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!)

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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.