Persona 3 or 4

noodler

Thought they deserved a topic. What a strange game series.

I am only about 5 hours into 4 (Haven't played 3) but it really is a game with a strange atmosphere. It almost a Silent Hill feel to it (then of course you have catchy J-Pop songs-hate to admit it-as battle music).

Anyone started it?

Or even tell me some stuff about 3? Is the protagonist in 3 Silent as well?

Retr0gamer

I'm playing through Persona 3 myself right now and absolutely love it. It's such a hodge podge of different genres that should seen complicated but it's very easy to get into. The battle system is amazing but the game can be very tough. Overall this game is already looking at a top 5 spot in my favourite RPGs of all time.

BTW the protagonist in 3 is silent as well.

Gummy Panda

I started Persona 3 tonight. Its really really good.

When i saw a few battle clips on youtube, i thought it looked crap but then i saw a clip showing the story elements, the daily school life and the summoning of persona by using the invokers (basically suicide imagery).

It also doesn't allow you to grind forever. If you are on a floor of tartarus (the dungeon) too long, a really strong enemy appears called a Reaper. Also you're party members can suffer fatigue from battles.

Daily life clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJWo7mowqUE

Haven't played Persona 4 yet. Ordered a copy of play.com on 31/3/09 when it was in stock and its now down as "awaiting stock". Also don't have the option to cancel the order

noodler

Hope it was for 13e Gummy. Battles aren't easy alright. Its hard to know when I should stop for the afternoon and go home or whether or not I should tackle a new floor. I don't know how it is in 3 but I worry I may fnd myself in a situation where acertain part of the game has to be beaten before the weather changes again or else it will be game over.

Gummy Panda

Yep, its the 13 euro deal. It might be arriving in so thats why play.com have it as "awaiting stock" and i can't cancel it.

Xploder are getting back to me tomorrow on a VGA cable for my ps2. If that arrives, I'll be on persona 3 non-stop. Its really really that good.

noodler

I can't quite work out how to get surprise attacks on enemies. Sometime I feel I have struck them in he back yet there is no advantage for either side. Stuck on an early boss and am going back down the floors grinding already. The music really is good.

Keith C

i got this same time as you noodler, i cleared the first & second dungeon & have put bout 25 hrs into game so far. to get "player advantage" i find you have to hit the enemt while its back is turned before the ! icon appears. other advice is save when you can! first time i tackled dungeon i put 2 hrs into leveling up only to take on boss without save & get minced
Longer I played g:(ame i realised its not charector leveling up thats important, its building the social links higher so that when you fuse personas you get greater exp points immediatly depending on how high up the link is.
If this sounds confusing, just give the game a bit of time ^ quick out a faq site.
its a fantastic game so far.

Retr0gamer

You've got to get the enemies in the back but you also can't have alerted the enemy. Very early on in the game you have to start trying to get player advantage for almost every battle.

noodler

Just finished Persona 4. It is very good but its made longer by artificial means in my mind. Having to go through the whole process of day, evening, night etc kind of adds a fair bit of unnecessary length to the game. 54 hours and I don't feel I could have gone through it much faster

Anyone here finished it?

What happens if you don't guess correctly who the murderer is?
The ending was a bit disppointing, no explanation of the Velvet Room etc. Also where the heck was everybody on your last day? Could only find, Teddie/Yosuke (Junes) and Kou/Dasuke (Restaurant) to say goodbye to.

Retr0gamer

I only just started Persona 4 and I think I prefer P3 a little more for some reason. P4 takes an awful long time to get going.

GothPunk

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I only just started Persona 4 and I think I prefer P3 a little more for some reason. P4 takes an awful long time to get going.

Indeed it does, but once it does get going I think the dungeons in Persona 4 offer a lot more variability compared to Tartarus. For example, once you beat a dungeon you have the option to go back and fight a second (harder) boss. Both games are both easier in some ways and harder in others depending on what aspects of the gameplay you are comparing, so it's easy to end up with a preference of one over the other. Persona 4 has Dojima though, a man who is deserving of hero status. Best character in the game I think* (although the OH has not finished it yet so I don't know how the game ends).

*Teddie gets an honourable mention.

noodler

GothPunk wrote: »

Indeed it does, but once it does get going I think the dungeons in Persona 4 offer a lot more variability compared to Tartarus. For example, once you beat a dungeon you have the option to go back and fight a second (harder) boss. Both games are both easier in some ways and harder in others depending on what aspects of the gameplay you are comparing, so it's easy to end up with a preference of one over the other. Persona 4 has Dojima though, a man who is deserving of hero status. Best character in the game I think* (although the OH has not finished it yet so I don't know how the game ends).

*Teddie gets an honourable mention.

P4 is suppossed to b a little dumbeddown or streamlined compared to P3 so I worry 3 will have more of the things I didn't like from 4 tbh. Still I must try and pic it up for the future.

Dojima is a great character, voice actor was very good.

GothPunk

noodler wrote: »

P4 is suppossed to b a little dumbeddown or streamlined compared to P3 so I worry 3 will have more of the things I didn't like from 4 tbh. Still I must try and pic it up for the future.

Dojima is a great character, voice actor was very good.

Well Persona 3 is coming out for PSP so you could wait for that. Apparently the PSP version will be more streamlined (perhaps even more so than Persona 4).

It'll be great when we've all finished Persona 3 and 4 and we can have big spoiler filled discussions.

Retr0gamer

noodler wrote: »

P4 is suppossed to b a little dumbeddown or streamlined compared to P3 so I worry 3 will have more of the things I didn't like from 4 tbh. Still I must try and pic it up for the future.

I don't think it's really dumbed down that much. They added the really useful Guard command that really adds more tractical elements to the system. I've heard from most people that played P4 first and went back to P3 didn't like it. It's usually because you can't control anyone other than the main character which would be infuriating for some one used to P4.

noodler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I don't think it's really dumbed down that much. They added the really useful Guard command that really adds more tractical elements to the system. I've heard from most people that played P4 first and went back to P3 didn't like it. It's usually because you can't control anyone other than the main character which would be infuriating for some one used to P4.

Can you even tell them to generally attack or heal? That was an opton in P4 but obv with the toughness of the battles I usedto manually control everyone.

Retr0gamer

You can give tactics like all out attack or heal/support to each character. Generally the AI is very good but it can make mistakes at times. The worst is in the end game when the AI gets Elemental break skills. Instead of kicking ass they spend their time using the break skills on enemies with good defense against that skill and waste time and MP. Still you can live with it.

Anyway it's very early days for me in P4, I might end up liking it a lot more. I'm playing P3 the answer as well and my god is it hard. I ended up starting P4 just to calm me down when I get my ass kicked in the answer.

CodeMonkey

Just bought and started P3 late last week after reading Retr0gamer and other people praising it in various threads. It really is a fantastic jrpg and I have gone through 2 lunar cycles already. I wish I have read up on it and bought P3:FES instead now with the additional content. Ah well. Hope I am not missing much. Will probably get P4 and stick it in the backlog.

noodler

I finished P4. P3 FES is on the way, hope I like it more.

There was alot of stuff that could have been edited out of P4 to make it a better game for me.

Retr0gamer

You aren't missing much with missing out on the extra content in FES. It too difficult and heard it doesn't add much to the story. I'm going through it slowly at the moment but it's a struggle.

I'm not sure you'll like Persona 3 more noodler for the reasons I explained before, you played P4 first. I much prefer P3 from what little I played of P4. I thought the battle mechanics and characters were better but the production values of P4 are much better than P3.

noodler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You aren't missing much with missing out on the extra content in FES. It too difficult and heard it doesn't add much to the story. I'm going through it slowly at the moment but it's a struggle.

I'm not sure you'll like Persona 3 more noodler for the reasons I explained before, you played P4 first. I much prefer P3 from what little I played of P4. I thought the battle mechanics and characters were better but the production values of P4 are much better than P3.

I am kind of prepared for the Dungeon crawling in 3 being tedious, it was in 4 even though they had the dungeons split up.

However, its storyline problems I had with 4, I loved the murder mystery but there was a HUGE chunk of frivelous days they could have taken out of the calendar in P4. You could go for like a month without any real plot development at a time.

johnny_ultimate

noodler wrote: »

I finished P4. P3 FES is on the way, hope I like it more.

There was alot of stuff that could have been edited out of P4 to make it a better game for me.

Big Persona 4 ending spoiler

Did you ever play through the 'true' ending? I got as far as the 'good' ending, where you meet up with all your friends etc... However, I looked it up online and then got to the real 'final' boss - don't know how you'd ever even know it was there if you didn't read up it online (you have to try to revisit Junes food court two or three times after talking to your social links)! I haven't played through the dungeon yet, other games got in the way!

Having played through both, I think 4 is my favourite of the two. The little upgrades make a difference, plus I prefer the characters and general storyline in 4 (it may take its time, but I love the way the series focuses on smaller details, such as friends and day-to-day activities - the very Japanese festival tangents are always fun!). Not to say 3 is bad mind, it is still fantastic, although I think it drills you into more of a routine than 4 as there doesn't seem to be quite as much to do (in 4 you can go dungeon crawling whenever you want, in 3 it kind of forces you to only do it once every two or three nights as your characters get 'tired'). Also everything you do in 4 tends to have more of an effect on battle etc... In particular, the battle benefits gained by increasing your squad's social links. Overall, it helps the 'dating' and 'dungeon crawling' sims mesh together into an overall package rather than more separate elements. Curious to see how you get on with 3! And I'd also recommend skipping the bonus 'Answer' content - I started it, but it kind of misses the point by just focusing on uber-hard combat IMO (plus distressing having to restart leveling your characters all over again).

I've just started played Persona on PSP - now that is a weird game, massively different to the others (first person perspective!!! Grid based combat!!!).

noodler

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Big Persona 4 ending spoiler

Did you ever play through the 'true' ending? I got as far as the 'good' ending, where you meet up with all your friends etc... However, I looked it up online and then got to the real 'final' boss - don't know how you'd ever even know it was there if you didn't read up it online (you have to try to revisit Junes food court two or three times after talking to your social links)! I haven't played through the dungeon yet, other games got in the way!

I got the good ending first time, agree that you'd have no idea how to get the true one if you didn't look it up.

I couldn't find anybody around time on the last day, don't know where everyone was hiding.

Boss battles were great.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I've just started played Persona on PSP - now that is a weird game, massively different to the others (first person perspective!!! Grid based combat!!!).

So kind of Jeanne D'Arc/FFT like?

PSP really is great for those. I completed MGS:PO and have to admit that they did a great job all in all consdiering what they had to work with (you have to stick with it) but you always fely it would work better on a home console alright.

johnny_ultimate

noodler wrote: »

So kind of Jeanne D'Arc/FFT like?

PSP really is great for those. I completed MGS:PO and have to admit that they did a great job all in all consdiering what they had to work with (you have to stick with it) but you always fely it would work better on a home console alright.

Imagine Jeanne D'Arc with the movement removed It is weird, it is like maybe a 40 grid area, your enemies on one side, you on the other. Plus you don't have to fight them - you can negotiate and you can scare them (they'll run away), make them happy (in which case they'll give you new Personae or other gifts) and so on. It seems like a strange system, but have only played for an hour or two so far. I love the pack though - 2 disc soundtrack ftw.

PSP certainly does seem a good place for tactical RPGs, I love Jeanne D'Arc (even if I haven't played too far into it) and I have FFT unopened for play at some point. I think my problem with the PSP is the battery life, which makes the DS more attractive for lengthy journeys. PO is great alright, I put around 10 hours into it building up my team before getting to the first boss, but then didn't play it much after that. As you say, it would be better with a home console, as the controls are a bit fidgety!

Definitely been playing the PSP a bit more these days, thanks mainly to the fantastic Rock Band Unplugged (which in some ways is superior to the home version). Will play through Persona hopefully, FFT and I see Disagea is up on PSN for 15 euro, which is tempting