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[hans_castorp]

The Persona team surely has a problem with handholding and tutorials. This is Twilight Princess levels of bad.

Do we really need a 98656h long tutorial about combat or Demon Fusion? Gimme all the options already dammit. SMTIV and SJ weren't this bad.

 

[ramyeon]

Four hours in now. Like it quite a bit. Sold the Soma you get from the free item dlc for 50k and fully kitted out the squad, which feels kinda cheap but w/e.

I never did work out how to get those items.

 

[AtomskEater]

I haven't played a game for 8 hours the same day I got it in a loooong time. Loving it so far.

Does only the persona the MC has equipped currently gain experience after battle? It seems like gaining levels is slow going anyway, should I even really worry about that?

 

[aravuus]

Just barely started, but I'm already getting vibes that are a mix of P3/4 and P2. And it's those P2 vibes that really have me excited to dig in.

I'm gonna have to finally actually play and finish P2 after this, I think. I played the first half of the one that has been translated to English (Innocent Sin?) and remember enjoying it.

I never did work out how to get those items.

Pretty sure I got them from the cardboard box in your room. But yeah, unless you're dead set on reaching the treasure in one day in the first dungeon, sell Soma - I feel like 50k yen is much, much more useful during the early game.

 

[Tidalwave]

The Persona team surely has a problem with handholding and tutorials. This is Twilight Princess levels of bad.

Do we really need a 98656h long tutorial about combat or Demon Fusion? Gimme all the options already dammit. SMTIV and SJ weren't this bad.

It is bad but I bet this will be a lot of people's first game in the series. It seems to be making some waves.

 

[ramyeon]

I haven't played a game for 8 hours the same day I got it in a loooong time. Loving it so far.

Does only the persona the MC has equipped currently gain experience after battle? It seems like gaining levels is slow going anyway, should I even really worry about that?

Leveling up Persona through battles is super inefficient. You're better of using them for fusion to make more powerful ones.

 

[TI82]

Can I just say that ryuuji is my new favorite best friend character? Him and captain Kidd are so badass.

 

[artsi]

You have got to be kidding me with this bullshit
Day like 15 or 16 spoilers regarding fusion

Spoiler

They just force you to make a persona? And you can't make one you already have? So I HAVE to use Arsene? What is this??

Let it go~

Better not fall in love with just one Persona until endgame when they're powerful enough, you'll be fusing them left and right for the whole game.

 

[robotrock]

in love with this game

 

[super-famicom]

I haven't played a game for 8 hours the same day I got it in a loooong time. Loving it so far.

Does only the persona the MC has equipped currently gain experience after battle? It seems like gaining levels is slow going anyway, should I even really worry about that?

Yes, unless other persona have the Growth skill. You're supposed to get higher level persona through fusion and S.Link bonuses. Straight up grinding for xp would take longer.

 

[Eusis]

I'm gonna have to finally actually play and finish P2 after this, I think. I played the first half of the one that has been translated to English (Innocent Sin?) and remember enjoying it.

I got through most of Eternal Punishment (second half that saw US release on PS1) but never beat it, felt too much like if you didn't have the right Persona set up you'd get fucked, and that could involve quite a bit of card grinding.

But I'm also better with JRPGs these days, and it seems part of the problem might be that it was designed as a continuous difficulty curve from IS... which being on PSP now is awfully convenient should I bother to go back properly!

 

[Holundrian]

It is bad but I bet this will be a lot of people's first game in the series. It seems to be making some waves.

As always the solution here is designing it in a way that makes it all optional. It's really annoying especially on subsequent playthroughs that don't let you skip that stuff. Not a major thing of course but certainly among the many little things where it still has room to improve. Generally Persona 5 only has 1 thing related to romance that tarnishes it for me most other things are generally small annoyances or nitpicks that don't really detract from the core experience.
What I'm referring to with the romance thing it's a gameplay system related spoiler

Spoiler

You get asked on every female Confidant story line before the lovers event happens and warned to consider your choice. It's especially jarring when you do all the Confidant story lines and pretty immersion breaking to read that unchanging message and just makes the gameplay systemness of it all incredibly apparent. They honestly should have just not bothered to include this. I think it would have been far funnier to have players accidentally misread/cheat and reward people that are just super careful on that front. Getting asked every time "are you REALLY sure you want a special relationship with this person... urgh so weird. It's also generally on the same rank in each storyline.

 

[ramyeon]

As always the solution here is designing it in a way that makes it all optional. It's really annoying especially on subsequent playthroughs that don't let you skip that stuff.
Not a major thing of course but certainly among the many little things where it still has room to improve.

There's a fast forward button.

 

[Darkman M]

You have got to be kidding me with this bullshit
Day like 15 or 16 spoilers regarding fusion

Spoiler

They just force you to make a persona? And you can't make one you already have? So I HAVE to use Arsene? What is this??

Weird I was able to not have to fuse him.

 

[Tidalwave]

Weird I was able to not have to fuse him.

I wonder which one I seemed to miss. Weird.

 

[aravuus]

As always the solution here is designing it in a way that makes it all optional. It's really annoying especially on subsequent playthroughs that don't let you skip that stuff.
Not a major thing of course but certainly among the many little things where it still has room to improve.

You can FF through the dialogue, but I agree, the hand-holding is a bit ridiculous during the first hours.

Speaking of unskippable stuff, can I turn off the running victory screen and always get the art with exp, yen and items shown simultaneously, the one that displays when you finish with an all-out attack? The former is stylish as shit and I love the way MC starts running away, and clicking through exp, yen and items doesn't take long... But sometimes he just continues running for a couple of seconds before it actually throws me back to the world which, I would imagine, will get annoying when I start grinding for real.

I got through most of Eternal Punishment (second half that saw US release on PS1) but never beat it, felt too much like if you didn't have the right Persona set up you'd get fucked, and that could involve quite a bit of card grinding.

But I'm also better with JRPGs these days, and it seems part of the problem might be that it was designed as a continuous difficulty curve from IS... which being on PSP now is awfully convenient should I bother to go back properly!

Oh wait, have they been both officially translated? First one on PSP, second on PS1?

 

[LastMinuteHero]

Man psn asia is sure late with the jp va dlc

 

[ramyeon]

You can FF through the dialogue, but I agree, the hand-holding is a bit ridiculous during the first hours.

Speaking of unskippable stuff, can I turn off the running victory screen and always get the art with exp, yen and items shown simultaneously, the one that displays when you finish with an all-out attack? The former is stylish as shit and I love the way MC starts running away, and clicking through exp, yen and items doesn't take long... But sometimes he just continues running for a couple of seconds before it actually throws me back to the world which, I would imagine, will get annoying when I start grinding for real.



Oh wait, have they been both officially translated? First one on PSP, second on PS1?

Pretty sure that extra few seconds of running is just masking load times.

 

[Holundrian]

You can FF through the dialogue, but I agree, the hand-holding is a bit ridiculous during the first hours.

Speaking of unskippable stuff, can I turn off the running victory screen and always get the art with exp, yen and items shown simultaneously, the one that displays when you finish with an all-out attack? The former is stylish as shit and I love the way MC starts running away, and clicking through exp, yen and items doesn't take long... But sometimes he just continues running for a couple of seconds before it actually throws me back to the world which, I would imagine, will get annoying when I start grinding for real.

There's a fast forward button.

Doesn't really help you still have to go through and be handheld by Morgana and do all the little things she tells you every time you start a new playthrough. Same with the Igor explanation sections. Unnecessary. I speak from the perspective that has done 2.5 pretty complete playthroughs.

 

[NegativeCero]

I just spent all day playing this and I don't want to stop, but I have to sleep. It says a lot that just about my whole friends list is playing this.

 

[Zeusy]

So I need help...I'm 10 days away, and I believe I'm on the last section but the shadows are lvl 16 I'm 7 and they keep destroying me

 

[Eusis]

Oh wait, have they been both officially translated? First one on PSP, second on PS1?

Yup. It's kind of a ridiculous situation as EP wasn't translated on PSP (seems there were issues, probably most damningly the PSP being a dead platform), but better solid English options for both than one or the other being out and out unavailable.

 

[AtomskEater]

Leveling up Persona through battles is super inefficient. You're better of using them for fusion to make more powerful ones.

Yes, unless other persona have the Growth skill. You're supposed to get higher level persona through fusion and S.Link bonuses. Straight up grinding for xp would take longer.

Ah, thanks!

 

[Kuriboi2k6]

I've made peace with it by reminding myself that this is a PS3 game every time I see one.

THIS! I have to remind myself that this is essentially a higher res PS3 game. Would have been nice for them to rebuild it from the ground up on ps4, but we've had enough delays.

 

[Hattori]

Do I need to watch the anime before playing or is it a separate thing altogether?

 

[ramyeon]

Yup. It's kind of a ridiculous situation as EP wasn't translated on PSP (seems there were issues, probably most damningly the PSP being a dead platform), but better solid English options for both than one or the other being out and out unavailable.

Unless you're in Europe, in which case it might as well not exist.

 

[aravuus]

Pretty sure that extra few seconds of running is just masking load times.

That's what I thought at first, but the transition from the 2D art screen is instantaneous and in general, loading times are incredibly short in this game. It's a bit hard for me to believe it's loading the dungeon of all things that long, but I guess I just gotta deal with it.

Doesn't really help you still have to go through and be handheld by Morgana and do all the little things she tells you every time you start a new playthrough. Same with the Igor explanation sections. Unnecessary. I speak from the perspective that has done 2.5 pretty complete playthroughs.

Yeah sure, I suppose I'll see for myself when I get there, but as it is, I don't see it being a big problem. Then again, I'll gladly go through the intros of P4 and KH2 too when replaying them, so maybe I just have a high tolerance for this sort of stuff.

 

[Holundrian]

Do I need to watch the anime before playing or is it a separate thing altogether?

Separate. The anime actually animates a small sidequest from the game. It's a fun fan watch(like the persona 4 anime) but honestly not very good.

Wonder if they ever fixed the weird issue where the game would take like a second to load up the map when opened in your own room. Super weird cause in any other place it would just be instant.

Yeah sure, I suppose I'll see for myself when I get there, but as it is, I don't see it being a big problem. Then again, I'll gladly go through the intros of P4 and KH2 too when replaying them, so maybe I just have a high tolerance for this sort of stuff.

Yeah as I said not a big problem at all, but again I guess I repeat myself. It's just one of the minor annoyances that don't really detract from the overall experience. But I definitely think it's very valid criticism. There's only a single issue for me personally that tarnishes the game a little. Everything else are small things that could be improved on.

 

[Incendiary]

Played for about 3 hours tonight. Going to regret everything at work tomorrow but no big deal. This game is stylish as fuck - I love the menus and the victory screen animations, and also all the transitions from dungeon to battle and back again. I know it's mostly masked loading times but it looks so damn sleek and stylish that I can't be mad.

It's really weird trying to get back into the Persona mindset after playing a lot of straight SMT games since Persona 4. But I'm really enjoying everything so far. This game is definitely going to destroy my social life for the foreseeable future.

 

[Astral]

Damn the first dungeon is a lot longer than I thought it would be. I feel like I'm not managing my time correctly.

 

[EscapeArtist]

I got this game at 9pm last night, I've played it for 18 hours since then. My god. It's so good, and so stylish. I don't know if I prefer it over other Persona games but I didn't realize how much I liked Persona 4 until I was nearing the end. I guess we'll see.

 

[Renkax]

Spoiler

when shiho jumped. My body dropped too

 

[Soriku]

The Persona team surely has a problem with handholding and tutorials. This is Twilight Princess levels of bad.

Do we really need a 98656h long tutorial about combat or Demon Fusion? Gimme all the options already dammit. SMTIV and SJ weren't this bad.

98656h? All the tutorials are short, and spaced out too so no big deal...did you expect them to not explain anything?

 

[meltingparappa]

Do I need to watch the anime before playing or is it a separate thing altogether?

It's just a neat fleshed out version of a sidequest right after the second dungeon. Super optional.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

welp

this spoiler free guide is already obsolete lmao. I've been following it to a tee and on 4.28 it said to

Spoiler

spend time with Ryuji

which I did and I didn't get a rank up. So what the fuck.

 

[sappyday]

I'm on 4/15. Already put 5 hours into it but that time flew by quick. It's been such a long time where I just want to keep playing. Even games that I love from last year like Uncharted 4, I would always pause after 1-2 hours and check GAF or watch some Youtube and not resume for another few hours or till the next day. I'm hopping back in, I'm so glad I got no work tomorrow.

 

[freeofgreed]

So what did you guys end up naming your team?

 

[Qblivion]

Why does Igor's voice sound like it got ran through a vocoder? Does he sound like than in jp too?

 

[meltingparappa]

welp

this spoiler free guide is already obsolete lmao. I've been following it to a tee and on 4.28 it said to

Spoiler

spend time with Ryuji

which I did and I didn't get a rank up. So what the fuck.

The danger of a guide like that is when you're one day out of whack due to any number of reasons, everything goes a little out of sync.

 

[aravuus]

Yeah as I said not a big problem at all, but again I guess I repeat myself. It's just one of the minor annoyances that don't really detract from the overall experience. But I definitely think it's very valid criticism. There's only a single issue for me personally that tarnishes the game a little. Everything else are small things that could be improved on.

Hahah I feel like we're just repeating ourselves at this point, but I wanted to make it clear I definitely think it's valid criticism. I know I've waited for this game for like 32 years at this point - or that's what it feels like, at least - but I'm trying to keep a level head when it comes to it's pros and cons. It's absolutely not flawless, and I have a variety of problems with it myself, but most of those are fairly or really minor so they don't really detract from the overall experience at all.

welp

this spoiler free guide is already obsolete lmao. I've been following it to a tee and on 4.28 it said to

Spoiler

spend time with Ryuji

which I did and I didn't get a rank up. So what the fuck.

Pick one wrong answer during a single SL encounter and you're fucked for the rest of the game/guide. As someone who has played P3 and 4 a couple of times with 100% SL guides - don't do that on your first run.

 

[super-famicom]

Why does Igor's voice sound like it got ran through a vocoder? Does he sound like than in jp too?

Different voice actor. Igor's original voice actor passed away, so they replaced him, and also replaced the English VA to match the new JP VA. I'm playing with Japanese voices and miss the original Igor voice, but the new voice fits the game really well.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

The danger of a guide like that is when you're one day out of whack due to any number of reasons, everything goes a little out of sync.

he made an update luckily saying that apparently saying that apparently in the english version there are some changes where you will have more free time as a result. I'm hoping that's correct.

 

[Eusis]

Unless you're in Europe, in which case it might as well not exist.

That's kind of been an Atlus problem until now with Deep Silver, hasn't it? :/

 

[Qblivion]

Different voice actor. Igor's original voice actor passed away, so they replaced him, and also replaced the English VA to match the new JP VA.

I am aware. That doesn't explain why the voice sounds synthetic though.

 

[Jiraiza]

Making that dosh at the convenience store, yeaaaah.

 

[TheSporkWithin]

Why does Igor's voice sound like it got ran through a vocoder? Does he sound like than in jp too?

I haven't heard the new English voice, but the Japanese one was quite deep and gravelly, an extreme contrast to his old wispy voice. I've heard that the new English one matches it pretty closely. You're supposed to get the impression that things are very different this time around, what with the MC being a prisoner instead of an honored guest.

 

[BRSxIgnition]

I can't help but feel like I'm in a corner or lagging behind.

I'm at 4/20-4/21 and have just been given the option to

Spoiler

send the calling card for Kamoshida.

I did so about a day or so after I first saw it on the Thieves Guild, the 21st, which makes me feel like I initiated it late. (I had a rough second day in the

Spoiler

Castle

, so it took me 3 to reach the treasure.)

To compound the issue, I was surprised it would take an additional day to actually activate the

Spoiler

boss of the castle.

I went up against the boss and lost due to not being able to heal + damage while

Spoiler

Morgana climbed the terrace.

I can't help but feel like it's too hard to get the money to buy the equipment and healing items I need.

I've focused primarily on the dungeon so far, originally hoping to get it out of the way in 3 days...

Am I doing something wrong? Am I forgetting anything? I don't remember having an issue like this in P3 & P4 early on. Should I restart & plan my time better?

What are your best spoiler-free recommendations for me?

 

[Trigonometrize.]

welp

this spoiler free guide is already obsolete lmao. I've been following it to a tee and on 4.28 it said to

Spoiler

spend time with Ryuji

which I did and I didn't get a rank up. So what the fuck.

Did you have Ryuji arcana (Chariot) Persona in your inventory when hanging out with him? That also boosts levels and is probably why you're behind.

 

[Astral]

Fuck I'm on 4/22 or something and haven't started Sojiro's SL because I don't have a compatible Persona, my guts still aren't high enough for Tae, and I'm apparently only halfway through the first dungeon. I feel fucking rusty.

 

[BRSxIgnition]

Fuck I'm on 4/22 or something and haven't started Sojiro's SL because I don't have a compatible Persona, my guts still aren't high enough for Tae, and I'm apparently only halfway through the first dungeon. I feel fucking rusty.

Similar issue here, I'm at the end of the dungeon but haven't even seen his SL or tried Tae's/Ryuji's. (4/21)

Can't help but feel like I'm behind where I should be, or that I'm doing something wrong. (See post 4847.)