The Castle of Lust Falls

The Pervert Castle of King Kamoshida

As someone who spent the first lockdown completely obsessed with Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal (yes, I bought both) and a try-hard writer, I feel it is my duty to review the game. However, were I to review the entire game, the proceeding article would be nothing more than me foaming at the mouth about all the wonderful things about the entire game. Therefore, in order to get a better frame for the game’s positive and negative aspects, I felt it would be better to tackle this review palace by palace, beginning with Kamoshida.

For the uninitiated, Persona 5 is a JRPG following the adventures of Joker, 16-year-old leader of the soon-to-be notorious Phantom Thieves. After saving a woman from being assaulted by an influential politician, said politician uses his connections to get you tried for assault and put on probation. Which is… a terrible thing to happen. At least your parents are supportive enough to immediately kick you out of your hometown and send you to live with someone you (and possibly they) have never met in Tokyo, a city you know nothing about, for a year i.e., the entirety of your probation. Already, you may see that the circumstances surrounding your character are not fair and this is the central theme of Persona 5: rebelling against the unjust and the tyrannical. A theme that begins before you’ve had the chance to go to school.

The Villain

This is Kamoshida. He’s a former gold-medal Olympian, a P.E. teacher at Shujin Academy and coach for their school volleyball team. He’s also a serial abuser and implied rapist. Beyond that, he’s snide, condescending and extremely manipulative, not that it takes much to manipulate children who simply don’t want to be beaten up. Everything about Kamoshida seems to be designed as a combination of every terrible teacher anyone has dealt with; every bully who thought the children they taught were their property, every abuser who used their students to fulfil their selfish desires, every narcissist that threatened the future and safety of a student because they had the power to interfere with said student’s future before they’d ever have a chance to secure it, Kamoshida is all of these horrendous people rolled into a single person and crowned with a disgusting mop of hair. And speaking of crowned…

Uncomfortable to look at, isn’t it? As the game goes on to explain, those who have enough “distorted desires” are liable to creating a Palace. Palaces exist as their own cognitive world, within the real subconscious of the Palace Ruler, in this case Kamoshida. The Palace’s appearance and topography are determined by two things: the place where the Ruler acts on their distorted desires and how they interpret their role in that real-world location. Kamoshida is highly regarded and practically revered at the school because his abusive-style of coaching volleyball has cemented the academy as a high-achieving institution with even the principal complimenting and relying on him. In essence, Kamoshida believes himself a king and the school is his castle.

The Castle and its inhabitants

Kamoshida’s castle is everything you’d expect from the abode of feudal rulers of yore; a labyrinth of high ceilings, mile-long velvet drapes and ivory pillars holding dotted throughout the grander rooms, such as they foyer, the chapel and the throne room. The enemies that roam each and every room and hallway are known as Shadows; random, seemingly lost spirits that attach themselves to Palaces and their Rulers, seemingly out of nothing more than a desire for purpose. They will fight you, all in the name of Kamoshida, who they see as a true king. Upon attacking or being ambushed by you, the knight’s armour explodes and reveals…

…sometimes, a knight with a horse! Many of the enemies that appear within this Palace are reminiscent of expected presences in a medieval palace: there are cavalry knights (Berith [above] and Eligor), damsels or possibly maids (Silky), and even horses without knight just to balance things out (Kelpie). In regards to Kamoshida… how to put this delicately… being a sexual predator, the Palace is also home to both Incubus and Succubus. As they are representations of Kamoshida’s twisted desires, it will give you great pleasure to know that you can, in fact, but a bullet in the head of both of the last two creatures to great effect. Consider that a tip from me if you decide to buy the game. Unfortunately, there are other inhabitants in this Palace. Cognitive Beings are distinct from Shadows in that they resemble people from the real life of the Palace Ruler, as Kamoshida is a King you would expect these people to be servants: maids, butlers, knights, seamstresses, chefs, actual jobs that a King requires in order for a palace to function. However, this is HIS world and everyone in it is his slave. There are several nameless slaves that represent the volleyball team that Kamoshida coaches, but there are three cognitive beings that are more individualised.

The Victims

Ann Takamaki

Ann is the first playable character besides Joker that you ever see in the game. On your walk to school, it rains and you avoid getting wet by stepping beneath the canopy of nearby store. Soon a blonde girl does the same thing and you exchange a quick glance at one another before going separate ways. This is Ann, she’s your classmate, a part-time model and the only natural blonde in the game which makes her stand out next to her dark-haired classmates. It also means she gathers the attention of many, including Kamoshida, and while she tries to maintain as much distance as possible, Kamoshida is constantly threatening to remove Ann’s only friend, Shiho, from the volleyball team if she doesn’t “play nice” for lack of a better term. Ann is disgusted by Kamoshida, but if her friend is removed from the team then it will have serious implications on her future applications for college, which will impact her future career options. Ann doesn’t want to jeopardise Shiho, so she goes along with it. Ann puts up with Kamoshida’s advances, constantly rumours and mocking from her classmate, all for the sake of upholding the reputation and future career/college viabilities of the only friend she has. It’s a decision that many players have questioned in Ann, but, to me, it’s admirable. Given that the school is at least somewhat aware of Kamoshida’s actions, Ann knows that nobody will help if she reports it. She sticks it our for her friend right up until Kamoshida explicitly asks for sex, at which point she refuses and admits her desire to serve Kamoshida the exact justice he deserves.

Before officially joining the Phantom Thieves, Ann follows you into Kamoshida’s palace and is captured by the Shadows. She’s chained up and ridiculed by the King and meets the cognitive version of herself; a thoughtless, “yes-sir” girl in a bikini without a shred of personality anywhere near her. Seeing this, Ann realises exactly what Kamoshida thinks of her and refuses to be regarded as anyone’s plaything. Ann rips through her restraints with her bare hands and taps into her own rebellion, summoning Carmen and donning her crimson mask as Panther.

Shiho Suzui

Shiho is Ann’s best friend. Throughout the story of the first Palace, Shiho seems like a very nice young woman but simply looking at her character model and face animation, it is clear that Shiho is almost constantly dissociating. Her eyes are dark and hollow and she’s covered in injuries that look severe, but whenever she’s asked about them by Ann, she says they hurt but aren’t serious. Story-wise, it’s clear that Shiho serves as Ann’s motivation to take down Kamoshida, but throughout the game she often serves as Ann’s reminder to keep fighting and keep rebelling. Shiho inspires Ann in a way that makes Shiho a crucial detail to the story. Within the arc, Shiho also serves as a female counterpart to another volleyball player, Mishima. The two are essentially poster children for Kamoshida’s abuse, both bruised and bandaged, their eyes sunken and their hopes crushed under the need to perform and the constant threat of injury.

Yuuki Mishima

Mishima is the wallflower of his class, quiet and overlooked even before attending Shujin and being targeted by Kamoshida. He’s introduced as Kamoshida’s messenger and whipping boy, to the point of being spiked in the face at full-power from a former Olympic champion. Mishima is blatantly abused by Kamoshida physically and psychologically in what an NPC refers to as “special coaching”, a phrase that cause bile to hit the back of my throat. Together, he and Shiho represent how both genders are abused by Kamoshida: the boys receive violence, the girls also receive violence with the threat of sexual assault. It is these character that you find yourself fighting for in the Palace.

Ryuji Sakamoto

Introduced as Vulgar Boy, Ryuji is the first friend and playable character you actually meet and talk to. Ryuji already knows how monstrous Kamoshida is and wants to see him taken down by any means other than murder. Prior to the events of the game, Ryuji was a star track-and-field athlete and was on-track for a scholarship. Kamoshida pulled strings in the background to remove the former track-and-field coach and set himself as the coach for it, where he constantly riled up Ryuji, abused the runners in a similar fashion to how he abused the volleyball team, publicly humiliated Ryuji by revealing his abusive home situation, and when Ryuji lashed out at him Kamoshida broke his leg in alleged self-defence. After learning this, I (and therefore Joker) had entirely accepted the option of killing Kamoshida. No hesitation. Were it a legitimate option, I would have ended Kamoshida’s life. Thankfully, that decision was not left to me.

Ryuji is the key to enter Kamoshida’s palace for the first time. As he knows Kamoshida well enough to have a clear understanding of how he views himself, he allows you find the palace (albeit accidentally) and beseeches you to try and do something about it. Ryuji understands what it means to be under Kamoshida’s thumb, he knows exactly how the volleyball team are being manipulated and trapped and he refuses to sit back and do nothing about it. However, through the first two times you enter the castle, Ryuji is unable to fight Shadows the way you can until you are defeated in battle, leaving only him standing. Kamoshida threatens your life and Ryuji finally tells Kamoshida to “stop looking down on me with that stupid smile on your face”. Ryuji dons his mask, shaped like a black skull and summons his Captain Kidd to single-handedly wipe out the enemies that downed you and embracing his codename: Skull.

The Boss

Yes, at the very core of each person is an identity; our own vision of ourselves. This is Kamoshida’s view of himself. A hideous, mutated-looking giant surrounded by golden possessions and human bodies fit for his consumption. He is grotesque through and through and, clearly on some level, he knows this. All the bosses have fairly distressing forms, but only Kamoshida and one boss later on seem to regard themselves as actual monsters beneath the veneer. As the first boss fight, Kamoshida is the simplest but there are still several boxes that must be ticked before victory will be in your grasp. First, Kamoshida will heal himself by drinking from a goblet that represents a trophy he won in his youth, then he will use cognitive versions of both Mishima and Suzui to spike volleyballs at you, forcing you to destroy the cognitive versions in order to give yourself the best chance at survival. After that, you need only steal his crown before the fight returns to a test of brute strength. It’s lacklustre when compared to the other boss fights, but as a first, it explains everything you’ll need to expect from future bosses without feeling too easy. Plus, as a nice bonus, after you win you get to watch Ann chuck fireballs at his quivering body until he submits. As I’ve said, once someone crosses that line into assaulting children, sympathy should be optional.

Conclusion

Kamoshida’ castle is easily one of the most memorable palaces in Persona 5 and that’s not just because it’s first, although that certainly helps. The palace is beautifully decadent, easy to navigate and gives you a great deal of satisfaction to traverse, particularly when crossing the room undetected by running along the top of chandeliers. It’s a wonderfully designed dungeon and serves its purpose of introducing players to the world and system of the game extremely well. After you’ve completed Kamoshida’s palace, you’re ready for the next one. Hopefully, the same is true of this review.

Now, the scores:

The Villain: 8/10. Kamoshida is scum. As a human being, he is easily one of the worst and the fact that he’s a teacher rings too close to home for many people. It’s uncomfortable knowing that somebody in any position of authority is as lecherous and violent as him, but for that person to hold authority over children is disgusting. He perfectly encapsulates everything the Phantom Thieves go on to fight; people who take advantage of those who cannot fight back. In many cases, children cannot fight back and rely on other adults to save them from predators like this. This arc shows what happens when those other adults turn a blind eye and why that cannot be allowed to happen. My issue with Kamoshida as a character is that he gets away with his evil actions too easily; I can accept the principal covering up the scandal but he seems to have a good relationship with every teacher despite there being long-standing rumours about him and the fact he broke a teenager’s leg. Kamoshida claimed self-defence since Ryuji attacked him, but if I knew a grown man, an ex-Olympian, that broke a child’s leg in “self-defence”, I would immediately assume him to be violent in his downtime but every other member of faculty seems to genuinely respect or revere him. If another teacher suggested having any suspicions, it would’ve sold the character more.

The Palace: 8/10. Gorgeous. It’s actually a beautiful castle, which harkens me to a line from Ann when she sees Kamoshida’s crown for the first time. “It kind of pisses me off… why is it so pretty?” Kamoshida does not deserve such a beautiful palace and he does effectively ruin it whenever a portrait, bust or fifty-foot statue of himself appears to ruin it aesthetically. Occasionally, it feels somewhat lacklustre. Something about the environment is fairly easy to ignore after a while. This is not a heavy criticism, but Persona 5 does better than it did here.

The Characters: 9/10. Minus Kamoshida himself, Ann and Ryuji are both incredibly. They have personal investment in seeing this man taken down and do not budge on their morals at all. Ryuji mostly just wants Kamoshida to be stopped but Ann wants him to suffer for what he’s done. It’s wonderful characterisation for both of them as people who want to see justice done; Ryuji is more goals-orientated in that he wants Kamoshida and future villains to stop abusing those beneath them. Ann wants these same people to suffer for what they’ve done, to know that they have committed acts that cannot be forgiven and for the very people who perpetrated those acts to live with that guilt. And although minor, both Suzui and Mishima created a sense of reality and consequence; they will suffer if the Phantom Thieves fail and they’re both clearly good people beneath the pain.

The Story: 9/10. Everyone has been to school and everyone has a story about a teacher that was abusive in some way. Perhaps they picked on particular students or used the school rules to bend certain students to behave a certain way, or perhaps they were truly as horrific as Kamoshida in some way. A teacher abusing their power is a tale as old as time and Persona 5 hits every note of disgust and repulsion I felt for such people in real life. It is not a particularly fun story, but they way it is presented and draws you in until it’s personal is an example of masterful storytelling and pacing.

Overall: 8.5/10. A wonderfully designed opening with a villain that genuinely deserves everything he has coming to him. Introduces some of my favourite characters in a stellar way and shows you exactly how far they’re willing to go for what they believe in whilst also teaching you what it is that they believe in.