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Review: Persona 3 (PS2)

I've erased nine or ten openings for this review because I don't really know where to begin. I'm not going to say Persona 3 is completely unique, because it isn't. I'm not going to say it's going to redefine the genre or change the way I look at video games. I feel the need to approach the title a little differently though because it is different. At it's core, it's a straight-up JRPG. The battles can drag, the music can get repetitive, and the graphics, while incredibly nice, suffer a bit in comparison to the large, incredibly well-drawn conversation portraits. It's very anime in everything it does. It's exaggerated and ridiculous. It's one part relationship simulator, one part school-life simulator, one part dungeon crawler (with battles being turn-based JRPG style), and one part demon-crafting. And taken separately, these parts aren't very exciting. In fact, I'd probably hesitate to call them good. But when expertly put together and lovingly localized, this game can't be called anything less than a masterpiece.

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I really didn't want to go too in-depth as certain things are revealed over the course of time and rightly so. But if you REALLY NEED some shit answered, go ahead and ask. Also, if you want to start a thread for story/quest help, go ahead and do it in PC/Gaming, I'd rather keep this one spoiler-free.

It sounds interesting.  I'm a bit curious about the social simulator part though.  How involved is it?  Is it mostly minigame stuff to raise social levels?  If it's more involved with some good story and branching dialog between characters then that has an entirely different appeal than some sort of social mini game.

I've been intrigued with Persona 3 for a long time now, and you're not making me anticipate it any less.

Which tattoo did you get? Seeing how ridiculously awesome SMT2 is, I can fully understand you! >.>

It's not minigame based or anything. It's actually more a - here's a number of options for clubs, friends and such. You can choose to pursue them or you can choose not to. Each one will teach you more about your character and the people in the world, but it's up to you to take advantage of them. Why is it that free? Because you have lots to gain from taking advantage of them. Not joining them for a certain amount of time opens up other options. When I say there's a Lot to this game, I mean it.


DDS2 (Digital Devil Saga), not SMT2 - which we never got. Though Aeon Genesis is working on translating Megami Tensei. Anyway, I got Roald's tattoo. Here's a link to a picture of my arm (http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/447/schildstatuj0.jpg).

Two things.

First is a typo: and the second is that you compare the length of this game to Dragon Quest VIII but that needs some clarification.  I, and I am sure many others, never played DQVIII and would like to know what kind of an undertaking picking this game up would be.  From the sounds of it I would think that at my play rate it would take months to finish.

DQVII is 80 hours. If you really, really took the dungeon crawling seriously, you could easily spend 80 hours in Persona land. As it is, I think 45-50 is the bare minimum if you blew through the game.

Thanks for catching the typo.

Now, I have this on preorder after seeing it at the F13 meetup, but this little line gives me pause.


That just sets of sirens and red lights all over the place, because every JRPG I've seen could technically have that quote grafted into a review. It wouldn't be inaccurate, but the level of discourse provided is universally mediocre. On the level of high-school discussions on the subject, or, at best, a rudimentary reading of an introductory text. Too often it seems to get crammed into the title in order to make the story and concepts within it seem deep.

Oh well, guess I'll find out the hard way.

When I say that, I mean the following: The game presents you with options, particularly in the relationship bits and then lets you decide what you think of them. It isn't right and wrong in the Peter Molyneux presents Fable sense, or KOTOR for that matter, so much as, you can probably learn a little bit about yourself by how things end up at the end of the game.

And when I say tackle religion, well, it's Atlus/R&D1. When they tackle religion, they fucking spread it on thick. There's a character, who, without getting into details, is quite goddamn creepy and could very well be Death. Which character is that, well, you'll find out. But they don't play no games when it comes to heavy influence from nearly every world religion. Hell, Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 were nearly all about religion when it came down to it.

In neither case, however, do they beat you over the head with What you Should think. So, uhm, don't be worried.

I'm less worried about the game being preachy and more about it invoking "grand concepts" in order to attempt to seem deep. See Xenosaga for a glaring example of misappropriated material.

Either way, still going to play it.

It doesn't really do that, no.

Eek.

Anger. I care not for art books.

Fuckers, ship the game. Fuck the art book, ship it and sell it separately.

This is the funniest thing I've read all month.

Wait... there's only one dungeon?

Is there tentacle rape of school girls?

Probably. He was only a few hours in when he was showing me his shiny new bondage angel.

Great review.  I'm so god damn excited for this game and I really don't know why.  I haven't thought about Persona in years.

The delay sucks.  Send me my art book later on in the month, that's fine!  I've been frothing at the mouth for this game since January now.

So you'd like join a club and add it's members to your buddy list or something?  Maybe have a scene or two with them?  I'd like to see deep dialog trees and some dating sim style gameplay but it doesn't sound like that.

I'm pretty much sold on this game. And ironically that means I'm sold on a PS3 as I gave my last PS2 to some friends to play with (sold one, gave my slimline to a buddy). So I'm not buying another PS2. And I want this game. And I want Little Big Planet, Assassins Creed and FolkSoul on the PS3. Fuckers.

But in all seriousness I watched schild play Persona 3 for as long as I could when semi-sober and it totally grabbed me. In this case I thought the whole was definitely greater than the sum of parts. And c'mon. It's a got schoolgirls who shoot themselves in the head to combat demons. (Hope that wasn't any kinda spoiler.) So fucking sold.

So. Uhm. You guys have a month to ask me questions about this. That sucks. The websphere froth for this game is going to hit critical mass. Man, delays suck.

This is from the Gamespot review:


Ok. I've never by mistake clicked and ended up selecting a party member. And as for cycling through the other characters stuff... Well, they're supposed to be other PEOPLE. You have to gift them stuff, the only character you control is you. It's a neat way to do it. I don't know why these are the complaints I had, there are much better ones. But...whatever. Don't listen to Gamespots complaints of the game. They're off-base.

RAGE.

At least now I can pick up a game with the intent of finishing it now.  This delay puts it 1 week before Bioshock and 2 weeks before Blue Dragon.   :|

Jeez, I need to put some money in my sock drawer.  Not good at saving.  I'm at least getting Blue Dragon, probably Bioshock as well.

I'm going to have to be a finance ninja.

I'm going to have to drive to a store and swipe my credit card since I'm smart enough to not get married before 40.

HEY-O!

So you ARE considering dating, eventually?

Did they leave the option of using the original japanese voice track or is it english only?

Listening to the audio in the clips on the jp and en websites for P3 leaves me dreading the localization.

- Q

Schild obviously knows for certain (ya bastard), but I believe it's english sub only. 

This delay pains me.  I'm so ready for some japanese high school madness.

English only.

After the first hour, I found myself not caring too much about the Japanese VO. When it's not an option, you simply cope. The English isn't great if only because the voices themselves aren't great, but the actual quality of the voiceover artists is more than fine.

Bah.

Stupid american gamers (and/or publishers), unable to cope with subtitled foreign audio.

Not like I'm canceling my order or anything, but I look forward to FF X levels of cringing at the audio track.

- Q

The Japanese track actually didn't fit on the disc.

Thus my point stands!  If American audiences (or publishers) weren't so obsessive about localized audio it would not be a problem.  Also it'd save the publishers a bunch of money and time.

Hell, leaving the original audio track intact is worth a lot more to me than a silly artbook (which supposedly is the cause of the delay shipping this stuff).

- Q

Ah, yeah. I meant DDS2.

I'm impressed by your devotion and wish I'd be brave enough to do something like that too... Really nice tattoo!

Just talked to the gamemonkeys here in Fairbanks, they'll have it tomorrow. Not sure if its one of those "we have it but its in cryogenically frozen crates of death that won't open till tomorrow" things or it's out already and the game truck is late but whatever I should have it tomorrow. The wife might actually play this (dunno if thats a good thing or not yet)

This should be on my porch tomorrow.  I won't get to play it for at least a couple days which is going to be torture. 

Last night I spent some time looking at the guide which I've had since last month and it looks very nice.  I  :heart: DoubleJump.

Got to play this last night for a bit.  That has to be one of the longer hand holding intro sections to a game I've ever seen.  It was extremely well done and entertaining, but it was around 2 hours (I had some distractions) before they let me do what wanted (most was scripted with input, no getting off the rails). Unfortunately, I only got to have a little bit of freedom before I had to crash for the night (early meeting today). 

The game looks just great for a PS2 game keeping up with the graphical quality of the latest releases for a system I thought was rather ugly compared to the GC and Xbox at the start. It's got a ton of style and the colors are just really well done.  The sound track and voice acting are also superb.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how the story plays out.

This is going to be an easy wait for Bioshock.

So far my thoughts on Persona 2 boil down to:

The social link stuff is great fun. The combat however is a let down. I expect more out of Shin Megai Tensami or however the hell you spell it.

Just for reference (as Schild explained before, not neccessarily in this thread), The "Shin Megami Tensei" piece was just tacked onto Persona 3 for name recognition in NA - this game is not really a part of the SMT series.

Hence, the combat (along with other elements) may not be what you expect from a SMT game.

The problem is that it is too simplistic. Also, I'm not fond of Persona fusing being the only way to gain new combat skills. I miss having some kind of skill chart that forces me to think about how to design my character.

So far for me:

The social/RP side of the game: A+
Combat: C

If I could only do the RP stuff, and the social link stuff I'd be happy never to set foot in Tarturus.

I've put in about 9 hours now and am going to play through most of the night tonight.  So far, I'm really enjoying it.

I like the pacing (go go calender thingy), graphics, story, and anime cut scenes.  The battle system does seem simplified when compared to Nocturne, which sucks, but encounters move so fast and are so pretty to watch I hardly mind.

So far it's easily my favorite RPG this year.  Between this and Soul Nomad it's going to be a nice fall.

I am absolutely loving the game. It has fucking Style in spades.

I hate to say this, but I think I was hooked the moment I watched the intro video; I love it. It's easily the most stylish, finely-crafted intro to a game I can recall in...awhile.

The art and sound direction, the minimalist (but Accurate!) localization, the fast pace of the battle system. I love it. It also reminds me of the Sims (original), in that you have to somehow use your limited time each day to do different things. Whether it's hanging out with a kid from class, going to sports team practice, sitting in on a student council meeting, studying, or saving up the strength to make a good push into Tartarus (or who knows wtf else), it's always a fun challenge to try to find time for it all.


Atlus is on a fucking roll this year.

The Tartarus vl 36 boss is balls.  What an annoying fight.  Group poison + group wind (one char is vuln) is a really shitty combo for a boss with high defense and no vulnerabilities.  Definitely a fight where you wish you had more fine control over character action.  Fight took a while, but after leveling to 15 it was doable.  Using a wind strong Persona may be good, but I found the Rakunda (mob attack down) skill to be a necessity.

This is just a fine, fine game. I am not good at some of the social link stuff (past lvl 2, I found I tend to mess up at least one response) and I haven't been great at getting my stats up, but that's just something you seem to take in stride in this game.  I'm not finding min-maxing to be a goal of mine. 

It really hooks you in a similar fashion to a turn based strategy game.  It's always "one more day" or "one more trip into Tartarus" and suddenly you're up an hour and a half past when you wanted to be asleep.   

And yah, the localization is a hoot.  A stylish game finding a way to add even more style through the localization decisions is quite a feat.  Most games just wind up with Engrish.  One of the best things though has to be gaining strength in the "Hermit" persona for choosing to spend your Sunday playing a MMO with someone you think is a girl.

About 10 hours in and loving it.  The 36F boss took me apart.  Lv10-11 was not nearly enough to survive it.

Three things that everyone probably knows already but that I have found useful:
- you can donate 1000yen to the shrine after school with no time-passing penalty to almost always get an Academics boost
- visiting the bathroom immediately after saving (no more than once per day) often gives you a status boost (good->great, etc)
- the night before a full moon you never get tired (good time to do any crazy level grinding)

I'm on a fusion kick and am mucking about with some spreadsheet silliness to track my options because I've been too lazy to pick up a strategy guide (which probably has the entire fusion chart for everything in it):
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pXl1ajHcHla1LRBOJIH8zRg

Total agreement on both "loads of style" and "just one more day".  Highly addictive.

Minor complaints:
- I wish you didn't need to 'talk' to party members for status/equip
- Load times could be faster (but it is pretty snappy for a PS2 title)
- I'd like to see the description of new spells/skills *before* fusing something (EDIT: I am an idiot -- the manual has a list of the basic skills and what they do in the back)

Overall, having a blast.

- Q

Fun as well, but after 10 hours I'm more like level 6.  I blame these sickly weasels; good to know about the not-tired-before-full-moon thing.  On the other hand, I'm dong very well with social and academic pursuits.  Once I actually find a new persona, I'll be able to use it.

It is sitting on my desk. In the Best Buy bag. Unopened.

...

:(

Stupid MMOs.

Put down the pokemans.

I haven't played a Pokemans since Red and Blue.

It's the PvP foozle whacking that has my panties in a knot.

I'm a little further in and it's getting a lot more enjoyable. I'm around June. I'm a little worried that I haven't spent enough time on my skills and social links. I may replay it with my save+. (this is one of those games that gives you a final save.)

Another tip: You can almost always go to the mall at night to hit up some Karaoke for a Courage boost.


Also, with the social links, as I understand it, even if you kinda get a response wrong, you still get a + to that social link; it's just not nearly as big a boost as if you had given a better answer.



Still getting a huge kick out of the JP references that were preserved during localization.

 :heart: this game, even though I'm only slightly past the tutorial/handholding section. It oozes production values and style. It's a bit in-your-face with the Japaneseness though, so anyone without at least a mild grounding in JRPGs/anime may find it a bit hard to get into.

I get a kick every time my dude puts a gun to his head, too.  8-)

Heh, the Japanese is rather rampant but since it is set in a JP high school it fits perfectly... just a lot of people might be wondering about -san, -kun and senpai and whatnot.  My advice is just pretend they are elves in a fantasy story and take the weird words in stride if you don't know what they mean from context.

Thanks to Quinton for the tip about the night before the full moon, I made the most of that last night in getting the main guy to level 8 with the intent of manufacturing myself a Jack Frost... but Apsaris (sp?) leveled up just before I did and then Jack wasn't an option anymore!  That might be fine except the replacement persona is level 15.  Plus I am not going to be able to fill in those first two requests from Elizabeth with a deadline.  At least I have lots of friends.

Is there some effective way to deal with group damage outside of using Cadenza? Items out the ass maybe? There's that Media spell, but I can't seem to find the earliest I can nab it. At 10 and just hitting the second block (with four characters no less) and I'm getting demolished by insta-death and group attacks. I usually horde items like the world's going to end in RPGs and wind up never using them, so items is the first thing I'm thinking of.

Also, having the grade-school girl that hangs out at the shrine be associated with the Hanged Man is mildly creepy.

Well, there's also things like the dude who asks you to go to the sweet shop with him. Unless you know wtf is up with men liking sweet things in Japanese culture, it would completely go over your head.

You might as well explain that one in the thread plxkthx.

What you said just went over my head. I might be misunderstanding you.

As I understand it, the stereotype goes that Men (capital M) do not like sweet things. Liking sweets is (stereotypically) considered weird and/or effeminate, and may reflect on one's sexuality.

This is a roundabout way of saying the French dude is ambiguously gay.

I used a couple of complete heal items I had been saving as well as having Yukari doing nothing but support.  The fight is just a grind. My wife commented on the fact on how tedious the fight is.  She noticed that before she noticed the kids were shooting themselves in the head and a lady riding in a skull was popping out of Yukari's head.  If the guy's going nuts with the AE wind + AE poison you spend a lot of time cross healing yourself and sneaking in an attack every round or two.

If you use cadenza for that fight, you might want to use Apsaras since Orpheus is weak to wind. However, it's really helpful if you have a spell that reduces the enemies attack otherwise you lose Junpei pretty fast.  For an early Media, you can create Oberon (pixie + zochoten) at 15 and the one I've got has Media on it.  You're not going to want to take on that boss much before 15 as you run the risk of having to heal every round or get 2 shotted.  Stock up on dis-poisons also.  Really, that boss fight is a bit out of wack, the lvl 59 boss isn't anywhere near as hard, he just goes into superbitch mode at the end.

All French are ambiguously gay, no?  Oui!  Honh honh honh!

An incredible mix of the wonderfully pleasing and controller-throwingly difficult.  Can't put it down.

There, that's my two-sentence review.

36F boss was total bullshit, and the major plot-bossfight after that was annoying but not too difficult. (Except the first time I fought it, I had the awesome luck for one of the enemies to pick the main character as a pincushion and proceeded to one-shot him with a critical hit from full life.)

36F took me six tries, and I won mostly by using 2 balms of life, a bead chain, half a dozen Revival Beads and an assload of dis-poison. Main level 14, others varied from 13-15. Also, getting fucking lucky with the AI's choice to just use physical single-target attacks for the last three rounds of the battle helped, as did a lucky critical hit mid-battle.

I hope the rest of the game isn't that damned pissy. At least not before I get a Persona with heal-all or maybe a cure-poison spell.

I wafflestomped month 3.  The Tartarus bosses and the plot line bosses are were not very difficult compared to month 2.

Same here on month 3, but once you're into Block 3 (start of month 4) the difficulty kicks up again something bad (at level 25). I think to correct that I might start spending an extra night or two in Tartarus after clearing to the last floor and rare hunting. Add on top of that how I swap between Personas all the time and am thus at the mercy of new unlocks to get level-appropriate ones... and my relative power curve is a rollercoaster.

Either way though, :heart:. Easily the best combination of style and gameplay this side of Klonoa 2.

Where do I buy the fizzy drink for the little girl near the shrine? :(

I think she wants a "Mad Bull".  You buy it in the dorm.

Motherf-- the one place I didn't search high-and-low for a vending machine.

I'm into early August now, right before the full moon. 5 Academic, 5 Charm, 6 Courage.

Yes, I am Badass...at least, that's what my Status screen tells me.

My next problem will be figuring out which girl to date next. I'm just about finished up with the Treasurer, so I'll have to choose between Yuko and Fuuka. I'm pretty sure I'll unlock Yukari soon as well, so there will be some tough choices. I don't want to risk dating multiple girls at a time, lest they get bitchy at me for two-timing or something.



Also, most of the Persona I end up using are a result of screwing with the Fuse options, and mostly shooting for types for which I have high Arcana ratings; that XP boost is huge if the Commu is high. Just one thing....

Has anyone found a real use for Physical-type Persona? I find that the added endurance and physical attack skills are far outclassed by advanced magic skills and the ability to down opponents and wreck them with All-Out attacks. Granted this is more SP-intensive, but I haven't been able to get Physical Persona to work yet. Which is a shame, because some of them look awesome.

Later in the game, certain enemies are weak against some types of physical attacks, so if you use a sword then it helps to have a bash-all skill.  They can also do critical hits, which magic spells can't, so for some boss fights physical skills are more useful.

That said, if an enemy gets the drop on you later in the game, they can pretty much wipe you out before you can go.  Same goes for if they knock the hero down.  I've had to restart in Tartarus so many times because I got careless for a second or two.

Yeah, it's annoying, but....

Isn't that what makes it great? Combat that, sort of, matters? I get bit sometimes, because whenever I go into Tartarus, I always go until I can hit a "checkpoint."

Sometimes, that is a lot of floors to traverse.



Also, I am wondering what effect Persona stats have on my character. Obviously, my guy will be weak to the same elements that my equipped persona is weak to, but what about the stats of the persona? Will a persona with high End/Agi actually allow me to dodge/mitigate more? I'm thinking yes, but have not really seen much of a difference.

I believe so. I've noticed higher regular attack damage when I equip a Persona with a higher strength, but there was also a significant difference in Persona level, so that could be a factor too.

How much do you guys actually use normal attacks in non-trivial battles? I most just go for spamming All-Out Attacks.

Or sometimes, I'll just down all the enemies and then deny the combo, just so some of the mobs have their turns skipped.

In non-trivial battles, I just press triangle. On a non-trivial floor, I just let my minions do the work.

I usually knock everyone down and go for an All-Out, baring that I might go with physical skills or group magic depending on how many enemies.

The only real frustration I have is with the insta-death skills. I can reduce crits with the Sigma Drive and shift around Personas to cover for weaknesses... but I cannot stand getting hit with Mudo or Hama-type skills. Why in the hell is my party too stupid to revive me? I can revive them just fine!

They won't revive eachother either from what I can tell.

The AI in this game is retarded dumb.  If you're fighting four guys weak against lightning and you tell them to "Knock Down", they go ahead and cast individual lightning spells against each and every enemy, wasting tons of MP later in the game.  Or if you tell them to heal and your entire party is hurt, they still often focus on one particular person.  And seriously, why give them life spells at all if they can't use it on you?

Also, the game just erased my save 72 hours in.  Corrupted data or some shit.  I've been throwing things for two days.

Ouch, sounds shitty. I'd blame the memory card.



Anyway, most of the entire month of August sucks....no school, not a whole lot to do except work on a few second-tier social links.

And now I have nothing to do in the evenings since my courage and charm are both maxed.

I think he's been playing on a PS3.

Which is weird, this is the first time I've heard of a persona 3 save failing.

You might find it helpful to get personas with 'nul' mudo and hama (as opposed to 'str' or 'wk').  You can check for whether or not your opponent will cast mudo/hama type spells after they have been scanned.  This used to bother me too 'till I figured it out.  Now when I find an enemy who will even cast the insta-pwn stuff, I just equip the 'nul' persona and get a 'block' if it hits me, with a nice little 'plink' sound.  Plink = money.

Yea, the null death stuff has been KEY for the later stages in past games. And this game, thankfully, you're rewarded for doing things right. I'm sure there are some people who are past me in the game itself now as I've started playing some other shit more, but there's a lot to abuse in persona 3 (in a good way).

also, if a mob is weak to hama/mudo, those insta-kill skills have a Very high percentage chance to work. I'm near floor 90 or so now, and some mobs are a bitch to slog through normally. But, sometimes it's great to see that "Weak" graphic pop up when using an insta-kill skill.

Bonus points if you use the AE versions. Nothing like 1-shotting an entire encounter.

The later version of mudo is called Die For Me!.  It decimates light-inclined shadows.  Also, those second-tier social links are the most rewarding in terms of personas.  I ended up using more hierophants and temperance...s through the middle of the game.  Later on, it's all Tower, Sun, Moon, Star and Devil.  Devil kicks ass.

What about Priestess, Lovers, and Empress?

Point, there.  Empress and Lovers go pretty high, but I've found that I just don't use them at all.  Probably a personal preference.  Also, you can fuse their final personas much sooner than some of the others I've listed.

I'm completely frustrated with trying to max out Lovers right now, too.  I see Yukari practically every day after school and generally wind up in the coffee shop with "your relationship could become stronger soon."  It's frustrating to the max.

Does it have something to do with the amount of time between visits maybe?  That's the theory I'm working with.  I took Yuko first, and am still working on maxing her out the last 2 points.  Thing about her is you only get one opportunity a week, and if that fucktard Akihiko decides it's more important to talk to you after class that day, you're screwed.  Point is, most every time I see her, I get a point.  While on the other hand, I see that Monk up in the club every day, and he only levels up every so often.  So I wonder if they have to be 'ready,' or if there's some internal cooldown between level ups.  If not cooldown then the mechanic is probably: You can't level x persona past y degree until z day.  Just a guess tho.  I guess if you're worried about wasting time, there's always the guys who tell you by phone, or at lunch time, that they're ready to level up.

Just to make sure: do you have a Lovers-type Persona with you?

'Course.  And with most of the friends you make, as long as you have that from the second or third visit, you rarely need to have an extra day where nothing happens.  But the women, I think the game wants to force you to go out with them on weekends and buy them things.  Just like real life, eh?

Well I'm around the 70s in tower levels now. I'm like the other guy who usually tries to push on until I get to the next checkpoint in the tower. But I may have to stop. Last night I got to level 71, and the boss was on level 72. And died because I mistimed my attack and so the enemy started the fight with an advantage. And the 3 of them spammed lightning which two party members were vulnerable too. *sighs*

This game is fun but sometimes it does punish you a bit much.

Keeps you on your toes and keeps you from becoming lazy. I like it, personally.


Also, just maxed out Justice yesterday....lmaonade.  :-P

Make sure you have a Persona with Mediarama (sp? - 2nd tier AoE heal) by level 135.  Totally impossible without it.  Grinding up Persona xp is not cool, as it seems like each group of levels between save points is on an xp curve.

It's funny, I'm one of those guys that prefers localized audio.  But is almost always let down when it turns out to be the cast of Digimon (Blue Dragon, I'm looking at you), or where every single character is voiced by a girl under the age of 15.  Persona 3 was wonderful by comparison to any RPG I've played lately.

NISA does localizations right.

Well, they do for their own games (Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, Soul Cradle, etc).

I finished this so let me know if you need tips on bosses or whatnot. Hint: getting your characters to level 90+ in the Medron or whatever it's called makes the end game surprisingly easy!

I was pretty disappointed with the final Persona.  The few before it seem much better.

Rumors have started going around about a possible Persona 4 on the PS3.

I'm (I think) about halfway through at this point. Like Phildo said, it alternates between awesomely fun and ungodly frustrating. (Damn you, floor 135 boss! And floor 101 while we're at it.)

So yeah, MOAR PLZ.

The 146 mini-boss is just brutal. Puts those others you mentioned to shame.  Story is moving along quite nicely though.

Yeah, 146 is a bitch, particularly because the only person with Mediarama in my party is Yukari, and she gets wrecked by the 3 Hell Knights.

I'm gonna have to do another run using Mitsuru, as I believe her next skill is Mediarama. Regular Media just will not get the job done.

Any other tips for this boss? I just want to get back to "dating"  **spoiler** Fuuka, as it were.

Create a Kikuri-Hime. Their standard skill is mediarama and they have no weaknesses.  There's a relatively easy to make Lovers persona with mediarama, but it's weak against strike and will get eaten up. The one I made (might be a standard skill, I don't remember) has a full defense buff.  Stick Akihiko in your group and one will always keep him debuffed wasting a turn.  Also Junpei works out pretty well.  Ken doesn't seem to have enough HP (although I used him), perhaps Mitsuru or the Koro would work.  I left everyone on full assault and cast Mediarama pretty much every turn.  Once you outlast 2, the third one isn't that bad although a magic boosted maziodyne will hurt like a bitch if you're lower level.

Having to stick to one relationship past level 7 is getting tiresome.  I don't like the persona it goes with but I want to see it through to the end (seems pretty lame though  :-( ).  Dating other chicks seems to set you back.   :|

Hmm, I don't remember that particular persona offhand; for reference, I've recorded 40% of the personae.

Also, I guess you took on the role of support for yourself? I hadn't quite thought of that, though I don't see why it wouldn't work better than setting someone on support/heal (It just seemed unnatural for me to have the hero play support bitch).


I am currently using Aki, Mitsuru for support, and Junpei. Aki gets debuffed nonstop, which forces me to keep rezzing him.

One thing I tried was casting a poison skill that does unblocked 25% current HP damage to all enemies, and also a mass def debuff. Doesn't seem to be enough. I'll mess around with fusion when I go to play later.

These guys do so much damage, you don't want the AI choosing to cast Diarama only instead of Mediarama.  Some guy could only be 100 hp down but that charged up AE is going to plaster him.   FYI, I did this around lvl 52.  Most of my group was significantly lower (I've been leveling with Yukari and Ken + misc other most of the time. Nobody has been ignored.).

52? Geez, grind much? :-P

Floor 146 is complete bullshit. I fucking HATE when a game forces you to grind, just for the extra HP.

Round one, I cast an AE debuff, my other people do their things. Hell knights debuff Aki, one prolly charges up, and one will ae nuke. If I am lucky, no one is dead.

Round 2, I cast mediarama. Anyone who was hit is probably not at full health. This is why I have left Mitsuru on act freely, because she may heal someone back to full if they're lower in health.

It doesn't matter, because the fucking knights will nuke back-to-back, usually leaving only my main character alive.

My people are around 40 or higher, and I've done 2 or 3 chunks at least twice (for quests). I'm not sure how they expect you to do this without overpowering the encounter by grinding up.

Also, I really wish Mitsuru would cast Tentrafool or whatever it's called; an earlier boss was made very easy when some of the mobs could not cast at all.

I forget exactly what I did, but you should be able to make a persona that's immune to slash damage and/or lightning at this point.  What other attacks does the boss use?

A big fire attack.

Getting the right resists on my own persona is not a problem....the rest of the party is.

I set Yukari to heal/support full time.  I make sure I have a persona with the ability to heal, at least debuff enemy attack, and isn't weak to whatever they do.  Doing enough damage isn't a problem.  It's surviving the spikes that fucks you up.  If everyone is topped off, Yukari will do damage.  If someone eats it, she'll rez.  If only one person needs a heal, she'll do it, and you can do something else.  At later levels I'm finding Enemy Attack Down, and Party Defense Up to be really important (Don't ask me what they're called).  Having the AI help heal will occasionally give you a turn to cast them every once in a while.  The other two noobs in your party will gradually whittle them down.

Who cares about the rest of your party if you're invincible?

It's not fire, it's strike damage.


They'll debuff you if you head in invincible to lightning.  Which is a good thing, because it wastes a turn of theirs every now and then.

That sounds like a job for Marakukaja, Matarunda, Revolution and Rush. We shall see.

I think I got through that boss through having a juiced-up persona that could do mediarama (think it was Titania?) that had divine grace as well, so I could pump out a full heal every turn. It was nasty though. But there's worse!

And yeah, always debuff bosses, it helps a TON. Debuffs hit magic damage as well.

You can date other women once you get your current to level 10.

You never have to grind in this game. I only ground once, at the very end, for jollies (Hi level 99!) and the final optional dungeon makes even that ridiculously easy. You DO have to exploit weaknesses and switch out your party members/personas to match or you will get clobbered on bosses. Unfortunately the hell knights HAVE no weaknesses, so you want tanks that can take/dish out physical damage (Akihiko, Koromaru the Wonder Dog) and use Same Target to make sure they stay on the same knight instead of casting wacky useless spells while you cast Mediarama every turn after the first. If someone dies, raise em and hope the other survives the turn. If both die... reload!

It gets a lot worse. Wait till the enemy starts tossing out Mudo spells like candy! Oh, hi, instadeath, how ya doin.

You know, I  never once used a buff spell with the hero.  And once you start finding the dolls that save you from instant death, that's not so terrible either.  The only trick to the game is having a good variety of personae(?) in your stable.  That, and make sure you max out Star as soon as possible, because the final Star persona makes the end-game a breeze.  He made the final ten floors of Tartarus a joke.

I :heart: Koromaru and his ungodly evasion. And resistance to fire. And resistance to dark. Throw a Tarukaja and Rakukaja on him and he's the Dog Of Steel.

Mudo I've never had an issue with. Whenever I see any enemy with Hama/Mudo, I just swap to one of my light/dark-immune personae and let the party do any potential knockdowns. Or put those Ma-* damage gems to work. Or just poke it with a stick until it dies. Cool Breeze helps too, since then you just have to Recarm people that died in the final round.

I just wish there was a "conserve HP" option, so I could stop Aigis from murdering herself with Fatal End over and over and over...

And the Star final persona being overpowered makes me :) -- I'm at 9 with his SLink and maxing him was next on my docket. Just finished Chariot too. Next up, Annoying Frenchman and Yukari. I think I might be able to max out six or seven SLinks before the endgame at this pace. :D

I might have to jump down and grind a bit or something, as I don't have any persona with mass attack buffas/debuffs. I have a mass defense debuff, but I'm more concerned with their damage output. Back-to-back Maziodyne is just plain mean.

I'll figure it out I am sure. I have some really nice personae, but I generally neglect the status-type spells; Hell, I practically ignore them in any game I play. I'd rather just do the damage usually, but this is the first time that I've actually needed such abilities this much.

Sexy Dance works wonders on them.  They can be charmed. 

It doesn't always stick and it doesn't always hit all three, but it sure does help. 

(edit to add)
Oh, general observation on P3 (and SMT stuff in general):  The game is utterly brutal and merciless if you don't maintain an advantage.  Exploit weaknesses, use buffs/debuffs, never ever let the enemy initiate combat in tartarus if you can help it, etc. Things can still go wrong for you, but if you're careful about stacking the odds in your favor it's much less painful.  Somehow it all walks the fine line between nicely challenging and want-to-throw-the-controller-at-the-tv for me.

-Q

My current controller-toss item is finding the damn rare glove creature in the first block.  Rarg.

Occasionally you'll come across a floor where your support character tells you something unusual about the enemies.  I forget if it's "more than usual" or "the enemies are different", but you'll tend to encounter a whole bunch of them.  It's rare to get those floors, but when you do it's an almost guaranteed encounter.

Oddly, I usually don't have much trouble with the rare gloves.  I usually wait on taking the timed quests until I've hit the roadblock before the next fullmoon event so that I can do untimed requests whenever, but I pretty much always take the rare glove one right away -- odds seem good that I'll run into one of 'em on my way up to the next roadblock.

Most infuriating battle recently was the "Fortune" fullmoon boss.  I heard elsewhere that the random element that was driving me nuts is actually 100% predictable, which makes me feel kinda dumb, but hey I managed to survive the battle in one (long) go, so I guess I can't complain too much.

- Q

I decided it was silly to even go into Tartarus unless it was the day before the full moon, so I have about a month of fighting to make up for.  Seems like the best tactic is to run through the first block repeatedly without spending unnecessary time on any floor.

Heh, yeah, that boss is actually kinda fun once you get the "trick." I was even hitting the sweet spots once Fortune swaps to the "Alternate" dials.

Fuuka's reactions are priceless; "Aww, that's just not fair!"


Anyway....finally beat the Hell Knights, and just ground the hell out of the following boss. Keeping him debuffed was nice. I was finally able to get by the Knights by spamming Mediarama, setting Yukari on support, and boosting everyone's Electric dodge as much as possible with items.

I'm sitting on about 63 hours, with the last Shadow finished....And there's still TONS of game left. Where's my FES disc at, Schild? :Love_Letters:

Yeah, I guess my timing was just lousy.


That totally killed me.  Made up for how painful it was in general.

I'm still wishing I could have had the original voice track, but I have to admit the localized one could be far, far worse.

- Q

I usually hit Tartarus 2-3 times in a month.  First is a sprint to the next boss, save, see how horribly he destroys me (though often the first boss is not too scary).  Then a bit of leveling & questing, defeat the first boss and head up to the next boss, save, possibly defeat him.  Day before full moon is for wrapping up quests, killing off particularly nasty tower bosses, and usually a bit of leveling and fusing and mucking about.

I like that the Tartarus bosses generally are rougher than the event bosses (at least so far), such that if I do all the quests and take care of the tower bosses and am at the next roadblock by the full moon, odds are I'll survive the event boss just fine.

The balance between school/relationship-sim, dungeon crawler, and event/storyline battles has been great.  Somehow it works out to be more fun than tedious even though it is a little repetitive in some ways.

- Q

I just like segregating my gameplay since I get a lot of mileage out of the social half.  I also segregate my meals, eating all of one thing before moving onto another, so I do realize this isn't normal.  The drawback, if you can call it that, is when I get frustrated in Tartarus (rare shadow escaped, then Death came a-knockin') and decide to play Atelier Iris 3 for a while.

I do the same thing with meals. It wasn't until my teens that someone told me it was "abnormal" to eat all of one thing before moving on to the next. It probably has something to do with a buried neurosis about my mother. Or I just don't like mixing food tastes.

Oddly enough, I'm really looking forward to a New Game+ simply so I can blow through all the social stuff I missed and not have to spend much time in Tartarus. I mean, it's fun and all by itself (until you get walloped by group instadeaths, of both types!), but the Effort : Fun ratio is pretty soundly in favor of the social stuff.

Well, I'm closing in on end game. I'm level 90 and have Yukari, Ahihiko, and Ken in their late 70s to early 80s. I've been thinking of switching Ken out for Junpei and taking Junpei, Yukari, and Ahihiko into the final battle, though I have a sneaky suspicion it doesn't matter at this point who I take with me.

So, for those who beat the game, what final party did you go after the lass boss with?

Yukari, Mitsuri and Aigis.

I generally keep my people fairly even by swapping people out between each "checkpoint." Though Yukari, being a main healer, tends to be a bit higher.

I just eclipsed 70 hours, and I've just breached floor 201 and I'm at December 1st. Am I just somehow slow at the game, thorough, or am I somehow taking my time without knowing it? This might give my time-played times for the BG series a run for their monies.

When I ended the game I had 76 hours played Strazos. Man, I wish we had a spoiler thread to talk about the game ending. This may be my favorite storyline in a video game ever. I want FES!

The last time I played a game for at least 60 hrs was Star Ocean 3, and that was akin to applying a tack hammer to my testicles.

I can't get enough of this damn game. And what's the only thing that pisses me off? That I won't have enough time to date All of the girls; Yuko will probably go un-dated.

Yuko is hawt.

I really liked what little of Yuko's storyline I got to experience. I liked that she was this big jock team manager, but was also insecure and didn't feel girlish. That said I just didn't have time for her. My biggest ARGH moment is that I only got Mitsuru's link to level 9 before the end of the game. I wanted to see how it would end.

Ganguro.

Yuko's storyline isn't that interesting in the later parts.  Gah, I've got to get back to this game.  Too much skate and TF2.

I only got Mitsuru to 6.  But getting Yuko to level 4 is crucial for another S. Link, so it's worth at least getting her started.

Okay, just finished it after a marathon session. My final party was mostly core folks that I chose primarily because I had damage-augmenting gear for them, and I became the unstoppable healer of doom in the mid-late game. (And then broke the game in the very late stages. Armageddon + Victory Cry = w00t.) Ended up being Mitsuru, Akihiko and Yukari, although I just let them do whatever in the final battle as I was almost invincibly overleveled and had a huge stock of heal-all/heal-all&restore-sp items built up.

81 hours played. I think I'm gonna play some shorter games for a while. A long while. I've been losing a lot of sleep trying to finish this game over the past couple weeks, but it was worth it.

Atlus announced that they are going to have a PS2 lineup for 2008 before moving to next-gen.

Aside from Trauma Center: New Blood for the Wii, the PS2 stuff should, maybe, possibly include Fes.

I say this because Persona 4 and SMT4 will not be ready in 08 for the PS3.

Please start celebrating.

I hear someone found some cake?

(http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/1715/shot1vh7.jpg)

Whoops. From the English Voice Actor's blog (Takaya in Persona 3).

Yea, Fes, Baroque and Riviera. Hur hur hur WIN!

Win, indeed, my friend.


Win, Indeed.

That's so cheating!

So, FES is coming? Shit Schild, that's all you had to say!

:)

Yea, this is good juju. I'm going to hold off on any further play in case they bring over the full addition where it's all on one disc.

Screw that, just play through again. t'll be much easier the second time anyway.

Besides, I'm already on the final evening of the game.  :|

I don't think you can say "already" with Persona 3.  My end savegame time is going to be ginormous.

I think I'm past 80 hours. I don't think I've even gone near that kind of playtime since, what....a BIS game? Either Planescape or BG2.