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[Splash Wave]

Okay, so I've had this game sitting in it's shrink wrap since it came out. It intimidates me. P3 was too difficult for me to finish, and I fear that I won't get very far in this one either. Is it any easier? I really want to try it out, but I won't bother if it isn't something I can't just play for a couple hours a week.

 

[Yaweee]

I didn't see 1up's P4 Afterthoughts linked:
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3172364

Features an interview with employees from both branches of Atlus.


From Gamasutra's weekly sales article:

PlayStation 2
North America: 1. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (Atlus), 2. Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection (Konami), 3. Rock Band Special Edition (MTV Games), 4. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES -- Special Edition (Atlus), 5. God of War II (SCEA).

An article about Kanji's issues from GameSetWatch (SPOILERS)
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/01/opinion_sexuality_and_homophob.php

 

[Splatt]

Okay, so I've had this game sitting in it's shrink wrap since it came out. It intimidates me. P3 was too difficult for me to finish, and I fear that I won't get very far in this one either. Is it any easier? I really want to try it out, but I won't bother if it isn't something I can't just play for a couple hours a week.

You can always choose the easy mode at start of the game. No shame in doing that.

 

[KibblesBits]

does anyone have any good builds for Mara?
what about alarune?

 

[pelicansurf]

I started listening to the music you guys have posted and now I want to replay P4. Good job guys. The game was so good.

 

[noi5e]

That article about Kanji in gamesetwatch is a good read... Although I'm not sure I agree with folks who think that his sexual orientation should've been set in stone. The shades of gray seemed very true to life.

Spoiler

Straight guy who likes chicks that dress up like dudes, and possibly just dudes.

Sexuality's a complex thing like that.

 

[Red Scarlet]

does anyone have any good builds for Mara?
what about alarune?

Mine wasn't too bad, I thought.

Going by my notes, I made her this way:
Alraune with Null Wind/Revive/Megido = Taotie (Recarm+Megido) + Yamata-no-Orochi (Null Wind via Andra via Sarasvati) + Matador/Makami

Here's my current lineup:

http://redscarlet.paragonsigma.com/p4051rmp2.png

Helped Pop get farther on Margaret last night and am gonna help him get Black Frost with Spirit Drain and Succubus with Spirit Drain + Megido + Cool Breeze later.

 

[daegan]

I've read around there are some small issues with this on the 80gb PS3. Just wondering if it's still around? I'm thinking about picking this up to play on the 80gb bc ps3.

Make sure you make extra save files. I actually used an entire backup "card". also, in the bottom left of the screen, where it tells you where you are/what floor you're on/etc will not show up. It will just be a blank black box. I completed the game like this, so you'll be fine.

I'm theming a drink on this game. Once tested I'll put it up here. I mostly just grabbed shit that looked or tasted "bright". We'll see how it goes

 

[KibblesBits]

Mine wasn't too bad, I thought.

Going by my notes, I made her this way:
Alraune with Null Wind/Revive/Megido = Taotie (Recarm+Megido) + Yamata-no-Orochi (Null Wind via Andra via Sarasvati) + Matador/Makami

Here's my current lineup:

http://redscarlet.paragonsigma.com/p4051rmp2.png

Helped Pop get farther on Margaret last night and am gonna help him get Black Frost with Spirit Drain and Succubus with Spirit Drain + Megido + Cool Breeze later.

you're so so patient and good at making some good persona. i was hoping you'd help! thank you.

I've read around there are some small issues with this on the 80gb PS3. Just wondering if it's still around? I'm thinking about picking this up to play on the 80gb bc ps3.

there's also a save file issue where if you hit a button on the controller when the game is trying to load or save it will in effect hiccup and the action will be messed up. i have not lost a game like this though, usually while loading i just load again. while saving i do not touch the controller at all.

 

[charlequin]

Although I'm not sure I agree with folks who think that his sexual orientation should've been set in stone.

I don't think the stuff with Kanji

Spoiler

or Naoto

should have been set in stone, exactly... What disappoints me about it is that there are little weasel lines thrown in that give people the ammunition to come in and say that it's inarguably canon that Kanji isn't attracted to men, or whatever.

My real preference would be that they let the MC date Kanji too (the S-Link is written as if he's going to anyway, pretty much right up to the very end...) but I'm not under any delusion that including that was at all likely.

 

[Red Scarlet]

you're so so patient and good at making some good persona. i was hoping you'd help! thank you.

Well, I can't make Mara yet, so I don't know what it's weak to this time around. If that Alraune is okay, I could probably fiddle around and see how I got some of the stuff on her for sure. I don't remember how I made Taotie and stuff though, but the abils from it were natural. I'm still waiting/hoping I can make my Alice from P3. Getting/making Personas are why my save file time was so long in 3 (and playing through it 3x before getting the good ending).

 

[RocketDarkness]

Well, I can't make Mara yet, so I don't know what it's weak to this time around. If that Alraune is okay, I could probably fiddle around and see how I got some of the stuff on her for sure. I don't remember how I made Taotie and stuff though, but the abils from it were natural. I'm still waiting/hoping I can make my Alice from P3.

What was your Alice in P3 like?

 

[Red Scarlet]

What was your Alice in P3 like?

Just a 4 elmental+death+spirit drain, where Sarasvati has (and still is) done a good job at being an early P4 version of.

Really, for normal fighting, my Sarasvati in 4 is "better" (having her for practically the entire game helps too); Null Wind + Null Ice + Magaru + Mabufu (so casting those on everything won't kill me too) + Invigorate 2 + Resist Physical. But I still want my Alice.

 

[RocketDarkness]

Just a 4 elmental, where Sarasvati has (and still is) done a good job at being an early P4 version of.

Really, for normal fighting, my Sarasvati in 4 is better; Null Wind + Null Ice + Magaru + Mabufu + Invigorate 2 + Resist Physical. But I still want my Alice.

That may or may not be easier in P4, due to the way Alice fuses now (

Spoiler

Belial and Nebiros

) One has Dark inheritance, and the other Ailment. Dark's got a moderately good chance of inheriting the four elemental types, so you should be able to work your way up to that. But be aware that fusing Alice on 12/15 will get you

Spoiler

Angelic Grace, which is basically Dodge Magic.

Plus,

Spoiler

Nebiros can learn Null Light and Spell Master

, both things which Alice can inherit and potentially benefit from.

I may actually try the same thing, it's tempting. <3 Die for Me!

 

[cakeman19]

Make sure you make extra save files. I actually used an entire backup "card". also, in the bottom left of the screen, where it tells you where you are/what floor you're on/etc will not show up. It will just be a blank black box. I completed the game like this, so you'll be fine.

What!? We were supposed to know the floor number? Damn, I played through the game twice and didn't know this. Whatever, small price to pay for playing it on the PS3 (especially when setting up my PS2 would be a hassle now)

 

[Red Scarlet]

That may or may not be easier in P4, due to the way Alice fuses now (

Spoiler

Belial and Nebiros

) One has Dark inheritance, and the other Ailment. Dark's got a moderately good chance of inheriting the four elemental types, so you should be able to work your way up to that. But be aware that fusing Alice on 12/15 will get you

Spoiler

Angelic Grace, which is basically Dodge Magic.

Plus,

Spoiler

Nebiros can learn Null Light and Spell Master

, both things which Alice can inherit and potentially benefit from.

I may actually try the same thing, it's tempting. <3 Die for Me!

I'll certainly try, but if I can't get her on 12/15 with all 4 elmentals, I'll probably wind up making her with that abil then pass it onto others while keeping a 4e one if it's even doable in P4.

 

[RocketDarkness]

I'll certainly try, but if I can't get her on 12/15 with all 4 elmentals, I'll probably wind up making her with that abil then pass it onto others while keeping a 4e one if it's even doable in P4.

Like I said, it's definitely doable, since the two who create her can both inherit all four elemental types. It might just be a matter of choosing between all the useful skills she can inherit. Too much good stuff.

 

[Red Scarlet]

Yeah, will have to see what she gets naturally now, in 3 I think the only good stuff she got naturally were Spirit Drain, Die for Me, and Mudo Boost.

Depending on what she gets, Sarasvati may still beat her out for me in this one.

Succubus isn't bad though, when I get Invigorate 3, depending on how much MP it gives me, I could get a first attack, cast Spirit Drain, then cast Megidolaon the second round and actually gain MP from the battle.

 

[White Man]

I wish you could sell personas in the Velvet Room. I'm at the end of the game, and I'd really like to screw around with fusions, but the money situation in the game makes it difficult to play around. I'm at the end of the game! Throw me a freakin' bone here!

 

[Red Scarlet]

Yeah I hate money in this game compared to 3. I just recently got the 50% compendium "prize" and it sucks ass. Money is so blah compared to 3, and in that I would get 300,000-2 million on trips from the 4th section of Tartarus onward and blow it all on buying more personas. Now I go poor making like 2 personas and try to buy back my main ones. :/

Plus the weapon shop is a ripoff for selling stuff to.

 

[dragonlife]

An article about Kanji's issues from GameSetWatch (SPOILERS)
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/01/opinion_sexuality_and_homophob.php

Pretty interesting read; thanks for the link.

 

[White Man]

Yeah I hate money in this game compared to 3. I just recently got the 50% compendium "prize" and it sucks ass. Money is so blah compared to 3, and in that I would get 300,000-2 million on trips from the 4th section of Tartarus onward and blow it all on buying more personas. Now I go poor making like 2 personas and try to buy back my main ones. :/

Plus the weapon shop is a ripoff for selling stuff to.

Yeah, I feel like I've been relying on the same 4 personas on my main character for the last 3 dungeons, just because money has been tight. Luckily, my roster has me pretty well covered (minus anyone that could do megido), but I really just wish I could play around with fusions more to see what I could find. I think if they let you sell your personas that you don't want (rather than having to fuse two personas if you want an empty slot), this problem would be just about fixed.

This is really my only complaint with the game. Otherwise I love it.

 

[SecretBonusPoint]

I wish you could sell personas in the Velvet Room. I'm at the end of the game, and I'd really like to screw around with fusions, but the money situation in the game makes it difficult to play around. I'm at the end of the game! Throw me a freakin' bone here!

Set battles to rush and go trawl through some old dungeons for a bit to raise cash.

 

[White Man]

Set battles to rush and go trawl through some old dungeons for a bit to raise cash.

Doesn't sound like a bad idea. Will my party members wast SP on weak enemies that they could likely one hit kill with a normal physical attack?

 

[Tamanon]

Doesn't sound like a bad idea. Will my party members wast SP on weak enemies that they could likely one hit kill with a normal physical attack?

If you do rush, they just use normal physical attacks. And any animations for shadow's attacks/spells are truncated.

 

[eXistor]

Doesn't sound like a bad idea. Will my party members wast SP on weak enemies that they could likely one hit kill with a normal physical attack?

Nope, they only use "attack" when rush is set.

 

[firex]

not if you do rush. Also, if you're on the true ending path and literally at the end of the game,

Spoiler

you can "exit" the TV world and go to the armor shop to sell stuff, although you can't actually exit it until you've beaten the true ending bosses.

 

[charlequin]

Do the older dungeons actually give you more money when you go back to them, or does it just feel that way because you're breezing through them? Regardless, the way I kept enough money to do all my fusing and stuff in P4 was to schedule a top-to-bottom trip to the last dungeon just about in the middle of the current dungeon I was working on; at that point all the monsters would be weak enough that anything without Repel/Absorb/Null Physical I could kill quickly on the auto-battle, and I could plow through, get all my quest items for whatever outstanding quests I had, and then beat the secret boss at the end.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Could somebody explain to me how to build one of the Ultimate Arcana Personas? The game never says how, just that you can. How do you do it?

 

[Yaweee]

Yeah I hate money in this game compared to 3. I just recently got the 50% compendium "prize" and it sucks ass. Money is so blah compared to 3, and in that I would get 300,000-2 million on trips from the 4th section of Tartarus onward and blow it all on buying more personas. Now I go poor making like 2 personas and try to buy back my main ones. :/

Plus the weapon shop is a ripoff for selling stuff to.

Do the older dungeons actually give you more money when you go back to them, or does it just feel that way because you're breezing through them? Regardless, the way I kept enough money to do all my fusing and stuff in P4 was to schedule a top-to-bottom trip to the last dungeon just about in the middle of the current dungeon I was working on; at that point all the monsters would be weak enough that anything without Repel/Absorb/Null Physical I could kill quickly on the auto-battle, and I could plow through, get all my quest items for whatever outstanding quests I had, and then beat the secret boss at the end.

Money is quite different than P3 for a few reasons.

1) A lot of the money you get comes from vendor trash, which doesn't increase proportionally to prices as you progress through the game (which is why old dungeons seem to still pay well).

2) Hard mode doesn't increase prices like it did in all of the other recent SMT games, so the relative costs seem to fall somewhere between P3's Easy and Hard. You can get what you need, but not absolutely everything.

Could somebody explain to me how to build one of the Ultimate Arcana Personas? The game never says how, just that you can. How do you do it?

If it is a special fusion, you'll see it when you select 4x, 5x, or 6x fusions. If it's a regular type, it will work just like a regular fusion as the highest level persona of its arcana.

 

[charlequin]

But, yeah, going back a bit, I agree that the one single glaring flaw in this game is the money (unlike P3 where eventually money became so plentiful that you could fully explore the fusion system) and letting you sell Personas would have fixed it right up -- running through the last dungeon picking up Vasukis and Saturnuses to sell for 20k apiece would be pretty sweet right about now.

I think the real origin of this problem, though, is removing the non-Persona cards from Shuffle Time; Arcana Chance is a more fun mechanic but it really doesn't produce much extra money for you.

Could somebody explain to me how to build one of the Ultimate Arcana Personas? The game never says how, just that you can. How do you do it?

The same way you'd fuse anything else.* When you Max an S-Link, the Persona in question will show up as a fusion combination for whatever fusion grouping would make it.

*I think a couple of them might be special fusions, in which case they'll show up under Cross or Pentagon fusion.

 

[KibblesBits]

It's about time for this, some good advice has been posted. Here I'll sum up what I've found:

SP is a major issue in P4. You simply cannot just gain it back by going to the staging areas. This is compensated though in the game if you follow a few tricks and tips I shall now present.

1. TaP soda is your friend at the start of the game. You can find this soda outside of the item shop. It is 120 Yen a can and you can buy five a week. The soda replenishes 10 SP per use. The machine itself is refilled every monday.

2. You should always set your party to rush if the shadow is smaller than the MC in size and you have first round of attack and you know the shadows are not resistant to phys. This cuts down on the wasting of SP that the AI likes to do sometimes.

3. Use Super Croquettes to heal when you don't have a huge amount of HP at the start of the game. You can buy five per rainy day and they replenish 50 HP at 120 yen per croquette. This will help save SP from healing outside of battles.

4. Save your SP for mid boss battles and boss battles and the rare times you will have to use magic in a standard encounter. You should not use any stat boosting spells in random battles.

5. Arcana chance is your friend but only after you've cleared a dungeon fully. Death and Judgement can both restore your SP reserves or totally demolish them. If the arcana chance comes up for this consider your outcome and how much you need the result you are relying on at the moment. Obviously if you're at 90% and one of these cards come up you are taking a bad bet...

6. Soul Drops+ should be saved for midboss battles and boss battles in general unless you are near death and have to have some SP to make it through the battle.

7. Once you've opened up another dungeon you can exit the dungeon you are working on and go to another and then go back to the previous. This will actually reset the dungeons if you do this. This is wonderful if you are farming for items/keys. The Castle is where I tend to build up my reserves for SP increasing items. I've also almost always had 5+ keys on me through doing this.

8. Death arcana will also reset the dungeon you are currently working on. You can use this to continue to farm as much as needed.

9. The Fox's mood is critical in SP replenishment. If it gives a yip and indicates it is in a fair mood you will have discount upon discount that you've built via S.Link. Petting it when it is in a good mood can yield an SP item or a key as well. If it is a key or high level SP item the fox will have a major discount going on. If you are running low on funds rush through an old dungeon and then refill SP.

10. In the dungeon you will sometimes meet up with party members, talk to them and encourage them and you will get items that assist with health.

11. Soul Drain is also a very usefull skill to use in older dungeons.

12. Rely on the MC for casting magic in most battles via the one more system and the cost of replenishment via the fox will dramatically decrease, especially if your teammates S.Links have gotten to level three at the least.

All of these strategies go hand in hand, and work well together. If you follow them all you will never have SP issues again.

If it is your second round of playing you will have a mound of money piled up.
I'd also suggest going for the bad end first and then going for the true end the second round, this will give you a boost in stats and money and you'll have some persona set in the compendium from the get go to help with the first dungeon which in my opinion is a sink or swim dungeon.

If you follow my advice you will clear dungeons in one day and come back with so many items Daidara will fall over in shock. Also, try to go to dungeons on rainy days and open gold chests randomly.

Good luck.

 

[KibblesBits]

I think the real origin of this problem, though, is removing the non-Persona cards from Shuffle Time; Arcana Chance is a more fun mechanic but it really doesn't produce much extra money for you.

Arcana chance of Temperance doubles the amount of cash from each random battle. If you have the luck of encountering golden shadows you can become quite wealthy in a short amount of time.

Sorry for double post.

 

[Red Scarlet]

You missed one easy way to get SP back, which is also probably why my main guy is 20 levels above the rest of the party: get a Persona with Invigorate, Sarasvati is only level 17 and gets Invigorate 2, which gives you 5SP a turn. Just have the main guy use spells on weaknesses, then when you run low on SP you can just go to Yukiko's Castle, equip Sarasvati or whoever has Invigorate, and just keep defending to restore SP for free on the main guy. I've done that a whole lot, not as much now because of Spirit Drain (which can be grabbed mid-20's level-wise).

 

[zoku88]

^ Isn't that kinda... boring though?

 

[Red Scarlet]

It's free and it takes like 3 minutes to get my SP back. Much faster than getting 80000 yen to pay off the fox early on.

 

[KibblesBits]

oh, shoot. i thought i mentioned invigorate. lol.

if you're a critical thinker you can also do a money trick in the castle, and a few other places but it has its risks. let's see if anyone can get it from the clues.

manual control
guarding
temperance arcana
shadow that summons
multi hit spell

*ahem*

enough tips, this isn't gamefaqs.

 

[Red Scarlet]

oh, shoot. i thought i mentioned invigorate. lol.

if you're a critical thinker you can also do a money trick in the castle, and a few other places but it has it's risks. let's see if anyone can get it from the clues.

manual control
guarding
temperance arcana
shadow that summons
multi hit spell

*ahem*

enough tips, this isn't gamefaqs.

I don't know if later monsters that summon can keep doing so, but I do know that those king guys that summon the baby things will summon up to 5 baby things then run away, but thats 1000 yen early on.

For XP and money when I was in the 3rd dungeon I found a good spot to get the most out of moon/temperance cards on 3F. Go up from the 4F stairs and there's a room that always has 2 badguys next to each other, and you can get a 3rd to chase you, so you can get into 3 fights for the price of one there, then go right up to 4F then back down to 3F to respawn the 3 monsters. You get more out of moon/temperance cards that way. I'm sure there's places like that in the later dungeons too.

 

[KibblesBits]

I don't know if later monsters that summon can keep doing so, but I do know that those king guys that summon the baby things will summon up to 5 baby things then run away, but thats 1000 yen early on.

For XP and money when I was in the 3rd dungeon I found a good spot to get the most out of moon/temperance cards on 3F. Go up from the 4F stairs and there's a room that always has 2 badguys next to each other, and you can get a 3rd to chase you, so you can get into 3 fights for the price of one there, then go right up to 4F then back down to 3F to respawn the 3 monsters. You get more out of moon/temperance cards that way. I'm sure there's places like that in the later dungeons too.

*high five*

we are excellent at persona.

 

[kle89]

alright i just picked this up from gamestop but couldn't find persona 3 fes? Would i have a better experience going through with 3 before moving to 4?

note: thanks to wiki i did sort of soil myself in regards to 3's protagonist's fate. wiki needs spoiler tags!

 

[firex]

I honestly made more money by doing part time jobs for social stats. When you translate, you can get options and if you succeed, you get like 3x the normal money. if you fail, you get like 1/3 the normal money. Same with envelope making. the ones that are social links don't have those options for potentially more/less money, but do have more base money.

but also due to the costs I didn't do much with fusion. You can get most of the personas through shuffle time, though, so that's a good way to build up your compendium without having to use fusion. I think the only arcanas that you can't get from shuffle are Tower and Judgment.

 

[lastendconductor]

I don't think SP is that problematic. The first dungeons are the worst, then gradually you get to abuse things like Mage's Mask(I wore this right till the very end), Invigorate(monsters should stop trying to cast spells when they don't have sp...) and Cool Breeze so your main character will never run out of sp, and you get more side characters so you can switch people when they're depleted. I also found that in the last dungeons, a couple of fights would cover the price of the fox anyway. And putting that half SP accessory on Yukiko was downright broken :lol

And this is the best P4 track, I could listen to it for hours
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=ypqV0O3GIeg&feature=related&fmt=18

 

[KibblesBits]

I don't think SP is that problematic.

But with my tips you can stay in the dungeon for hours on end.
Some people have a hard time with SP conservation.
And I use different accessories for the situation, not just the SP ones.

 

[Red Scarlet]

Only SP accessory I've found, which is just recently too, is one that increases it by 30%. What's the regeneration one(s) called? I've found some mask thing, but it like protects against silence, if I'm thinking of the same mask item.

It's not that big a deal though since I have Invigorate 3 now..but I'd like to upgrade from the Land Badge sometime.

Oh wow, I just died in the 3rd dungeon

Spoiler

I'm level 62

. :lol

 

[firex]

"mark" accessories will give you SP regen. or at least I found a sorcerer's mark, and it did that. I can't remember what increased max SP though.

 

[Red Scarlet]

I've got a +30% HP accessory and +30% SP accessory, those are called Amaterasu Fob and Moon Potpourri.

 

[Red Scarlet]

Well, I still want to make Gabriel with Repel Physical and Null Dark, but I think I have my real heal-type Persona.

Not too bad! Full single heal/revive+full heal/cure all status/Light 4 Me/reflect.

 

[itsinmyveins]

I'm now 45+ hours into the game. So, about the story there (spoilers obviously):

Spoiler

I kinda laughed at how the "new" Teddie shot glitter in the direction he looked :lol

 

[Red Scarlet]

Oh keep going, he has plenty more laughs ahead.

THIS TASTES AWFUL in a happy voice and smiling.

 

[itsinmyveins]

Seriously, the voice acting and dialouge is damn great in this game. Kanji's making me laugh a lot too, and the whole camping trip was pretty fun stuff

Spoiler

(when the MC spit that food out and passed out :lol ).

My only regret about this game is that I haven't been that focused on it and I've played a bunch of games on and off at the same time. On most accounts I think it's better than P3, but I really did like the whole SEEDs-thing and their little command room in it.