This is a matching logic puzzle structured like a trading card game. Solvers play the role of a silent guest in a town where this game is popular. Exposition and trading rules are provided through an interaction with two sisters, “C” and “J.” Under the guise of trading with these two sisters, the concept is that pairing two cards will result in a particular output, and solvers must optimize the matches to fit the constraints listed within the puzzle. The solver is given a list of 20 cards and must figure out the best way to pair them with a pool of 20 remaining cards such that the 20 output cards will: 1) all be different Types and levels, and 2) all be a higher level than the cards which generated them. However, the solver isn’t given any information how to predict the output for a given pair.

Cards depict a “Shadow” which each have a descriptive name, a level, and a type. If solvers note the listed types, they will notice that there are 20 distinct types. The use of “strange looking cards” in the flavortext coupled with the names of the 20 types heavily suggests that these cards are related to the major arcana in Tarot (Fortitude = Strength, Shaman = Magician, Celestial = Star, etc). If solvers attempt to search for the names of the Shadows along with the tarot designation, they should consistently hit upon the JRPG Persona 5.

In Persona 5, the characters are high school students who awaken their Persona powers and become secret supernatural vigilantes (confirmed by “rebellious high school students” in the flavortext). During the game’s dungeons, players encounter “Shadows” which they can capture as new Persona to use in battles. A core mechanic of the game is fusing Persona together to create more powerful Persona. Fusions are completed by two twin attendants named Caroline and Justine, who are referenced in this puzzle. Specific to Persona 5, fusions are visualized as a gruesome beheading of the Persona and so the “take your head off” is to confirm using Persona 5 as the dataset and not other Persona franchise games.

With this realization, solvers can now start progressing through the puzzle. Taking the provided Shadow names, solvers can identify which Persona they equate to (this wiki page is particularly helpful) and the provided levels match the hardcoded base-levels associated with each Persona. Fusions are dictated by two parameters: arcana and Persona level. Each arcana pairing maps to a specific output arcana (an arcana fusion table can be found below). The average level of the fused Persona dictate which Persona from the resulting arcana is generated. There are many resources online to help solvers navigate fusion mechanics, but this Persona Calculator is the best. Importantly, the comment that they “do not play with expansion packs” tells solvers to avoid including any Persona that are from downloadable content, which is a setting they can toggle in the above Persona Calculator (“set your expectations correctly”). A sample solution path is included below.

Once solvers figure out the correct solution, they will have 20 new Persona, one from each arcana spanning Magician to Judgement (there are no World arcana Persona in the game), and each will have a calculated rarity. Since rarity is not a feature in the source material (which is confirmed by “these Shadows have the extra attribute of rarity” in the introduction), solvers should suspect that this is an indexing method. Reordering the cards into reverse arcana order (as clued by “look up” in the introduction) and indexing into the Persona names will spell the instruction BRING A JOKER THEN TRADE. In addition to a joker being a playing card that no one would miss if traded away, the joker symbolizes the missing arcana—The Fool—and is also the codename for Persona 5’s unnamed protagonist.

Upon delivering a joker to HQ, solvers can trade the joker for the answer PLACEHOLDER.

As an additional easter egg, the title of this puzzle also refers to Persona. In the series, Persona are managed and fused in a location called the Velvet Room. The background music playing in this room is always an arrangement of the same song titled “Subete no Hito no Tamashii no Uta” or “Poem/Aria of [Everyone’s] Soul.” The title “Anima Oratorio” is a subtle allusion to this staple in the series. Anyone who has played a Persona game can attest to spending hours listening to this song as they attempt to optimize their Persona fusions.

Arcana Fusion Table:

[This table scrolls horizontally.]

Sample Solution:

When considering all possible fusions for the provided Persona, solvers can greatly reduce the number of possible permutations by taking the various puzzle constraints into account. To review, the constraints are:

1. No created Persona should be the same as any of the starting Persona (noted as a red cell with red text below)
2. Every arcana represented in the starting Persona must be represented in the outputs—this means one of each arcana and no Fool Persona (noted in red text in a red cell below)
3. Valid fusions should result in Persona that are of a higher level than either of the Persona used to create them (noted in red cells below)

Therefore, the table of valid possible fusions looks like this:

[This table scrolls horizontally.]

The following is one possible solve path:

1. Yamata-no-Orochi must make a level 69 Persona (9 Persona eliminated by level)
2. Cu Chulainn must fuse with Melchizedek to make Kali! (1 Persona eliminated by parents)
3. Lilim must make a Moon Persona (2 Persona eliminated)
4. Dakini must fuse with Scathach to make Barong! (5 Persona eliminated by parents)
5. Only Hermit must be Ippon-Datara from Jack Frost and Mokoi! (5 Persona eliminated by parents)
6. Shiki-Ouji must fuse with Leanan Sidhe to make Jikokuten! (1 Persona eliminated by parents, 1 Persona eliminated by arcana)
7. Only Judgement must be Abaddon from Kurama Tengu and Mara! (5 Persona eliminated by parents)
8. Parvati must fuse with Lilim to make Lilith! (1 Persona eliminated by parents)
9. Kikuri-Hime must make a level 43 Queen Mab (2 Persona eliminated by level)
10. Only Devil must be Baphomet from Arahabaki and Ganesha! (3 Persona eliminated by parents)
11. Norn must fuse with Chernobog to make Hanuman! (1 Persona eliminated by parents)
12. Only Hierophant must be Berith from Bicorn and Kelpie! (3 Persona eliminated by parents)
13. Only Chariot must be Slime from Pixie and Koropokkuru! (3 Persona eliminated by parents)
14. Only Sun must be Mithras from Makami and Fuu-Ki! (5 Persona eliminated by parents)
15. Koppa-Tengu must make level 19 Matador (1 Persona eliminated by arcana)
16. Rangda must fuse with Garuda to make Skadi! (1 Persona eliminated by parents, 1 Persona eliminated by arcana)
17. Yamata-no-Orochi must fuse with Sandman to make Siegfried! (1 Persona eliminated by parents, 2 Persona eliminated by arcana)
18. Thoth must fuse with Mothman to make Belphegor! (1 Persona eliminated by parents, 1 Persona eliminated by arcana)
19. Kumbhanda must fuse with Unicorn to make Fortuna! (2 Persona eliminated by parents, 1 Persona eliminated by arcana)
20. Orobas must fuse with Koppa-Tengu to make Matador! (1 Persona eliminated by parents)
21. Inugami and Kodama must fuse to make Archangel! (1 Persona eliminated by arcana)
22. Eligor and Choronzon must fuse to make Take-Minakata! (0 Persona eliminated)
23. Yaksini and Power must fuse to make Kushinada-Hime! (0 Persona eliminated)
24. Pisaca and Kikuri-Hime must fuse to make Queen Mab! (all done!!)