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[vas_a_morir]

My God, the 3rd boss is a total crock of shit. I had no chance in hell. Got it down to the last fucking little bit of the bar. CROCK OF SHIT. GOD DAMMIT.

You know, this game, so much rests on luck! You know, if the attack would have missed, or if one of my attacks would have hit... it would be the difference between winning and losing.

Also, I notice leveling up just a level or two makes a huge huge difference. I wonder if it has something to do with the way stats are figured? maybe an exponential increase every level? I dunno.

 

[sublime085]

Can't wait to get home and play this all night.

It really does improve on P3 in almost every way imaginable.

 

[Tamanon]

My God, the 3rd boss is a total crock of shit. I had no chance in hell. Got it down to the last fucking little bit of the bar. CROCK OF SHIT. GOD DAMMIT.

You know, this game, so much rests on luck! You know, if the attack would have missed, or if one of my attacks would have hit... it would be the difference between winning and losing.

Also, I notice leveling up just a level or two makes a huge huge difference. I wonder if it has something to do with the way stats are figured? maybe an exponential increase every level? I dunno.

Levels always tend to have a pretty big impact when it comes to status effects.

 

[Blackjack]

My God, the 3rd boss is a total crock of shit. I had no chance in hell. Got it down to the last fucking little bit of the bar. CROCK OF SHIT. GOD DAMMIT.

You know, this game, so much rests on luck! You know, if the attack would have missed, or if one of my attacks would have hit... it would be the difference between winning and losing.

Also, I notice leveling up just a level or two makes a huge huge difference. I wonder if it has something to do with the way stats are figured? maybe an exponential increase every level? I dunno.

What level are you.

It's not really hard, it's just really long. That boss has more HP than the last couple bosses combined. All its big hurty things are clearly telegraphed, though, so just guard when it starts charging and you should be fine.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

You know, having not played a previous game in this series, I expected I would instantly go to controlling all party members, but I'm finding I like the feeling and pace with AI party members. As long as they don't start acting stupid.

 

[crowphoenix]

Finally got through the second dungeon. That boss was a bitch when I first tried him, but after gaining two levels, crafting a Persona for the fight, and changing my strategy, I can claim that he went down easy. I did have to turn on direct command over my party. They were determined to

Spoiler

Keep healing the nice guy and the tough guy.

 

[Tamanon]

You know, having not played a previous game in this series, I expected I would instantly go to controlling all party members, but I'm finding I like the feeling and pace with AI party members. As long as they don't start acting stupid.

Second dungeon you'll probably want to switch to manual for the boss fight, but yeah, the AI is still pretty good and quick.

 

[vas_a_morir]

What level are you.

It's not really hard, it's just really long. That boss has more HP than the last couple bosses combined. All its big hurty things are clearly telegraphed, though, so just guard when it starts charging and you should be fine.

I was level 28. He hit me with 3 rounds of Mabufula in a row, which was uncharacteristic of his previous pattern of charging THEN doing it. Honestly, the greatest player in the world couldn't take my team and survive that. Not to mention, he got a critical everytime with Yukiko on my team, and I needed her to heal just to stay alive, so I had no chance in hell.

 

[crowphoenix]

I was level 28. He hit me with 3 rounds of Mabufula in a row, which was uncharacteristic of his previous pattern of charging THEN doing it. Honestly, the greatest player in the world couldn't take my team and survive that. Not to mention, he got a critical everytime with Yukiko on my team, and I needed her to heal just to stay alive, so I had no chance in hell.

Well, at least Lum shares your pain.

 

[Y2Kev]

GS on 14th didn't have any that time I told you? Also, what's the autoadvance about--does it simply allow you to skip text during spoken portions? I think the manual states it syncs up dialogue or something. Just looking for clarification.

No, they were all PREORDERS ONLY and I was like BUT YOU HAVE LOTS OF PERSONAE and they wouldn't budge. No biggie, I have my Persona. Sooooo I am just finally getting to the "play" part now.

 

[vas_a_morir]

Well, at least Lum shares your pain.

Dude, I was shooting bolts outta my hands. I don't throw controllers. But god dammit, after I grinded through an hour of combat and was so close, there is now a rattle in my controller.

 

[MoogPaul]

So, I took P3 for granted and totally fucked myself. Apparently it doesn't take a whole turn to get back up after being knocked down. I was kinda counting on that and lost 2 hours worth of dungeon crawling. Oh well, tis the way of pur son uaah

 

[Tamanon]

Yeah, the no lost turn thing takes a bit to get used to again. That's the main reason the weakness system isn't quite as abusable in this one.

 

[Cerberus]

Is it just me or is it a lot harder to get the player advantage in battle? I can't sneak up on any shadows so far. It's like they all have eyes on the back of their heads. :lol

 

[Yaweee]

I beat the third dungeon on the first day it was available, and the pacing of the game so far seems as bad as P3's. I really, really liked the first few months of P3 where the tiredness system makes you go into the dungeon several times throughout the months, but P4 kills whatever solution it had with the dungeon healing. 30 days of school crap, one of dungeoning, repeat.

But christ, at least the end of that dungeon was epic, as they've all been so far (at least on Expert.) Fuck me if the game doesn't have the best boss fights of the SMT series.

Is it just me or is it a lot harder to get the player advantage in battle? I can't sneak up on any shadows so far. It's like they all have eyes on the back of their heads. :lol

The shadows' detection range is based on their level relative to yours.

 

[Tamanon]

Is it just me or is it a lot harder to get the player advantage in battle? I can't sneak up on any shadows so far. It's like they all have eyes on the back of their heads. :lol

You can't sneak up. All you can do is wait for them to turn fully around and run as fast as possible to hit them. They'll still spot ya, but if they don't turn half of the way around in that time, you should get the advantage. Although it also seems that higher level monsters you just can't get the advantage.

 

[The Elite]

DAMN YOU NEOGAF!!!
I wish I had never heard of MegaTen games!!

I picked all of this up within the last week:

FYI: I picked up the Double Jump guide here at VideoGamesPlus (Keele & Wilson) in Toronto. It looked like they had a couple of more.

Also got Nocturne there... it was their last copy.

 

[Brandon F]

DAMN YOU NEOGAF!!!
I wish I had never heard of MegaTen games!!

I picked all of this up within the last week:

FYI: I picked up the Double Jump guide here at VideoGamesPlus (Keele & Wilson) in Toronto. It looked like they had a couple of more.

Also got Nocturne there... it was their last copy.

Bah, still missing DDS1+2.

 

[The Elite]

Bah, still missing DDS1+2.

Couldn't find them anywhere... . I will though!!

Nocturne was reasonably priced at $34.99. I thought I was going to get ass-raped if I found it in store.

 

[Brandon F]

Couldn't find them anywhere... . I will though!!

Nocturne was reasonably priced at $34.99. I thought I was going to get ass-raped if I found it in store.

You have 2009 pretty much planned out then. I hear nothing good is releasing the entire year anyway, and you'll need the entire year for all that juice!

 

[drtomoe123]

DAMN YOU NEOGAF!!!
I wish I had never heard of MegaTen games!!

I picked all of this up within the last week:

FYI: I picked up the Double Jump guide here at VideoGamesPlus (Keele & Wilson) in Toronto. It looked like they had a couple of more.

Also got Nocturne there... it was their last copy.

Get Devil Summoner, tooooo. Lots of people thought it was mediocre, but I loved it!

 

[The Elite]

You have 2009 pretty much planned out then. I hear nothing good is releasing the entire year anyway, and you'll need the entire year for all that juice!

Besides RE5 and SFIV there is nothing else of interest in the first couple of quarters in 2009, this will definitely hold me over.

 

[vas_a_morir]

Okay, so, I just leveled up like 3 levels, and I clowned the boss this time so bad it was laughable. Just two levels makes a world of difference. Also, I was able to do so without costing me another day, as I remembered your MP is refilled before you hit the second half. Noice.

 

[frostythecat]

Ugh, I picked Expert on my first run through as I wanted the challenge. Right now I'm stuck at Kanji's Dungeon and I already spent 3 days on it (planning to spend one more) in order to clear it. Those stupid Wonder Magus are killing me though. My party just does not have the HP to handle a group attack that hits a weakness plus a Agilao/Ziodyne from all 3 of them. That and they have like 250+ HP with no weakness so it takes a while to just kill one.

 

[Kagari]

DAMN YOU NEOGAF!!!
I wish I had never heard of MegaTen games!!

Welcome to the machine.

 

[Yaweee]

Okay, so, I just leveled up like 3 levels, and I clowned the boss this time so bad it was laughable. Just two levels makes a world of difference. Also, I was able to do so without costing me another day, as I remembered your MP is refilled before you hit the second half. Noice.

Yeah, that's a result of the SMT level-dependent battle algorithms. A few levels can completely change how difficult boss fights are, which probably explains the various claims from reviews about P4's difficulty.

I'd really like to see the series get away from it's current stat-level system, towards something more like EO. However, that would require that Atlus pay a lot more attention to balance than they're probably interested in.

Ugh, I picked Expert on my first run through as I wanted the challenge. Right now I'm stuck at Kanji's Dungeon and I already spent 3 days on it (planning to spend one more) in order to clear it. Those stupid Wonder Magus are killing me though. My party just does not have the HP to handle a group attack that hits a weakness plus a Agilao/Ziodyne from all 3 of them. That and they have like 250+ HP with no weakness so it takes a while to just kill one.

Haha, those things killed me so many times. Just run past them to get the last save point, then level on floors without them.

 

[Blackjack]

Ugh, I picked Expert on my first run through as I wanted the challenge. Right now I'm stuck at Kanji's Dungeon and I already spent 3 days on it (planning to spend one more) in order to clear it. Those stupid Wonder Magus are killing me though. My party just does not have the HP to handle a group attack that hits a weakness plus a Agilao/Ziodyne from all 3 of them. That and they have like 250+ HP with no weakness so it takes a while to just kill one.

Yosuke has Tentarafoo for a reason.

 

[vas_a_morir]

OMG. Yukiko Max link spoilers.

Spoiler

"Scathach."Really? That's the name of the persona? Sounds like some kind of slang for "asshole."

So, like, now my link is maxed... Does this mean that I can't cheat, or is it like last time? I know you don't have to date the girls romantically if you don't want to... or something like that.

 

[Yaweee]

Yosuke has Tentarafoo for a reason.

By the time he has it, though, you're high enough to just kill the boss and move on.

 

[crowphoenix]

Just started the

Spoiler

camping trip. That is one big girl.

 

[Blackjack]

By the time he has it, though, you're high enough to just kill the boss and move on.

Honestly, I don't remember what level he gets it. Also, I'm on expert, so I'm generally on a higher level for the boss anyway :lol I just know that, even after beating that boss, the maguses could still mess me up.

 

[drtomoe123]

I'm really, really loving this game. I watched my girlfriend play a little P3 last night, and geez, that entire game just seems kind of empty now. There's so much attention to detail in P4, it really does outshine P3 in just about every single way, sans the long intro.

I just finished the second dungeon and I've found myself trying to fuse everything, do every quest, and generally do anything I can. I usually end up not doing stuff like that in most games, but this is completely different, I'm loving it.

In related news, I went ahead and bought the FES version with the P3 box+artbook+CD from Amazon. The P3 I have didn't come with the extras and then I bought FES, so I'll just sell the FES that comes in the box and stick the FES I already had in there. With it being so cheap, there's NO reason to pass that up if you don't have the extras, since you can sell FES alone for pretty much the same price.

 

[Tamanon]

Gee thanks Margaret.

"Hey, you've completed half of your social links! Here's a

Spoiler

baseball bat

"

Couldn't knock off another 10% of the compendium?

 

[Error]

I beat the third dungeon on the first day it was available, and the pacing of the game so far seems as bad as P3's.

I think that's your problem, I spread my dungeon crawling. I never do it all in one day, because that's retarded. You could, sure but then you have lot of dead time. I think the game makes it pretty obvious that it's not about rushing things, the game is generous enough about it (making the dungeons themselves pretty short).

The pacing of the game is up to the player, that's probably what I like the most about P3/P4. You can do the dungeon in one day, but you can also spread it out for the entire month. if you are finding the pacing bad, then it's no one's but your own problem.

 

[Tamanon]

Alright, I really need to pay more attention to the Fusion Forecast. I just did one in September where it was "Use Leonan Sidhe in a fusion and get Extra S. Link XP and an Ice Spell". Made a Hokuto Seikun heirophant and from my Level 9 S. Link I got 6 levels and tacked on a Bufudyne for my ice spell, nice.

 

[frostythecat]

By the time he has it, though, you're high enough to just kill the boss and move on.

I didn't know that the magus was that susceptible to status effect like those Nizam Tigers from earlier in the dungeon. Skull Cracker was the only way I could get past them. So far I've been using one of Chie's shoes to enrage them. The only problem is that I'm currently under the bad Lover's Arcana chance effect (all enemies have advantage) so I can't survive till she can hit them. I suppose I can now use Skull Cracker for the confuse effect.

EDIT: Er, I mean Emperor's Arcana effect.

 

[MoogPaul]

new avatar. took me a while, I probably should of focused more on color quality, but 25 frames and 150kb don't go too well together, lol. not to mention it's like the third gif i've made in my life.

 

[Error]

the 3rd boss was super easy. Much easier than the one in the 2nd dungeon.

All you needed was: dekunda.

cast dekunda with MC whenever he used Marakunda, and also cast rakunda (and tarunda if you had it, but it wasn't necessary) on the boss itself. Have Chie with Tarakaja/Sukukaja on. Use Yosuke to cast Sukukaja on Chie whenever it wore off, and of course Yukiko healing or using Agilao when no healing was needed.

Chie with Sukukaja+Tarukaja+Rampage=cheese. she does over 300 of damage with rampage most of the time. she's a total monster.

Beat it on my first try.

 

[Yaweee]

I think that's your problem, I spread my dungeon crawling. I never do it all in one day, because that's retarded. You could, sure but then you have lot of dead time. I think the game makes it pretty obvious that it's not about rushing things, the game is generous enough about it (making the dungeons themselves pretty short).

The pacing of the game is up to the player, that's probably what I like the most about P3/P4. You can do the dungeon in one day, but you can also spread it out for the entire month. if you are finding the pacing bad, then it's no one's but your own problem.

But then you're intentionally sacrificing S. Link phases for no purpose. And, even if you spread out the dungeon days, there are still two to three weeks between dungeons.

EDIT: The pacing was still off when I took four days to beat the second dungeon. You beat a dungeon early, then there are no real story scenes while you're "Waiting for XXX to recover," and even if you beat it right on the deadline, the story hiccups while waiting for the next victim to show up.

 

[ixix]

I think that's your problem, I spread my dungeon crawling. I never do it all in one day, because that's retarded. You could, sure but then you have lot of dead time. I think the game makes it pretty obvious that it's not about rushing things, the game is generous enough about it (making the dungeons themselves pretty short).

But with the dungeon crawling taking up an afternoon time slot now, spending more than the bare minimum amount of time on any given dungeon means less time for Social Links and boosting your social stats.

That's one of the few things so far that I liked better in Persona 3. I could go to Tartarus and just screw around for a while without worrying that I might be screwing myself over in the long run.

 

[Error]

But then you're intentionally sacrificing S. Link phases for no purpose. And, even if you spread out the dungeon days, there are still two to three weeks between dungeons.

Sure but I don't get bored or say the game has bad pacing. If I do the dungeon in one day, then I have nothing but to raise s.links the whole time, and that would get boring. I like variety, concentrate on s.links for a couple of days, then do some dungeon crawling when I feel like it. I like taking the game at my own pace.

I'm not OCD about s.links I concentrate on the ones that interest me only.

 

[Tamanon]

But then you're intentionally sacrificing S. Link phases for no purpose. And, even if you spread out the dungeon days, there are still two to three weeks between dungeons.

A lot of times, you have Rainy days interspersed during the 2 week period. Those are prime days for dungeoning since almost all S. Links are inactive that day.

 

[Guled]

So I got the game at my EB games after the amazon screw up, and I'm not happy

first of all I got a gutted copy, that and I don't have a artbook, and on top of that I had to pay 50$. At least I got the game but I really wanted the artbook

 

[Error]

A lot of times, you have Rainy days interspersed during the 2 week period. Those are prime days for dungeoning since almost all S. Links are inactive that day.

Another thing with maxing stuff early is that by the time you reach October/November there are going to be a lot of dead periods because you already maxed a bunch of shit early. so then the game becomes really boring. as you have no choice but to fast foward phases, with nothing to do.

 

[Yaweee]

A lot of times, you have Rainy days interspersed during the 2 week period. Those are prime days for dungeoning since almost all S. Links are inactive that day.

Yeah, I'm guessing that will become more important as I move on. I'm spending those days doing the beef bowl 3x event, so once I have my stats and night S. Links closer to maxed, I can kind of pull back a little bit and spread out my pacing.

 

[crowphoenix]

The fact that you can raise courage by eating stupid shit from the fridge is hilarious to me.

 

[diablopanqueque]

P4 Cons:
Figuring out clues of the mystery BEFORE the characters do
Ridiculously long intro

I would like to retract that statement. This game just threw me a loop. :O And I thought I had it all figured out.

I still think that

Spoiler

Adachi

is the killer though.

On a sidenote, WTF at the boss of the 3rd Dungeon? Its attack animation makes me lol every damn time haha.

 

[dustytruly]

i'm really not looking forward to when the shuffling gets harder... i'm assuming it will...

... i've been pretty successful everytime but it gives me a headache

 

[crowphoenix]

I would like to retract that statement. This game just threw me a loop. :O And I thought I had it all figured out.

I still think that

Spoiler

Adachi

is the killer though.

On a sidenote, WTF at the boss of the 3rd Dungeon? Its attack animation makes me lol every damn time haha.

That's one of my two suspects, but I'm leaning more that way, as it has more of that

Spoiler

Suprise!

to it.

 

[vas_a_morir]

I would like to retract that statement. This game just threw me a loop. :O And I thought I had it all figured out.

I still think that

Spoiler

Adachi

is the killer though.

On a sidenote, WTF at the boss of the 3rd Dungeon? Its attack animation makes me lol every damn time haha.

Well, that really wouldn't work, if you recall events prior to the 3rd dungeon's appearance. But, that thought certainly crossed my mind, as they are the character we see a lot and know nothing about.

So, I didn't get an answer on the last page:

If my relationship is maxed out and "intimate," would there be serious repercussions if I were to, oh, say, fuck Rise-chan?