Persona series

Honestly, P3 Hard mode isn't all that different than normal; the worst thing about it is the fact that all personae cost 4x the normal cost, which makes fusions expensive.

Huh. That sounds too much like being arbitrarily difficult just to be arbitrary. And difficult. If that's the biggest difference in difficulty, no thanks. I'm happy back here on Normal.

It's not the only change. The battles are harder (in particular, monsters do more damage) and you get surprised more often (and sometimes even if you should surprise them, you don't). The reason I state the costs as the major difference is because, if you've played through the game on normal, you probably have a solid grasp of the "1 More" system and know how to exploit weaknesses. I don't care if a monster does multiples of its normal damage, it still gets knocked down if it has a fire weakness and you hit it with Agi.

I got about halfway through Persona 3's New Game Plus before trailing off and going to play something else.

. . . Hey, now I remember why I never finished The Answer! All that stuff just struck me as too fake to really care about. Especially the part about the enemies not playing smarter, just hitting harder.

It's amazing how much more relaxing a New Game Plus in P4 is when I don't have to worry about raising stats.

Of course, I still have to contend with levelling and such, but at least the Social Links are pretty lenient.

A problem I'm facing is that I'm following what seems to be the only guide on the Internet (certainly on Gamefaqs) that deals with maxing out Social Links, and it's a little... strange, I suppose the word is. For example, there's a whole string of Magician meetings, requiring the necessary Arcana Persona, and then it hits rank 4 and... nothing. Then there's lots of Chariot, all the way until rank 7, then Strength to rank 5, then Priestess, then back to Chariot, then Strength, and after a few months back to Magician. Or something like that.

The upshot is that I have to switch Personae in and out almost weekly, since I need about five of my slots for my expensive battle Personae (Helel and Lucifer for mass damage, Ishtar for Zio skills, Trumpeter for Cool Breeze, Yoshitsune for Null Physical). I suppose this really is the optimal pace, but I kind of wish I can get my party members to their evolved Personae faster.

Also, since I don't need to lunch at Aiya during rainy days anymore, I've been using rainy nothing-to-do days to fish. I think I have eight Huge Fish and several Genji Ayu; the difference between the two vibration-wise is not large.

Presumably you're talking about Penguin Knight's FAQ? I used that one for reference on my first run, but I didn't follow it particularly religiously.

The thing about that FAQ is that it's based around maxing your S-Links on your first run, so it does everything that it can to cram as much into every day as possible. Thing is, after your first run, that's not really necessary. You don't have to worry about your stats, so that basically frees up all of your nights and most of your rainy days. You don't have to worry too much about money (if you carried over enough from first cycle), so the deadlines for the Hermit link are much less pressing. Not needing the stat increases means that you can start a lot of links earlier, and continue them more easily (Moon, Justice, Hierophant, just to name a few). Access to the Compendium means that you can complete Empress any time you want, as long as you registered the right version of a Persona.

And so on, and so forth. Basically, the FAQ works best for what it is: A round-one-max-S-Link FAQ. a lot of stuff (like the wonky scheduling) isn't really necessary past round one.

TL;DR: If you wanna max your team S-links first, it's probably pretty safe to do so. Don't get too locked into the guide.

edited 20th Jul '09 7:39:23 AM by Theoneknownasme

Yeah, when the Empress link opened up, I blew about my entire spare cash maxing it that very day.

I did ignore the guide for Justice and Hierophant, and am now done with both of them. It's just that I'm now "Temporary Lovers" with Moon, and I really want to just get it over with; Ai is not my type.

Eh. She gets better. And I don't know why the guide tells you to take that path; It's entirely possible to turn her down both times and still be able to max the link.

I haven't had time to start my second game (and I'm not actually doing a New Game Plus this run), but I've gotten a bit into Persona 3- Man, Tartarus is annoying. I like my dungeoncrawling in larger chunks than 15 minutes, and I want most of that to be new exploring, not retracing my steps from the last warp point. And it's really hard if you don't have the ability to exploit weaknesses- I was ridiculously nervous about those robed things only weak to light that cast mudo, becasue I've got exactly jack and squat that can cast hama right now. I died to some of the Hulk Hogan ripoffs when I got just a little bit overconfident. The costumes are fun, though- I got the high-cut armor from Elizabeth. Events proceeded rather predictably.

Later you'll be able to buy swimsuits from the equipment shop, although what the policeman guy is doing with swimsuits is anyone's guess.

I haven't tried it with everyone yet, but when you ask your party members to put them on, the girls act with predictable disgust, while almost all the guys look at you funny.

Junpei: Are you telling me to explore Tartarus in my swimming trunks? ... Dude, that is an awesome idea!

I forgot to mention this earlier, but I found it quite thrilling that on the second play-through, you realize that you've seen Namatame's truck at least twice before the reveal: once at the very beginning when you stop at the gas station, and once passing by you on the road when you chase down Rise's stalker.

Also, the start of Persona 4 in five minutes. Or longer.

edited 4th Aug '09 4:51:11 AM by dkellis

Also, the start of Persona 4 in five minutes. Or longer.

My day has been made.

edited 4th Aug '09 9:08:39 AM by Comonad

I am totally bumping this thread just to tell you all that before he became a cop, Adachi apparently did work in Geophysics, because he's mentioned in my textbook.

There are a lot of allusions to Adachi being way smarter than he looks. Waaaay smarter.

Necropost for part 2.

Again, spoilers.

The humor in part 2 comes mostly from the exressions, there aren't as many good quotes this time. That said, DOES SOMEONE WANT TO TALK ABOUT MURDER?!

NECROPOST!

It is bad that I am only in the first dungeon and I already know the culprit via Memetic Mutation?

BITCHES AND WHORES

There's a surprising amount of Memetic Mutation from the Giant Bomb endurance run, and slightly less surprisingly but far far greater amount from the hiimdaisy comics.

Thanks to the Endurance Run, I cannot look at Flauros anymore without yelling 'GET OFF MY LAWN'.

I loved when they got Abbadon by accident.

Too bad Jeff didn't notice Mara. I was waiting the entire endurance run and all I got was Vinny saying "that is one funky looking persona" or something like that.

BITCHES AND WHORES

BEST.REVIEW.EVER

Freudian? What.

Yeah, its Jungian, but that doesn't make the review any less hilarious