Walking around a 3D world with only very few things to interact with <<< an entire second route with new Social Links and etc is how many people feel about it. Obviously it would have been nice if P3 Reload had everything in it, but at least they didn't stop selling P3P, as Capcom did with Resident Evils 2 and 3.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Walking around a 3D world with only very few things to interact with <<< an entire second route with new Social Links and etc is how many people feel about it. Obviously it would have been nice if P3 Reload had everything in it, but at least they didn't stop selling P3P, as Capcom did with Resident Evils 2 and 3.
Yea those folks should definitely just make sure they note that as it's a pretty big tradeoff.
It's not like I wasn't fast traveling to the closest spot to whoever I wanted to talk to anyways in P4/P5. The walking between them was something I would absolutely have cut out if I could.
After a while, yeah you're fast traveling. But I think there was a certain vibe of ending the day in the classroom and then having to walk home or to an event that P3P doesn't have. Vibe, routine, something like that.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I could see enjoying the feeling of walking around town or whatever it is, but to me, pressing the analog stick to make him walk to the mall and get to the point where you can press X to Talk isn't a huge value-add compared to "Click the Mall on the map, click the Old people to talk to them" (then have an identical conversation).
It would be different if there were say, random battles you could get into, treasure to find, hidden pathways, events based on where you went in a specific day, but none of those really exist in P3's game format.
Functionally it's very similar, and I was quick to realize that last night when I booted up P3P. Moving a cursor and clicking on an NPC to talk to them is functionally nearly identical to walking up to them to talk to them.
The difference is in immersiveness and worldfeel. That's a made up word that I just invented.
P4 and P5 and moving your character around the environment is more immersive than moving a cursor around a top-down isometric area map and clicking on a bunch of things.
That being said, I think I'll be okay with the P3P version. Especially since I know that at the end of this very long road of Persona and SMT game content that I'm going down, I'll get to play a version of P3 that has the more immersive world exploration. It will serve as a nice motivator to keep going. I'm very excited to play P3 Reload. The character art in that game is absolutely stunning from what I've seen in trailers and marketing materials and such. I can't wait.
I could see enjoying the feeling of walking around town or whatever it is, but to me, pressing the analog stick to make him walk to the mall and get to the point where you can press X to Talk isn't a huge value-add compared to "Click the Mall on the map, click the Old people to talk to them" (then have an identical conversation).
You can reduce every action in a video game like that. All you're ever doing is pressing a button when you are supposed to press a button.
For many people it's the experience they are playing for.
I'm not just trying to see a bunch of scenes appear on my screen. I could watch a youtube video for that experience. I'm enjoying being a character in the world. Walking through it, enjoying the scenery and being a part of that world.
For me personally, there really wasn't any gameplay vibe of its kind at the time. It really is/was "Japanese High School Simulator". Get up, walk to school, take a class, walk home. Repeat for weeks and months on end. Yeah that sounds... utterly ridiculous when typed out. I dunno, it just worked. But it's also the reason I have no desire to replay the game right after beating it. The last thing I want to do is go through that whole routine again.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I could see enjoying the feeling of walking around town or whatever it is, but to me, pressing the analog stick to make him walk to the mall and get to the point where you can press X to Talk isn't a huge value-add compared to "Click the Mall on the map, click the Old people to talk to them" (then have an identical conversation).
You can reduce every action in a video game like that. All you're ever doing is pressing a button when you are supposed to press a button.
For many people it's the experience they are playing for.
I'm not just trying to see a bunch of scenes appear on my screen. I could watch a youtube video for that experience. I'm enjoying being a character in the world. Walking through it, enjoying the scenery and being a part of that world.
Like I added on to the comment, if there WAS scenery, things that changed, etc. I would have to agree. Since the Persona world of 3 is at its most basic, I don't think you'll be "enjoying" static scenery that literally hasn't updated at all by month 3. It's like playing an RPG with pre-rendered backgrounds (FF7, etc) but instead of going to new places with new backgrounds, you just saw Sector 7 for 80 hours.
Also while distracted, I fired up P3P to get a quick preview of what's in store for me for the next game in my massive Persona project. I've never played Persona 3 before, and to be honest I've never even looked at gameplay videos or anything for the original version (or portable version in this case.) Much to my surprise, I did not seem to be able to move my character around and explore the environment. I was given an isometric top-down area map and a cursor that I could hover around and click on people and objects with. Is that how the whole game is? I only played for like 20 minutes, just to get a flavor for it. But this seems really weird. And not at all what I was expecting, having only played P4 and P5 up to this point.
Persona 3 didn't really fit on the PSP, they had to squeeze it. They replaced the overworld with a menu, replaced 3d cutscenes with VN-style conversations, and removed the prerendered movies. The original game is much closer to P4.
That's actually really interesting. I have read that a lot of people say P3P is the definitive way to play the original game, due to all the additional content and the female MC and such.
But after seeing and reading what you guys are saying about it being slimmed down, I'm finding it a little hard to believe that P3P is the best version. But I don't think P3 FES is available in PS4/PS5 format. Guess I'll just stick with P3P and I'll get my fix of world-exploration when I play P3 Reload at the end of this whole project. I'm making that game the capstone.
There can be a lot of hyperbole about which is the best Persona 3. Many people understandably value the female protagonist and how some events can play out differently in her run enough to be wiling to sacrifice a lot of things to have it. Many others understandably don't think it was worth the tradeoff of so many things, including the epilogue add on. Many people hated how the epilogue add on plays and think it was no big loss.
It took a while for the Persona team to find their footing after 3's breakout success. Add on stuff was really uneven at first, not just in the games either. The first go at an anime tied into the game wasn't super well received either.
I could see enjoying the feeling of walking around town or whatever it is, but to me, pressing the analog stick to make him walk to the mall and get to the point where you can press X to Talk isn't a huge value-add compared to "Click the Mall on the map, click the Old people to talk to them" (then have an identical conversation).
You can reduce every action in a video game like that. All you're ever doing is pressing a button when you are supposed to press a button.
For many people it's the experience they are playing for.
I'm not just trying to see a bunch of scenes appear on my screen. I could watch a youtube video for that experience. I'm enjoying being a character in the world. Walking through it, enjoying the scenery and being a part of that world.
Like I added on to the comment, if there WAS scenery, things that changed, etc. I would have to agree. Since the Persona world of 3 is at its most basic, I don't think you'll be "enjoying" static scenery that literally hasn't updated at all by month 3. It's like playing an RPG with pre-rendered backgrounds (FF7, etc) but instead of going to new places with new backgrounds, you just saw Sector 7 for 80 hours.
I no doubt I can totally see that side.
But there's a big difference between deciding when to speed those parts up and when to enjoy them vs never getting to do it at all.
I'm now inside Jail 6 of Strikers. Without knowing exactly how long the jail is, I am guesstimating that I'm about 60% into it, or more.
I'm really enjoying the story quite a bit. It's much more streamlined, and much more laser focused on the A-Plot. There's not really any side plots this time. And it feels kinda weird to not have social links or any of that. Even though the combat is musou-lite, the rest of the game still feels very Persona-y so it feels pretty glaring at some of the omissions to core gameplay loops.
I'm also not super fond of the fact that there's no romance options. It feels weird to me that in my playthrough of Royal, Joker and Ann were together romantically and they basically promised themselves to each other and committed to a long distance relationship. And then none of that is present in Strikers. Feels weird. I would have either liked to see a save import option, to bring some of that forward, or else do a Mass Effect 3 style "decision comic" where the game takes you through an illustrated synopsis of the previous game and lets you pick the major relevant decisions.
Also while distracted, I fired up P3P to get a quick preview of what's in store for me for the next game in my massive Persona project. I've never played Persona 3 before, and to be honest I've never even looked at gameplay videos or anything for the original version (or portable version in this case.) Much to my surprise, I did not seem to be able to move my character around and explore the environment. I was given an isometric top-down area map and a cursor that I could hover around and click on people and objects with. Is that how the whole game is? I only played for like 20 minutes, just to get a flavor for it. But this seems really weird. And not at all what I was expecting, having only played P4 and P5 up to this point.
Persona 3 didn't really fit on the PSP, they had to squeeze it. They replaced the overworld with a menu, replaced 3d cutscenes with VN-style conversations, and removed the prerendered movies. The original game is much closer to P4.
That's actually really interesting. I have read that a lot of people say P3P is the definitive way to play the original game, due to all the additional content and the female MC and such.
But after seeing and reading what you guys are saying about it being slimmed down, I'm finding it a little hard to believe that P3P is the best version. But I don't think P3 FES is available in PS4/PS5 format. Guess I'll just stick with P3P and I'll get my fix of world-exploration when I play P3 Reload at the end of this whole project. I'm making that game the capstone.
The writing for FemC is just better. That's the only thing P3P has going for it.
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I'm now inside Jail 6 of Strikers. Without knowing exactly how long the jail is, I am guesstimating that I'm about 60% into it, or more.
I'm really enjoying the story quite a bit. It's much more streamlined, and much more laser focused on the A-Plot. There's not really any side plots this time. And it feels kinda weird to not have social links or any of that. Even though the combat is musou-lite, the rest of the game still feels very Persona-y so it feels pretty glaring at some of the omissions to core gameplay loops.
I'm also not super fond of the fact that there's no romance options. It feels weird to me that in my playthrough of Royal, Joker and Ann were together romantically and they basically promised themselves to each other and committed to a long distance relationship. And then none of that is present in Strikers. Feels weird. I would have either liked to see a save import option, to bring some of that forward, or else do a Mass Effect 3 style "decision comic" where the game takes you through an illustrated synopsis of the previous game and lets you pick the major relevant decisions.
The last couple Jails are incredibly short. Very minor gameplay spoiler thing
Make sure everybody's leveled and kitted up because for literally the first time in the entire game, before you fight the last boss, it goes "Hey, you're going to need to use the entire party. Might want to do that."
It is a super cool last boss though, and one of the few times that I feel like most of the mechanics actually clicked together.
Cool, thanks for the tip. I think I have been using everyone fairly evenly. I just popped the trophy last night for getting all 4 mastery unlocks on Wolf. And I got the trophy for completing everyone's mastery unlocks.
I think Joker is 50 or 51, and everyone else is probably in the 47-49 range. Roughly. That's from memory without being able to check it right now.
Overall, I'd say I'm enjoying Strikers a lot. It's not as good as Royal, because the combat doesn't hold up as well, and I don't like the slimmed down social aspect. But the story is definitely top tier. And the voice actors are nailing it.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
As someone who essentially never changes characters in games it's a good tip but also not a huge deal. I certainly did not go out of my way to use my other characters and never had any issues. So be prepared but don't worry that much.
I really liked how Strikers focused on the Phantom thieves as a group mainly. It did a really nice job of making them feel like an actual group of friends, something p4/5 occasionally struggles with due to the need to keep things open for individual s-links.
The lack of a continued romance was a bit of a letdown, but overall I very much enjoyed the game being a bit more about the group.
I beat Strikers on Friday. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Solid plot, and was great to get to spend more time with the Phantom Thieves. The new characters -- Wolf, Sophie, and Akane -- were all great. I wish the game had more of the social elements and a bit more depth. But at the same time I can also appreciate that they delivered a streamlined experience with very little bloat. The combat was the weakest part of the game. It fell somewhere between musou and hack'n'slash and didn't really satisfy in either.
I have moved on to P3P. I've got about 10 hours or so on the game now. The thing I'm enjoying the most is the dungeon crawling. I've really enjoyed every trip so far into Tartarus. I like the old school vibe. It reminds me of playing Diablo 1 or something. Just a dungeon with a ton of floors to explore. I've already hit the max for where I can get to right now, which is 16. I'm assuming that I'm just waiting around for a story beat to happen in the real world since I can't go any farther in the Dark Hour.
If I had one criticism so far of the game, after roughly 10 hours, is that the A-Plot is extremely thin. In fact, I'd say there really isn't an A-Plot at all. At least not yet. It's more of a vibe or a situation. They have provided a setting and some background lore, but I have very little by way of motivation or objective. The best I've got is "Explore Tartarus" and I have done as much of that as they will allow me. I tried going back in to grind and it's not worth it. The XP given per mob has dropped to insignificant levels.
Anyway, that's not to say I'm not enjoying it. I am! The whole moving-cursor-to-explore thing isn't bad. I've already gotten used to it. The game feels very Visual Novel-y, which is fine because I enjoy VNs. I am playing as FeMC since she is the unique feature of this version.
OK, but will he have his Strange Journey characterisation or his SMT IV characterisation? Or will he have a brand new personality for his third showing?
I'm in August now. I'm on floor 107 in Tartarus. I recently recruited Koromaru. I've taken him out on a couple runs through the tower. He's such a good boy.
I also recruited Aigis a while ago. I'm struggling to find a place for her on my team since all of her abilities seem to be physical attacks. Putting her on the team feels like I'm handicapping myself since she can't hit any elemental weaknesses. And anybody can bring physical. So she isn't offering me anything unique.
On the topic of elemental weaknesses, are there any spells in the game that do Light Damage or Curse Damage like in P5? I've got Hama and Mudo, which are insta-kills. But I don't seem to have any spells that just do damage in those types. I'm also really missing my Psi and Nuke damage. Nuke seems like it would be a perfect fit for Aigis.
Did they add any new elements to the game in Reload? What about the auto-explore dungeon feature? Is that still around? I did it the one time that they made me do it for the tutorial, but I have never used it again since then.
The story is still pretty slow and still feels more like a bit of background info, rather than a primary motivation. That being said, I'm still having a blast with the game. The randomized dungeon floors and dungeon crawling are really hitting the spot for me, and I love the time I'm spending in Tartarus even if the story is a bit weak.
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
On the topic of elemental weaknesses, are there any spells in the game that do Light Damage or Curse Damage like in P5? I've got Hama and Mudo, which are insta-kills. But I don't seem to have any spells that just do damage in those types. I'm also really missing my Psi and Nuke damage. Nuke seems like it would be a perfect fit for Aigis.
No, light and dark were instakill only for every game up until IV Apocalypse, as I recall.
Did they add any new elements to the game in Reload? What about the auto-explore dungeon feature? Is that still around? I did it the one time that they made me do it for the tutorial, but I have never used it again since then.
No new elements, but the Kou- and Ei- lines introduced in P5 were added so you get damage-dealing dark and light elemental attacks.
Reload has two auto-explore features: Sometimes a party member will volunteer to scout ahead, and if you accept they'll uncover the stairs and open chests between them and your position, although they won't necessarily explore the entire floor. They'll reunite with the rest of the party as soon as you go to the next floor. Additionally, Fuuka will learn a skill to obtain a map of the whole current floor by spending SP.
I also recruited Aigis a while ago. I'm struggling to find a place for her on my team since all of her abilities seem to be physical attacks. Putting her on the team feels like I'm handicapping myself since she can't hit any elemental weaknesses. And anybody can bring physical. So she isn't offering me anything unique.
Aigis is kinda strange in P3/P but her niche is that she's got like most of the buff abilities. She's there to support you with buffs and be generally reliable in a boss fight since there's actually not many that block physical.
General question about the SMT/Persona series and how you all approach the physical attack skills:
Do y'all actually use the physical attack skills? I am not a fan of the fact that they cost HP to use, and because of that, I pretty much avoid those skills as much as possible. In P5 Royal, which had a pretty good Technical system, I would sometimes use the abilities that said they did "colossal" damage if it would trigger a technical. But other than that I never used them.
That's part of why I struggle with a character like Aigis in P3P. Since I avoid using the physical abilities, and all of her attack skills are physical, I just don't have much use for her. And I recruited Shinjiro the other night and he seems to be in a similar situation. All his abilities are physical. I also avoid the personas that have entirely physical kits, and in P3P that seems to be a lot of personas. There seems to be more physical personas than non-physical. So I feel like I'm avoiding 55-60% of all the personas in the game.
Obviously since that is a staple of the way the series works, the devs expect players to use them, and then just heal it back. But I don't like that. I could just not take that damage in the first place, and then spend an extra turn on damage, rather than spending that turn on casting a heal spell. The damage those abilities do just doesn't seem worth it. I can do 60 damage with my basic attack, or I can do 100 with an ability and also take damage on that character, and then have to spend someone's turn to heal the damage back that I took.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
My main character is always a Physical attacker.
Get the charge skill, pierce and focus on skills that crit. Get big damage and the ability to get a press turn(or whichever system it is) against any monster.
I'm just never really into my main character in anything being elemental based.
General question about the SMT/Persona series and how you all approach the physical attack skills:
Do y'all actually use the physical attack skills? I am not a fan of the fact that they cost HP to use, and because of that, I pretty much avoid those skills as much as possible. In P5 Royal, which had a pretty good Technical system, I would sometimes use the abilities that said they did "colossal" damage if it would trigger a technical. But other than that I never used them.
That's part of why I struggle with a character like Aigis in P3P. Since I avoid using the physical abilities, and all of her attack skills are physical, I just don't have much use for her. And I recruited Shinjiro the other night and he seems to be in a similar situation. All his abilities are physical. I also avoid the personas that have entirely physical kits, and in P3P that seems to be a lot of personas. There seems to be more physical personas than non-physical. So I feel like I'm avoiding 55-60% of all the personas in the game.
Obviously since that is a staple of the way the series works, the devs expect players to use them, and then just heal it back. But I don't like that. I could just not take that damage in the first place, and then spend an extra turn on damage, rather than spending that turn on casting a heal spell. The damage those abilities do just doesn't seem worth it. I can do 60 damage with my basic attack, or I can do 100 with an ability and also take damage on that character, and then have to spend someone's turn to heal the damage back that I took.
Phys attacks are awesome, and healing is generally plentiful. Most bosses aren't immune to it, and there are often better buffs you can get (for example, Pierce in Nocturne) than you'd have for an element.
Also, if you Gaea Rage an enemy group down a round early, you came out ahead because they didn't get a turn's worth of whacking at you. Generally the best defense is all of the enemies being dead before their turn begins.
The HP cost is like that to enable you to build as a beefy character without having to worry about beefy characters having a shit mana pool. By the midway point of most SMT games the HP cost becomes pretty irrelevant though compared to MP, especially when healing is easier to come by than MP restoration.
In many SMTs they also love to do the "if the MC goes down it's instantly game over" schtick so being able to take strays without getting a game over is also a very helpful thing.
One unfortunate thing about the way most SMT games pan out in the late game is that both the player character and the enemies get stronger by presenting fewer weaknesses. It becomes easier and easier to paper over a monster's one weakness with a resistance skill (if it had any weaknesses to begin with!), and then defeat the enemy's resistance skills with whatever penetration skill exists (and Physical is the one that most reliably gets that, though SMTV had a move for every element that had an "ignores resistances" modifier on it). In other words, the game tends to converge on weaknesses and resistances not really mattering, at which point you want the thing that's doing the most raw damage-- and usually that's Physical.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
The more recent games have been a bit better about making it harder to do that. I think V had some rotating weaknesses for bosses and made it harder for you to paper over MC's weaknesses.
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At least in p4/5 debilitate>charge>hassou tobi was my MCs permanent skill rotation on bosses once I could get it. Others buffed MC/did some damage, but nothing came close to charged hassou tobi.
The health cost was no problem since you have access to absurd amounts of healing midgame onwards.
One unfortunate thing about the way most SMT games pan out in the late game is that both the player character and the enemies get stronger by presenting fewer weaknesses. It becomes easier and easier to paper over a monster's one weakness with a resistance skill (if it had any weaknesses to begin with!), and then defeat the enemy's resistance skills with whatever penetration skill exists (and Physical is the one that most reliably gets that, though SMTV had a move for every element that had an "ignores resistances" modifier on it). In other words, the game tends to converge on weaknesses and resistances not really mattering, at which point you want the thing that's doing the most raw damage-- and usually that's Physical.
Actually my biggest problem with the series of late cause combat eventually becomes pretty one-note.
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Yea those folks should definitely just make sure they note that as it's a pretty big tradeoff.
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There are people for whom that is a complete deal breaker and those that could even prefer it.
But it's a stark difference that is good for people to be aware of.
It would be different if there were say, random battles you could get into, treasure to find, hidden pathways, events based on where you went in a specific day, but none of those really exist in P3's game format.
The difference is in immersiveness and worldfeel. That's a made up word that I just invented.
P4 and P5 and moving your character around the environment is more immersive than moving a cursor around a top-down isometric area map and clicking on a bunch of things.
That being said, I think I'll be okay with the P3P version. Especially since I know that at the end of this very long road of Persona and SMT game content that I'm going down, I'll get to play a version of P3 that has the more immersive world exploration. It will serve as a nice motivator to keep going. I'm very excited to play P3 Reload. The character art in that game is absolutely stunning from what I've seen in trailers and marketing materials and such. I can't wait.
But it's a long road to get there.
My entire project list:
P5 Royal - Complete
P5 Strikers - In Progress
P3P Remaster
SMT3: Nocturne
P4G
P3 Reload
SMT5: Vengeance
You can reduce every action in a video game like that. All you're ever doing is pressing a button when you are supposed to press a button.
For many people it's the experience they are playing for.
I'm not just trying to see a bunch of scenes appear on my screen. I could watch a youtube video for that experience. I'm enjoying being a character in the world. Walking through it, enjoying the scenery and being a part of that world.
Like I added on to the comment, if there WAS scenery, things that changed, etc. I would have to agree. Since the Persona world of 3 is at its most basic, I don't think you'll be "enjoying" static scenery that literally hasn't updated at all by month 3. It's like playing an RPG with pre-rendered backgrounds (FF7, etc) but instead of going to new places with new backgrounds, you just saw Sector 7 for 80 hours.
There can be a lot of hyperbole about which is the best Persona 3. Many people understandably value the female protagonist and how some events can play out differently in her run enough to be wiling to sacrifice a lot of things to have it. Many others understandably don't think it was worth the tradeoff of so many things, including the epilogue add on. Many people hated how the epilogue add on plays and think it was no big loss.
It took a while for the Persona team to find their footing after 3's breakout success. Add on stuff was really uneven at first, not just in the games either. The first go at an anime tied into the game wasn't super well received either.
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I no doubt I can totally see that side.
But there's a big difference between deciding when to speed those parts up and when to enjoy them vs never getting to do it at all.
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I'm really enjoying the story quite a bit. It's much more streamlined, and much more laser focused on the A-Plot. There's not really any side plots this time. And it feels kinda weird to not have social links or any of that. Even though the combat is musou-lite, the rest of the game still feels very Persona-y so it feels pretty glaring at some of the omissions to core gameplay loops.
I'm also not super fond of the fact that there's no romance options. It feels weird to me that in my playthrough of Royal, Joker and Ann were together romantically and they basically promised themselves to each other and committed to a long distance relationship. And then none of that is present in Strikers. Feels weird. I would have either liked to see a save import option, to bring some of that forward, or else do a Mass Effect 3 style "decision comic" where the game takes you through an illustrated synopsis of the previous game and lets you pick the major relevant decisions.
The writing for FemC is just better. That's the only thing P3P has going for it.
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The last couple Jails are incredibly short. Very minor gameplay spoiler thing
It is a super cool last boss though, and one of the few times that I feel like most of the mechanics actually clicked together.
I think Joker is 50 or 51, and everyone else is probably in the 47-49 range. Roughly. That's from memory without being able to check it right now.
Overall, I'd say I'm enjoying Strikers a lot. It's not as good as Royal, because the combat doesn't hold up as well, and I don't like the slimmed down social aspect. But the story is definitely top tier. And the voice actors are nailing it.
The lack of a continued romance was a bit of a letdown, but overall I very much enjoyed the game being a bit more about the group.
I have moved on to P3P. I've got about 10 hours or so on the game now. The thing I'm enjoying the most is the dungeon crawling. I've really enjoyed every trip so far into Tartarus. I like the old school vibe. It reminds me of playing Diablo 1 or something. Just a dungeon with a ton of floors to explore. I've already hit the max for where I can get to right now, which is 16. I'm assuming that I'm just waiting around for a story beat to happen in the real world since I can't go any farther in the Dark Hour.
If I had one criticism so far of the game, after roughly 10 hours, is that the A-Plot is extremely thin. In fact, I'd say there really isn't an A-Plot at all. At least not yet. It's more of a vibe or a situation. They have provided a setting and some background lore, but I have very little by way of motivation or objective. The best I've got is "Explore Tartarus" and I have done as much of that as they will allow me. I tried going back in to grind and it's not worth it. The XP given per mob has dropped to insignificant levels.
Anyway, that's not to say I'm not enjoying it. I am! The whole moving-cursor-to-explore thing isn't bad. I've already gotten used to it. The game feels very Visual Novel-y, which is fine because I enjoy VNs. I am playing as FeMC since she is the unique feature of this version.
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Really excited for the fight that lets you fight the clique all at once, that's my kind of action.
Midori is apparently a well known reliable leaker among the Sega/Atlus community so chances greater than zero at any rate.
At this point I'll take remasters of the PSP versions.
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I'm in August now. I'm on floor 107 in Tartarus. I recently recruited Koromaru. I've taken him out on a couple runs through the tower. He's such a good boy.
I also recruited Aigis a while ago. I'm struggling to find a place for her on my team since all of her abilities seem to be physical attacks. Putting her on the team feels like I'm handicapping myself since she can't hit any elemental weaknesses. And anybody can bring physical. So she isn't offering me anything unique.
On the topic of elemental weaknesses, are there any spells in the game that do Light Damage or Curse Damage like in P5? I've got Hama and Mudo, which are insta-kills. But I don't seem to have any spells that just do damage in those types. I'm also really missing my Psi and Nuke damage. Nuke seems like it would be a perfect fit for Aigis.
Did they add any new elements to the game in Reload? What about the auto-explore dungeon feature? Is that still around? I did it the one time that they made me do it for the tutorial, but I have never used it again since then.
The story is still pretty slow and still feels more like a bit of background info, rather than a primary motivation. That being said, I'm still having a blast with the game. The randomized dungeon floors and dungeon crawling are really hitting the spot for me, and I love the time I'm spending in Tartarus even if the story is a bit weak.
No, light and dark were instakill only for every game up until IV Apocalypse, as I recall.
No new elements, but the Kou- and Ei- lines introduced in P5 were added so you get damage-dealing dark and light elemental attacks.
Reload has two auto-explore features: Sometimes a party member will volunteer to scout ahead, and if you accept they'll uncover the stairs and open chests between them and your position, although they won't necessarily explore the entire floor. They'll reunite with the rest of the party as soon as you go to the next floor. Additionally, Fuuka will learn a skill to obtain a map of the whole current floor by spending SP.
Do y'all actually use the physical attack skills? I am not a fan of the fact that they cost HP to use, and because of that, I pretty much avoid those skills as much as possible. In P5 Royal, which had a pretty good Technical system, I would sometimes use the abilities that said they did "colossal" damage if it would trigger a technical. But other than that I never used them.
That's part of why I struggle with a character like Aigis in P3P. Since I avoid using the physical abilities, and all of her attack skills are physical, I just don't have much use for her. And I recruited Shinjiro the other night and he seems to be in a similar situation. All his abilities are physical. I also avoid the personas that have entirely physical kits, and in P3P that seems to be a lot of personas. There seems to be more physical personas than non-physical. So I feel like I'm avoiding 55-60% of all the personas in the game.
Obviously since that is a staple of the way the series works, the devs expect players to use them, and then just heal it back. But I don't like that. I could just not take that damage in the first place, and then spend an extra turn on damage, rather than spending that turn on casting a heal spell. The damage those abilities do just doesn't seem worth it. I can do 60 damage with my basic attack, or I can do 100 with an ability and also take damage on that character, and then have to spend someone's turn to heal the damage back that I took.
Get the charge skill, pierce and focus on skills that crit. Get big damage and the ability to get a press turn(or whichever system it is) against any monster.
I'm just never really into my main character in anything being elemental based.
Phys attacks are awesome, and healing is generally plentiful. Most bosses aren't immune to it, and there are often better buffs you can get (for example, Pierce in Nocturne) than you'd have for an element.
Also, if you Gaea Rage an enemy group down a round early, you came out ahead because they didn't get a turn's worth of whacking at you. Generally the best defense is all of the enemies being dead before their turn begins.
In many SMTs they also love to do the "if the MC goes down it's instantly game over" schtick so being able to take strays without getting a game over is also a very helpful thing.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
The health cost was no problem since you have access to absurd amounts of healing midgame onwards.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Actually my biggest problem with the series of late cause combat eventually becomes pretty one-note.