The Quarterly JRPG Thread - Q3 2016 - Persona 3! (FES / P3P)

Here we are! It's time! Want to journey through Tartarus and bust down on some cavities monsters? Here's what we're looking at for the gameplay stats.

Persona 3 FES:
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/lyuUig4.png)

Persona 3 Portable:
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/JAd3smv.png)

Thanks to bobbywatson on the analysis of the game breakdown (this may be updated, but let's start with this):

July: April to July
August: August to October
September: November to January

Have fun!!

I look forward to hearing nothing but Mass Destruction for the next 3 months

My Vita is ready! I think I'm going to listen to the soundtrack today at the office. It can only make the crappy project I'm working on better, right?

My Vita is also Re....wait. No. it needs charging.

My Vita is ALMOST ready!

Vitas always need charging.

I'm in!

Flashback to my first time ever playing the (PS2) Persona 3:

1) Pick Hard difficulty
2) First shadow fight on roof
3) Get critted
4) Miss
5) Get critted
6) Game Over

NormanTheIntern wrote:

Flashback to my first time ever playing the (PS2) Persona 3:

1) Pick Hard difficulty
2) First shadow fight on roof
3) Get critted
4) Miss
5) Get critted
6) Game Over

I think my mind was already set on playing this on 'Easy'.

NormanTheIntern wrote:

Flashback to my first time ever playing the (PS2) Persona 3:

1) Pick Hard difficulty
2) First shadow fight on roof
3) Get critted
4) Miss
5) Get critted
6) Game Over

My experience with it too, except:

7) Continue all the way through the game over the course of like 2 years
8) remember what life was like before P3
9) continue living as a soulless husk
10) frequently leave situations in life in order to mentally evaluate all the time you spent doing this one thing
11) buy persona 4 impulsively

Speaking of the difficulty...

So I'm playing Persona 4 Golden (having finished P3 just a couple years ago) this quarter, and I'm playing on Very Easy because I just want to enjoy experiencing the game and don't care about making it a challenge. I reach the first optional boss encounter, and... party wipe. I laughed. Silly Persona, even on Very Easy you can be surprisingly nasty!

They need a difficulty below Very Easy where you just mash attack and spam your big spells to win. Call it "Final Fantasy".

Yeah, that's pretty much what I expected Very Easy to be like.

The Press Turn system prevents the game from ever getting that easy. So long as enemies are able to exploit weaknesses and critical hits to get extra turns and incapacitate characters, there's a kind of difficulty floor below which you can't go.

I'll be in with FES. Going to use the PSCX2 emulator so I won't have to pull my ps2 out of storage.

shoptroll wrote:

I look forward to hearing nothing but Mass Destruction for the next 3 months :)

BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY

I'm planning to start playing this once I finish with my "obligations" for FFXIV. I'll be playing FES on Easy because I like to romp all over games. Also using the wiki because screw randomly trying spells to find enemies' weaknesses.

I won't be using a guide to maximize social links though; I'll save that for a future playthrough

I started to play this game twice in the past, and then got sidetracked by something else that I can't remember. Maybe the third time will be the one where I get to the end?

And since we're all posting cool music from the game:

Demyx wrote:

I'm planning to start playing this once I finish with my "obligations" for FFXIV. I'll be playing FES on Easy because I like to romp all over games. Also using the wiki because screw randomly trying spells to find enemies' weaknesses.

There's Mitsuru's Analyze for this, but on Easy, enemies die frequently before the analysis is completed

I started yesterday, because I was between games and could not decide what to play. (I want to start Xenoblade X, but I will be away for a few weeks soon, so it's probably not a good idea.) After an hour and a half, I'm almost at the end of April.

I'm playing the male character which I named Makoto Tanabe, because that game is so Japanese he needs to have a Japanese name.

I'm not sure I like the 'adventure-game type' navigation of the Portable version, but it sure is a lot quicker than walking around corridors in the FES version.

Most of the baddies are colour coded anyway (little bits of red in their design for fire resistance, etc) from what I remember.

I made a start on it as well, with the female option on P3P. (picking Elizabeth as the Velvet room assistant - not sure if that makes much of a difference or not though). I'm curious to see if they let any of the relationship stuff play out with the female NPC's or not.

The female MC has a lot of different relationships and dialogs so it's well worth playing if you've already done a male MC play through.

bobbywatson wrote:
Demyx wrote:

I'm planning to start playing this once I finish with my "obligations" for FFXIV. I'll be playing FES on Easy because I like to romp all over games. Also using the wiki because screw randomly trying spells to find enemies' weaknesses.

There's Mitsuru's Analyze for this, but on Easy, enemies die frequently before the analysis is completed :)

Annoyingly, Analyze doesn't work on bosses, which means you do have to either look up their weaknesses or try random attacks until something sticks.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:
Demyx wrote:

I'm planning to start playing this once I finish with my "obligations" for FFXIV. I'll be playing FES on Easy because I like to romp all over games. Also using the wiki because screw randomly trying spells to find enemies' weaknesses.

There's Mitsuru's Analyze for this, but on Easy, enemies die frequently before the analysis is completed :)

Annoyingly, Analyze doesn't work on bosses, which means you do have to either look up their weaknesses or try random attacks until something sticks.

Also you don't have analyze right from the start I think? I forget how Mitsuru works vs. Teddie in the early parts of the game.

shoptroll wrote:

Also you don't have analyze right from the start I think? I forget how Mitsuru works vs. Teddie in the early parts of the game.

In P3P, I got it during the first battle, but it may be different in the FES version.

You get Analyze right away in P3. You get an upgraded version later.

Quick question for the folks who are playing the FES version: When getting back to Tartarus, does Mitsuru ask you if you want to start at the last floor you were at, or do you have to go by increments of five using the device on the right side of the exit? E.g. I left Tartarus on floor #4 the night before, and now when I give it another go I have to start on floor 1 again until I unlock the device on floor #5? I'm pretty sure that was the case, but Portable let's me get right back to where I was...

Just curious. I guess that's a point in Portable's favor if I'm not imagining things.

As best I can remember, you're correct. Portable lets you pick up on the floor where you left off.

Beat FES a while back. Now that I have a PSTV, P3P is an option at least. Just for the female playthrough it might be fun. But considering I already own it, would have to catch it on sale.

If the digital version is on sale the next month or so maybe I'll join in.

Stele wrote:

Beat FES a while back. Now that I have a PSTV, P3P is an option at least. Just for the female playthrough it might be fun. But considering I already own it, would have to catch it on sale.

If the digital version is on sale the next month or so maybe I'll join in.

I think Atlus' PSP catalog goes on sale pretty regularly.

"Obtained Battle Panties..."

...sorry Yukari but Until I find better armour I fear your immediate future will consist of significant chafing -_-

I played some more tonight (about 20 minutes), and I have to say, now I kinda regret going with 'Easy'. There really is no challenge at all. Granted, I'm only on the 9th floor of Tartarus (on April 28th), so there is plenty of room for things to get harder.

Problem is: I'm not sure I want to start over and redo the three hours I've already done. I will need to think about this. Of course, since I've already been through it, I could skip through most of the dialog much faster this time around.

You can't change the difficulty level in game? Urgh...

I don't remember Normal being at all difficult so you probably won't get any challenge through the entire game.