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Persona 4 Golden |OT| Love is the only gold.
- Thread starter we.are.the.armada
- Start date
The game is way too long with too much freedom to complain about this.
dakkumauji
Member
On newgame+ sure. Not on the first playthrough if you are trying to max everything.
It doesn't matter what playthrough. If you're trying to max everything there's a 90% you're using a guide anyway. Trying to max out everything blind on your first run is dumb.
The game is massively long, offers a lot of freedom, and juggles a lot of variables as such. All while trying to also tell a long, detailed, surprisingly elsborate plot.
Any game like this needs to force the player into certain moments and actions to keep the train on the tracks. They're really not over-bearing with it either.
First playthrough, maxing everything is quite a task, lol. Not only do you need to know beforehand what the game will throw at you in terms of dates, You gotta finish most of the dungeons on one day with likely limited money.
If not for the god-awful Fox and Margaret social links, I could probably do it, but I hate theirs considering the quests/requests are vague and I just end up looking at a guide anyhow. Kinda like the exam/school questions. I could do without those too.
So I decided to start watching (er, reading?) the Persona 4 Arena story mode videos, beginning with Yu's. Is it just me or is the writing considerably worse than Persona 4's? The internal monologue makes me cringe a bit, and while the voice acting is comforting in its familiarity, I find that it's at odds with the wonky script.
I'm going to finish watching Yu's entire story to see if I like it, but does it get better? Or is it really just an Atlus-endorsed fan fic?
I'm going to finish watching Yu's entire story to see if I like it, but does it get better? Or is it really just an Atlus-endorsed fan fic?
Yu's story mode is honestly the worst of the bunch. It doesn't quite have the charm that the other story modes do. They should have gone more Arc-System Works style and saved him last for a "True-ending" route. I tell everyone to start with Yosuke's story mode first.
If you don't like the game enough to hold that stuff for an NG+ run, you probably shouldn't even be playing it.
Like even if you're a trophy hunter. There's multiple games where you can get the platinum trophy in the time it takes to earn some of P4Gs.
Yeah, the Japan-centric school questions are impossible, lol. Margaret's isn't bad on the second playthrough with a decent compendium, but I could also see that being a hassle on the first playthrough, especially if you want to do it the easy way by using a good chunk of money and the compendium.
Luckily on the Vita you can have the browser open to a P4 guide and switch between the apps, I wouldn't have been able to figure out the Fox quests otherwise.
Agreed, the first playthrough should just be enjoyable and mostly blind, the NG+ is good for trophy hunting and should be easy with the perk of being able to skip, keeping your money, etc.
meltingparappa
Member
Just being privy to their internal monologue is kind of weird.
I think it works much better on the P3 side because the characters have been doing lots of new stuff since you last saw them, and so they at least get to use a lot of their lines catching up on exposition.
But with Yu specifically, he's just seen these people a few months prior, they're stuck inside one location instead of meeting up at Junes talking about an investigation or just making jokes, and he's suddenly yakking away in Adachi's voice. It is a little weird at first but I got used to it.
That's precisely what I did and I think it coincidentally gave me the best experience.
I went out of my way to do the less interesting P4 characters first, the less interesting P3 characters, Kanji, then Aigis, then Elizabeth's, then Labrys. Through sheer coincidence again, it felt like that made the overall story build to a climax.
I'm only one "scene" into Yu's story, so I guess I'll switch to Brosuke's and see if I like it better.
Margaret is much easier in Persona 4 Golden thanks to the search feature showing you every possible combination, but if you don't do it the moment it's available it becomes a hassle. I didn't do the Ippon-Datara one when it was first offered, and now I'd have to look up a guide or sheet if I wanted to fuse it. That, or go back to Kanji's dungeon and farm a bunch of low level Personae that are just gonna get dismissed once I have it. :\
I have no love for the Fox or most of the quests for that matter actually. I didn't like Elizabeth's requests in Persona 3 either, but most of them there were pretty straightforward unlike the Fox.
Each story mode has some pretty unique narration to it, because it's first person. Yu, however, by virtue of being a silent protagonist originally, seems rather flat in his narration. Yosuke's story mode in contrast flows much better and it has an amazing payoff at the cliffhanger if you do it before the Shadow Operative story modes.
Not sure what this means. Is there a specific order you would recommend? And does P4A spoil the ending events of P3? I have a friend whose PSP/P3P I might be borrowing soon, but that probably won't be for a while to come.
buddha0991
Member
^Yes it kind of does. It also spoils the parts that are not in P3P, most specifically The Answer.
I did all of Margarets requests fine until i got to Neko Shogun with Bufula. Now im forever grinding level 3 skill cards until i get bufula....I have been doing this for hours. I have Agilao, Maragion, Mabufula, Garula, Magarula, Zionga, Mazioinga.....pls pls pls pls Bufula soon pls pls pls pls
I did all of Margarets requests fine until i got to Neko Shogun with Bufula. Now im forever grinding level 3 skill cards until i get bufula....I have been doing this for hours. I have Agilao, Maragion, Mabufula, Garula, Magarula, Zionga, Mazioinga.....pls pls pls pls Bufula soon pls pls pls pls
meltingparappa
Member
Shadow Operatives mean P3 characters.
And Elizabeth's route references the P3 ending in a spoiler way, but I think the others are fine.
(my subjective list of routes)
Yosuke
Chie
Yukiko (make sure to watch her bad ending)
Teddie
Yu
Akihiko
Mitsuru
Naoto
Kanji
Aigis
Labrys
Elizabeth
It doesn't spoil everything (the ending, mainly), but yes it spoils a significant portion of Persona 3. The game is actually more of a sequel to Persona 3 than it is Persona 4, and the Shadow Operatives/P3 cast have the best story modes if you ask me. >_>;
Fairly good order to do the story modes in, actually.
Using Skill cards make it easier as well. But it's much easier to do in NG+ since you'll have about half of the compendium already filled.
I did a good chunk of it using a guide in one day, all except Trumpeter, because I wasn't at the right level yet.
Okay, I'll give this some thought. Might have to pull myself out of my post-Persona depression altogether because I honestly don't even have the time to play another 75+ hour game like P3P.
meltingparappa
Member
I liked using the "voice" feature to see other people panicking to finish the Aeon link around that time period.
buddha0991
Member
whenevershefeelslikeitorherexistanceisnotfadingyoustupidjerkihateyou
Yes, it is worse. Have you seen my posts and posts and posts? I've been saying this for months.
Also, don't ruin P3 for yourself with Arena. P3 is significantly better.
buddha0991
Member
Yes, it is worse. Have you seen my posts and posts and posts? I've been saying this for months.
Also, don't ruin P3 for yourself with Arena. P3 is significantly better.
id argue not. id argue its the weakest persona.....welll...maybe persona 1....
Yes, it is worse. Have you seen my posts and posts and posts? I've been saying this for months.
Also, don't ruin P3 for yourself with Arena. P3 is significantly better.
That bad, eh? I just watched some of Yosuke's story for about 10 minutes and I think I'll pass on watching it for now, if only because it's so insufferable watching a visual novel instead of advancing the text for myself.
It's pretty much a fan-fic. The story really goes nowhere also, and is very bloated.
I didn't even bother watching all the endings, because by the time I'd watched that much I was sick of it.
As a point of reference, Yukiko's story is the worst. Boxed Lunches. Why.
Why. ;_;
Because she's a bad cook!
In case you hadn't realised, it's based on Bruce Lee's hair style.
Which is exactly the problem with Arena's characterisation.
buddha0991
Member
Again it's a joke ending, none of the death by boxed lunch crap actually happened. context man, context.
Also it's not a fanfic if Atlus declares it's canon, same with the answer. Deal with it Holmes.
This guy gets it.
Eh?
Noooo, I mean the fact that her whole story revolves around her bloody boxed lunch. It was absolutely dire.
I know, but it doesn't translate well to 2d.
meltingparappa
Member
P4 Arena opinions are like assholes! We all have one and they're perfectly valid and we can respectfully disagree with each other on.
buddha0991
Member
Dantis and I have had this understanding for a while now. Except his are wrong. I am the law.
As in, the in-game portraits in Golden?
Yeah. I've come to accept that all the models will have weird blobby hair because that's how it is, but I think this still looks reminiscent of the look she's going for and looks better
than this
meltingparappa
Member
The irony is the top one with a billion individual hair strands looks a lot harder to animate than the Soejima one.
They really should have toned down the designs in the anime. Keeping the stitching and checkerboards on all the school uniforms made it so that they could barely move.
I see.
We are now enemies.
In all seriousness though, they really don't look that different. The only big difference I can see is that the anime gets her hair colour wrong, and Soejima's head is more properly proportioned. Anime Chie's head is almost round.
buddha0991
Member
Ok guys, battle of the least fan likable Persona character. Yuka Ayase VS Ken Amada.
Marie
We done here?
One and done
meltingparappa
Member
NO CONTEST.
I did the music club instead of the drama club this time around.
It was weird and horrible.
Edit: Oh, teammate characters. Controversial choice: YOSUKE the Kanji bully.
I did the music club instead of the drama club this time around.
It was weird and horrible.
Edit: Oh, teammate characters. Controversial choice: YOSUKE the Kanji bully.
Yup. Marie. Yuka and Ken were at least a part of the original plotline, even if they don't add anything useful.
Still 100% better than Marie, and not a walking fashion disaster either.
It's AIC Asta, actually. The production was riddled with problems from the start (tweets about animators not getting paid, unhappy staff, etc) and it showed in the anime itself. So many episodes hampered by terrible art... it's a pity because I would've stuck with it to the end FOR CHIE (my flavor of the month p4 waifu back then with the JP dub).