Well, I managed to secure the route to the Treasure in one go, thanks to all the SP items I had on-hand, including the battle-only Mystery Stew. Glad I'm done with it; it really was an endurance between the enemies, the mouse parts, and the boss rush at the end.
It's crazy how the game just sics the Cleaner, Akechi's minions, Akechi himself, and then Loki!Akechi on you all in row with no opportunity to save or--in the case with the Akechi battles--heal inbetween. If you don't have ways to deal with SP, you'd really be in a bind. However, Girimekhala--a demon/Persona that I was never fond of in past SMT games--really came in clutch here, as he pretty much blocked just about everything Loki!Akechi threw at Joker, except of course for Megidolaon.
Kind of a shame what happened to him, but I find it morbidly amusing that Akechi's Confidant maxes out right before he gets shot to death. Then again, the way his Confidant was increasing towards the end was rather weird anyway; he says that he's going to shoot you in the head as he's pointing a gun at you, and somehow that means that your bond with him is getting deeper.
Anyway, I'm wondering if I should send the Calling Card right away, or wait until the last moment.
Good job doing it in one sitting. Shido's Palace isn't that hard but it's a different story if you're doing it all in one day.
Akechi's confidant stuff could've been done better for sure. They tried to make him ***P4 spoilers*** Adachi 2.0 and what we got was more like a diet version of him. Royal remedied this a bit though.