Persona 4 Golden Catch-All

Maybe this is because I'm playing on normal but I welcomed rage. Every time Yukiko and Chie got enraged they would hit for 3x damage. So I woyld just keep the party alive with Yu when that happen.

Rakshasa also helped a lot. He has 3 attacks that hit up to three times each.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Maybe this is because I'm playing on normal but I welcomed rage. Every time Yukiko and Chie got enraged they would hit for 3x damage. So I woyld just keep the party alive with Yu when that happen.

Rakshasa also helped a lot. He has 3 attacks that hit up to three times each.

I'm discovering that on "normal" you can get powered up enough that you can set your party on auto-pilot tactically. At least that's part of why I don't mind "rage". The only time I mind is when my character gets infected and I can't heal, etc.

Hmm, I think I need to just chill around floors 6/7/8 of the bathhouse, since I just encountered a normal enemy group that was level 25 (I'm 17).

As a random aside, I love Chie-chan's "Galactic Punt" move. It's depicted so charmingly, and it is always welcome. A free kill? Yes, please!

Yes, best assist move in the game.

ahrezmendi wrote:

Yes, best assist move in the game.

Except when:

Spoiler:

You're up against a boss.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Yes, best assist move in the game.

Except when:

Spoiler:

You're up against a boss.

It's still a free move. I really like Chie too. She's my favorite character so far.

Well, on hard, it ends up being a bit of a waste, damage-wise. I'm always tempted to just let her go, though, because it's so cool.

EverythingsTentative wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Yes, best assist move in the game.

Except when:

Spoiler:

You're up against a boss.

It's still a free move. I really like Chie too. She's my favorite character so far.

Not really, it takes the place of your 1 More action. I frequently find myself cancelling it, either because I know it'll be resisted (Yosuke's against a Physical resistant enemy for example) or might prevent me from finishing my combo (Chie's on a boss or too early in the battle).

ahrezmendi wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Yes, best assist move in the game.

Except when:

Spoiler:

You're up against a boss.

It's still a free move. I really like Chie too. She's my favorite character so far.

Not really, it takes the place of your 1 More action. I frequently find myself cancelling it, either because I know it'll be resisted (Yosuke's against a Physical resistant enemy for example) or might prevent me from finishing my combo (Chie's on a boss or too early in the battle).

Forgot about that.

I have another thought about that move:

Spoiler:

She sounds soooo sad when you cancel the move.

EverythingsTentative wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Yes, best assist move in the game.

Except when:

Spoiler:

You're up against a boss.

It's still a free move. I really like Chie too. She's my favorite character so far.

I first fell in love with Chie just from that move. First time it came up I had to put down my PS2 controller; I was laughing so hard.
Was determined to max out her social link first, even more so when along the way she picked up the

Spoiler:

"jump in front of killing blow"

move. That was a huge shock the first time it was used too.

However by the end of my play-through, I had to give up Chie and go with

Spoiler:

Rise; somehow I just felt that she and Yu eventually complimented each other the best. Both actually very quiet people, thrust into the limelight that they are not comfortable with and can only really be themselves with each other.

This game is so great and so all-consuming that I think I need to put it down for a while. I have a lot of real important deadlines in my life over the next month and if I let a 100-hour timesponge in I'm just going to screw myself over. So I'll see you guys in a few weeks if you're still playing this. ... ....

Arrgggghhh! I had the bathhouse boss down to 5% health, one more round and he would have been dead. Then I forgot to renew the Physical Mirror on Yu, boss does one of his double-hit moves, game over. That'll teach me to get lazy. The upside is I know I can beat him, so this next time will go better.

EDIT: Frustrating defeat aside, this is my favorite boss so far. The art design, plus the whole story, is really well done.

grobstein wrote:

This game is so great and so all-consuming that I think I need to put it down for a while. I have a lot of real important deadlines in my life over the next month and if I let a 100-hour timesponge in I'm just going to screw myself over. So I'll see you guys in a few weeks if you're still playing this. ... ....

I'm already looking forward to NG+ so see you in a month.

2nd times the charm, bathhouse boss down. Here was my approach:

Spoiler:

Sarasvati with Invigorate 2, Media, Mabufu, and Agi was pretty key to this battle. She gets Invigorate 2 at level 21 I think, so I farmed floors 7 & 8 until I got enough Emperor cards to level her up. I also fused a Jack Frost with Rakukaja as a fallback for when my Physical Mirrors ran out, which they did soon after Nice Guy went down. That was the prep, for the actual battle I had Yu handle damaging/downing Nice Guy and Tough Guy, and then guarding or healing (Mabufu -> Agi -> Media was his most common turn). Yosuke pretty much just guarded the entire battle, the damage/healing he can do doesn't outweigh the fact that he gives Shadow Kanji another turn many times. On rare turns I'd use him to revive somebody or do an emergency heal, but otherwise he just sat around guarding. Chie did Mabufu until Nice Guy died, then I'd use Rebellion and wait for her to get Raged, and just let her go to town. Yukiko's job was Maragi until Tough Guy died, then Agi after that, and secondary healing.

The big key was keeping Yosuke on guard, and keeping Yu's defense up (Sarasvati has no elemental weaknesses, only Light weakness, plus she has reasonable En) and patience. I won on a bit of a gamble, I stopped healing for the final 2 turns and went all out. My team was at 10% HP and 25% SP when I won.

All told it was a pretty simple fight with the right setup. I've read that in the PS2 version Nice Guy and Tough Guy have no weaknesses at all (and in fact they absorb Fire/Ice respectively), so Atlus obviously nerfed this fight for the Vita quite a bit. I don't think I could have won if they didn't have Ice/Fire weakness with this strategy.

So it's now 5/22, and I'm ready to catch myself a Red Goldfish, and improve some social links.

EDIT: Tuffalo, I don't think your issue with this boss was level related, I think you just need a slightly more tailored persona. Read what I did, this made things super easy (relatively speaking).

ahrezmendi wrote:

EDIT: Tuffalo, I don't think your issue with this boss was level related, I think you just need a slightly more tailored persona. Read what I did, this made things super easy (relatively speaking).

Well, I would have been able to do it the first time around if I had had full SP and some attack mirrors. I have yet to see an attack mirror. At any rate, I did a bit of grinding through levels and it was a piece of cake earlier today. It was frustrating when I used some accessories:

Spoiler:

I used accessories for a boost versus lightning, boost versus rage, and boost versus poison on the various characters. They didn't do jack squat. I'm guessing they just don't work versus bosses. Anyways, whatever.

I ran into the following issue again and can confirm that I was right. If you get to the top level and then return to level 1 to grind. If you go to, say, level 4, you do not have the option to return to the top level. You have to grind your way all the way back up. I don't know if this is the case for level 2, but it happened to me at level 4 or so for the second time. It's not a huge deal because you can run past enemies or use escape, but it's kind of a pain.

Ugh, I always think I'm behind in my social links.

Spoiler:

It's 6/1 now, and I only have Priestess 5, Magician 6, Chariot 4, and the rest 3 or lower, not to mention I haven't even started Temperance.

I'm probably not as far behind as I could be, but it always feels that way.

First dungeon down, woohoo!

Apparently level 19 is too low for the next zone in the TV, 'cause I got one-shot by Zionga on the first battle. A little farming took care of that, now I'm 21, and to boot I got a free upgrade from Agi to Maragi, thanks to a Magician card. That is now my favorite tarot, second only to Emperor.

Spoiler:

Kanji continues to be one of my favorite characters, I'm really looking forward to seeing his story expand. I focused on getting Yukiko as high as I could, and as a reward I got Amrita for getting her to rank 6. My eyes about popped out of my head. All the links for the team members are proving to be extremely high value, my plan to focus on them over other links is paying off.

Reading what some of you guys are doing, I'm about 22 hours into this game and I've never even heard of some of the abilities you're using. Makes me feel like a second play through would be worthwhile. The story and boss battle for the bathhouse was really interesting and well done by the way. This is officially the most time I've ever put into a handheld game. I literally sit across from my big screen and just play my Vita.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Reading what some of you guys are doing, I'm about 22 hours into this game and I've never even heard of some of the abilities you're using. Makes me feel like a second play through would be worthwhile. The story and boss battle for the bathhouse was really interesting and well done by the way. This is officially the most time I've ever put into a handheld game. I literally sit across from my big screen and just play my Vita.

What level are your team members social links? Each level for a team member unlocks a new ability for them, either a Persona ability or a random-chance battle ability, so focusing on those social links will probably get you a lot of what we're talking about.

ahrezmendi wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Reading what some of you guys are doing, I'm about 22 hours into this game and I've never even heard of some of the abilities you're using. Makes me feel like a second play through would be worthwhile. The story and boss battle for the bathhouse was really interesting and well done by the way. This is officially the most time I've ever put into a handheld game. I literally sit across from my big screen and just play my Vita.

What level are your team members social links? Each level for a team member unlocks a new ability for them, either a Persona ability or a random-chance battle ability, so focusing on those social links will probably get you a lot of what we're talking about.

So do you skip entire social links? I feel like I'm at between 2 and 5 with 7 different people. I keep wondering if I should start focusing on specific people. I'm naturally doing that because of organic choices based on the relationships. Like I'll spend time with Nanako because I feel bad for her and she's got such a sunny personality. Or I'll spend time with Yukiko or Marie because I like the characters and I want my character to develop stronger friendships.

Otherwise, though, I'm not focusing much on any specific social link.

Random question about Kanji Tatsumi's storyline.

Spoiler:

Am I the only one who found that uncomfortable? About 2 hours into that I literally googled "Persona 4 homophobic?". I was that uncomfortable by the performance, especially as done by the voice actor. I feel like it's been handled fairly sensitively in other ways, but it's still uncomfortable. Especially when the resolution is that he accepts that's part of who he is, then spends the next few scenes trying to act "manly".

DSGamer wrote:

So do you skip entire social links? I feel like I'm at between 2 and 5 with 7 different people. I keep wondering if I should start focusing on specific people. I'm naturally doing that because of organic choices based on the relationships. Like I'll spend time with Nanako because I feel bad for her and she's got such a sunny personality. Or I'll spend time with Yukiko or Marie because I like the characters and I want my character to develop stronger friendships.

Otherwise, though, I'm not focusing much on any specific social link.

Maybe it's just me, but I think your approach is a very satisfying way to play the game for the first time. It's how I have played Persona 3 and have started to play Persona 4, and while I'm sure there are times where (in 3, since I've only played a little ways into 4) I'm a little teensy bit gimped compared to a min-maxer, it's not noticeable enough for me to care.

Plus, there's no way I can neglect Nanako and not feel guilty about it!

DSGamer wrote:

Random question about Kanji Tatsumi's storyline.

I think it can be looked at in a couple different ways. Japan is not quite as forward-thinking about such things, but I think it's meant well. There's a really good piece by (IIRC) Leigh Alexander exploring the subject and speaking in Atlus' favor, but I don't want to point you to it until you're further into the game because it veers very heavily into major spoiler territory for a second character.

Minarchist wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Random question about Kanji Tatsumi's storyline.

I think it can be looked at in a couple different ways. Japan is not quite as forward-thinking about such things, but I think it's meant well. There's a really good piece by (IIRC) Leigh Alexander exploring the subject and speaking in Atlus' favor, but I don't want to point you to it until you're further into the game because it veers very heavily into major spoiler territory for a second character.

Sounds good. I'll keep that in mind for later. And yeah, I had the same thought. That putting my American or Western ideals on a Japanese video game perhaps isn't fair. So I definitely took it with a grain of salt. It was definitely awkward, though. Especially some of the dialogue.

No argument on that point.

DSGamer wrote:

Random question about Kanji Tatsumi's storyline.

Spoiler:

Am I the only one who found that uncomfortable? About 2 hours into that I literally googled "Persona 4 homophobic?". I was that uncomfortable by the performance, especially as done by the voice actor. I feel like it's been handled fairly sensitively in other ways, but it's still uncomfortable. Especially when the resolution is that he accepts that's part of who he is, then spends the next few scenes trying to act "manly".

I didn't, in fact that's part of why I liked his storyline.

Spoiler:

Kanji obviously has fears about his sexuality. He's been mocked by girls for having an interest in textiles, which is not surprising given it's his family business, but as a 15 year old kid he can't move past that. So he responds to this by rebelling, which further makes him an outcast, cementing his acceptance issues. Kanji says himself that his issue is acceptance, and I think it's this combined with his confusion that makes his story so interesting.

Not only that, but it shows in the design of his entire stage, and most notably his boss battle. Kanji is a 15 year old, who can't find acceptance from anybody, even himself, and has to deal with this in combination with questions about his own sexuality. So what does his shadow show up as? It shows up as a Queer Eye for the Straight Guy stereotypical homosexual, but during the fight it comments about acceptance (even screaming ACCEPT ME when you defeat it). The whole scenario is one of confusion, acceptance, and fear mixed into one.

I think Kanji is the most interesting character so far, but I'm waiting to see Naoto before I make final judgment. I read an article about a year ago analyzing Naoto's whole story, thankfully spoiler-free, and it's made me extremely interested to see how they handle it.

DSGamer wrote:

So do you skip entire social links? I feel like I'm at between 2 and 5 with 7 different people. I keep wondering if I should start focusing on specific people. I'm naturally doing that because of organic choices based on the relationships. Like I'll spend time with Nanako because I feel bad for her and she's got such a sunny personality. Or I'll spend time with Yukiko or Marie because I like the characters and I want my character to develop stronger friendships.

Otherwise, though, I'm not focusing much on any specific social link.

I don't skip any, unless if they're ones I haven't found yet, but I do focus specific links for various reasons. My strategy so far is to target team members first, so that I get access to as many bonuses that I can use during dungeon runs as possible. After that I focus links for arcana that I fuse a lot (sometimes this overlaps with rule #1). After that I focus on whoever will gain a rank on that day. If at all possible I avoid "spending time" with someone, most often there are better ways to use that time slot and then you can gain points with that person via some other activity.

For example (only kinda a spoiler, I'm just being careful):

Spoiler:

If I ever go to Chie, and it says the link won't progress yet, I don't hang out with her that day. Instead, I hang out with somebody else, then at my next "make lunch" opportunity I spend lunch time with Chie. Odds are this will allow my next encounter with Chie to be a progression.

Also, make darn sure that you have a persona of the same arcana as the people you are planning to hang out with. Whenever I am nearing the end of a dungeon, I plan out which links I want to progress, and I fuse personae from those arcana. This gives you a bonus to the link every time you meet with the person, and definitely makes a difference.

Lastly, I spend 99% of my time outside of the TV. I've gone into the TV a grand total of 3 times in the game, outside of forced events, and even that was 1 time too many. I aim to finish each mission in a single visit, that frees up a ton of time to work on links.

EDIT: In case you care/are interested, my social link count is:

Spoiler:

15. About half are 1-2, the other half are 3-5, and the two outliers are Yukiko and Yosuke at 6 and 8 respectively.

ahrezmendi wrote:

EDIT: In case you care/are interested, my social link count is:

Spoiler:

15. About half are 1-2, the other half are 3-5, and the two outliers are Yukiko and Yosuke at 6 and 8 respectively.

Spoiler:

For anyone else interested, I'm at 25 and it's 5/30 in my game. I'm definitely did not prioritize too well at first. I'm working pretty hard on my stats as well. I could have gone into the dungeon a few less times. I would have done it like ahrezmendi did if I had done it over again.