Encrypted my fresh Retropie, now can't login.

[starcrashr]

I set up a retropie on a 3b+ and encrypted it using this tutorial because I intend to have it double as a secure file server: https://github.com/NicoHood/NicoHood.github.io/wiki/Raspberry-Pi-Encrypt-Root-Partition-Tutorial
I had to adjust the tar commands because they were trying to create empty archives. Apparently the -C option wasn't recognized, so I had to manually cd before entering the commands.

The result was a system that almost boots, but it goes haywire when it reaches the login prompt. Here's the syslog to see what I see during boot: http://dpaste.com/0M3VNZB
I'm also unable to complete a login via ssh, giving me a permissions error and closing the connection. http://dpaste.com/2MJBB12
Here's the auth.log containing errors that appear to be relevant: http://dpaste.com/3ETYRZF

I've already checked the ownership and permissions on the home directories and /bin and they appear to be correct, preserved from the original install. I checked /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shadow, and /etc/gshadow, and they seem to be correctly populated and have appropriate permissions. I'm out of ideas.

[mitu]

I see a log of errors in the auth.log like:

Nov 11 09:36:37 retropie login[1244]: unable to cd to `/home/pi' for user `pi'

Check the permissions on that folder and try an interactive login from the console to see if it works.

[starcrashr]

@mitu Like I said, I already checked. That was the first thing I tried.