A Persona Topic

noodler

Started P3: FES yesterday. I really should have played it beofre 4 as there are all sorts of little annoyances that were ironed out in four.

Having to talk to a team mate to change his equipment, not being able to check what a Persona's ability does from the menu etc.

Storywise I find it to be more intriguing than the beginning of 4 though

There is better explanation of exactly what Personas are for, what yoo are fighting for etc

.

The AI has been fairly decent so far but I am only at Floor 10 in Tarturus so will wait until it gets harder.

Is it just me or do Persona games have a certain 'washed out' look or is it just because it is on a HDTV? Wish I had kept my CRT

noodler

Just beat the Gaurdian on floor 25. I am definitely finding this harder to put down than 4.

Retr0gamer

Glad you are liking it. A lot of people are put off by it if they come after P4 because of the CPU characters. I had no problem with them if you set their AI properly until the very end game when a few got 'break' skills and wasted turns casting them but by then it was a minor inconvenience. I definitely enjoyed P3 more than I'm enjoying P4 though. P3 is a lot harder though. Normal enemies have the ability to take your party down so getting back attacks all the time is a must. Some nasty difficulty spikes though particularly one boss that will cream you since there's 3 of them and no discerneable weakness. He is weak to a status attack though and it makes the fight a lot more fair.

CodeMonkey

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Normal enemies have the ability to take your party down so getting back attacks all the time is a must.

I used a bow on the main character most of the time cause you can initiate fights from a distance instead of waiting for them to turn their backs....

Retr0gamer

Well if the ****ers don't turn their back to me after turning around 4 times I use the menu trick to stop me going insane I just put the best weapon I could get on my MC. You do far more damage. Fusing personas with weapons can create some crazily good weapons.

noodler

I am dieing a bit between 34-40. I find it a little easier but 4 was my first one so it is probably to be expected.

Back attacks are far easier to engineer in P3 than 4. You can also zoom back to level one to refill your health whereas you can't in 4 (balanced by the fact you get tired though).

Another full moon is nearly upon me but I really want to beat floor 40 and get the 02 Old Document before the deadline.

Sephiroth_dude

I have yet to play this game,I must fire it up soon.

Retr0gamer

noodler wrote: »

Another full moon is nearly upon me but I really want to beat floor 40 and get the 02 Old Document before the deadline.

You should be well able to get the documents before the deadlines. You usually get tired before you get to the next boss but you can push yourself to make it when you are tired. You'll be doing that a lot until you level up a bit and can sometimes make it through the boss and to just before the next boss without stopping.

johnny_ultimate

Definitely a harder game than 4, or perhaps I was just well used to the combat eccentricities by that point! But the bosses can last for hours in this one

(well, the last one anyway!)

.

I think there are a few things that would annoy me if I was to play this again (the more rigid structure for one, but it is still nice having clear 'social' and 'battle' times every day) but with the exception of the allies you can't control it is definitely as good a game as 4 (although I prefer the characters of the sequel more).

Still have to play more of Persona PSP. That is a quirktastic game - only played a few hours, but a radically different experience to either of the PS2 games.

Oh, the washed out look is probably your HDTV for sure. Scart connection can only give so good a picture unfortunately (my Wii is hooked up by component so I can't use that)!

CodeMonkey

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well if the ****ers don't turn their back to me after turning around 4 times I use the menu trick to stop me going insane I just put the best weapon I could get on my MC. You do far more damage. Fusing personas with weapons can create some crazily good weapons.

Fusing persona with weapons? Ah right, that wasn't an option for me since it's a new feature of Persona 3 FES. I found the bow works well for me anyway. I main use the main character to hit my enemies with skills they are weak to and get in a group attacjk.

noodler

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Definitely a harder game than 4, or perhaps I was just well used to the combat eccentricities by that point! But the bosses can last for hours in this one

(well, the last one anyway!)

.

The last one in P4 was the longest but I don't think it was even an hour to be fair, so unless you are exaggerating then I am worried.

CodeMonkey wrote: »

Fusing persona with weapons? Ah right, that wasn't an option for me since it's a new feature of Persona 3 FES. I found the bow works well for me anyway. I main use the main character to hit my enemies with skills they are weak to and get in a group attacjk.

Will have to look into fusing weapons, Junpei only has two weapons whereas I have 5 or so for the other three by this stage.
That tactic seems to be pretty rinse and repeat - can get a bit repetitive.

Retr0gamer

You don't get to fuse weapons until the antiques shop opens which is a good bit into the game.

noodler

June no? Couple of days after 2nd full moon I think.

johnny_ultimate

noodler wrote: »

The last one in P4 was the longest but I don't think it was even an hour to be fair, so unless you are exaggerating then I am worried.

No exaggeration! First attempt honestly took a good hour and a half! Luckily I got it second go around. Nothing in Persona 4 (well, in first play through) has anything on that monster of a boss.

Retr0gamer

If you manage to beat the reaper and get into the secret dungeon you should be able to get to stupidly high levels and be more than levelled up enough to take down the last boss. He took me a while because of all his different forms but in the end he wasn't challenging at all. I did however have some really excellent personas by the end.

super_furry

Anyone play the two Persona games on the PSOne? Got both of them on my PSP but haven't had time to get to grips with them yet.

noodler

super_furry wrote: »

Anyone play the two Persona games on the PSOne? Got both of them on my PSP but haven't had time to get to grips with them yet.

Is that one and three?

I saw the 3 remake on wiki the other day, only in Japan at thre moment. Has a ton of easier features, controlling your allies, allies take knocks for you etc (stuff from 4 basically) but has no FES features.

GothPunk

Yeah I was playing Persona 2 for the PSOne on my PSP a while ago but I stopped playing it as I figured I should play the remake of the first one for the PSP first. I really enjoyed what little I played, the conversing with demons is much more fun and humourous compared to any other Shin Megami Tensei games I've played so far.

Like making jet engine and motorcycle sounds at them, lol!

Retr0gamer

You should play the translated version of the Persona 2 game that didn't get a western release first of the persona 2 games because it's the first one. Stupidly only the second one got a western release.

johnny_ultimate

GothPunk wrote: »

Yeah I was playing Persona 2 for the PSOne on my PSP a while ago but I stopped playing it as I figured I should play the remake of the first one for the PSP first. I really enjoyed what little I played, the conversing with demons is much more fun and humourous compared to any other Shin Megami Tensei games I've played so far.

Like making jet engine and motorcycle sounds at them, lol!

I liked the conversation aspect too from the few hours I've played, but the random battles are one relic from the old school that makes it a bit more difficult to love than the recent titles. I must go back to it - had only played it for a while before Disgaea PSP sucked away all my JRPG time.

GothPunk

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You should play the translated version of the Persona 2 game that didn't get a western release first of the persona 2 games because it's the first one. Stupidly only the second one got a western release.

Yeah that's the one I was playing, Innocent Sin it's called. I'm not sure if it's the fact you can be gay or that it features Hitler that prevented it's release in English. Of what I played the translation was excellent. Think you'll give it a shot?

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I liked the conversation aspect too from the few hours I've played, but the random battles are one relic from the old school that makes it a bit more difficult to love than the recent titles. I must go back to it - had only played it for a while before Disgaea PSP sucked away all my JRPG time.

It was more the frequency of the random battles that annoyed me, they can really drag out your progress. Whilst you can converse with demons in other SMT games I don't think it happens quite like in Persona 2. I haven't played Persona 1 yet, perhaps that also takes a similar light hearted approach to it. I think Eikichi is my favourite character so far, he's such a loon - again credit to the translators who have done a great job translating the humour.

I've really been meaning to get Disgaea for my PSPgo... but that's another topic for another time methinks.

elekid

Where did you all got your PAL copies of Persona 3 and 4? All this talk on Boards of how great they is really making me want to check them out but there's no sign of them on Amazon, Play, Cdwow etc.

If anyone could recommend a site where I could get them new for a decent price I'd really appreciate it.

Retr0gamer

GothPunk wrote: »

Yeah that's the one I was playing, Innocent Sin it's called. I'm not sure if it's the fact you can be gay or that it features Hitler that prevented it's release in English. Of what I played the translation was excellent. Think you'll give it a shot?

I'm dying to give it a shot but these SMT games take bloody ages to beat. I'm trying to write my PhD thesis at the moment so I'm only getting about an hour or two at night for games which is spread across Front Mission 5 and Persona 4 so it's going to be a while before I finish them. I think SMT: Nocturne is next on the to play list but I've also been looking at playing Mother 3 as well. Too many games, not enough time.

elekid wrote: »

Where did you all got your PAL copies of Persona 3 and 4? All this talk on Boards of how great they is really making me want to check them out but there's no sign of them on Amazon, Play, Cdwow etc..

I was in Gamestop Santry yesterday. There's no Persona 4 but they might be behind the counter. They did however have 2 copies of Persona 3 FES.

Gummy Panda

GothPunk wrote: »

Yeah that's the one I was playing, Innocent Sin it's called. I'm not sure if it's the fact you can be gay or that it features Hitler that prevented it's release in English. Of what I played the translation was excellent. Think you'll give it a shot?

According to current Atlus employees, thats a myth. It was because they already had innocent sin released in Japan and the holiday season was coming up. The developers had the option of going back and hacking in a english translation (as english localization wasn't originally decided) or getting Eternal Punishment out for the Japanese holiday season.

Since SMT games were extreme niche in America and a decent seller in Japan, we can all guess which way they went. Now we don't have that problem since Atlus set up Atlus USA which basically only publishes and translates games.

The game is awesome.

elekid

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I was in Gamestop Santry yesterday. There's no Persona 4 but they might be behind the counter. They did however have 2 copies of Persona 3 FES.

Thanks for the idea! I never even considered that the game shops in Dublin might have them but I asked in Gamestop Liffey St. and they had 1 copy of Persona 3 FES behind the counter

Now to see if I can find Persona 4...

Retr0gamer

Any of the Gamestops can check the stock of any of the other gamestops in the Dublin area. Ring one of them and ask them to check if they have it or if there's one in the dublin area that has it.

elekid

I've already done some ringing around and I have a copy of Persona 4 reserved to pick up at the weekend. Never would have considered Gamestop as the place to go for my rare PS2 JRPG needs! Thanks for the help

I played the first hour and a half of Persona 3 last night, interesting so far and it's refreshing to see a game which doesn't try to pretend it's not set in Japan and hasn't Westernised the character or places names.

Sephiroth_dude

Are the persona games hard to get into storyline wise?Do they suck you in from the word go or does it take a while to get going?

Retr0gamer

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Are the persona games hard to get into storyline wise?Do they suck you in from the word go or does it take a while to get going?

Just bloody buy them!

Persona 4 takes a bit longer to get into. Persona 3 is far more interesting to start off. The stories are ok, good but nothing special but they keep ticking along nicely since you uncover each little mystery as you go along. However the characters are excellent and the social link stories are usually very good.

Anyway I'll sum it up by saying I was hooked on Persona 3 from the opening.

elekid

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Anyway I'll sum it up by saying I was hooked on Persona 3 from the opening.

I can second that. I turned it on when I got it 2 days ago just to check that the disc loads up ok, and to watch the opening cutscene, and I'm 4 and 1/2 hours into it now... The whole idea of the Dark Hour hooked me from the beginning.

How difficult is the game on Normal mode? I selected Normal but from reading the manual it says it's for players that are already experienced with Persona 3.

It seems that Hard mode was only added for the FES edition and that Easy mode offers a limited number of re-tries after a Game Over which would have been nice. I always hate the idea of losing hours of progress due to being wiped out so I'm wondering if Easy might have suited me better now.

Retr0gamer

Normal mode is fine. I didn't go near easy mode. To be honest the best thing about the game is how challenging it is. It's heartbreaking to lose an hour in tartarus but it won't stop you coming back to the game the next day. If you do get horribly stuck then there's plenty of online faqs to help you out. As long as you fully explore each floor and don't run from battles there's no need to grind I found. However if you get tired and are running low on MP it's probably preferrable to run to the boss room to save and come back to level up a bit more. There's also handily a save point beside each boss that when used to return to level 1 will give you your health and MP back.

Trust me you'll miss out on a lot of the game playing easy mode since the challenge and strategy of the combat system, using your resources wisely and always going for back attacks to survive a long stint in tartarus is one of the most satisfying things about the game and you'll miss out on most of that. Some normal encounters are quite capable of wiping out your entire party if you are unlucky and unprepared but you are more than capable of taking any of them on. Tartarus can be be very tense but it's the kind of tension you get from a great survival horror.

Also try to complete Elizabeths requests, especially the timed ones, there's some excellent items from them.

elekid

That's pretty reassuring and I wouldn't necessarily want to waltz through it on Easy either. It kind of reminds me of Breath of Fire V from how you describe it with the emphasis on managing resources, using careful tactics to initiate battles and praying that the next save point is just around the corner. I loved that game.

Tartarus is a bit intimidating right now when I don't really know how often I'll get to save or heal or how far I can risk going when characters are fatigued. It's good to know bosses have save points before them, that was another thing I was worried about.

The other main thing I'm wondering about is if there are a limited number of Dark Hours in the game or can you retreat and come back the next night at your leisure even if you don't make a huge amount of progress each time? There's talk of deadlines and full moons in this thread that I don't really understand yet plus I noticed that the in-game calendar only goes up as far as March 2010 so it sounds like you can't afford to take it slow.

Retr0gamer

There's a certain distance you can go before the game stops you and you have to wait for the next full moon boss to progress. With Elizabeths requests you really should be getting to this point before the next full moon. It's tougher at the start of the game to do this since you get fatigued so easily but as the game progresses you can last longer in Tartarus. When your team mates are tired or worse still sick you'll have to wait a day or two for them to get better. However you really should be able to reach the limit before the full moon, it's easily doable.

The game is time based so you really do have to make the best use of your time with getting social links and going to tartarus. Social Links are far more important than levelling up I find since it gives you better stat increases when you fuse stupidly high level personas and gives you unique ones as well when you max them out. You won't be able to max out all the social links on your first go so don't worry if you don't. If you manage your time right you should have no problem being prepared for the final boss when it comes up.

I'm sure there's no harm in checking a faq to see how many floors you have left before the next boss so you know whether to push yourself or give up and try again another day.

elekid

Thanks for all the advice! I'll probably use an faq just to give me a heads-up on when boss encounters are coming. I'm really getting into the game now and I finally feel like I know what I'm doing I just got to floor 7 there before fatigue set in and I'm sure I'll make it floor 10 on my next run.

noodler

Retr0,

Did it happen to you much where you can go through a dungeon (say a floor set) twice and still not meet enough 'glowing' monsters you need to kill for a request?

Its very annoying. A sidequest shouldn't be this tedious.

Retr0gamer

Best way to avoid it is to take the request before you start travelling through the dungeon. Never happened to me before. Also certain monsters will only appear on specific floors, best to check a walkthrough if it's really annoying you so you don't waste anymore time.

noodler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Best way to avoid it is to take the request before you start travelling through the dungeon.

Ah yeah, thats a given.[/QUOTE]

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Never happened to me before. Also certain monsters will only appear on specific floors, best to check a walkthrough if it's really annoying you so you don't waste anymore time.

Its between floors 102-112, been through it twice and only found 2 "Champion Knights", they come in pairs but you only get 1 of the item per battle so only have 2 of the 4 required for the quest.

elekid

noodler wrote: »

Did it happen to you much where you can go through a dungeon (say a floor set) twice and still not meet enough 'glowing' monsters you need to kill for a request?

Its very annoying. A sidequest shouldn't be this tedious.

Those quests are annoying alright. It's grand if you come across enough of the enemies as you explore naturally but having to go looking for them is a right pain. I'm stuck looking for some rare ones between floors 126-138 and choosing to treat it as training for the boss or else I'd go mad.

Retr0gamer

My advice is not to bother looking for some of the latter swords. They are next to impossible to find and you are better waiting until latter and getting them from weapon cards after battle.

noodler

Not looking for items, just monsters that should be between floors 102-112.

noodler

Anyone who plays Persona also watch Battlestar Galactica?

Just noticed a reference to the show in Persona 3 - I have an item called "Cylon Tea", pointing the cursor to it and it says "it comes in 12 varieties" much like the way there are 12 Cylon models.

Good taste.

Retr0gamer

I'm not surprised. Atlus' localisation team are full of nerds and have a good sense of humour

elekid

noodler wrote: »

Just noticed a reference to the show in Persona 3 - I have an item called "Cylon Tea", pointing the cursor to it and it says "it comes in 12 varieties" much like the way there are 12 Cylon models.

Yeah I noticed that, brilliant

Also, the BauerBar - "Keeps you going 24 hours straight"

noodler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm not surprised. Atlus' localisation team are full of nerds and have a good sense of humour

Legends.

elekid wrote: »

Yeah I noticed that, brilliant

Also, the BauerBar - "Keeps you going 24 hours straight"

Is that P3 or four?>


EDIT: Just beat the side-boss on Floor 122, is there much more? Only 3 Full Moons left. Last full moon boss was a cakewalk, too many new characters showed up all at once too.

elekid

The BauerBar is in P3, I haven't played P4 yet.

I don't know how much more there is but I'm on floor 139 and it feels like it's going to go on forever. In a good way of course.

Retr0gamer

There's

A little over 250 floors

although I found you get through a **** load of them very quickly near the end.

There's an atlus localistaion team blog were they talk about localisation, have a picture of one of the projects leads cubicles surrounded by plastic curtains with biohazard signs and even wrote a song about the whole prosess.

http://www.atlus.com/pd.php

GothPunk

Retr0gamer wrote: »

There's

A little over 250 floors

although I found you get through a **** load of them very quickly near the end.

There's an atlus localistaion team blog were they talk about localisation, have a picture of one of the projects leads cubicles surrounded by plastic curtains with biohazard signs and even wrote a song about the whole prosess.

http://www.atlus.com/pd.php

Wow, that's an awesome article. It's strange to feel all warm and fuzzy about a company, heh. Their comments about the testers are extra funny to me, considering SCEA have that reality show 'The Tester'. :pac:

I'm still waiting for my PS2/PS3 memory card transfer majiggey so still no Persona 3 for me, I can only look at this topic with longing for the time being.

elekid

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Some nasty difficulty spikes though particularly one boss that will cream you since there's 3 of them and no discerneable weakness. He is weak to a status attack though and it makes the fight a lot more fair.

Just noticed this reading back over the thread. Does this refer to

the Hell Knights on floor 146? The only reason I managed to beat them was thanks to Mitsuru using Charm on them.

I'm finding the bosses in the game to be very difficult but a good challenge because there's always a way to do it no matter how hard they seem.

Retr0gamer

Yeah that's the ****ers! Had to look up a walkthrough for that, for shame!

There's another boss near the end that was whipping me, had to go in solo with the main character with a persona that was immune to all physical attacks and an item that gave me immunity to his spells.

CodeMonkey

I just used my Daisoujou persona on those HKs. The skill hamaon/samsara skill along with hama boost usually instant kills them. They don't have light/dark resistance. Never knew about charm. I think I just ran if I have no SP :P

noodler

I just killed the third last shadow and something horrible happened

Shinjiro, no!!!!!!! Jeez, he was with us for such a short time party-wise. Knew he was too good to last - some strong attacks. A little disappointed there was no Akhiko revenge reaction - they should be out there hunting Strega Taken-style.