The Persona 3 Thread

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Party wipes and losing some progress happens, but I'll be honest that I think you just ran into some bad luck here with getting killed by the phantoms and then getting killed by Death back-to-back. I'm obviously a bit biased since this is one of my favoritest games ever, but I'd encourage you to give it a bit more time.

The key to survival is to play carefully and cautiously and to remember that unlike in most RPGs, enemies really honestly can completely kick your ass at any time.

Completely agree--you just hit some bad luck right there. I'll also say that if you're completely new to Persona it definitely takes a little bit to get used to the mechanics and what you need to do to be successful. After starting P3 over a few times, I finally figured out that it takes a different approach to the game than your usual JRPG. That approach has been talked about in previous posts (concentrating on fusing/s.links more than just straight grinding), but once it starts clicking the game is immensely rewarding.

Short answer: You're going to run into some bad luck on this one, but you should definitely stick with it. It's one of the more unique games out there.

Well I love the DS SMT games, but sometimes I leave my DS in sleep mode for days. And of course you can save after every half-hour event. Falling a fight isn't a big deal.

Guess it's the difference between console and portable more than the generation gap. I hear the PSP version has an added save point at school. Man that would be nice.

Also... why isn't this P3 FES Fusion Calculator in the OP?

It's fantastic. Sortable. With Yen prices. Way better than any FAQ or chart. I was actually starting to combine two of the FAQs I found with cut and paste and after about 10 minutes I realized this game was years old and surely someone had made something better. Well this is it. Fantastic stuff.

One thing that's been really interesting about playing the game with a female protagonist is that it shifts up the dynamics of the game in some neat ways. By giving you access to some social links earlier and some later than the male protagonist, it puts an emphasis on different personas and different abilities.

For example: when playing as a male character, you don't get access to the Lovers social link (via Yukari) until late in the game when you've maxed out your Charm stat; with a female character, you can start that social link early on (I think you need rank 2 in Charm). What this does is encourage you to fuse Lovers personas and gives you access to some of the higher-level Lovers abilities at an earlier point in the game.

I know that in my male playthrough in FES, I tended to avoid Lovers personas early in the game because I didn't get any experience boosts for them. But some of the Lovers personas have neat abilities if you level them up a bit. Like Narcissus, for example, who has Marin Karin, Sexy Dance, and Charm Boost. The Charm Boost increases the effectiveness of the other two, so Charm suddenly becomes an effective strategy in battle where it was an ability I avoided in FES.

In FES, by the time you could get a good experience boost on a Lovers persona, you'd likely be in New Game+ with a crazy high-level set of personas already. So the different social links mix up what you're encouraged to do when.

Conversely, some of the male social links that are available earlier (like Strength, Moon, and Fortune) are delayed in the female playthrough so that you don't get them until later in the game, shifting you away from those personas and their abilities.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

So the best piece of advice I can give is to try to develop it all as evenly as possible. Don't spend all of your time doing any one thing or you'll fall behind with the others and they're all interconnected.

I both agree and disagree with this. Not only are the stats required to open up some socials links, but some social links are required to open up other social links, and even further some are time dependent. Definitely take every opportunity to get the huge boosts to stats (arcade games, movies), but I recommend focusing on Charm first, then Courage, and lastly Academics.

Also, while working at the cafe does increase 2 stats and give you some money, it gives you fewer points total than if you go play an arcade game. I only go to the cafe if the arcade isn't running a game I want to use, otherwise it's so easy to get money in Tartarus that the extra from working the cafe doesn't matter.

+1 to the variety of the female protagonist. Another thing I missed the first time around was talking to my companions when they have special gear equipped. Make darn sure you talk to Mitsuru and Yukari when they have Battle Bikini's equipped, or any of the male characters with their named gear. Good stuff.

I ended up making an early Devil Lillum (8) despite not having any Devil SLs... partially because I was filling out my compendium, but also when I tried fusing and noticed the Lillum kept all the spells! She had Agi, Bufu and Garu I think. Was pretty helpful to have around despite being a bit underleveled now. (I'm up to 12)

I definitely see the benefit of fusing something you have SL with, since you gain extra levels and get extra spells. But you can't always rule out fusing other stuff just because you don't have high SL with that race.

ahrezmendi wrote:

I both agree and disagree with this. Not only are the stats required to open up some socials links, but some social links are required to open up other social links, and even further some are time dependent. Definitely take every opportunity to get the huge boosts to stats (arcade games, movies), but I recommend focusing on Charm first, then Courage, and lastly Academics.

And the social link guides recommend Courage, then Charm, then Academics. Of course you still toss in a lot of late-night studying so your academics don't get left behind. And answering right in class raises Charm. But the focus on out of school stuff is mostly Courage from karaoke or the arcade.

It says there's some event with Elizabeth in late June that requires max Courage.

Right now, post mid-terms (May 23?) I'm at 3 or 4 Courage, 2 academics, and still just 1 charm though.

I always worked on Academics the most. Gotta cozy up to Mitsuru.

Seriously, though, getting top grades on the tests send all of your school SLs up a lot. It's a real time-saver. Not to mention the financial and "other" rewards from Mitsuru. It's no coincidence that Academics takes twice as long to level up as the other two.

Stele wrote:

It says there's some event with Elizabeth in late June that requires max Courage.

Pretty much anything that requires max stats, especially max stats that early, is meant as an incentive for New Game+ because your charm, courage, and academics statistics roll over into a new game.

Do yourself a favor and stop looking at that damn FAQ and just play the game.

Stele wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

I both agree and disagree with this. Not only are the stats required to open up some socials links, but some social links are required to open up other social links, and even further some are time dependent. Definitely take every opportunity to get the huge boosts to stats (arcade games, movies), but I recommend focusing on Charm first, then Courage, and lastly Academics.

And the social link guides recommend Courage, then Charm, then Academics. Of course you still toss in a lot of late-night studying so your academics don't get left behind. And answering right in class raises Charm. But the focus on out of school stuff is mostly Courage from karaoke or the arcade.

It says there's some event with Elizabeth in late June that requires max Courage.

Right now, post mid-terms (May 23?) I'm at 3 or 4 Courage, 2 academics, and still just 1 charm though. :?

I may have mixed up Charm and Courage. One of those stats increases all social link gains, so maxing it early makes all social links easier to get, and is 100% necessary if you want to get all social links in a single game.

In my current game it's 8/3 and I have max Charm, max Courage, and Academics 4. Almost all of my Academics and Charm have come from the arcade, with a bit of the cafe and studying mixed in. Courage is easiest to do with the arcade (duh), and visiting the Nurses office for 4 days while you're sick. The big one is the arcade though, abuse the hell out of that thing, it's by far the best way to get your stats up.

Minarchist wrote:

I always worked on Academics the most. Gotta cozy up to Mitsuru.

Seriously, though, getting top grades on the tests send all of your school SLs up a lot. It's a real time-saver. Not to mention the financial and "other" rewards from Mitsuru. It's no coincidence that Academics takes twice as long to level up as the other two.

You can ace the exams without having a ton of Academics though. I had barely touched Academics in my latest game and I've aced all the exams I've taken. It does take forever though, I think Academics tops at ~255 points where as the others top at ~120 and ~160. I wish I had known about the arcade in my first game, because paying 3k yen to play the Quiz game is way, way better than any amount of studying.

Nothing to see here...

Ok, if that's how you want to play it...

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Do yourself a favor and stop looking at that damn FAQ and just play the game. ;)

Yeah, +1.

I really like the Jack Gloves for Akihiko, and I'm glad I pushed hard to get that request completed. I'm also going to try what you crafted Clockwork, with high Charm boosting on a Lovers persona. I get a kick out of charming half my enemies, and watching them tear each other apart.

Charming enemies has become one of my favorite things to do. With charm boost I'll usually get 3-4 members of a 5 enemy group, and they'll rip each other to shreds while I watch. Likewise, charming a tower boss so that it heals you and/or does nothing can make those fights a lot easier.

I have a buffed up Devil persona with a bucket of negative status effects and boosts that I'm eager to try out, too.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Charming enemies has become one of my favorite things to do. With charm boost I'll usually get 3-4 members of a 5 enemy group, and they'll rip each other to shreds while I watch. Likewise, charming a tower boss so that it heals you and/or does nothing can make those fights a lot easier.

I have a buffed up Devil persona with a bucket of negative status effects and boosts that I'm eager to try out, too.

That'll be extra fun once you get the skill that adds ailment susceptibility to a group

I'm a couple hours in now on my new play-through with the female protagonist. Really enjoying being back in the game, and I'm taking the advice here to spend most of my time enhancing social links and as little time as possible in Tartarus.

All this chatter makes me want to play again with the female protagonist.

Question: is New Game+ still fun? Or will the lack of combat challenge kill it for me? If I decide to do this, should I play on NG+ or a pure new game?

Tanglebones wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Charming enemies has become one of my favorite things to do. With charm boost I'll usually get 3-4 members of a 5 enemy group, and they'll rip each other to shreds while I watch. Likewise, charming a tower boss so that it heals you and/or does nothing can make those fights a lot easier.

I have a buffed up Devil persona with a bucket of negative status effects and boosts that I'm eager to try out, too.

That'll be extra fun once you get the skill that adds ailment susceptibility to a group :)

That's what the Devil persona has and why I'm so eager to put him to use. Of course, I fused him into a more powerful persona right after I got him and haven't been able to afford to buy him back yet (damn those higher compendium prices on hard!).

doogiemac wrote:

I'm a couple hours in now on my new play-through with the female protagonist. Really enjoying being back in the game, and I'm taking the advice here to spend most of my time enhancing social links and as little time as possible in Tartarus.

I generally make 1 trip to Tartarus per lunar cycle. Thanks to P3P changing it so your characters don't get tired until you either leave Tartarus or they die, you can easily grind everything you need in terms of levels, money, persona, and requests in a single trip. It's especially easy if you make liberal use of the system suspend (as I do) and play on a work commute. That said, my single trip to Tartarus will last the better part of a week, if not longer (my last one took me 9 days).

grobstein wrote:

All this chatter makes me want to play again with the female protagonist.

It's significantly different from the male protagonist, which I'm enjoying. Not just the altered social links, but interactions in standard story events and general conversation are different, so it almost feels like Persona 3.5. I also far prefer a Naginata to a shortsword, so that's bonus points right there.

grobstein wrote:

All this chatter makes me want to play again with the female protagonist.

Question: is New Game+ still fun? Or will the lack of combat challenge kill it for me? If I decide to do this, should I play on NG+ or a pure new game?

You could always try

Spoiler:

beating Elizabeth

on NG+. It is widely considered to be the second-hardest boss battle in any RPG ever, losing only to another SMT game, an optional battle in Digital Devil Saga.

Spoiler:

I totally did it. :cool:

Also, if you haven't cleared Monad, that's quite an adventure even on NG+.

Also also, if you didn't max all social links, it's worth it just to flesh out the stories of the ones you missed.

Got a couple more hours in, and into June now. I love that everyone changed outfits when the month changed. Summer I guess, warmer weather. Hope there are more changes like that in store.

I spent all of the week before mid-terms with the old couple at the bookstore (Hierophant up to SL 8). So when I just hit 13 or so on the latest Tartarus run I went to fuse the next one in that line, and got like 4-5 bonus levels, and I think all of his earnable skills. Also when leveling one of his skills morphed. Guess I should have known that could happen from DS SMT stuff, but I wasn't aware the skill change was in here. Nice surprise.

Also I finally got a Pyro Jack at level 14, and he has a heart, which I think I read is some kind of free item when he levels high enough to learn his skills? I think that's just a few hundred more xp for mine.

Fusion accidents also happen, just as a heads up. They're most likely most to happen with the new moon.

Yeah, the hearts are a free item. I find they're usually not worth the amount of time you have to put into the persona though, so I wouldn't go out of your way to get it.

In addition to the fusion accidents Clockwork mentioned, skill morphs are not always to something good. In fact, most of mine have been to an ability that either useless on that particular persona (i.e. Ailment Boost on a persona with no ailment abilities).

Ahrezmendi, do you mean you battled in Tartarus for 9 game days of time, or that it took you that much real-world, periodic gaming time?

doogiemac wrote:

Ahrezmendi, do you mean you battled in Tartarus for 9 game days of time, or that it took you that much real-world, periodic gaming time?

The latter. I play on my commute to/from work, so about 1.5 hours total, then on a few breaks while at work adding maybe another half hour for 2 hours a day.

I accomplish a lot while in Tartarus. In a single visit I do the following:

- Reach the next barrier
- Complete all requests Elizabeth has for me, including all fusion requests
- Farm up yen for the next set of stat increases (3k per arcade visit adds up)
- Fuse all required persona for my next batch of social links

Completing all of the requests is what takes the most time by far, because Elizabeth generally wants some weapon that is a rare find for the block you are currently on. The upside to this is I almost never have to buy gear for my party, since I wind up with all the rare equipment drops for them, and that saves a lot of yen. The downside is... well, 9 days.

Yeah so far I have only bought shoes for my party. Armor and weapons have dropped well enough to keep me equipped.

Some of the accessories look nice too, but at 10-16k a pop I don't think they're worth it at this point for 10% more health or something. I'd rather fuse more personas or spend the money on stat increase stuff. I assume when the really good accessories are for sale, I'll have more disposable income.

Not sure what the antique shop has since it's not open yet, but I assume there will be some worthwhile stuff there?

The Elizabeth quests do pay very very well though. Especially the ones where you get a couple rare drops from enemies.

Thing I'm noticing is that it's farther and farther between level warps. 5>10>14 in the first block, but then it's 25>36 in the next block. I thought 25 was the end point so was targeting that on Jun 3 or so, but found out that wasn't the top, and my party started tiring out on 32/33. Going to have to head back in and push all the way through before the Jun 6 deadline. Should make it but it's going to be only one shot probably.

So who else is playing on PS3 with the PSN version? Having some weird save issues, copying my post from another topic about it. Saw a lot of people having these issues on gFAQs.

I knew something was wonky. One time I went back into save after doing some fusing, and noticed save slot 1 was blank. I had been rotating through 5 separate slots.

Then again last night I noticed slot 3 was empty. I was able to resave in the slot after a couple tries. It seemed like maybe I was X-ing through too quickly, not letting the save animations play on the left side of the screen. I guess I could have imagined it. But anyway, I starting upping my rotation to 7 separate saves.

Today, slot 3 was empty again. But when I tried to save in that spot I kept getting an error. Slot not available or something like that? Guess I need to fire the game back up and see if it has fixed itself. But I was at least able to save in other slots.

Backed up my saves onto my USB drive just in case. Probably start doing that every few real days. Better safe than sorry.

So far I haven't lost anything monumental. But it's a bit scary that this bug is out there. Other people who weren't rotating as many saves have lost many hours.

Makes me glad I always rotate eight saves whenever possible. [glares at limited-slot games]

I'm playing P3P, so no save slot bugs there. It also makes Tartarus easier because your companions won't get tired while in Tartarus, they only take on the tired status after you leave or if they die. And yes, the warp points do get further and further apart as you get higher.

The Antique shop has some useful things, you'll get to it soon.

ahrezmendi wrote:

I'm playing P3P, so no save slot bugs there. It also makes Tartarus easier because your companions won't get tired while in Tartarus, they only take on the tired status after you leave or if they die. And yes, the warp points do get further and further apart as you get higher.

The Antique shop has some useful things, you'll get to it soon.

^^ and you can just hop down to the entrance to heal up with the clock & return to where you were previously