My idea for a potential DEATH BATTLE! #8
2023 Dec 12, 26, 27, 30, 31
2024, Jan 1, 2, 19, Feb 8, Mar 14, 24
P3 Hero vs Neku Sakuraba (Persona vs TWEWY)
The Reaper will claim someone's soul permanently today!
FIGHTER 1: The P3 Hero, the Wildcard Messiah that ended the Dark Hour.
FIGHTER 2: Keku Sakuraba, the Shibuya Saviour in the Reaper's Game.
Wiz: Memento mori; remember that you will die. Time never waits and it delivers all equally to the same end, be it by aging or a bullet.
*insert clips of playing chess with Death from The Seventh Seal, Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Maddie, Death from Castlevania*
Boomstick: So, take off your headphones and remember to make bonds and connections as they make life worth living. The world ends with you, so it's up to you to expand it. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.
PREFACE (What to know): So, Season 10 just ended and its final episode gave a teaser for Season 11 showing the Fool, Death, and The World tarot cards. Many suspect that this hints towards a Persona MU, which could be this one as the P3 Hero is represented by the Fool, Death, Judgement, and Universe Arcanas (The Universe is the Thoth Tarot equivalent of The World), and even though I started another suggestion as of me writing this, I wanted to this suggest this one as soon as I could. I get that it is not yet confirmed or denied. However, I want to get it out on the slight chance that it is the planned episode.
As of Pi Day 2024, Persona 3 Reload has been released, DLC has been announced, and Persona 6 is rumored to be released in 2025.
Also, I am not giving the P3 Hero a specific name. The SMT Wiki, Persona 3 Movies and P3 Dancing call him Makoto Yuki, but I don't like that name because it means that there'll be two Makotos if we involve P5 and three if we involve P2. I get that their names are spelled with different kanji to denote different meanings, but other sources from ATLUS call him by different names: the PQ2 Artbook calls him P3 Hero and the P3 Manga calls him Minato Arisato. For brevity and ease, I'll be referring to the character of today as P3H.
ANALYSIS OF ARSENAL (What I will be giving them):
Consider this to be part of the preface as this will cover something that you should know. To have them at their absolute best, I will take P3H at his endgame and Neku with his powers and experiences from NEO.
For the sake of the argument and animation, both will fight on their own, so no navigators, All-Out Attacks, Light Puck, Cross Combos, Fusion attacks, Mashups, or Killer Remixes. Any thread that Neku wears will have the effects of Final Remix or NEO. I will also use the affinity system from P3 Reload instead of the one from P5R, which although expansive, P3's battle affinities make more sense to use since we're talking about the P3 protagonist.
Both have vast arsenals that the player can choose from. P3H can have a bunch of items that can restore his health and SP, the Ultimate Personas and skills or Fusion Spells/Theurgies like Primal Force, Armageddon, Infinity, High Counter, Arms Master, Spell Master, Regenerate 3, Invigorate 3, the ultimate weapons and items like Lucifer's Blade and the Omnipotent Orb, or he can have none of that. PQ and PQ2 are canon, so do I include the status circle moves, Link attacks, or the game-breaking Heroic Gemini? Neku can have game-breaking threads, Psychs, and Pin Sets like Dope Line+SOS Boosting threads + Wild Boar Resonance which can one-shot a lot of bosses, the Eden Set which grants total invulnerability, the Darklit Planets Set, the Yearlong Ensemble, and the Black Cat set, all of which are supremely powerful, or he can Week 1 pins and clothes. How the heck will I go over their arsenal and skills?
The best way to go about this is to max out their stats and analyze this fight twice. The first battle will be analyzed using a traditional playthrough setup, and the second will be using the absolute best equipment and tools they can reasonably access (no PQ stuff).
WHY:
Connections (What do they have in common):
1. They are known for being or at least appearing antisocial or asocial but learn to make genuine connections and friendships. Said friendships give them power. Examples for P3H include: 1. Social links unlocking the Ultimate Personas of an arcana, 2. Social Links boost the EXP gained when fusing Personas of their arcana. Examples for Neku include: 1. Shopkeeps and cashiers can give you details of some clothing threads and/or give you access to more powerful clothing, 2. Fusion attacks can be performed, 3. A Player who fails to make a Pact will be erased if they don't have a partner within a certain given amount of time, and a player who has made a Pact is erased seven minutes after their Partner is erased. Said friendships helped them overcome the final bosses of their game which only served to reinforce the themes of friendships and connections. This is further emphasized by the fact that the mobs of their games, Shadows and Noise, are manifested from and/or attracted to negative thoughts. Said enemies also include a "Reaper": P3 has a boss Shadow known as The Reaper, and TWEWY's Noise creatures are created by other Players of the Game called Reapers.
2. Both have an intimate history with death. During the majority of P3, P3H had Death sealed within him. At the end of his journey, he sacrifices himself to become the Great Seal. He is also orphaned due to the death of his parents, and in the P3 Movies, Makoto witnessed their deaths. Neku is traumatized by the death of his best friend (even though this is from the events of the Another Day timeline). He has also died at least twice; he was shot dead by Joshua, came back to life, and was shot again by Coco.
3. Both wear headphones and even use a similar MP3 player. P3H uses one from Sony's NW-S20x series and Neku's seems to be based on Sony's NW-S200. Their music players are used to symbolize their lack of social skills or meaningful connections at the beginning of their journeys.
4. As minor as it is, both are a sort of "Chosen One" or hold unique positions in their power systems. P3H is a Wildcard, so he can wield multiple Personas, which only those who have formed a contract can do. Neku is the Proxy of the most powerful being in Shibuya and his high Imagination allowed him to use a lot of psychs during the initial Reaper's Game.
Personal reasons (Why I want this battle/like this MU):
I consider this MU superior to Joker vs. Neku. Aesthetically, P5's style meshed better with TWEWY's graffiti and urban aesthetic, and there is also the Shibuya connection with similar themes of reaching out, forming connections, and defying the game you're in, but then P3 Reload was released. There are also the connections mentioned above. I also think this MU is more appropriate thematically due to the themes of death and broadening one's world.
THE FIGHT:
Art and animation:
It'll be in 3D unless someone can get their hands on P3H sprites. The models do exist for both characters: P3H has models from all his games and Neku has models from KH DDD and NEO. However, the following pieces of art by u/Crossover and u/Ok_Administration_45 respectively show that the sprites do exist.
To get the most out of P3H's Wildcard ability, I will give him some of his roster from the P5R Full Moon Challenge Battle and some extras.
1. Orpheus
2. Thanatos
3. Messiah.
4. Orpheus Telos to represent his max strength
5. Helel for Armageddon.
6. Satan for Armageddon.
7. Vishnu for Infinity.
8. Ananta for Infinity.
9. Sigfried for Scarlet Havoc
10. Mithras for Scarlet Havoc
Neku will use a mix of psychs that are iconic like Shockwave, Massive Hit, Force Rounds, Pyrokinesis, and Cure Drink as well as pins related to him specifically (in NEO, Topo the Talented, Black Hole Bunny, and Hotaru can only be obtained if Neku is the one who maxes out their pre-evolved forms)
Possible setup:
We open by looking at the sky. black as pitch, and the full moon's pale light beautifully shines down. However, this does not mean peace, especially not for the leader of SEES or the Composer's former proxy. We cut to the top of the 104, our teenage heroes have already engaged in a fight, and not just with each other. P3H is fighting animals with tattoos for limbs and Neku is fighting masked humanoids with shadowy skin. After cutting down the black armies, they face each other.
"Ready?" P3H gets into his battle position again.
"Yeah." Neku prepares himself with new pins.
FIGHT! :
1. Shockwave vs Sword. The two teenagers engage. Neku uses Shockwave, creating a blade, and clashes blades with P3H. P3H gets a good slash and stab in, knocking Neku back, but Neku charges in, landing in a horizontal slash, a vertical slash, and then uses Stellar Flurry, finishing his combo off with a Lance Lunge, knocking P3H back instead.
2. Neku then uses Pyrokinesis, engulfing P3H in flames. Yet, P3H is barely affected, taking slight damage. He grabs his Evoker and quickly points it to the side of his head. "Persona!" After pulling the trigger, Orpheus is summoned and he casts Blazing Hell, surrounding a large area in front of him in fire and heat.
3. Neku takes massive damage, and P3H rushes in to use Orpheus' physical power, but Neku quickly backs away and uses his Force Rounds. P3H dodges the energy bullets as he closes in on his foe and switches his Persona. "Thanatos!" The Death God comes out and slashes with lethality and precision, capping the combo off with a Brave Blade, slashing hard and wide, but Neku narrowly escapes yet again. Neku senses something odd about this guy... "Focus... Open up your senses..." His Soul is varied, and there are a lot of powers within, but they all have different affinities and weaknesses that he can exploit. He needs to be careful, and maybe he'll win. He switches to Hotaru and meets Thanatos' slashes with his own, hitting the Persona with its weakness to Light, dizzying P3H a bit. Neku charges up a Massive Hit psych. "Goin' up!", and P3H is sent flying this time.
4. P3H quickly picks himself up and feels the power of Theurgy. He grabs his evoker and summons the power of Sigfried and Mithras, the Scarlet Havoc. The scarlet razors and slashes are so fast that they blindside and overwhelm Neku. P3H sees his opponent is down. "Come forth, Messiah!" and he uses Debilitate on Neku, Heat Riser on himself. "Siegfried!" Using Concentrate, he then uses Vorpal Blade.
5. Neku uses a Healing psych but barely hangs on after the brutal slash attack, but he switches his pins again to a Doomed Life, Doomed Attack, Doomed Defense, and Doomed Mobility combo. P3H notices that his buffs are effectively nullified, and he even starts to feel weakened. Neku then uses an Entanglement psych, but P3H very-handedly dodges, until Debilitate and Heat Riser wear off. Neku then easily catches P3H, using his Black Hole Bunny, dealing strong damage.
6. Neku then charges Topo the Talented and fires the missiles, but P3H breaks free of his confines and switches personas again to "Orpheus Telos!", tanking the damage soundly.
7. Neku senses extreme power from the Soul, so switches his pins to Over the Top and a combination of Apport and Psychokinesis. All his pins in Reboot are quickly filling up again. He combines Psychokinesis with Apport to summon meteors and even f*cking subway trains and throws them all at P3H who sees the incoming attack, but he's low on health. He pulls his Evoker, summoning the power of Ananta and Vishnu, and casts Infinity, protecting himself from the powerful strike. By this point, he's almost out of SP, but he's far from dead. Neku sees this, so he uses a Healing Aura and Inspiring Aura psych combo to heal and buff himself up and switches Psychs once again, this time to a combo of Nexus Ray and Laser Inferno psychs.
8. With a Concentrate, P3H charges up his magic energy while Neku raises his arm, and charges the energy at the end of his hand. Messiah unleashes a charged Megidolaon and Neku fires his Ray/Laser amalgamation. We get a wide shot of Shibuya and the 104, and we see a giant flash of light. Both teens are still standing, but very close to dying, panting. Thank goodness for Endure.
9. P3H wins by sheer overwhelming force. Neku has exhausted most of his pins, and they're not rebooting fast enough, even with Over the Top. He switches pins again, but P3H summons Messiah again and casts Salvation. Neku tries to attack, but with a summon to "Orpheus Telos!" and he holds off Neku for enough time for the Theurgy gauge to charge. He uses an SP recovering item and uses debilitate again, and Neku is crippled yet again. P3H summons Helel and Satan, thinks of his dear friends, and casts Armageddon. Neku is unable to use any healing psychs in time. His last thoughts? Shiki, Beat, Josh, Rindo…
10. Ending 2: Neku wins by wearing down his opponent. Neku uses Grave Marker quickly to knock his opponent off balance, and he's able to launch attack after attack, keeping his adversary on the backfoot. P3H can't even switch his Persona, His Theurgy is ready, but as he tries to grab his Evoker, Neku binds him with Entanglement. Over the Top really came in handy. Neku, thinking of his friends, charges up a final attack like in the TWEWY fight against Draco Cantus. P3H sees oblivion, but he only thinks of his friends. He didn't tell Junpei, Yukari, Mitsuru, or even Aigis goodbye...
11. The winner takes the loser's headphones and music player (call them "World Expander's Music Set '' or "SEES Music Set"). If Neku wins, then he also picks up a pin that looks like the Gekkougan High emblem named "Full Moon", and all of these are top-tier gear. The winner does not get to simmer in his thoughts because he hears the sounds of swarming creatures behind him. He turns his sight to the amassing Noise and Shadows around him. "I'll live on for the both of us." They lunge at the black armies.
12. KO!
RESULT:
Strengths and weaknesses:
P3H:
+ Is more powerful as he fought Nyx, who could affect the population on a worldwide scale as opposed to Anguis Cantus, Draco Cantus, Dissonance Tapir, or even Phoenix Cantus, all of whom would at most affect just Shibuya. Even if he fought Nyx with a team, P3H is still more powerful. At most, it can be highballed to say that P3H is a planet buster since Nyx, once fully completed, could destroy the Earth, and P3H stopped this fully powered Nyx.
+ His magic is arguably stronger than Neku's psychs. This is especially true for skills like Ragnarok, Pralaya, Infinity, and Armageddon.
+ Sword allows for greater range in close combat.
+ Has resistances and immunities with Null, Void, and even recovery with Drain or can redirect attacks with Repel. Items like Omnipotent Orb or Tome of the Void can Null damage or status effects.
+ Has instant death/kill options such as Maeigaon, Door of Hades, and Mudoon.
+ Megidolaon and other Almighty skills bypass resistances. If treated like in mainline SMT, then all Pierce skills will also bypass resistances except for repelling.
+ If given access to all his passive abilities, then he can likely passively recover and outlast his opponent with skills like Invigorate and Regenerate, return damage with High Counter, reduce damage a lot with Firm Stance, increase hit rate with Apt Pupil, reduce the cost of his skills with Arms Master and Spell Master, double evasion rate against all magical attacks except Light, Dark, and Almighty with Angelic Grace, flat out nullify, repel or drain most of Neku’s psychs, amp his own attacks and odds of inflicting status conditions, survive certain death with Endure and Enduring Soul (these stack), and increase damage with his own weapon with Weapons Master.
+ Heat Riser and other Enhance skills increase his own Attack, Defense, and Agility/ Hit/Evasion rate or reduce the opponent's.
+ Dekunda removes inflicted debuffs, Dekaja removes the opponent's buffs.
+ Rebellion and Revolution increase Crit Rate.
+ Tetrakarn and Makarakarn put up barriers.
+ Charge and Concentrate can boost the damage of their next offensive skill.
+ Life Drain can recover a small amount of HP from a foe.
= Comparable speed as both have dodged light-based attacks,
- Theurgies take a long time to charge up.
- Abilities like Regenerate and Invigorate don't recover a lot of HP and SP.
- Buffs/debuffs, Tetrakarn, Makarakarn, Charge, and Concentrate are not permanent and wear off after a certain amount of time or upon using their next offensive skill.
- The high-class attacks and Recovery skills require large amounts of HP and SP respectively.
- Instant kill options have a low success rate.
Neku:
+ If given access to all his pins from the first game like Mega Man is given access to all his weapons, then Neku has the edge in versatility (sheer number of psychs and affinities) and invulnerability (Eden set), so he can overwhelm P3 and exploit his weaknesses.
+ Greater mobility and can even teleport (more so if he is given access to Flowmotion).
+ Edge in range due to ranged attacks.
+ Most pins work by cooldown and don't drain HP, so even if they're exhausted, they'll immediately begin to recharge. This includes the healing psychs of Aqua Barrier and Dark Barrier, and even NEO's Healing Aura as well as the buffing psych Inspiring Aura. This all pairs well with the Over the Top psych which reduces reboot time by 40%.
+ Turbo psych increases the amount of uses per pin, adding extra longevity to the pins.
+ Can cripple his opponent by inflicting negative status effects like Immobility or Airborne to immobilize, HP Drain to continuously reduce the target's HP by a percentage. The Doomed psyches also reduce the opponent’s Attack, Defense, and/or Mobility. These don’t count as mental ailments so Unshaken Will does not nullify them.
+ Debuffs on opponents last longer with the Blight psychs.
+ Psychs like Nexus Ray and affinities like Time and Gravity could count as Almighty skills and thus bypass resistances and passive skills. Other psyches like Stellar Flurry can count as Pierce skills (I already mentioned the significance of Pierce skills).
+ Is more experienced.
+ Threads increase his stats, nullify or reduce knockback. There are also threads that increase his stats more when in low health (Second Wind, Steely Resolve, etc.), increase the capacities of psychs with abilities like Reinforced Chains, Stranglehold, or Synergy, provide skills like Resistances to poison, shocks, or burns, Regen and Auto-Charge (allows the release of psychs that require charge up time).
≥ This is a big stretch, but Neku could find the weakness of the Personas. Neku can read minds with the Player Pin and is even able to scan Soul by the time the events of NEO happen, and Personas are seen as the manifestation of the soul.
= Similar speeds as they both have dodged light-based attacks.
- Most healing pins have a limited number of uses (Already mentioned which ones don't). Those that don’t have a limited number of uses cannot be used until fully recharged.
- Cannot bypass Infinity.
- Does not have abilities or equipment that can completely nullify, absorb, or redirect damage.
Ending puns:
"P3H shouldn't take it personally, but he faced his Mass Destruction."
"Neku may have been psyched up, but he was left Twisted."
MUSIC:
Name: The Reaper Hour
The name refers to the Dark Hour and the Reaper's Game. It is also a nod to the Reaper Shadow and the Reapers.
Art: Look at Yate's "My Dread Burns with You" and simply add their MP3 player to the art and you get the gist of the art. If you want an original answer: take the Reaper symbol, have it wear Neku's headphones, and have it use an Evoker. Around where the "neck" would be the Sony MP3 player. In the background is a giant Midnight Hour clock being broken like in P3.
Sound: TWEWY's rock + P3's hip hop. The opening sounds like Twister, but when the combatants engage, the music shifts to a mix of Mass Destruction and Hybrid (The sound of Hybrid + the instrumentation and lyrics like that of MD). When the battle reaches its climax, the music sounds like Burn My Dread like it's the P3 Final Boss, but it has elements and lyrics like those of Calling. Death is calling the protagonists, but only one will heed the calling.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND WORDS
Imagining the fight was pleasant, but the preface was a nightmare. Worse still, my increased workload meant I couldn't finish this when I wanted to, and I could rarely find the energy to work on this. Getting this out before the announcement of Season 11 did not make this any easier, not that I could actually do so. I apologize for the long time between posts and for any inconsistencies. Still, I had fun, and I wanted to pay respect to characters that I look up to. They taught me that even if making connections is hard, it is never impossible, and that not reaching out only makes life worse. Friends help us, and whether or not bonds are the answer to the question of life, they should help us grow. Some will harm us, some will leave, but is that a reason to cut yourself off from the others?
THANK YOU AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS!
Psych affinities -> Persona affinities:
No affinity and makes bodily contact = Physical
No affinity and is ranged = Gun (P5) or Physical (P3)
Burst = Nuclear/Nuke (P5) or Fire (P3)
Darkness = Curse (Eiha, P5) or Darkness (P3)
Electric = Electric
Fire = Fire
Gravity = Almighty
Kinesis = Psychokinesis/Psy (P5) or Physical (P3).
Ice = Ice
Light = Bless (Kouha, P5) or Light (P3)
Poison & physical = Physical
Poison & ranged = Gun
Sound = Wind
Wind = Wind
Time = Almighty
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Sadly, I can only barely account for one of these contenders since I did play The World Ends With You, though my time with it was very... forgettable. Not a lot for me to grab onto, to be honest. BUT that doesn't detract from this great idea of yours! Hopefully, we'll get another Death Battle in the near future.
