Persona 4 Golden Catch-All

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Does Rise have an unhealthy obsession with red lights?

You have no idea.

ahrezmendi wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Does Rise have an unhealthy obsession with red lights?

You have no idea.

I c wat u did thar

Wow, I think I just had the best battle I'm ever going to have in this game. Minor spoilers of who you get later in the game, but I *think* we're all at this point already.

Spoiler:

I was going through the Secret Lab, and I ran into a 2x Opulent Hand + 1x Lightning weak group. Generally the best I hope for from these is taking out 1 of the hands, and that's if I'm really lucky. I double Zionga the third wheel, then start focusing one of the hands. When Yosuke comes up for the second time, he gets a critical on the hand. "Score" I'm thinking, I can definitely get that hand now. Then Yukiko pops up with her follow-up attack giving me an All Out Attack. "Double score!" I'm thinking, now I really can get one hand. Then Yukiko + Chie follow up with Twin Dragons, wiping out one hand and leaving the other with about 50hp. I takes 4 more rounds until I get a hit in, winning the battle. Then a Shuffle Time comes up, and an Emperor card gets drawn!

I came out with 6k XP, 8k yen, and an odd item. Yosuke, Yu, Yukiko, Rise, and Dominion all gained a level, Dominion learned Survive Dark, Yosuke get Wind Boost, and Chie is only 1 level from Counterstrike.

Needless to say, I cast Traesto immediately afterwards and saved my game. I don't think I'll be able to top that battle.

EDIT:
*Fist Pump*
I finally beat that blasted Domination Machine. Now I can actually make progress.

I've just gotten to the

Spoiler:

beginning of Naoto's dungeon

Phew, finally finished the Secret Lab. According to the game clock, that took me 8 hours, but it felt like a lot more. I had to go back to the previous area to level up a bit (and beat the bonus boss), then I could beat the mini-boss in the lab. The final boss of the lab was a LOT easier than the mini-boss, I won on the first attempt which is a first for me.

Now I can finally finish Emperor and Chariot, and get started on the Fortune link.

It's early October in-game. I'm really thinking Easy was a mistake.

I chose the level because I have a giant pile of SMT games, kids, a desk job, and my theater activities. Time is at a premium and I want to play all of these games.

Right now, in the game, I have over a million yen with a ton of merchant bait ready to sell. I have a lot of unfinished quests and and am pushing myself (personally) back on my exercise bike: both requirements made grinding through all of the available dungeons a very sensible thing to do.

But, wow. Skill level up cards. Level up cards. Magic Up. The boss fights are still satisfying, but the real challenge of the game has become the time management and social link aspect.

I now have 4 main party members social links maxed, with the 5th at rank 8, and the final one just starting. Nearly done with Death and Devil too. I really need to get my Understanding and Expression up though, I can't progress a couple links until I do.

Is there new game plus and if so, how does it work? If social links are maxed, what's the point? Can you not max all social links in one play through?

There is, but the only things that carry over are (according to GameFAQs):

Previous Play Time.
Amount of Yen you have.
Persona Compendium List.
Amount of persona slots.
Key items from Max Social Link Events.
Status Parameters (Eg. Courage, Knowledge, Etc).
Costumes
Daidara Shopping List
Skill Cards

You do not get to keep your character levels, social link levels, equipment, personae, and shadow analysis data.

You can max social links in one game, whether it's NG+ or not. NG+ is easier because you get additional conversation options because your traits are higher, and those options usually give you bonuses to social links.

Sitting around level 48 now and started the second term of school. The Void Quest dungeon brought a smile to my face at first, but it was significantly more difficult than what came before. Tough enemies and large floors made for a draining experience. I never lost a battle, but there were a few nail-biting moments. The final boss fight there was thankfully not too bad.

I spent a lot of time after that getting my party members' social links up. I've been playing somewhat haphazardly, doing a mix of reading, socializing, and jobs, and neglected a few class members' social links. I'm in somewhat better shape now. I just finished the class trip and am about to start

Spoiler:

Naoto's dungeon

. I'll probably go back through Void Quest one more time for the option quest before I really start on the new one.

I opened the box...NEVER OPEN THE BOX!

beanman101283 wrote:

I'll probably go back through Void Quest one more time for the option quest before I really start on the new one.

The item you get for beating the optional boss is so very worth it. I had to do this to get my levels up a bit to beat the mini-boss of the next dungeon, which is also significantly more difficult than Void Quest was (though the final boss was not very challenging). If you're 48 you shouldn't have much trouble with the next dungeon. I beat it with MC at 47, and everyone else around 44.

Is there cheating? I feel bad for taking all the girls out and especially after calling Yuki

Spoiler:

my girlfriend

.

Also, how do you reconcile a social link. I pissed Ai off, somehow.

Okay, this game just made me feel like an ass. [spoiler]Yumi expressed her love for me and I just walk out the door. There should have been a, " you're an awesome friend option". Not just be a cheating douche, or be a douchey douche.

The game doesn't punish you for having multiple romantic relationships, but it will change some later events. However, if you take a relationship to romance at a specific time during ANOTHER relationship, you can reverse the links. It's kinda tricky to do.

Oh, I bet you told Ai:

Spoiler:

She was a cold-hearted Female Doggo to the guy who asked her out at Okina Station

Am I right? You can fix the link just by spending more time with her, but it'll take a while.

Yup. I told Ai the truth.

Explain,

However, if you take a relationship to romance at a specific time during ANOTHER relationship, you can reverse the links. It's kinda tricky to do.

Please.

Here's how it can happen:

Spoiler:

Rank 8 is always where you get the option to turn a relationship into a romance. Rank 10 is where the link is unbreakable. Rank 9 is the danger zone. If you have one relationship at Rank 9 and you chose to make it romantic, say Yukiko, and you then reach Rank 8 with another, say Chie, and choose to make that a romance, then the first one will reverse (Yukiko).

Also important to note, some link reversals are permanent and cannot be undone, specifically Ai if you reverse the link while you're in a relationship with her. Supposedly this carries over into NG+, and prevents you from ever finishing the Moon link.

So, er, I didn't realize that some of the jobs open up more social links. So I'm playing catch-up on the Devil and Temperance arcanas. I also just met Ai, so that's yet another one I missed early on.

Still, i took out the optional boss in Void Quest without too much trouble, though again, those last few floors were a slog. I've got some good Personas though with good status buffs/ailments so I'm feeling pretty good about starting the next dungeon.

Argh, my eyes...havent been to this part of the game yet some of you are talking about.

I told you all to do the part-time jobs. You were warned!

My social links are hitting 10 at a crazy pace. I've now got 5 at Rank 10, 1 at Rank 9, 2 at Rank 8, and another at Rank 7. I'm really lagging on a few though, notably Jester and Aeon (1 and 4 respectively). I'm still missing Tower, but I think I'm on track to get all my links to 10 this game. Having the evenings to help with times when they won't progress has been incredibly useful, it allows you to reserve daytime encounters purely for ranking up, and use night time/lunches to get those extra few points you need.

Once Lovers is done, next on my list is Moon and Hanged Man. I also need to get back on track with Hermit, that one's been ignored for too long.

EDIT: Now I leave you all with possibly my favorite track from the entire game.

Can we make Google doc of the S. Links? I've only got 18 and I feel like I should have more, this far in (November).

Are you worried an FAQ will spoil things? There are some spoiler free ones.

As an absolute point of reference, I'm on 10/12 and I have 20 links. There are 2 I know of that I don't have yet, and I think we determined earlier in the thread that there are only 22 in the game. Yep, just looked it, there are 22 total.

I just realized I missed the

Spoiler:

band

social link. Better luck next time, I guess.

Question about what I think is the last boss. It's December 15th and...

Spoiler:

I'm fighting Adachi and he's not too tough. His second form is pretty tough. I'm wondering, though. I've seen people talk about Valentine's Day and other events after December. Should I try and beat Adachi now or build up more links, etc.? I've basically been grinding, fusing Personas and hanging out in dungeons for the last 3 or 4 hours of gameplay time. I've managed to make it all the way through shadow Inaba to what I think is the end, but I feel like there might be more time to do something else on the outside of the Midnight Channel. Thoughts?

And finished. Wow. Never thought I'd finish a Persona game. Hooray for portability! Now I really want to play Persona 4 Arena and watch the anime. Not sure whether I should play P3P.

P3P has some in-game references to P4, so you might get a kick out of those. It also incorporates some of the combat additions (co-op attacks) though they function slightly differently. Both games get tied together in P4 Arena though, so if you want to have full understanding of that game then playing P3P will help.

I was about to ask about Persona 4 Arena. What's the "best" version of that to get? 360 or PS3? I prefer 360 in general, but I've heard things about the 360 version being worse.

360 had online issues at launch, but those have long since been fixed. I have it on 360 and it's perfect.

ahrezmendi wrote:

360 had online issues at launch, but those have long since been fixed. I have it on 360 and it's perfect.

Thanks. I'm tempted to play it before touching P3P. Mostly because I don't think I can do another 100 hour Persona game right now. But secondly because I want more Persona 4 content without replaying the game.

Is Arena's story enough to get you through if you don't typically like fighting games?

Spoilers for November in P4:

Spoiler:

Naoto's an interesting character to bring along in dungeons. She's sort of a jack of all trades, at least starting out, so it's easy to be sort of lazy and let her handle most of the magic casting. Of course, you can still run out of SP if you're not careful. Her team attack with Kanji is amazing.

Nanako's kidnapping wasn't much of a shocker, but i still feel super compelled to go save her. Her dungeon is really nice to look at, relaxing even. Too bad those stupid Shadows ruin the mood.

As far as combat mechanics, I think one thing I like about P4G over P3P is the wider variety of resistances and weaknesses enemies employ. I find myself using status effects more often in this game. The puzzle-ish aspect of the game is stronger.

However, (spoilers regarding party members and dungeon crawling in November)

Spoiler:

Rise's abilities from leveling up and social link improvement are really overpowered. I don't really mind, but on Normal they can take a lot of the tension out of exploring a new dungeon when she tells you exactly what a monster's weakness is. This is sort of compounded by Naoto having a ton of different elemental attacks to start with, increasing the odds that Rise will be able to find a weakness right away. It's probably less of an issue on harder difficulties.

So far I've only got 2 social links at rank 10, though there are a bunch at 7 and 8. I wish I had paid more attention to Nanako and Dojima's social links, though I'm hoping I still have time to increase them.

I also wish I had done more dungeons in one or two runs rather than stretching them out. I have a ton of SP-restoring items, and having those extra days to improve social links would probably have made a noticeable difference by this point in the game.