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Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth |OT| -- No Dating, Just Dungeons
- Thread starter Volcynika
- Start date
Link skills break the game with how much damage you'll do. My previous giant block of spoilered post basically explains how you will be able to shit out RIDICULOUS amounts of damage.
Also protip: make sure the person using the link skill uses battle cry/dragon cry to go first. You will get at least 4 links off of that.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
Also, if you Power Charge, all the links do nearly triple damage.
I don't even use links and the games ridiculously easy.
The balancing doesn't remind me of traditional SMT game balancing. Instead, I find myself reminded of Bravely Default, a game where you can break the system at your own will, or completely ignore it. They let you cheese the entire game if you want, but the only one who gets punished by that is you because it suddenly makes the entire game pointless.
This is possible in a lot of SMT games too anyway tbh. Although it was especially noticeable in P4G and SMTIV.
Don't forget about the link passives :V
For me part of the fun comes from cheesing the experience. How hard can you cheese something? How many different ways can you destroy a boss in the fewest amount of turns?
Also yeah PQ is easy as hell. Going back to EO2 made me realize the struggle is real.
After realizing you could cheese demon souls and BD to hell, I havent enjoyed learning how to cheese. It just kinda makes me sit down and ask why I'm wasting my time on the gameplay aspect vs going on youtube for the plot and calling it a day.
CrimsonFist
Member
You didn't even have to try to break those two games.
Pretty much, unless you had no idea what you were doing
or maybe if it was your first SMT experience.
It's so rad finding out that a certain combination can absolutely demolish the game though. What mechanics can work with what to demolish what? I tend to do a "for the experience" playthrough and a "man I'm gonna fuck this game" playthrough.
Shoutouts to M A G I C B O Y S
Last Remnant exists. How the fuck can one even grasp the system long enough for one to break it
Was The Last Remnant's battle system really complex? I haven't finished it but I felt like it was random more than anything, with a lot of things being out of your control. Maybe that's just part of my ignorance lol.
This guy explaining it pretty much summed up why I didn't get anything. It's like you NEED a guide or you WILL fuck up your first playthrough forever. Mostly to the point of being unable to play past a certain point. This RPG is some NEXT LEVEL shit and I didn't understand what was going on. Nothing's random, it all just HAPPENS.
Oh I didn't mean skill progression. That stuff does sound pretty crazy though lol. Maybe the stuff I thought was barely controllable actually had some hidden indicators somewhere.
He's just explaining one aspect of the game that's beyond human comprehension. Like trying to find a common material required you to speak to a random NPC five hours back, which triggers the ability to talk to another NPC. You can then get an item drop from an enemy if you're lucky and activate all the hidden triggers. If you mess up, you basically grinded and you're done.
Hidden indicators are murder.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
I never finished the Last Remnant (I started on 360, switched to PC, but never quite got back to where I left off) but I don't remember it being that bad. Actually, the battles were pretty much the only thing I liked about that game enough to keep me playing.
Resonance of Fate is the game I keep hearing that if you don't play for a week, you will forget how the battle system works.
Resonance of Fate is the game I keep hearing that if you don't play for a week, you will forget how the battle system works.
The PC version is actually a 'fixed' version of the game so it doesn't become as crazy to work with.
Resonance of Fate is a game I will never finish. More than halfway done and I am bored to tears.
Dungeon 3, floor 4 (yes I'm still on it) spoilers:
Is this "4 rooms, 4 quadrants" puzzle just a straight up maths puzzle? I hate looking up answers for puzzles but I just cannot do maths, period. Much less algebra. If it is I don't think I'll be able to figure it out on my own.
Not really a maths problem at all.
Sweet, I might have a chance then. Now to figure out what it actually means.
Got it! Somehow.
I still don't understand what the letters were for.
Don't do that. ;(
Try to panic them instead. Impure Reach is more readily available than Binding Hands and paniced enemies don't escape or evade and the Golden Hands might even hurt themselves with it.
avengers23
Banned
I'm going to try out using links for the first time because I'm consumed with taking down the Lovely Doll for my own satisfaction. I've retired Yukari and have:
Akihiko/Aigis/P4MC
P3MC/Naoto
Healing duties have shifted to Naoto, while Akihiko carries the links. P4MC and P3MC have Death Chaser. Let's see if this works.
Akihiko/Aigis/P4MC
P3MC/Naoto
Healing duties have shifted to Naoto, while Akihiko carries the links. P4MC and P3MC have Death Chaser. Let's see if this works.
Impure reach, that ability that improves the circle accuracy, and/or the ability that increases ally accuracy.
She gets those pretty early on. And then once you couple that with Impure Reach (Also quite early on) you barely ever miss especially with Mahamaon and Mamudoon.
Adam Prime
hates soccer, is Mexican
Hey thread:
I loved Persona 3 and 4 for the combat, and the story, and the characters, and writing. I've played EOIV, got burned out.
Is this a video game for me?
I loved Persona 3 and 4 for the combat, and the story, and the characters, and writing. I've played EOIV, got burned out.
Is this a video game for me?
The hands can't escape when panicked, it lowers their evasion, and they also can't use their annoying skills. I find they are susceptible to panic and sleep. Impure reach for boosting ailment/instant kill hit rate is so useful throughout the game, it's ridiculous. Binding hands is the equivalent for binds, but I didn't find it as useful.
Also if you have any physical skills that hit multiple times, those are good for killing hands.
I'm like 22 hours in and only have mahama D:
I finished this over thanksgiving and have been kind of sifting through my opinion of it since. Overall I think it is pretty good but nowhere near Etrian 4 for me.
Persona brings a lot of good personality to the series. All the little character moments are better than any story anything in an Etrian game. But I kind of dislike everything gameplay related that comes from the SMT/Persona universe.
Etrian 4 just felt like so much more... game. There was so much more to explore and secrets to find and so much more to do. Am I correct in thinking Persona Q barely has any kind of post-game content? At least compared to previous Etrian games that have tons to do?
I also prefer class skill trees that let me plan out how I want all my characters to behave rather than waiting to get lucky on finding a good demon to fuse. And all the little rules about skill transfer in demon fusion drive me crazy. I can transfer this but not that and this skill over here can't be transferred and the game does nothing to explain or teach these rules or guide me towards creating what I want. It's just a lot of spreadsheets and guesswork. I also find it really annoying to have to level demons up just to see if they have any skills worth using.
They could have at least put in the simply beautiful demon search engine that was in SMTIV.
I also find SMT combat in general just kind of bland compared to Etrian. There is too much dependency on elemental weaknesses and there isn't much offered beyond the traditional triad of damage/buffs/heals. With Etrian 4, I was constantly changing my formation or forced to change tactics based on the enemy setup. Sometimes I would have to use different kinds of defensive tactics or buffs to win a particular style of fight. And the Etrian 4 classes contain much more creativity in them like the dancer and imperial. But everything here is reduced and simplified so that it can be crammed into the limited skill set that a demon can have. Like Debilitate is just the best debuff in all cases. And the light/dark spells are just a bucket of aggravation and RNG and have been since I first encountered them in persona 3.
For the combat here, I mostly just hit things with links and myriad arrows until they stopped hitting back.
Overall the mechanics in general just feel like a step backwards into more Etrian 1 territory rather than building from the innovations of 3 and 4. But I didn't hate it because mediocre Etrian is still good and the persona element adds a ton of style and character to a series that is otherwise soulless in that regard.
I put this probably ahead of Etrian 1 and the other new one that has the story focus but far below Etrian 3 and 4.
edit: I also dislike how the regenerating hp/sp buff from your demons completely removed the resource management portion of the game.
Persona brings a lot of good personality to the series. All the little character moments are better than any story anything in an Etrian game. But I kind of dislike everything gameplay related that comes from the SMT/Persona universe.
Etrian 4 just felt like so much more... game. There was so much more to explore and secrets to find and so much more to do. Am I correct in thinking Persona Q barely has any kind of post-game content? At least compared to previous Etrian games that have tons to do?
I believe there is just a couple boss fights like Elizabeth?
I also prefer class skill trees that let me plan out how I want all my characters to behave rather than waiting to get lucky on finding a good demon to fuse. And all the little rules about skill transfer in demon fusion drive me crazy. I can transfer this but not that and this skill over here can't be transferred and the game does nothing to explain or teach these rules or guide me towards creating what I want. It's just a lot of spreadsheets and guesswork. I also find it really annoying to have to level demons up just to see if they have any skills worth using.
They could have at least put in the simply beautiful demon search engine that was in SMTIV.
I also find SMT combat in general just kind of bland compared to Etrian. There is too much dependency on elemental weaknesses and there isn't much offered beyond the traditional triad of damage/buffs/heals. With Etrian 4, I was constantly changing my formation or forced to change tactics based on the enemy setup. Sometimes I would have to use different kinds of defensive tactics or buffs to win a particular style of fight. And the Etrian 4 classes contain much more creativity in them like the dancer and imperial. But everything here is reduced and simplified so that it can be crammed into the limited skill set that a demon can have. Like Debilitate is just the best debuff in all cases. And the light/dark spells are just a bucket of aggravation and RNG and have been since I first encountered them in persona 3.
For the combat here, I mostly just hit things with links and myriad arrows until they stopped hitting back.
Overall the mechanics in general just feel like a step backwards into more Etrian 1 territory rather than building from the innovations of 3 and 4. But I didn't hate it because mediocre Etrian is still good and the persona element adds a ton of style and character to a series that is otherwise soulless in that regard.
I put this probably ahead of Etrian 1 and the other new one that has the story focus but far below Etrian 3 and 4.
edit: I also dislike how the regenerating hp/sp buff from your demons completely removed the resource management portion of the game.
Inquisitive_Ghost
Member
Do Impure Reach and Binding Hands extend to ailment/bind-inflicting weapons?
MiguelMexMIstery
Member
Post fourth labyrinth's boss
and important quest spoilers
(up to floor 4)
I don't know why, but that bunny kept aiming for poor Kanji. lol At least he dealt the final hit.
STORY TAKES A SUDDEN TWIST
Oh my god, can't believe Rei is actually dead, so sad ;_; even is she was annoying at times with her food thing. Clock Tower is so cool, totally loving its music. <3 And the Reaper is back huh. I'm so proud/glad of the senpai's development, glad Aki's being serious now. I find it funny how Yosuke yells at you for telling Junpei to try a joke in a tense situation when he keeps doing that in Arena. lol
And YEAAAAAH! I finally did the Ultimate Persona request! "I'll show the true power of my right eye!" "So that's why you've kept it hidden all this time...!" Best lines in the whole game.
STORY TAKES A SUDDEN TWIST
Oh my god, can't believe Rei is actually dead, so sad ;_; even is she was annoying at times with her food thing. Clock Tower is so cool, totally loving its music. <3 And the Reaper is back huh. I'm so proud/glad of the senpai's development, glad Aki's being serious now. I find it funny how Yosuke yells at you for telling Junpei to try a joke in a tense situation when he keeps doing that in Arena. lol
And YEAAAAAH! I finally did the Ultimate Persona request! "I'll show the true power of my right eye!" "So that's why you've kept it hidden all this time...!" Best lines in the whole game.
I got the torch and shortcut hint, but didn't know about the starless one. lol I like how Ken goes "I'm dissapointed in you, P3MC-san...." if you go to the second one.
And yes!! Akihiko is now a total beast.
And yes!! Akihiko is now a total beast.
Seriously?! I spent A LOT of floors using these on my active party members (I'm even using Growth 2 and 3 on Yosuke and Yukari now)!
WHY DONT THEY TELL US THIS SERIOUSLY
I think the puzzles are great - comparable to the ballooning and sailing of EO 3/4 but integrated into the dungeons.
Coming from EO I knew exactly what the Growth rings did but it actually would make sense if you could put them on people in the party to grind up other characters quicker. It would also be great to put them on the Navi's to get them up to lvl 55
I assume their personas evolve as well?
Panic circle so OP - last 2 bosses were constantly panicked and did nothing but measly attacks to my party ... and I gave my front row Death Scythe skill cards to increase damage to enemies with status effects too
Splash Wave
Member
It is weirdly easy, isn't it? This game is just making me want to revisit E04, which isn't something I thought I'd say.
I was initially overwhelmed by everything going on with PQ--the number of characters, the sub-Personas (two navigational characters with equitable Personas, too!), etc.--but it's all amounting to something pretty manageable. I haven't found the need to get very creative with Persona fusion, or even really worry about keeping them updated *that* often.
The game is fun, though.
edit: I think BD was much more annoying in that regard. I've barely touched it because of how little faith it has in the player, so to speak.
60 hours on average, yes.
I loved BD, but I think how it's structured can be broken inherently. There will ALWAYS be stuff you can break with that level of mix and match.
Touch fuzZy. get BizZay
Member
Loving this. I think I'm up to the boss of the first dungeon. Playing on hard mode.
Rise said the boss was stronger than an F.O.E so I decided it was time to try and beat one instead of running away. Had a nice long fight and came out on top just as all my healers ran out of SP.
Combat is great and I love all my P4 posse's combat dialogue. It's great to get hit by every status effect spell just to hear what all the characters say about it! Everybody is so fun, I can't decide on a party!
I want to do a 2nd playthrough with S.E.E.S. I read that on Risky mode if the hero dies, the game ends. Meaning permadeath and your save is erased? Or just that if the hero is K.O.ed, you have to go back to the most recent saved game?
Rise said the boss was stronger than an F.O.E so I decided it was time to try and beat one instead of running away. Had a nice long fight and came out on top just as all my healers ran out of SP.
Combat is great and I love all my P4 posse's combat dialogue. It's great to get hit by every status effect spell just to hear what all the characters say about it! Everybody is so fun, I can't decide on a party!
I want to do a 2nd playthrough with S.E.E.S. I read that on Risky mode if the hero dies, the game ends. Meaning permadeath and your save is erased? Or just that if the hero is K.O.ed, you have to go back to the most recent saved game?
One Foul Note
Member
Oh god, don't let Atlas hear you they might get ideas. On risky if your hero dies you just get a game over and it boots you back to the title screen, it doesn't wipe your save or anything.
Now that I'm pretty close to done with the game, these are my impressions. I don't have prior experience with EO series (have EO4 which I have not played yet) but I do like 1st person dungeon crawling. I'd agree that PQ is easier than I expected. Maybe being on risky would have helped. Wake-up calls stopped happening early on (I'm thinking of that beetle and the wind corroders). Once I found my approach, the next 3 dungeons were largely autopilot for non-FOE battles.
Enemy variety wasn't enough to keep changing my tactics, and I think that's because of the lack of null (save for hama and mudo) or repel in this game. Light/dark success rate is way too high. Physical skills that hit more than once almost always crit, and no repel means no danger. Ailments are super powerful. This combination of factors make any elemental specialization beyond the main persona seem wasteful. There is no tension around SP supply because Fuuka. Boost was barely rewarding - not really incentive to use elemental skills or cover weaknesses. An approach centred on press-turns might make me care more about fusion and skill distribution.
I've enjoyed the game, though. Overall it was solid, even if I think the battle/fusion side could have used some attention. Some character bits are very good (love the Kanji parts in the P4 route). Also, the dungeon puzzles are well done. Satisfying enough to stay engaged, but not based on space-logic. Finding ways around FOEs and eventually fighting them is also fun, which makes up for the forgettable boss fights.
It's so great to play a recent Persona-related game with actual good dungeons. In that sense I was really satisfied, because that's mostly what I wanted from the experience. I really hope P5 does something different in this regard. I also loved the map drawing aspect so I am going to have to try EO4 after a palate cleanse game.
Enemy variety wasn't enough to keep changing my tactics, and I think that's because of the lack of null (save for hama and mudo) or repel in this game. Light/dark success rate is way too high. Physical skills that hit more than once almost always crit, and no repel means no danger. Ailments are super powerful. This combination of factors make any elemental specialization beyond the main persona seem wasteful. There is no tension around SP supply because Fuuka. Boost was barely rewarding - not really incentive to use elemental skills or cover weaknesses. An approach centred on press-turns might make me care more about fusion and skill distribution.
I've enjoyed the game, though. Overall it was solid, even if I think the battle/fusion side could have used some attention. Some character bits are very good (love the Kanji parts in the P4 route). Also, the dungeon puzzles are well done. Satisfying enough to stay engaged, but not based on space-logic. Finding ways around FOEs and eventually fighting them is also fun, which makes up for the forgettable boss fights.
It's so great to play a recent Persona-related game with actual good dungeons. In that sense I was really satisfied, because that's mostly what I wanted from the experience. I really hope P5 does something different in this regard. I also loved the map drawing aspect so I am going to have to try EO4 after a palate cleanse game.
ZombiePlatypus
Member
Guys if instead of playing Persona 3 and 4, I only watch their anime adaptations instead, will I still be able to enjoy and appreciate all the nods this game has for those previous two titles?
Don't do this.
Edit: Seriously though, the anime adaptations are only good if you played the games and just want to see more of the characters and stuff. Besides, the Persona 3 movies aren't even finished airing yet.
Why though?
Play the games, the anime adaptions don't match the experience of the games at all.
While I prefer the ballooning/sailing, the puzzles were indeed a good addition and I hope that an eventual Etrian 5 has both.