Persona 3 = worth the year long wait

[Himu]

   
I played about 6-7 hours last night.

I like how the One More battle system is like a more less brutal take on the Press Turn battles, but at the same time is can be even less forgiving. On my favorite boss fight so far, the enemy had physical null and, by experimenting, I casted Cadenza via fusion spell, and boosted my party's evasion rating up. I couldn't hit him phsyically upright, but I knew that if he was downed it'd be harder for him to recover. My plan worked, and right when he tried to attack Junpei he missed, got downed, and I did all out attacks on his ass. It was a great fight. I should fight when I'm tired more often, because they make fights about 999 times more fun.

I don't like how it takes longer for your Persona to level up than usual but I'm managing. I've got Orpheus, an Angel, Asparas, and a Forneus. My Forneus rules. I gave him Dia, Tarukaja, and he's now got Auto-Sukukaja. I can make an Archangel, Mitama, and an Omoikana (!!!) now. Which is great.

I did a few quests for Elizabith. They were fun.

I like how you have to go along with people and know their personalities instead of playing Mr. Nice guy like in other rpgs. My relationship Kenji didn't go anywhere last time we hung out because I thought his plan to have student - teacher relations was stupid.

I am loving the game. It's actually quite difficult when you have your party split up and fight enemies by yourself but I'm not really noticing an XP hike like they said I'd get. Oh well. I guess that's because I was in the first block. I have no unlocked block 2.

I am addicted to this fucking game omfg

[abrader]

and your very thread reminded me to unbury it from the stack of papers on my desk and break open the plastic wrap!

[Howard Alan Treesong]

there's a thread for this

I'm 10 hours, PLv 9, and I just synthesized a Yomotsu Shikome with Agi, Bufu, AND Garu, plus fear-touch and Auto-Tarukaja for magic+def up. Then she gained 3 levels because all I do on my days off is play Innocent Sin Online with Maya xD With her and my Dia-tastic Jack Frost I am totally ubering my way through the second block. I need a good Zio-player, though.

Midterms are next week, so nobody will come with me to Tartarus. They want to "study."

Most of your persona "levelling" willl be accomplished via fusions. Persona will often jump several levels when merged, so don't worry too much about pumping them up via XP.

Seeing results pre-merge is great; just keep trying until you get a Persona that inherits the abilities you want.

I agree that it's cool how you have to play off each person's personality. I told Yuko "not to worry about her weight" and she got mad cause she knew I was just telling her what I thought she wanted to hear, but we're all on the same swim team together and she's not going to be any good to us if she's out-of-shape, and I should support her efforts, not condescend to her. SUCK IT, BIOWARE.

This game is totally something special.

[Error2k4]

it keeps getting better and better, it's an amazing game the cast of characters is quickly becoming my favorite.

I love this game and thank god for R&D1

[MrAngryFace]

Lol this is one step shy of a dating sim. Dont get me wrong this is a fun enough game, but if it was called anything else...

[Error2k4]

well it is a dating sim, the school part at least. the game plays like a tokimeki memorial and the tower of druaga combined.

the thing is the dating sim is not tacked on and it's implemented very well into the gameplay. btw Himuro equip the Hero with hand to hand weapons once Akihiko joins. he looks badass with them.

[MrAngryFace]

I guess, I just wish I could be a bastard without fearing consequences. Thats bullshit. I cant even be a smartass and get away with it most times. That kinda ruins that aspect of the game for me. I mean its not a CHALLENGE to answer nicely, even as a pretense. I mean where's the satisfaction in telling people what they want to hear. I wanna be a jerk!

[Error2k4]

I think that depends on the character you are interacting with, you have to be a dick with the track team dude, if you are too nice he will hate you for feeling pity for him everytime.

it basically comes down to knowing the personality of that NPC.

[Van Cruncheon]

yeah, it kinda sucks that the game penalizes you for being an antisocial jerkoff -- really, it should give you boosts in other areas for bein' a sarcastic bastard. maybe let you hang out with the bad crowd, and give ol' kenji a wedgie.

[MrAngryFace]

They NPCs aren't especially deep characters, its just about paying attention. If anything the act of saying what they want to hear merely because you 'know' them cheapens the relationship between characters in the game because nothing about anything in this 'personal' side of the gameplay system is terribly honest.

[demi]

Bioshock is better

[Smooth Groove]

Objectively, how do relationships come into play? Do they affect your recruitment of NPCs or are there social goals that you have to accomlish in order to progress?   It does sound lame that you always have to play Mr Nice Guy.  I don't think I've ever seen a guy get lucky with a pretty girl just by kissing up to her all the time.   I actually caved in to the great previews and bought the game but I was too ashamed to admit it.  It's still unopened though so I can ebay it if it doesn't sound like what I want.  

[TVC15]

My feelings on the game are. . .mixed.  I am enjoying it a ton and I find it as addictive as anything else I've played all year, but it's not without gripes.

1) As MAF and Prole have said, you really can't play it how you want it.  There's one way to play each social encounter.  If you don't play it that way, you don't get any SLink improvements.  All the encounters are very linear.  Yes, you get to pick which SLinks you will pursue, but. . .

2) You really don't know which ones you should be persuing above any others.  Unlike Pokeyman, Persona 3 basically requires you to have personas with certain abilities at certain times.  You can't scrape by with your favorites, so it doesn't make sense to pick one SLink/family above another.  You are going to need them all at some point, and you never really know when you'll need a specific kind of persona.  This makes planning which SLinks you should pursue impossible.  Picking which SLinks you focus on has a pretty much random, undetermined effect on the game, since you never know what personas you will need in the future.  I think this is the game's major flaw.

3) There's really not as much dungeon crawling as I'd like.  You can go in maybe 2-3 times a week if you are up to it, but it seems like you don't really spend all that much time in the dungeon.  I'm still within the first month of play, but it also seems like your dudes get tired way too quickly.

I am enjoying the game a lot--as much as I've enjoyed any post-VP2 RPG.  It's very different and if I weren't in physical pain right now, I would probably be playing it more.

[Smooth Groove]

Too much pain to play a game?  You REALLY need to see a doctor, TVC. 

Thanks for giving your usual dissection of the game.  Flaws 1 and 3 sound bearable but Flaw 2 seems possibly game killing.  That's really bad design when the game doesn't nudge you towards selecting the proper characters even though the game doesn't have enough freedom for multiple solutions.  At least with FF, they always force the right characters on you when you really need them. 

[MrAngryFace]

I like the fighting and personas n stuff, and the story is neat too, but ive never really been a fan of this dating game crap. I mostly played Thousand Arms back in the day because it was so outrageous.

[Smooth Groove]

Why you no like Shenmue, MAF? 

[MrAngryFace]

it sounded stupid so I never played it

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I don't think the game is nearly as unforgiving as TVC seems to be finding it:

A) S-Links are revealed to you at about the same pace that you can fuse/pick up those Persona (the ranking of the Arcana from low to high). You're not going to waste time in the first month building up your Star faction. You're going to be dealing with Chariot and Hermit and other low-level S-Links, which will be the same sort of Persona you're fusing at that point in the year.
B) You start out able to "carry" 6 Persona; I'm in the second block and recently had that expanded to 8. The only "must have" abilities are a wide-variety of elemental attacks. Everything in the first block is weak to Fire and Ice to make it easy as you start out; the second adds Wind and Electricity, and I presume Darkness and Light will come into play to a greater degree in the third block. The game clearly staggers its gameplay systems to give you time to get your Personae up to snuff.
C) You can fuse Persona that have multiple elemental abilities (I have one with three elements, currently), freeing up even more space for experimentation.
D) After the first month, you get a Persona Compendium with very reasonable buyback prices on any Persona you've had before. If you absolutely, positively, no question about it need Zio to beat a boss, then drop the 3000 yen and get the Zio-using Persona. But re: B) and C), you should probably have one already.
E) The game is all-around easier than SMT3.

If you don't dig on the social stuff, then you're going to get annoyed by the game, sure. But I'm about 10 hours in and haven't ever felt over-my-head systems wise. It's actually a really good balance, so far.

[MrAngryFace]

I dunno, I was hoping it'd be less of a dating sim and more of a digital devil saga lol

[Howard Alan Treesong]

it's not a dating sim it's a school sim there's a difference~

then again you are talking to the guy who owns Kinpachi-sensei 3-B :'(

[Error2k4]

yeah Im going with S.Links that interest me and ignoring the ones I dont care too much (like Yuko/kenji) and I havent reached a point in the game where I blame the fact that I didnt go with a specific S.Link. the Fusion system makes it possible to be able to go with the S.Links you like since you are able to transfer abilities from one demon to the other.

the press turn system didnt really leave much room for you to go with demons you liked, you just brought the ones that you needed for boss battles then discard them later. P3 battle system is more forgiven and flexible in this aspect because with P3 is not a matter of trading turns with the enemies, it's a matter of covering your weakness and exploiting monsters weakness. they really nerfed the buffs/debuffs in P3 too, for example Sukukaja was a MUST in SMT3 because it upped you agility and you could spam it to high heaven making the enemy miss a lot and losing turns in the progress. in P3 that strategy doesnt really work as well because you cant spam buffs/debuffs anymore and even if the enemy misses it wont lose turns or anything.

[Himu]

TA-DAH DAH DAHHH! HIMURO POSTED!!!

I haven't fought Death yet because I'm a pussy lol Every single time Mitsuru says "I feel something! It's Death!" and I hear his chains swinging in the dark, I run away for the next set of stairs.

I finished Mid terms, I took down the mini boss on floor 25. It took me awhile to beat that cigarillo because I didn't have any Persona who could use Bufu but weren't weak against Agi based spells. That was until I fused to make a Persona of the Hermit Arcana. I forgot the name. I always forget the name of that thing.

Anyways, I have a few quests I have to do for Elizabeth that are due on June 7th. I have to hustle fast. I've done 2-3 of her new quests available, but the deadline ones I haven't completed yet. How the hell do you make a Valkyrie?

I did great on my mid terms. Mitsuru said she'd give me something good if I did good. I got every question on the exams right. botch, where is my shit?

Right now I'm harem-ing it up with Yoko and Chihiro. Haha.

I noticed that right when you got on block 2 the difficulty sky rocketed. I hadn't explored block 2 yet when mid terms came up, and Yukari said she didn't want to go to Tartarus that night so she could study, so I decided me and Junpei would do little crawlin' to do without her. We encountered a Beast Wheelial, and that fight was sporking awesome. That thing is TOUGH without Yukari for some reason. I'm really starting to appreciate my team mates, because usually when you split up and decide to go solo, you're gonna get raped. It really makes you feel like you're putting team effort into this thing.

I have a lot of S. Links I can mess with now. I got my Academics stat up right before mid terms, but I hadn't gotten the chance to go to the Home Economics room, but Jesus Christ. Bebe is weird. It's hilarious having a Japafag in this game. The little kid at the Shrine, I try not messing with her because I'm not a loli. I haven't been to Student Council in a week, and I keep getting side tracked and miss going to Kendo practice. The bookstore couple is cool.
 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

TA-DAH DAH DAHHH! HIMURO POSTED!!!
Right now I'm harem-ing it up with Yoko and Chihiro. Haha.

Oh, God, I have the exact same taste in imaginary women as Himumu. :/

[Junpei the Tracer!]

I'm having a deal of trouble with the 7/7 boss.

[Error2k4]

himuro: you need to have the highest grades in your class for Mitsuru to give you the items.

[abrader]

Also if you piss daily you can goto the dungeon nightly.

Usually at least one party member is up for it....if not go alone...

[Error2k4]

some tartarus bosses are really fucking hard.

beat him, omfg this game is so fucking good it hurts. 

[Himu]

TA-DAH DAH DAHHH! HIMURO POSTED!!!
Right now I'm harem-ing it up with Yoko and Chihiro. Haha.

Oh, God, I have the exact same taste in imaginary women as Himumu. :/

I'm aiming for Yukari!

[Himu]

Oh God. My relationship with my teammate has reversed. He called Saturday night asking whether or not he wanted to hang out the next day since it's our day off. Since he's one of my favorite S. Links I gladly said sure thing. Right after hanging up Chihiro calls, and I wanted to up her S. Link, so I accepted hanging out with her the next day, so I cancelled my appointment with my rival. He got pissed and took it the wrong way. I hope I can patch things up.

I managed to fuse a couple of guys and it's true that S. Links make a difference. I made a Valkyrie, Berith, Lilim, and Pyro Jack. Berith leveled up a good 3 times, Pyro Jack leveled up twice. Pretty crazy stuff. They're all over my level now. There's a few Personae I'm looking at now that I want in the future like Nagi. Nagi is always fucking awesome no matter what SMT because of his design alone. <3

So I spread fused my Orpheus, Asparas, and Jack Frost and landed me a Pyro Jack who has an item in his heart apparently. Then I got my Jack Frost back from the Compendium. I think I have all bases covered. Valkyrie is strong against phsyical attacks, Lilim's got Zio and Agi, Pyro's got Agi, Jack has got Bufu, Berith is on his way to learning Maragi;etc.

The nail bat rules.

Do Personae evolve in this game or what? I heard your main Persona, Orpheus evolves, and the goddamn art book spoiled that your team mates Personae evolve, so I'm curious about non story based Personae.

Also, does the moon cycle have anything to do with the gameplay in this game like in every SMT ever, or is there just for story reasons? I think I tried to fuse on a New Moon and all I got were a bunch of fuck ups from Igor. I think that the amount and what species of Shadow that appear in Tartarus is affected by the moon cycle but I have a feeling it's totally random. On some nights I encounter red Shadows more than most, on others I encounter more gold ones.

[Error2k4]

where are you at? the King Frost is badass persona I like the way it stands behind the hero when you summon it.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I managed to fuse in such a way to cover all 6 elements between two personae, and they're both ones I'm strong in (Hermit/Maya and Justice/Chihiro) so my S. Links are going through the roof. I could really use Posumudi tho. :/

[hyp]

*sigh*  takes forever to level up persona.  i grinded for a good few hours last night and it didn't do much for me. =\

do you guys think it's better just to build S.LINK and then fuse persona for the extra couple level boost instead of holding on and investing time in the one's i've captured already?

[Error2k4]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/23708.html

a little late but that's gt P3 review, 9/10

[Junpei the Tracer!]

Mudoon....is there a way to defend against this fearsome attack?

[Error2k4]

a persona with null/strong affinity towards dark?

[Himu]

*sigh*  takes forever to level up persona.  i grinded for a good few hours last night and it didn't do much for me. =\

do you guys think it's better just to build S.LINK and then fuse persona for the extra couple level boost instead of holding on and investing time in the one's i've captured already?

Yeah dude totally. I wasn't making any improvements until I got higher level S. Links and THEN fused.

Error: I'm right before the 6/7 event. I met Shinjiro. What a badass.

[hyp]

damn, you just surpassed me.  i'm on 6/5 right now.

how far are your social stats?  my academics is on 3, courage 2, and charm 3.  i still haven't found many S.LINKs either.  i'm assuming i'll have more interactions as time passes.  at least i hope so, some of my personae are in dire need of re-fusion.

[Himu]

Kenji's 5 or so. Chihiro is 4. I think that the reason I was having trouble before was because every day I would talk to someone different. If you don't concentrate on a few set social links, I can imagine the game being a hard time (like I was having earlier). I'm pretty sure the folks who find teh game easy are ones that concentrate on one social link at a time and don't move on until they've maxed their s. links.

My stats are...um. Charm: 3 Academics 2: Courage: 2

You haven't found many S. Links? I've encountered tons. So many that I'm almost overwhelmed once the after school portion of the game comes up. For me there's Kenji, Chihiro, Yoko, Kazuki, the guy at student council, the old couple at the book store, the gourmet king, Maiko or whatever - the little girl at the Shrine...

[Junpei the Tracer!]

a persona with null/strong affinity towards dark?

Oh yeah lol but I have to try and find one.

[hyp]

Kenji's 5 or so. Chihiro is 4. I think that the reason I was having trouble before was because every day I would talk to someone different. If you don't concentrate on a few set social links, I can imagine the game being a hard time (like I was having earlier). I'm pretty sure the folks who find teh game easy are ones that concentrate on one social link at a time and don't move on until they've maxed their s. links.

My stats are...um. Charm: 3 Academics 2: Courage: 2

You haven't found many S. Links? I've encountered tons. So many that I'm almost overwhelmed once the after school portion of the game comes up. For me there's Kenji, Chihiro, Yoko, Kazuki, the guy at student council, the old couple at the book store, the gourmet king, Maiko or whatever - the little girl at the Shrine...

crap.  i haven't run into maiko, gourmet king or chihiro.  so far, the ones i've discovered are:

- emperor (student council)
- hiero (old couple)
- hanged man (girl @ shrine)
- magician (kenji)
- chariot (kendo guy)
- hermit (mmorpg)

that's it!  i'm wondering why i haven't triggered the ones you've listed... could be that my personality skills weren't developed in time.  hmm.

[Error2k4]

my relationship with Chihiro is not going anywhere, so Im dating Yukari now lol.

[hyp]

i give up on your gaf thread.  everyone's like level 100+ and is spoiling everything.  bah.

[Error2k4]

they are? havent noticed any major spoilers there.

[demi]

they are? havent noticed any major spoilers there.

besides the ending? lol am i rite error help me out here

[Error2k4]

 

that was in another forum tho but still...   

[hyp]

not too many story spoilers, but character interactions...  no one's using spoiler tags

[Himu]

Another S. Link is Bebe. Once you've got your Academics up to "average" go to the Home Economics room and you can get Bebe's S. Link.

In order to get Chihiro, you have to join Student Council.

Are you talking to the npcs? Because usually they'll bring up something like,"Some guy at the mall called the Gourmet King is there..." or "I saw a little kid at the Shrine the other day, she looked so lonely." The girl at the shrine is Maiko, or whatever her name is.

[hyp]

maybe thats why i haven't found any new social links.  i tend to just skip talking to NPCs all together.  i thought most events would be scripted, which is why i've avoided most of them. 

[Himu]

Some of the npcs tell pretty valuable info. Some of them are pretty funny too.

I bet you all patel has a thing for the lady at the Antiques shop.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Antiques shop? Where's that?

I've not really gone to the mall or stations at all. Waiting for summer break to explore around those parts.

[hyp]

Some of the npcs tell pretty valuable info. Some of them are pretty funny too.

I bet you all patel has a thing for the lady at the Antiques shop.

someone please spoil this for me.  will i be able to tap mitsuri's ass in the future?  i loves me a sexy, confident woman.

[Himu]

You can go with Chihiro, Yuko, Yukari, Mitsuru, and Fuuka.

[Himu]

Antiques shop? Where's that?

I've not really gone to the mall or stations at all. Waiting for summer break to explore around those parts.

The mall dude.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

are you talking bout the used bookstore? or somewhere else?

Nich is trying for a "perfect clear" on his new game+ where he dates all 5 girls up to max in the space of a single school year

too bad this isn't on XBL, that would be one hell of an achievement

[hyp]

You can go with Chihiro, Yuko, Yukari, Mitsuru, and Fuuka.

 

this game is turning me into japafag extreme.

[Himu]

it's at the mall next to the pharmacy.

this game is turning me into japafag extreme.

Word.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

oh...I think the antiques shop was closed at first and I just never went after it reopened O:)

there are two malls you know. Paulownia and the strip mall.

[hyp]

now we just need some otakus to produce persona 3 hentai.  then i'm set.

[Himu]

Man Kenji is so awesome

[hyp]

he still pimpin' it?