Rumi.
Initially, his research was met with positive reaction, but suddenly, his research was swiftly rejected by his university and funding was revoked under the pretense that there was a lack of evidence to support it, and his lifelong dream of opening a cognitive psience research center in place of a stadium in Odaiba was crushed. Unbeknownst to him at this point, his research was seized by Masayoshi Shido. Therefore, his dream never came to fruition and he left university as a result. This further motivates him to investigate deeper so he can validate that his own brand of work was true. Eventually, his research reveals that use of cognitive psience might be dangerous. While at first terrified, he continues to use his Actualization powers to assist people and make a better world.
Somewhere around this time, Maruki materializes his Palace in the Metaverse, although the period is never directly specified and the exact moment is not shown.
He opened a clinic, eventually using his power on a girl known as Sumire Yoshizawa, who lost her twin sister Kasumi and wished to live as her. Using his cognitive warping abilities, Maruki subconsciously made Sumire think that she's Kasumi, by her request.
Maruki later becomes the student counselor at Shujin Academy, and one of the protagonist's Confidants. Maruki is hired by Principal Kobayakawa in order to improve the students' mental health (and the school's reputation) after dealing with the exposure of the Kamoshida incident. When he is presented in the auditorium, he makes a clumsy speech before being pushed aside by Kobayakawa to end the assembly. After the speech, he tries to convince the protagonist, Ryuji and Ann to talk to him. While Ryuji doubts if he's actually trustworthy, he gains the trio's trust quickly when the protagonist realizes that he might be useful for the Phantom Thieves' activities.
Maruki counseling with Sumire.
Since then, he regularly meets up with members of the Phantom Thieves and has encountered all of them, save for Akechi. His goal is to collect information of the desires of students from Shujin in order to present an essay to his professor, who he was determined to prove to that his original research was true.
During a session, he regularly offers snacks to his guests as a way of making them comfortable.
Maruki will leave Shujin on November 18th, during which he gives a speech for the students to avoid pain and negativity and live strong. He then personally bids the protagonist farewell. Additionally, before he enrolled to Shujin in order to research the resident students, a glimpse of him can be seen after the party escapes into the real world after Ann's awakening. During the last meeting with him after his final speech in the Shujin auditorium, he will confirm that he witnessed the protagonist, Ann and Ryuji exiting Kamoshida's Palace.
Taking Back Reality
Maruki awakening his Persona for real.
On the 24th of December, should the protagonist complete Maruki's Confidant before the November 18th deadline, he will publish his final paper to his professor, who chides him for trying to stop the powerful Masayoshi Shido alone and tries to kick him out of his office. At the same time, Yaldabaoth's control plan began to appear. Maruki notices the red sky, but his professor stays completely unaware. Yaldabaoth's merging of Mementos with reality awakens his persona into a physical form known as Azathoth and grants it the conduit to manifest before Maruki and fully awaken, stirring him into action.
Maruki then warps the very cognition of humanity itself by using his Palace, which he had used to hijack Mementos. This makes him the main mastermind of the third semester events, where he attempts to end all of humanity's pain by granting them eternal happiness. When approaching him in his Palace, he warns Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi not to approach him or they will see the pain of reality.
Once personally confronted, in an attempt to make the party reconsider their actions, he plays back a clip depicting how Sumire's sister, the real Kasumi, died. Sumire remembers who she really is and stops pretending to be Kasumi, before relapsing into depression. Though tries to persuade the protagonist and Akechi, his pleas are to no avail and he orders Hastur to seize Sumire and attack the intruders. After the confrontation, he requests that they see how the rest of the Phantom Thieves' lives are in the reality he created in hopes of changing their minds. He tells them to come back on January 9th with their decision. Furthermore, in order to hold his end of the deal with the protagonist and Akechi, he brainwashes Sumire's parents into thinking that she was in a training camp.
Maruki in his Palace during the third term.
When the protagonist meets his friends in the altered reality, none of them initially remember how they met him, as their fulfilled desires mean they had no pain or trauma to bond over. Maruki's powers give him the ability to rewrite history up to the point of a person's death, effectively "reviving" them. As such, Futaba's mother Wakaba Isshiki is alive, as are Haru's and Makoto's fathers. None of Shujin's students, including Shiho Suzui, were abused by Kamoshida; Madarame is a perfect mentor to Yusuke; Ryuji's leg is not broken; and Morgana is human.
Since these tragedies did not happen in the fake reality, the protagonist's ties with his friends became superficial bonds, and their Personas are all presumably and temporarily removed from existence due to their awakening being tied to their trauma.
Bar these, there are also varying degrees of tampering towards certain members of the public, including people winning lottery jackpots, someone's dead pet dog being revived and someone retiring from his company for no apparent reason.
When the protagonist and Akechi come back to meet Maruki on January 9th, he offers them a deal to allow the protagonist to accept the fake reality. Should the protagonist refuse, he will temporarily brainwash Sumire, and she will be in full denial of being Kasumi's killer and fights him alone as Kasumi. Afterward, Maruki separates Cendrillon from her and makes it go berserk, forcing it to attack the protagonist and Akechi. To his shock, the rest of the Phantom Thieves arrive, having freed themselves from Maruki's influence. Realizing that further talking is pointless, Maruki returns Sumire and tells them to meet him on February 3rd, now determined to fight them if necessary.
Should the protagonist accept any of his offers to accept his reality, it will trigger a new bad ending where Maruki's spell kicks in full effect, as the Phantom Thieves happily celebrate Setsubun, with Sumire's name reverting back into "Kasumi Yoshizawa." After the celebration ends, the protagonist is allowed to stay at Café Leblanc until he graduates from Shujin. Makoto and Haru graduate on the 15th of March, where Maruki takes the group's picture for them. As Maruki leaves, the protagonist will sense something is wrong before returning to his friends, as he was the only person who was not fully affected by Maruki's spell. The credits display the Thieves' desires being fulfilled and all of them content, and ends with a snapshot of them partying at Leblanc. Akechi and the protagonist are the only ones looking towards the camera, implying they know their reality is fake.
It was revealed by Lavenza that as he meets the Thieves during counseling sessions, he realizes what they actually want, and their collective desires gave him the idea to create the false reality; they all subconsciously wished for him to change the old one. The protagonist also told him about the Collective Unconscious in a Confidant event, allowing Maruki to fill in the gaps of Yaldabaoth after his fall and revive Mementos for his own use. If he is not stopped within a month, this new Mementos will completely fuse into the real world and become impossible to remove, and humanity is presumably eternally trapped in ignorant bliss.
The deadline for the infiltration of his Palace is 21 days and 20 nights; if the party fails to meet this deadline, the fusion of the two worlds becomes permanent, and Maruki meets with the protagonist in a dream. Because of the protagonist's indecision supposedly making him suffer, Maruki takes the choice out of his hands, putting him to sleep for as many "days or years" he has left. When the protagonist wakes up, his phone's battery is long dead, and his room is riddled with cobwebs. He has no more will or motivation to get out of bed, and just goes back to sleep. Lavenza tries to reach him but can't, as she has no more power as of Maruki taking control over reality.
Maruki's sin is Sorrow (Tristitia), as stated on his Will Seed. While he himself has elements of melancholy such as losing Rumi to catatonic depression and his newfound powers, it also alludes to him creating a world of empty happiness that kills and stagnates all of humanity's potential of development, amounting to nothing short of nihilism.
After locating his Treasure, the Phantom Thieves decide to let the protagonist send a Calling Card to Maruki on his own. The date is locked at February 3rd regardless of prior completion. Once the date comes, he will personally pay a visit to the protagonist, in which he insists that his methods are correct and reveals that Rumi is living happily in the reality he is in. In a final desperate effort to convince the protagonist, Maruki reveals that Akechi is alive because he created a reality where the protagonist and Akechi could start over, meaning that Akechi's fate in the true reality remains unknown after the confrontation in Shido's Palace. At the same time he makes this statement, Akechi will arrive to LeBlanc. Maruki then tells the protagonist that he will wait for them at the Palace if they still decide to fight. Once he leaves, the protagonist will have a chance to leave Maruki alone on his own accord; accepting it will result in a double confirmation by Akechi. Should he confirm the decision, the heist will be cancelled, resulting in the same bad ending as Maruki's direct offer.
If Akechi's promise was not fulfilled, Morgana will deny Maruki in place of Akechi, and Maruki himself will be confirming the deal instead of leaving the decision to the protagonist. Should he agree to Maruki and has confirmed to do so after being asked by Morgana, Maruki will be grateful for the protagonist's decision and leave. The same bad ending as above occurs afterwards.
He then invites the party to battle him on top of the Garden of Eden, in which he manifests his Persona Azathoth to attack the party as well as making him nearly invulnerable. His Persona manifests behind him consistently and must be destroyed in order to end the fight. To further compound this, he has three tentacles that constantly buff him or render Azathoth invulnerable. Once Azathoth is defeated, the party escapes the collapsing Palace with his Treasure, a torch. Maruki then reappears, taking the torch and transforms Azathoth into its awakened form, Adam Kadmon, to fight the party again.
He initially fights the party on foot with Adam Kadmon behind him, but once it is defeated, he fuses himself into Adam Kadmon, rendering himself seemingly invincible until Futaba locates his weakness. All of the protagonist's party members help fend off Adam Kadmon's final attack while the protagonist targets its head and destroys it, destroying Maruki's mask. His Palace then collapses, and he regains consciousness to confront the Phantom Thieves one last time. After tethering the escaping party with one of his cables and confronting the protagonist, they engage in a final fist-fight so as to help Maruki come to terms with the end of his salvation plan, although Maruki is inevitably outmatched and falls from the collapsing bridge they were on. As he falls, he realizes that he doesn't have any strength and is afraid to confront the original reality. However, Joker rescues him by grabbing his hand. Both Maruki and the protagonist leave Odaiba via Morgana's helicopter form afterwards.
Due to the destruction of his Palace, the Metaverse disappears and all is reset to normal. The protagonist is now in Juvenile Hall after testifying against Shido, with all of his maxed confidants (including ones that he maxed in the third semester) supporting his release. Akechi vanishes as he is presumed to have indeed died (alongside Futaba's mother and anyone else who was alive due to the Palace's existence), as well as Sumire no longer believing she is her sister.
His Treasure is a fire torch, representing the wisdom granted to him by cognitive psience which he wished to apply to save humanity. In the real world, it reveals itself to be a newsletter about the murder of Rumi's parents. It was picked up by Sumire outside his Palace and handed to Futaba, and the protagonist keeps it as a memento.
At the end of the game, he is shown to have become a taxi driver, and drives the protagonist to the train station while the others distract the agents following the protagonist. Takuto reveals that he decided to face his life head-on like the protagonist and his friends, before bidding him farewell.
Confidant
- Main article: Confidant/Takuto Maruki
"It's hard to believe that an ordinary high school student could accomplish such grandiose heists. One would need a heart of steel, unaffected by outside influences and prepared to act without hesitating. There has to be someone who helped strengthen your mental state. Sound like somebody you know?"
Maruki's Confidant is enacted after his speech in the Shujin auditorium. He can be met after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He will not be available past rank 5 prior to the 19th of September. Additionally, the final rank is automatic on November 18th should the protagonist advance his Confidant to Rank 9 prior to that date. His Confidant mainly unlocks bonuses in combat and increases the protagonist's max SP every time he consults with him. Maxing this confidant unlocks Vohu Manah and is required to unlock the third semester events. All of his abilities activate once unlocked, even when he becomes hostile.
Music
"Ideal and the Real" plays in all of his counseling sessions, including the one with Sumire in his clinic.
A remixed version of this theme, "Ideal and the Real -end version-" can be heard during the credits of the third semester bad ending which happens if the protagonist decides to accept his version of reality.
"Throw Away Your Mask" and its instrumental version, "Keep Your Faith" plays during the final fight with him, with "Keep Your Faith" for Azathoth and "Throw Away Your Mask" for Adam Kadmon.
Boss
Strategy
Maruki Boss Fight
Maruki Boss Fight.
"No matter what happens to me in the end, I will fix this torturous world! That...is my own rebellion!"
Before battle, be prepared with any accessories or passives that can prevent Fear and/or Dizzy because these will be the greatest threats in this fight. Unlike Yaldabaoth, he mainly attacks with Nuke, Bless and Physical attacks with Almighty attacks as finishers, so Sumire and Makoto should be in the team at all costs as they prevent him from dealing serious damage to the party. Haru's Life Wall also helps a lot in addition to greatly reducing the odds of party members being affected by fear or dizzy, although she is weak to Nuke. For the same reasons, avoid bringing Akechi as he has the same effective profile as Sumire, but his elemental affinities makes him highly vulnerable to Gun Repel or Bless.
Remember to do shopping and sell all excess items on the day of February 2nd, as free movement is disabled during that night. Unlike the Holy Grail or Shido, the party will also be confronting his strongest form right at the start with the second form being a bonus which is very difficult, if not impossible to lose, so go all out right there. If one is lacking in levels or missing vital personas, grind in his Palace before landing on top of the stariecase leading to the topmost area of Eden, as this is a point of no return and once the party enters there, they will not be able to back off from the boss encounter. (Despite the area allows free movement, the way down is locked by an invisible barricade.)
Maruki and Azathoth consists of five parts; Maruki himself, Azathoth and three tentacles. If either Azathoth or Maruki's health drops to a quarter or below for the first time, the boss goes into its second phase. Defeating either one after this happens finishes the boss fight.
- The frontmost one blocks any single-target move directed to Maruki or Azathoth if it is not destroyed.
- The second one heals Maruki by 800 HP per turn. Destroying this is mandatory for reliably damaging Maruki, as he heals himself every turn with this if it's present.
- The third one will cast buffs on either Azathoth or debuffs on the party. It is also recommended to destroy this if possible, although not as mandatory as the others. If any buffs other than Amplify Force (Concentrate) occur, remove it with Dekaja or Debilitate. (Or vice versa with Dekunda or Thermopylae on a Persona with Dying Will for debuffs.)
Maruki will also regenerate any fallen tentacle instantly during his final move in a turn.
Azathoth has a passive named Shield Tendril that causes any attack directed against it to deal no more than one damage. This includes Almighty attacks. If sufficient buffs are on the party, and sufficient debuffs are used on it, attacks will do slightly more than one damage. If at least one Tentacle is destroyed, Azathoth will begin to receive decent amounts of damage, although the damage dealt is still reduced slightly. When all three tentacles are destroyed, Azathoth will receive full damage.
As Azathoth cannot heal itself and has significantly lower HP than Maruki himself, it is strongly recommended to ignore Maruki and aim solely for Azathoth. All of the tentacles have weaknesses and can be downed for One Mores, although they can block or repel some elements, so crowd control might be dangerous to use bar Almighty skills such as Morning Star and Megidolaon. The party member's ultimate personas block the respective types they use, making them highly desirable for mass removal. Baton Pass is strongly recommended to be used in order to allow high damage output on any targets that have to be removed or damaged. While it is recommended to remove all of the tentacles to allow full damage to be dealt, occasionally only one Tentacle, preferably the frontmost one, can be removed in order to save resources and continue the flow of offense, as the downgraded Shield Tendril passive does not filter away much damage.
Maruki does not attack, and all of the damaging moves come from Azathoth. Therefore, if one wishes to use debuffs, they should use it on Azathoth unless they want to hit Maruki harder.
His first phase majorly attacks with Memory Blow and a Nuke attack. He only moves once per turn. The tentacle protecting Azathoth is also weak to Physical; a powerful Physical attack from the protagonist, followed by a Hassou Tobi, can deal reasonable damage to Azathoth on its own.
Once the party drops either Azathoth or Maruki's HP to a quarter once, he will enter his second phase and use more tentacles to make Azathoth bigger. He can also limit various movements in a semi-random order starting from prohibiting magic for a turn, although he will do this rather sparsely, leaving huge windows where the party is allowed free movement. On harder difficulties however, he will always do this twice in a row and more frequently. Baton Pass or Physicals will be prohibited the second time he does this, and healing will always be prohibited during the third time (this includes all skills or items that recover HP, SP or status ailments). He prohibits guarding on the fourth, and items/support skills on the fifth.
Azathoth's tentacles now switch weaknesses, so be prepared to scan them. If an affinity has been changed from weak to a question mark on a tentacle, it indicates that the tentacle's affinity has changed and it now probably blocks or repels that affinity, so if the party's current situation disallows sufficient damage against a key target, switch tactics or use a regular attack on a less important tentacle weak to it so it can be downed for a Baton Pass.
Azathoth will also begin attacking twice per turn and will spam Evil Smile frequently; if he gets any One Mores, he will follow up with Evil Smile as well. He will only attack with Eternal Radiance, a Bless attack with an added Dizzy effect, and Raining Seeds. If he proceeds to follow up with any attacking move after Eternal Radiance makes a party member Dizzy, it will result in Technical damage on anyone inflicted with it. These status conditions can make damaging him very difficult and every turn wasted on healing aliments is wasted damage output. Sumire should be able to block Fear completely if the protagonist can, since that would allow the party to still do sufficient damage in case Fear affects the others. The protagonist can also equip one or more Personas with Salvation in order for a quick getaway. Maria is recommended, as it can recover aliments and even revive fallen party members completely.
Once his HP drops low enough, a message might appear on the top of the screen dictating that a party member is being specifically targeted. Either have that member guard or switch them out, since he will target that member with Piercing Strike, a multi-hit Almighty attack that will most likely instantly kill them. If his HP drops to a critically low level, he can also Tyrant's Stance, followed by a movement block. Guard this as well if possible, since he will follow up with Tyrant Chaos. Unlike Yaldabaoth's Rays of Control, it is possible for a protagonist with high enough stats to tank this attack unguarded.
Under unknown and potentially rare conditions, presumably if the party takes too much turns to defeat him, Azathoth will cast a Megidolaon dealing around 1300 damage, which will most likely wipe out all party members.
Defeating Maruki will instantly end the fight. If the party defeats Azathoth, Maruki will be completely incapacitated with 1 HP left, allowing a single attack to end the fight.
If Azathoth or Maruki are defeated, he will move to regenerate it into its true form Adam Kadmon. Any HP or SP depleted in the previous fight will be fully restored. This phase is much easier than the previous as he merely has two attacks. He will use Origin Light, a severe-tier Almighty attack at first, but when his HP goes down by a quarter, he will use Revitalize Soul to deal a fixed 300 damage to each party member and recover 1200 HP. Since he has 3000 HP, this is usually a full recover. After this, he will switch to attacking using Grand Palm, an attack that does way over the amount a party member can usually endure. However, all party members will always endure the first hit of this attack. Furthermore, he also has a chance to squander a turn at random.
The final phase will involve the party confronting Adam Kadmon directly. While the party functions as usual, all three of Adam Kadmon's targets will take only two damage. He will always follow this up with Full Force, an attack that does over 1000 damage when unguarded. However, the party will always endure this at 1 HP. Once he repeats the process twice, the battle ends.
Stats
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Quotes
General
- "My persona guides me!" (Start of battle during both phases)
When battling with Azathoth
- "I have to do this..." (Introductory)
- "Not bad..." (Randomly when being attacked)
- "Ugh!" (Randomly when being attacked)
- "Not..yet!" (When downed himself; not possible under normal circumstances)
- "I'm...not...done...yet!" (Randomly at the start of someone's turn, low HP)
- "I can make you see..." (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
- "I won't lose!" (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
- "Not bad...but we've just begun!" (Transforming into Phase 2)
- "So, let's move on!"
- "I can't deny you're all strong—But that's exactly what's making you suffer. It's time to end all of this. I'm going to save all of you!" (Randomly before charging up Tyrant Chaos or Preparing for Piercing Strike)
- "A reality where none shall suffer...To realize it...I will use all of our power!" (Randomly before charging up Tyrant Chaos or Preparing for Piercing Strike)
- The following occur before he bans a certain movement for a turn during his second phase. All of these dialogue require that character to be within the on-screen party.
- "Sakamoto-kun! Your dream of running...Running would make life so much easier for your mother!" (Addressing Ryuji)
- "Morgana-kun! I know how you truly feel..And there's no need to fear your differences anymore! Don't worry...You don't have to explain anything to me. All I have to help you is merely imagine it!" (Addressing Morgana)
- "Takamaki-san! Didn't you always want to protect your friend? Don't abandon such a pure dream when it's right in front of you!" (Addressing Ann)
- "Kitagawa-kun! I know you don't really want your approval to be earned through force! You want a world guided by beauty...and I can give you such a world!" (Addressing Yusuke)
- "Niijima-san! Everyone has the right to wish for a happy family! You don't need to keep holding back your desires!" (Addressing Makoto Niijima)
- "Okumura-san! Stop tormenting yourself over your father's sins! I swear, I'll give you a world where you'll have every chance to succeed on your own right!" (Addressing Haru Okumura)
- "Akechi-kun! Don't throw away your life! If you're with [protagonist's name]-kun and his friends, you could begin to atone what you've done!" (Addressing Akechi)
- "Yoshizawa-san! That pain you're suffering... It must be impossible to move on! I want to save you from that awful life!" (Addressing Sumire)
- If addressing Joker when nobody else is in the party or randomly after Tyrant Stance:
- "I understand the difficulty of accepting such a huge change, but that's nothing more than your fears controlling you! Please! Won't you please believe me?"
- "Suffering and pain bring nothing to people except their ruin! Why would you force yourself into that? Just... let me save you all, just this once!"
- "Do you remember how every one of your dreams was granted in my reality? Not a single person is in pain here...Why would you deny them that opportunity?"
- "I won't fail...I CAN'T fail!" (When either Azathoth or himself drops to a critically low health)
- "Azathoth!?" (After Azathoth is defeated)
- "Ngh..." (After he is defeated)
When battling with Adam Kadmon
- "I refuse to let it end like this...Adam Kadmon, guide us all to our ideal reality!" (Introductory)
- "Persona!"
- "Adam Kadmon...lend me your strength..." (Using Revitalize Soul)
- "I still...can't do it!? And my reality is right before my eyes..." (After being defeated)
During the fist fight event
- "I gave up everything! Everything!!! So, why!?" (Introductory)
- "Why... Why Rumi!?" (After first turn)
- "A reality where...no one suffers..." (After second turn)
Gallery
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Maruki's Close Up
Maruki's Security Level portrait (Hidden)
Maruki's Security Level portrait
Maruki's text icon
Maruki's Confidant portrait
Concept Art
Concept Art
Concept Art (Alternate attire)
Concept Art of Metaverse form.
Portraits
Maruki is briefly seen after escaping from Kamoshida's Palace after Ann's awakening
Maruki in Shujin Academy
Maruki and the protagonist at counseling
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Maruki's portrait
Maruki smiling
Maruki serious
Maruki sad
Maruki surprised
Maruki harmed
Maruki menacing
Maruki with fogged glasses
Maruki smiling (Fogged glasses)
Maruki sad (Fogged glasses)
Maruki without staff ID
Maruki without coat and staff ID
Maruki's outdoor winter coat
Maruki's indoor winter coat
Maruki's portrait (Young)
Maruki smiling (Young)
Maruki serious (Young)
Maruki sad (Young)
Maruki surprised (Young)
Maruki harmed (Young)
Maruki lingering (Young)
Another Maruki
Another Maruki smiling
Another Maruki serious
Another Maruki sad
Another Maruki surprised
Another Maruki harmed
Maruki in Metaverse attire
Maruki smiling (Metaverse attire)
Maruki serious (Metaverse attire)
Maruki sad (Metaverse attire)
Maruki surprised (Metaverse attire)
Maruki harmed (Metaverse attire)
Maruki with damaged mask
Maruki with no mask
Damaged Maruki with no mask
Damaged Maruki with no battle gear
Maruki smiling cut-in
Maruki surprised cut-in
Maruki harmed cut-in
Maruki angry cut-in
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Videos
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Etymology
"Takuto" (拓人) could mean "developing man" and his last name, "Maruki," could mean "circular or pure joy", both which heavily contrast his actions and involvement during the third semester despite his positive intentions.
In Other Languages
| Language | Titles |
|---|---|
 English
|
Takuto Maruki |
 Japanese
|
丸喜 拓人 (Maruki Takuto) |
 Korean
|
마루키 타쿠토 (Maruki Takuto) |
  Traditional Chinese
|
丸喜 拓人 (Wánxǐ tà rén) |
Trivia
- According to an interview from Persona 5 Royal Official Complete Guide, Maruki is designed to be sympathetic unlike the other heist targets, so the development team took care and made sure that he didn't act in a heinous way or made mocking expressions just like most of the other targets.
- Changing the PS4's main menu theme to Maruki's theme will also change its music to "Ideal and the Real."
- The protagonist cannot confront Maruki in his Adam Kadmon phase without any other party members. If the protagonist alone defeats him in his Azathoth Phase, during the fight with his Adam Kadmon's phase, Ann, Morgana and Ryuji will automatically fill in.
- Maruki has trouble preparing dishes with apples, unlike Sumire.
- Maruki is one of the very few final bosses in the Megami Tensei franchise that are completely human.
- Maruki is so far the first human character to be completely controlled by a rogue Persona. When accounting for non-human characters, Elizabeth is the first, having been overtaken by Zeus in Persona Q.
- If Maruki manipulates the cognition of an individual to make them believe they are another person, such as in Sumire's case, their perception of others will change to make them believe they are being referred to by the name of the person whom they are impersonating. This implies that, without complete control of Mementos, Maruki's abilities can only manipulate his targets' memories and perceptions of themselves and others.
- Maruki is one of the very few people who crossed Shido's path without being assassinated or threatened with legislative action by him.
- Maruki is the only Confidant in the game to be affected by Yaldabaoth's distortions even when his Confidant is maxed, although the way in which it affects him is vastly different from the rest of Tokyo due to his unique circumstance.
- Maruki's Persona behaves in a drastically different way from other Personas. Not only can it manipulate the Metaverse from within the real world, it is extremely unstable when used to do so, as seen in its ability to cause memory loss and cognitive dissonance as drawbacks to its powers. It is also highly susceptible to cognitive manipulation from beings born of the Collective Unconscious, and displays an initiative and sentience separate to Takuto as a result of that, such as when Azathoth pressures him to continue his plan when he begins to have doubts. Additionally, when Maruki summons his Personas, they must remain tangible and vulnerable to attack, rather than appearing only momentarily when attacking, a trait shared thus far only with Asterius (excluding navigation Personas).
- Technically, during the third term, Maruki can remove the Phantom Thieves of Hearts from existence entirely by using his Actualization. He just does not do this due to his genuinely altruistic personality and his bonds with the protagonist.
- When Tokyo is affected by Maruki's cognition warping powers during the third semester, the black and white colors on the calendar's display invert.
- Not all people can be affected within Maruki's reality. For example, Yohei Kiritani can obviously see something is strange around the people there.
- Maruki is the only Palace-ruler who personally maintains his Palace in place of his Shadow Self.
- A box of apple juice can often be seen on Maruki's desk when he was a part-time counselor of Shujin.
- Maruki is so far the first major adult target for the Thieves' heists to be genuinely made a better person as designated, instead of being reduced to a weeping husk like the others.
- Maruki's motives after becoming insane are extremely similar to Nyx's.
- Both seek to end all matters with a swift blow that ends all of humanity's pain, with Nyx wiping out all life on Earth and Maruki drowning humanity in eternal happiness and taking away all of their growth using Mementos as a control device. If the protagonists accepts either of their deals, humanity will remain ignorant as their plans come to fruition.
- Both are brought into action without their own consent; Nyx is reawakened by the Kirijo Group's experiments, while Maruki is driven to insanity when Yaldabaoth maddens Adam Kadmon and degenerates him into Azathoth.
- While Nyx is related to death, Maruki is related to overabundant and stagnating life.
- Unlike other major enemies in-game, Maruki has a Cut-in before attacking, like a party member. This also applies to other enemy Persona users, like the members of Strega and Tohru Adachi in previous games.
- Despite Morgana having stated that Persona users cannot develop Palaces due to having a clear grasp on their desires, Maruki manifests a Palace of his own.
- When Maruki is cooking soup during the cleanup, he tries to pour salt on his arm and slide it into the pot, which is similar to the popular "Salt Bae" meme. However, due to the wind, the salt flies in the air.
- Maruki is one of the two non-playable characters to have multiple angles for his dialogue portraits (excluding the Shadow versions of the antagonists), the other being Masayoshi Shido.
- If a Hold Up would be initiated with Maruki during his Azathoth phase, the game will soft-lock.
References
