Review: Persona 3 (PS2)

[Yoru]

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.

[Strazos]

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.

[schild]

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

[caladein]

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!

[Strazos]

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

[Phildo]

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.

[Strazos]

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.

[schild]

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.

[Musashi]

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!

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.

[schild]

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).

[Strazos]

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.

[Phildo]

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.

[Strazos]

What about Priestess, Lovers, and Empress?

[Phildo]

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.

[Musashi]

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.

[caladein]

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.

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

[Phildo]

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?

[Riggswolfe]

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.

[Strazos]

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


Also, just maxed out Justice yesterday....lmaonade. 

[Musashi]

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.

[Phildo]

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.

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.

[schild]

NISA does localizations right.

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

[Lum]

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!

[Phildo]

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

[Yoru]

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.

[Rasix]

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

[Strazos]

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.

[Rasix]

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.   

[Strazos]

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.

[Rasix]

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.).

[Strazos]

52? Geez, grind much?

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.

[Phildo]

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?

[Strazos]

A big fire attack.

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

[Musashi]

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.

[Yoru]

A big fire attack.

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

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