Persona 5 As Told By AI Dungeon

I decided to round out the AI retellings of the modern Persona games with an AI retelling of the fifth game. Unlike the previous two, I decided to start with the prologue sequence in the casino, rather than when Ren reaches Tokyo. Surprisingly, the scenario ended up being relatively plausible this time, except for the lack of Metaverse elements (which would be difficult for the AI to understand)

Again, I put the prompt and all the other parts I manually inserted in bold, and put footnotes in parentheses.

You are Ren Amamiya, known to your friends as Joker. You are a 16 year old Japanese high school student and are the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. You and your friends recently pulled off a heist in a casino, and have learned that the police are on their way to arrest all of you. In order to make your escape, you have offered to serve as a diversion. You scamper across the chandeliers and catwalks above the main floor of the casino as you try to make your escape from the police and casino guards. As some plainclothes detectives close in on you, you jump through a stained glass window, breaking through it, and land on your feet outside the casino.(1) You run off into the night. The police continue to fire at you, some ricocheting off of your comically oversized costume, some striking lighting that sizzle and zap nearby civilians. You don't know where the hell you are and you lost one of your phones in the process, but you can only assume that you're somewhere in the heart of the city. You're not quite sure what to do. You're used to fighting crime, not evading it. You take a detour through a gift shop, grabbing yourself a cowboy hat and some dark glasses to conceal your identity.

You step out of the hospital and onto the busy sidewalk, intending to find another phone to call the rest of the group for backup, but you notice the flashing neon sign across the street.

'Running With RX'

A biker gang owns the building you're standing next to.

You decide that this is one conflict you won't be getting involved with and promptly leave the area.(2)

You've escaped the police, but you don't have your phone anymore. That's when you remember your backup phone, in your other pocket.

You take it out and stare at it in your hand, remembering what happened when you tried to use it. The screen shows a black void.

You shake your head. "Dammit..."

You notice a coffee shop across the street and go over to it.

You order a large coffee from the cashier and take a seat at a table in the corner. You check your messages, but there aren't any from your friends. There isn't anything from anyone, really. Still, you wait for your friend's response: if they respond at all. After a minute or two, the phone beeps, signaling you that you have a new message.

You take a look.

"Hey kid, did you escape the cops? We're on our way to help."

You smirk. So, they decided to help you after all. That means they're not expecting too much resistance from the police, so things are probably going to go better. You send a quick response.

"Still on the way."

You put away your phone and finish your coffee, then get back on the road. An hour later, you arrive at the hideout. "Hah, this'll be easy," you think to yourself.

The hideout is in an old warehouse in the industrial part of town. You've been to the warehouse before, back when you were scouting it for the heist. It's a big place, but your crew should be able to coordinate enough to take it without much trouble. You just have to hope that the police don't get too much more efficient at tracking the phones.

"Phantom Thieves!" a voice cries. "You're under arrest!"

The eight of you gather together on the warehouse's loading dock, a stupid grin on every face.

"What the hell?" someone whispers.

"Did we do something wrong?" another asks, confused.

But it's too late. A group of police officers, led by a suited and booted agent, has stormed the warehouse. "Hands in the air!" he shouts.

"Oh, please, you couldn't have done anything without us." a familiar voice cries. You turn around to see a young woman with an ethereal beauty, a stark opposite of the hellish brute you know as the Joker, emerge from the shadows. She throws the head of a police officer at the group, knocking one man down, before walking towards you with a predatory grace. "Please, I'm only here to help."

"Kylie." you say, looking at her. "What are you doing? This is a bad idea."

"I agree." she says, staring at you. "We have to do something."

"You know her?" Mihrab(3) asks.

"We went to school together."

"Then she's a traitor!" the agent charges at her, but is blocked by another member of the group.

"She helped us take down the corrupt police force in the city. What's wrong, am I not worthy of your loyalty?" he asks, mocking the agent.

"Get away from her, you stalker!"

You sigh, before addressing the officer. "You said you had no evidence that we did anything wrong. Why are you here?"

"My men and I were working a case on a drug lord by the name of Marco Rubius. Your organization has ties to him, and we had a warrant to enter your warehouse."

"That's ridiculous. What are you even charging us with?"

"The murders of five police officers, including two FBI(4) agents."

"But there's no evidence for that," you say.

"Well, there's the tape, and there's your lot's reputation."

"Our reputation?" the man you knocked down asks, getting up. "What about the footage from the hospital?"

"It's still under investigation," the agent says.

"Wait, there were FBI agents killed too!" you add.

"Yeah, and?" the agent asks, annoyed.

"That's a potential national security issue!"

"Really? FBI, CIA, they're all the same. They're all the same, when it comes to this world."

"No, it's not!" you protest, before observing silence. The others all look at you, expectant. You sigh, and try to find the right words. "I... I guess what I'm getting at is that we respect the work that the FBI does. We don't want this to affect that."

"Oh, sure. Keep them out, and we won't have even the smallest chance of catching our killer. Go ahead and arrest us all, and we'll be able to pick out the killer from the group in less than a day. Then, we'll be able to do less during investigations."

The officer stares at you for a moment, before turning around and calling over his shoulder. "Take his phone, and search the garage for weapons. Load up the truck." With those orders, the officer walks off.

"So, what do we do?" you ask. "Should we call anyone?"

"No." you're told.

"I'm not taking no for an answer!" you cry, as the man grabs your arm. He and another agent begin pushing you towards the garage doors. "What the hell?"

"We don't want to have to deal with the repercussions that coming here will."

You're shoved into a van, and five seconds later the doors shut with you inside. You hear the agent speaking on a walkie talkie. "We're locking up tight. No one comes in or out."

After ten seconds, the agent turns it off. "Everyone, just go back to your posts. We're done here."

The van drives off, with you in it. You have no idea where you are.(5)

You spend the rest of the day and night in the van, with no food and little water. By morning, you're desperate, and find little hope for an end to the situation.

Just as you're giving up all hope, the van stops. "Get out of the car." You hear a voice command in an American accent. An American with a thick, "arsenal" of guns is shown to you. He wears a black balaclava over his face, as well as a dark blue jacket with gray military pants, and black boots. "Hurry, get inside the house." You do as you're told, and find yourself staring at the barrel of a gun.

You walk up to the house, and find that it's built of wood, with a thatched roof. The entrance to the house is a large set of wooden doors, which are currently open. The man leads you inside, and you find yourself in a small living area. There's a kitchen to the rear, and that's about it. The entire place is much smaller than you expected.

A staircase leads up to the second floor, and there's a small thatch roofed balcony outside of the master bedroom. You follow the man up the stairs, and into the hallway. You walk past several doors before you reach the bathroom. After that, you head downstairs, and find yourself in the bedroom. The man motions for you to enter, and you do so. You find yourself staring at a large bed, covered in bloodstained sheets. The man reveals his true identity. "I'm Grey." You give a firm, "Hnh?"

"What?" Grey asks. "You didn't know? I had to cover my identity because of my... work." > You say "Are you with the police or FBI?"

"Why would I be with the Feds?"

"Because I asked if you were a police officer, and you wouldn't give me a straight answer."

"Well, I am with the FBI. But I couldn't care less if you tell anyone about me, or this place."

You narrow your eyes. "What do you exactly do?"

"I'm in charge of cleaning up the filth in this city. You've probably noticed the lack of homeless people and poor residents in this town." You nod slowly, as he continues. "And I'm not the only one. There're a few others, doing a similar thing in other cities, cleaning them up for the majority that actually do work and actually pay taxes. The cops are on our side, doing their best to bring the criminals to justice. But there's always some who get away, or decide to work against the system. That's where I come in."

He pulls a large revolver from the back of his belt, and points it at you. "I'm going to show you something." He steps forward, and suddenly grabs your head with one hand. He presses the barrel of the gun against your forehead, and cackles. "We have a saying in my family: 'Work hard, or get pulled apart.' " He cackles again. "I'm going to show you work." He pulls the trigger, and the gun explodes with lightning energy. You scream as your body is blown apart into a million different pieces.

Footnotes

1)Until I edited the prompt, the story often began with Joker being killed or seriously injured.

2)When I got up to this point, the AI declared that "Your location is currently unknown. This choice has eliminated the option to continue the story."

3)This name often comes up in AI Dungeon stories. I can't tell if it's a boy's name or a girl's name.

4)The FBI often gets involved, including stories set inJapan.

5)I redid the following passage a few times until I got one that showed that the protagonist was being arrested. I also used Retry a few times to get the result that I found most interesting.