I think all of the new mechanic additions and quality of life changes made it much easier and enjoyable to actually play
But the new narrative additions almost universally weaken the story and make it a much less satisfying experience
Specifically
The entire Third Semester Palace didn't land with me at all, Yoshizawa's actually interesting story really fell off a cliff with the SHE IS ACTUALLY HER SISTER AHA reveal and the new cutscene ending is about 500% worse than the Phantom Thieves riding off into the sunset together after ditching the cops
It is doubly frustrating because the big climax gunshot in vanilla P5 is straight up one of my favorite moments in games and their attempt to just...keep the story going after that high point feels like a real hollow rehash.
That's kind of my whole issue with even the concept of P5R is that the ending of the Vanilla P5 is so good and mucks with it:
like, the original ending of you defeating the villain, and then it not fixing shit at all for you in the real world, and then you go to jail for bullshit reasons, and the MC can't solve it on his own is great. I love the concept coming back in the end of all the people you connected with rallying to save you, and through this herculean effort, manage to get you out of jail.
But as the ending shows, the government and justice system don't like losing and are just watching you like a hawk for you to fuck up again. It's a very strong ending with a lot to say about current Japanese society, and the driving away in the car is such a beautiful ending.
Adding anything to mess with that just bums me out.
Now to be fair, I have not played Royale, just watched the ending stuff and read a synopsis.
I thought you got the reading for someone and then you went and hung out with them and it would boost how much that hangout would raise the social link
I did not realize that it works like a hangout in its own right and the points go in immediately
I should have been doing one of these day and night
It is confusing since the stat-up reading does work like that. But the way it works is actually much, much better and more useful. It's definitely the single most useful ability on the real-world side and its not even close.
It's really useful that she says "hey I bet you could be closer with them now" when you've hit the point it would work. It was great to level up a person during the day and again at night.
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
this is the second time I've played P3, and neither time have I really understood the utility of splitting up the party
it doesn't feel much faster, and even if it WAS faster that feels counter-intuitive cause if I just blast through the floors I'll probably be super underleveled for bosses
this is the second time I've played P3, and neither time have I really understood the utility of splitting up the party
it doesn't feel much faster, and even if it WAS faster that feels counter-intuitive cause if I just blast through the floors I'll probably be super underleveled for bosses
It's mostly to have them grab all the loot from chests before Mr. Reaper decides to make an appearance because he can be an asshole
I think all of the new mechanic additions and quality of life changes made it much easier and enjoyable to actually play
But the new narrative additions almost universally weaken the story and make it a much less satisfying experience
Specifically
The entire Third Semester Palace didn't land with me at all, Yoshizawa's actually interesting story really fell off a cliff with the SHE IS ACTUALLY HER SISTER AHA reveal and the new cutscene ending is about 500% worse than the Phantom Thieves riding off into the sunset together after ditching the cops
It is doubly frustrating because the big climax gunshot in vanilla P5 is straight up one of my favorite moments in games and their attempt to just...keep the story going after that high point feels like a real hollow rehash.
Mostly agree, but:
I thought Maruki and the concept of his dungeon/abilities was pretty neat. It does weaken the narrative to take place right after the end of the base game, but I don't think there's any place that would have fit better. I'm also a huge sucker for Solid/Liquid Snake fist fights to cap off a game.
Unhinged Akechi was great. Maybe the best P5R addition.
Yoshizawa's reveal sucks because it's essentially not about her. That whole plot line is there to better establish what Maruki can do with his abilities. She overcomes the revelation with the protag's help but it never felt like it was her story beat to me.
this is the second time I've played P3, and neither time have I really understood the utility of splitting up the party
it doesn't feel much faster, and even if it WAS faster that feels counter-intuitive cause if I just blast through the floors I'll probably be super underleveled for bosses
Oh it's much much faster if you know how to work it.
Have everyone run off at the start of a new floor, but do not move the MC at all. If you do, enemies will spawn and probably kill your team mates.
If you just stand there, nothing spawns, and they can explore freely without trouble. Once they find the stairs, go up.
Repeat until you hit a boss floor, which has a 2 way teleporter, and use the teleporter to go save.
Then, try the boss. You're right in that you may be underlevelled but you just saved so give it a shot. If you can't beat it, reload and go grind a few levels out on lower floors (it's usually best to start at the previous teleporter). If you beat it, keep going and repeat the previous steps until you hit a boss you can't beat
This lets you get up without any unnecessary fighting, and stops you wearing yourself out on floors that aren't high enough level to be worth the bother.
I liked the final dungeon, although the first tape you have to watch is really long. I was a bit anxious about it coming up 3 more times but they were thankfully shorter.
Other than that, I liked the final Palace pretty well. I have had Ryuji's sprint-win skill for a long time at this point though. I haven't fought many random battles since like, Okumura's Palace. I didn't grind for levels either, just stamps. That's enough, apparently.
Like I said, I fused Vitality of the Tree and Thermopylae onto a Cybele. From then on, Joker became Main Support during boss battles. Opening with that, and with Debilitate on Akechi, is just busted good. It also lets you drop all the Ma-kaja skills on your companions for other stuff, which makes picking skills a bit easier.
I never did fuse a really good physical specialist. I knew all the ingredients I wanted, but never spent the time to put them all on one persona. There were also not that many good physical base personas at high levels. I think Futsunushi would have been the best bet.
I had to look up the fact that Yoshizawa doesn't show up for a final goodbye, when you can go around and talk to everyone else. Really weird. I also thought it was weird how they slammed the brakes on the ending so every woman could give you Giri Choco since you didn't date them. Really killed any momentum in an already drawn-out ending. The White Day date wasn't a whole lot better.
I and my whole party hit level 99, I fused all the personas I could find, and I still only had 97% completion. I know there's at least one NG+ only persona, but are there more? I couldn't see any blanks on my list.
I did the optional Jose fight, it wasn't that hard. Neither was the Reaper by the time I did it. I didn't try for whatever the twins/Lavenza do as optional boss fights. By the end, my boss strategy of Thermopylae-Debilitate and either Ann or Ryuji's party-Charge/Focus skills could just lay down huge blobs of damage on command. One turn to set all that up, one turn to dish it out, and most bosses were more than half-dead.
Spoiler-free notes:
So so so much free time by January. I 'mastered' both the gym and the temple meditation. I got all the room decorations I could. I finished all the video games, and enough books to get the Thieves' Den Reward. Full Baton Pass and Technical Mastery. Did all the Twins hangouts for skill cards. If you are reasonably efficient when leveling up stats and social links, there's tons of leeway. Just prioritize Temperance and Fortune. The only guide I used was a response guide, and you could probably get away without it. Max Rank Fortune does it for you, for 10k yen. Just make sure to always bring a matching persona.
I just read that the church in Kanda sells special items on Sundays. Including a Mediaharan-equivalent. Wish I'd known that, that is the one item type that is otherwise hard to find.
Some skills strategy: The only blue support skills worth keeping in the long run are Thermopylae (on a Vitality of the Tree persona), Debilitate (sort of), and Charge/Focus. Everything else gets obsolete or is easily replaced by items.
Single target -aja skills aren't worth keeping hardly at all. Buffs need to be multi target to be worth spending a turn casting.
Single target -unda skills are worth keeping slightly longer, since you can use them on bosses. Dump them once Debilitate comes along.
Multitarget -aja skills are good for a while, but there are numerous items that replicate them. Don't hold on to them too tightly. Once you get Thermopylae+Vitality of the Tree dump them for sure.
Multitarget -unda skills don't actually need to be multi-target very often. It feels like maybe you should keep them since Debilitate is only single target, but you don't. There are item replacements, particularly at the used clothing store.
Dekunda and Dekaja are easily replicated with cheap items. Dump them pretty quick.
Haru's vegetables can cast Charge/Focus but you never get all that many, hang on to them pretty much the whole game.
I never kept a single Wall skill. Just change party members/personas.
Physical/Magical reflect also have cheap item replacements at Death.
Makara/Tetra break doesn't have a cheap/available item replacement, but it's so uncommon for enemies to use that I can't recommend keeping it. I had a few hammers from somewhere that could break it, that was enough.
I actually kept Fire Break on Ann since it was a shame to lose her crazy-good magic damage on a fire-immune enemy. Everyone else and Joker's personas I dumped it.
Healing skills, it's a similar story:
Dia and Media heal for so little, they become useful only out of combat very quickly.
Diarama and Mediarama hold on a lot longer, but eventually become too weak too.
Once I had 5 party members, I kicked Morgana out of the party for the rest of the game and used his SP as a healing battery. Great for healing between fights.
Death sells a 200HP heal all item for pretty cheap. This can replace Mediarama.
No one seems to sell a Diaharan or Mediaharan equivalent item, at least not in high quantities. These skills and any equivalent items stay useful through the endgame.
Single target status heals are worthless. The equivalent items are extremely cheap. Multitarget status heals stay useful, Amrita shower is worth hanging onto.
Death sells Recarm and Samrecarm equivalents, don't hang on to these skills.
Eventually you get Salvation, which is Mediaharan+Amrita Shower, but it's pretty expensive. Still a great skill though. Keep Mediaharan on Morgana for out of combat healing at good SP rates.
Ailment skills are something I had occasional regrets about dropping from my party members. I might keep a few more around if I could do it again. Certain enemies have no elemental weakness, and ailment->technical is the only good way to knock them down. I'd keep an ailment specialist persona on Joker for these situations. There are too many to keep track of, I think. Sleep and Dizzy are good because you can technical off of them with any element or just a physical attack. All the rest of the mental ones only technical off Psychic, which is harder to come by. Burn/Shock/Freeze also combo off Nuclear. Jose sells some ailment items. I'd buy a few when you have some spare flowers. The multitarget ones have low accuracy, but the single target ones are good.
As someone who had played P4G first - the P3 Devil social link still to this day may be the most shocking twist I have encountered in the whole series.
And completely rocked my view of P4 and P5.
i was POSITIVE he’d end up being a Palace in 5.
And when I fixed the laptop AGAIN I was completely shocked.
Someone’s gotta take down this dude!!
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Speaking of, I finally booted up P3P and tried out playing as the female PC.
I just wrapped up the Hermit social link...what the fuck was that?
Oh no, it's my fault that people kept on lying and bullying me, and a photographer lied to me about what article he was working on and made up a bunch of slanderous shit about me, and that my parents are abusive towards me. I just need to stand up for myself...which is why I'm moving away to a private school and starting over! My plotline isn't fucked at all!
Also it heavily felt like I was supposed to be able to date her, with the way they kept on describing her interactions with the main character.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Speaking of, I finally booted up P3P and tried out playing as the female PC.
I just wrapped up the Hermit social link...what the fuck was that?
Oh no, it's my fault that people kept on lying and bullying me, and a photographer lied to me about what article he was working on and made up a bunch of slanderous shit about me, and that my parents are abusive towards me. I just need to stand up for myself...which is why I'm moving away to a private school and starting over! My plotline isn't fucked at all!
Also it heavily felt like I was supposed to be able to date her, with the way they kept on describing her interactions with the main character.
I thought this was about the male version and was confused for a moment, since I've never played the FemC campaign.
I believe they do a lot of yuri-baiting in her route, but you can't really act on any of it, except maybe Elizabeth.
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
P5R January 2
There’s a chest in the new Palace right away that has a bunch of healing items. Must be there for players who blew all their expendables on Jaldabaoth.
Granted that's because he's completely unhinged and nothing like his nicey-nice boy detective persona
Like he is a piece of shit but he's just chewing up the scenery left and right
+4
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Same.
I was a bit afraid they were gonna go all redemption arc with him and to some degree they did but it was clear the entire time that he isn't the most stable individual.
Posts
That's kind of my whole issue with even the concept of P5R is that the ending of the Vanilla P5 is so good and mucks with it:
But as the ending shows, the government and justice system don't like losing and are just watching you like a hawk for you to fuck up again. It's a very strong ending with a lot to say about current Japanese society, and the driving away in the car is such a beautiful ending.
Adding anything to mess with that just bums me out.
Now to be fair, I have not played Royale, just watched the ending stuff and read a synopsis.
I like her new Rank 10 one that highlights the good responses in rank up events.
I did not realize that it works like a hangout in its own right and the points go in immediately
I should have been doing one of these day and night
it's probably a roughly equivalent amount of time in each that opens up per month, but Tartarus has basically no variety to keep me interested
I do kinda like being able to totally turn off your brain and grind Tartarus though.
Makes p3 fes / p3p a perfect wind down before bed kind of game.
it doesn't feel much faster, and even if it WAS faster that feels counter-intuitive cause if I just blast through the floors I'll probably be super underleveled for bosses
It's mostly to have them grab all the loot from chests before Mr. Reaper decides to make an appearance because he can be an asshole
Mostly agree, but:
Unhinged Akechi was great. Maybe the best P5R addition.
Yoshizawa's reveal sucks because it's essentially not about her. That whole plot line is there to better establish what Maruki can do with his abilities. She overcomes the revelation with the protag's help but it never felt like it was her story beat to me.
P5R ending movie
You befriend her, can date her (I did not), help her get over insane brainwashing, then fight alongside her to save the world...
...And she bumps into you, literally, as you leave town and doesn't say anything.
It was so off to me I thought I missed a story beat where it wiped her memory of the semester (did I?!) Or I messed something up and she was mad at me
Good news on getting more ported to PC!
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Oh it's much much faster if you know how to work it.
Have everyone run off at the start of a new floor, but do not move the MC at all. If you do, enemies will spawn and probably kill your team mates.
If you just stand there, nothing spawns, and they can explore freely without trouble. Once they find the stairs, go up.
Repeat until you hit a boss floor, which has a 2 way teleporter, and use the teleporter to go save.
Then, try the boss. You're right in that you may be underlevelled but you just saved so give it a shot. If you can't beat it, reload and go grind a few levels out on lower floors (it's usually best to start at the previous teleporter). If you beat it, keep going and repeat the previous steps until you hit a boss you can't beat
This lets you get up without any unnecessary fighting, and stops you wearing yourself out on floors that aren't high enough level to be worth the bother.
yeah that is great bu if they spend money porting a bunch of bad games theyre gonna have a bad time
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
XBL: Torn Hoodie
@hoodiethirteen
Other than that, I liked the final Palace pretty well. I have had Ryuji's sprint-win skill for a long time at this point though. I haven't fought many random battles since like, Okumura's Palace. I didn't grind for levels either, just stamps. That's enough, apparently.
Like I said, I fused Vitality of the Tree and Thermopylae onto a Cybele. From then on, Joker became Main Support during boss battles. Opening with that, and with Debilitate on Akechi, is just busted good. It also lets you drop all the Ma-kaja skills on your companions for other stuff, which makes picking skills a bit easier.
I never did fuse a really good physical specialist. I knew all the ingredients I wanted, but never spent the time to put them all on one persona. There were also not that many good physical base personas at high levels. I think Futsunushi would have been the best bet.
I had to look up the fact that Yoshizawa doesn't show up for a final goodbye, when you can go around and talk to everyone else. Really weird. I also thought it was weird how they slammed the brakes on the ending so every woman could give you Giri Choco since you didn't date them. Really killed any momentum in an already drawn-out ending. The White Day date wasn't a whole lot better.
I and my whole party hit level 99, I fused all the personas I could find, and I still only had 97% completion. I know there's at least one NG+ only persona, but are there more? I couldn't see any blanks on my list.
I did the optional Jose fight, it wasn't that hard. Neither was the Reaper by the time I did it. I didn't try for whatever the twins/Lavenza do as optional boss fights. By the end, my boss strategy of Thermopylae-Debilitate and either Ann or Ryuji's party-Charge/Focus skills could just lay down huge blobs of damage on command. One turn to set all that up, one turn to dish it out, and most bosses were more than half-dead.
Spoiler-free notes:
So so so much free time by January. I 'mastered' both the gym and the temple meditation. I got all the room decorations I could. I finished all the video games, and enough books to get the Thieves' Den Reward. Full Baton Pass and Technical Mastery. Did all the Twins hangouts for skill cards. If you are reasonably efficient when leveling up stats and social links, there's tons of leeway. Just prioritize Temperance and Fortune. The only guide I used was a response guide, and you could probably get away without it. Max Rank Fortune does it for you, for 10k yen. Just make sure to always bring a matching persona.
I just read that the church in Kanda sells special items on Sundays. Including a Mediaharan-equivalent. Wish I'd known that, that is the one item type that is otherwise hard to find.
Some skills strategy: The only blue support skills worth keeping in the long run are Thermopylae (on a Vitality of the Tree persona), Debilitate (sort of), and Charge/Focus. Everything else gets obsolete or is easily replaced by items.
Single target -aja skills aren't worth keeping hardly at all. Buffs need to be multi target to be worth spending a turn casting.
Single target -unda skills are worth keeping slightly longer, since you can use them on bosses. Dump them once Debilitate comes along.
Multitarget -aja skills are good for a while, but there are numerous items that replicate them. Don't hold on to them too tightly. Once you get Thermopylae+Vitality of the Tree dump them for sure.
Multitarget -unda skills don't actually need to be multi-target very often. It feels like maybe you should keep them since Debilitate is only single target, but you don't. There are item replacements, particularly at the used clothing store.
Dekunda and Dekaja are easily replicated with cheap items. Dump them pretty quick.
Haru's vegetables can cast Charge/Focus but you never get all that many, hang on to them pretty much the whole game.
I never kept a single Wall skill. Just change party members/personas.
Physical/Magical reflect also have cheap item replacements at Death.
Makara/Tetra break doesn't have a cheap/available item replacement, but it's so uncommon for enemies to use that I can't recommend keeping it. I had a few hammers from somewhere that could break it, that was enough.
I actually kept Fire Break on Ann since it was a shame to lose her crazy-good magic damage on a fire-immune enemy. Everyone else and Joker's personas I dumped it.
Healing skills, it's a similar story:
Dia and Media heal for so little, they become useful only out of combat very quickly.
Diarama and Mediarama hold on a lot longer, but eventually become too weak too.
Once I had 5 party members, I kicked Morgana out of the party for the rest of the game and used his SP as a healing battery. Great for healing between fights.
Death sells a 200HP heal all item for pretty cheap. This can replace Mediarama.
No one seems to sell a Diaharan or Mediaharan equivalent item, at least not in high quantities. These skills and any equivalent items stay useful through the endgame.
Single target status heals are worthless. The equivalent items are extremely cheap. Multitarget status heals stay useful, Amrita shower is worth hanging onto.
Death sells Recarm and Samrecarm equivalents, don't hang on to these skills.
Eventually you get Salvation, which is Mediaharan+Amrita Shower, but it's pretty expensive. Still a great skill though. Keep Mediaharan on Morgana for out of combat healing at good SP rates.
Ailment skills are something I had occasional regrets about dropping from my party members. I might keep a few more around if I could do it again. Certain enemies have no elemental weakness, and ailment->technical is the only good way to knock them down. I'd keep an ailment specialist persona on Joker for these situations. There are too many to keep track of, I think. Sleep and Dizzy are good because you can technical off of them with any element or just a physical attack. All the rest of the mental ones only technical off Psychic, which is harder to come by. Burn/Shock/Freeze also combo off Nuclear. Jose sells some ailment items. I'd buy a few when you have some spare flowers. The multitarget ones have low accuracy, but the single target ones are good.
And completely rocked my view of P4 and P5.
And when I fixed the laptop AGAIN I was completely shocked.
Someone’s gotta take down this dude!!
Okay but Moon (in Vanilla P3)
You can at least beat the shit out of him yourself.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Obviously P3 spoilers.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
I just wrapped up the Hermit social link...what the fuck was that?
Also it heavily felt like I was supposed to be able to date her, with the way they kept on describing her interactions with the main character.
I thought this was about the male version and was confused for a moment, since I've never played the FemC campaign.
and guess who chimed in.
Is the Persona fandom big on the gay-stereotype-sexual-predators?
where did it go lol
Like he is a piece of shit but he's just chewing up the scenery left and right
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Yours truly contributed(namely the IMAGINE section).