The GWJ JRPG Club - Q1 2019 - Persona 5!

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"You are held captive. A prisoner of fate to a future that has been seeled in advance. This is truly an unjust game... Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you..."

Welcome to the GWJ RPG Club's pick for the first quarter of 2019: Persona 5!

Here's what we have in store:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/mHpvJJR.png?1)

That number can be daunting, and I know people are working on other long games too. To pace ourselves, and to try to keep everyone involved in the conversation, here's a proposed schedule:

January: Palaces 1 and 2
February: Palaces 3 and 4
March: Palaces 5 and 6
April: Palace 7; Endgame.

We'll check back in a month to see if this schedule is working.

Our Players:

Spoiler:

ClockworkHouse
farley3k
bobbywatson
LastSurprise
Wembley
Forlorn Hope
JohnKillo
brokenclavicle
Minarchist
TylorWayne
Malkroth
ComfortZone
Stele
Darkhaund
jamos5
Devstack
Agathos

Please post in this thread if you plan to join us! I'll update this list as we go.

A Note about Spoilers:
This game is rich with plot. Use your own best judgment with spoiler tags, but here are a few suggestions:

  • Refer to palaces beyond the current month's schedule by their number or setting (Castle, etc.) rather than by the Phantom Thieves' target.
  • If the identity of a confidant could be a spoiler, refer to them by Arcana (Chariot, Lovers, etc.) rather than name.
  • Most of the game is told in retrospective. To be safe, everything that occurs after the game catches up with the flashbacks should be treated as a spoiler.

Before You Play Persona 5:
And finally, here are some spoiler-free tips for new players. I've hidden them so you aren't assaulted by a wall of text.

Stealing Hearts (Palaces / Combat / Difficulty Levels)

Spoiler:
  • Keep Joker safe. If he dies, it’s game over.
  • You should budget at least 4 days for events surrounding a palace (the game’s main dungeons). You need (1) at least a day to infiltrate; (2) a day, for story reasons, to make the boss available; and (3) a day to fight the palace's boss. I suggest budgeting more than one day to infiltrate because the palaces are long, and at least one has an element requiring you to leave (burning a day) and do something in the real world before returning.
  • Your very first deadline can be misleading. You aren't explicitly told, until you finish infiltrating the palace, that you need to come back another day to fight the boss (to be fair, the game encourages you, over and over, not to wait). This has led some players to misjudge their window. You get a non-standard game over and can rewind by a week, but that can cost you hours of play.
  • Magic (SP) is your primary resource in dungeons. Outside of battle, you should heal with items, not magic. SP restoratives are important but generally harder to come by and/or more expensive than HP restoratives.
  • You can vastly improve your odds at negotiation by tailoring your answers to a shadow’s personality, which is visible if you inspect it. This hint is buried in a help menu, but never provided to you directly.
  • Don’t be afraid to use your consumable items.
  • When you craft infiltration tools, the tools you can craft actually are spread between three pages. I stumbled upon this mid-way through the game, by accident.
  • Difficulty: here’s what the levels mean.
    Safety - Damage received: x0.5 - Damage dealt: x2.0 - Experience: x3.0 - Money: x5.0
    Easy - Damage received: x0.5 - Damage dealt: x1.0 - Experience: x1.0 - Money: x1.0
    Normal - Damage received: x1.0 - Damage dealt: x1.0 - Experience: x1.0 - Money: x1.0
    Hard - Damage received: x1.6 - Damage dealt: x0.8 - Experience: x1.0 - Money: x1.0
    Challenge - Damage received: x1.6 - Damage dealt: x0.8 - Experience: x0.4 - Money: x0.4 - Critical and technical hit damage on both enemies and allies is tripled

Taking Your Time (General, Non-Combat Tips)

Spoiler:
  • Social stats allow you to begin or advance relationships, take on part-time jobs, and make certain dialogue choices. They have no effect on combat.
  • There are two convenient ways to boost stats without using time: (1) feeding the plant in your room, and (2) buying juice from a stand in the Shibuya Underground.
  • Keep a book with you. If you get a seat on the subway, you’ll have free time to read.
  • Accept invitations from your confidants. Sometimes, they will text you with an offer to go to a movie, hang out and play video games, study together, go shopping, etc. Not only are these vignettes fun, but these hangouts often let you get the benefit of two activities at once.
  • You can use the map of Tokyo to find your confidants. Simply select a particular location to see who’s there. You can also see a little “UP!” over a confidant’s name if you are ready to deepen your relationship with them.
  • When spending time with a confidant, you’ll get a boost to your relationship if you have a persona of the corresponding arcana. For example, when you hang out with Ryuji, bring a persona of the Chariot arcana. Any will do, and you don’t need to have it equipped.
  • Two confidants will require a lot of money to begin or deepen your relationship. Don’t worry: they are totally worth what you spend.
  • Consulting the network can help you on pop quizzes (but not exams). Many of the quizzes ask you about things not brought up in game, so you would only know the answers by chance.

Trophy Hunting

Spoiler:
  • You can’t get a platinum trophy during your first playthrough. Several trophies are impossible to obtain except during a New Game+, others are merely very difficult to get unless you are following a guide.
  • If you think you will play the game twice, you might want to go for the trophy for reading all books or for finishing all of the video games. Both of these activities improve your social stats, but those stats carry over to a New Game+.
  • Eventually, one confidant can help you craft infiltration tools. I believe that items they craft do not count toward the “make all tools” trophy. Found this one out the hard way.

I'm in!

I'm in. I will fire it up tonight and see exactly where I am at in the 2nd dungeon. I think I was close to being ready to fight the boss.

I'm in!

Not sure when I'm actually going to be able to start (I would like to finish DQVII before I start).

For those who've played it: Does this work well in remote play on the Vita? I'm starting to think it would be easier for me if I could play it in bed on a handheld.

I don't have a Vita anymore, but I remember remote play working just fine. L2 and R2 were annoying, but that's true of every game via remote play on Vita.

Fair enough! I will test it this weekend and see if it's good enough for me (it probably is). I like using the TV to play games most of the time (one advantage of being single with no kids, I guess), but if I am to tackle a 100-hour RPG, being able to play it portably should make it more feasible in three/four months.

I'm in! I still want to try to finish DQ VII, which I am way behind in so will take a massive effort. I'll probably wait until Feb to actually start this.

I'm in. Maybe I'll try to get a bit of a head start and crack it open tonight. Not only will this be my first time playing Persona 5 but it will be my first Persona game period.

Forlorn Hope wrote:

I'm in. Maybe I'll try to get a bit of a head start and crack it open tonight. Not only will this be my first time playing Persona 5 but it will be my first Persona game period.

You are in for such a treat!

Cheers. going to restart this.

In it to win it... or something. Yeah.

I wish P5 was my first Persona, I probably would love it. Instead, I find it anachronistic, but not in a good way. Everything felt like a slog and while the game looked amazing it felt like I was playing a PS2 game, negatives and all.

garion333 wrote:

I wish P5 was my first Persona, I probably would love it. Instead, I find it anachronistic, but not in a good way. Everything felt like a slog and while the game looked amazing it felt like I was playing a PS2 game, negatives and all.

That's interesting. That's not an opinion that I've heard much. Do you mind expanding on that a bit? What felt anachronistic?

garion333 wrote:

I wish P5 was my first Persona, I probably would love it. Instead, I find it anachronistic, but not in a good way. Everything felt like a slog and while the game looked amazing it felt like I was playing a PS2 game, negatives and all.

I can see that, but it's my first, so it was all new to me. By the same token I think it would have been difficult for me to go back and pick up one of the older games, whether before I touched P5 (surely, they would have felt like older games) or after (when I would have been comparing it unfavorably). How far in did you make it?

I...sure, I have time to sink another 120 hours into this.

I'm in! Very much looking forward to it, and thanks for organizing, bobbywatson and LastSurprise!

It does look like I'm going to need to cowboy up to get this in, finish Divinity, finish Dragon Quest 7, and play Dragon Age. But I am up for the challenge!

ClockworkHouse wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I wish P5 was my first Persona, I probably would love it. Instead, I find it anachronistic, but not in a good way. Everything felt like a slog and while the game looked amazing it felt like I was playing a PS2 game, negatives and all.

That's interesting. That's not an opinion that I've heard much. Do you mind expanding on that a bit? What felt anachronistic?

I, too, am interested in this opinion being expounded upon. It's certainly not a common one, and so far my experience with the game doesn't match it. Always good to get different perspectives.

It would be my third playthough but, sure, I'll join in.

I was thinking to get an early start on this by knocking off DQVII a bit early but just can't bring myself to. Even made sure it was installed and ready to go but having the PS3 in a room with no heating is pretty off putting at this time of year. If only PS3 had remote play with every game!

I thought you were finished with DQVII? Or, maybe you're working on the post-game content right now?

I booted up P5 yesterday and made a little bit of progress: through the opening sequence, the beginning of the interrogation, and I've just finished my first official day of school. It's fun to pick up on little details that I missed the first time around, or that I didn't remember as I made it further into the game. For instance, the way that Ryuji and the MC make it into the Metaverse by mistake is handled really well.

Been wanting to do a second playthrough, so that time is now!

EDIT: I keep getting my Game Club threads mixed up. Must learn to read better.

Persona 5 related, I picked the game out of my backlog and will be moving it to the PS4 area. I'm going to wait until I get more done with DQ7 before starting, though, as I'll be spread too thin otherwise.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets the umpteen club threads mixed up.

LastSurprise wrote:

I thought you were finished with DQVII? Or, maybe you're working on the post-game content right now?

Finished but can't bring myself to start P5.

Ahh, gotcha. I misread your post.

I'm in the thread at least. Not sure if I will start a NG+ to trophy hunt along with you guys or not. But I love this game so much, had a blast beating it at release, and will at the very least enjoy vicariously through you.

Stele wrote:

I'm in the thread at least. Not sure if I will start a NG+ to trophy hunt along with you guys or not. But I love this game so much, had a blast beating it at release, and will at the very least enjoy vicariously through you.

Same. I'm going to start NG+ at least and see how it goes. Once that smooth jazz kicks in, I'll know either way...

I HATE YOU GUYS lol

I had persona 4 Golden unopened just there on my collection. Then a few days ago my cousin said he has addicted to persona 5... and kept talking about it over and over. So on Xmas dinner at this place... i saw the game... went back home immediately and launched my persona 4 golden on my vita to see what the fuss was all about.. DAAAAAAAM.. im 20 hours in just like that. Just ordered p5 on amazon ... so count me in. I will tyr be best to keep up

DAMNIT... why why why.... my backlog is huuuuuge... Xenoblade chronicles 2, octhpath.... ys... but this damn game got me hooooked. (P4G)

ComfortZone wrote:
Stele wrote:

I'm in the thread at least. Not sure if I will start a NG+ to trophy hunt along with you guys or not. But I love this game so much, had a blast beating it at release, and will at the very least enjoy vicariously through you.

Same. I'm going to start NG+ at least and see how it goes. Once that smooth jazz kicks in, I'll know either way...

I got a couple of the themes on PS4 back when I was playing. That smooth music for Makoto theme has been playing for a year and a half as my normal PS4 idle music. I don't even remember what it was before.

Darkhaund wrote:

I HATE YOU GUYS lol

I had persona 4 Golden unopened just there on my collection. Then a few days ago my cousin said he has addicted to persona 5... and kept talking about it over and over. So on Xmas dinner at this place... i saw the game... went back home immediately and launched my persona 4 golden on my vita to see what the fuss was all about.. DAAAAAAAM.. im 20 hours in just like that. Just ordered p5 on amazon ... so count me in. I will tyr be best to keep up

DAMNIT... why why why.... my backlog is huuuuuge... Xenoblade chronicles 2, octhpath.... ys... but this damn game got me hooooked. (P4G)

All other games can wait for Persona. Trust me, you won't regret it. Oh, and Persona 3 is great as well

Darkhaund wrote:

I HATE YOU GUYS lol

I had persona 4 Golden unopened just there on my collection. Then a few days ago my cousin said he has addicted to persona 5... and kept talking about it over and over. So on Xmas dinner at this place... i saw the game... went back home immediately and launched my persona 4 golden on my vita to see what the fuss was all about.. DAAAAAAAM.. im 20 hours in just like that. Just ordered p5 on amazon ... so count me in. I will tyr be best to keep up

DAMNIT... why why why.... my backlog is huuuuuge... Xenoblade chronicles 2, octhpath.... ys... but this damn game got me hooooked. (P4G)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1ShPoAK.jpg)

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