Darkspineslayer
Member
If you enjoyed the light tone and found the dungeons as they were to be a slog, avoid Persona 3. It's too late to go back.
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LTTP: Persona 4 Golden
- Thread starter Zalman
- Start date
If you enjoyed the light tone and found the dungeons as they were to be a slog, avoid Persona 3. It's too late to go back.
What if I told you it was even worse in P3? Even worse, the map in P3 is extremely tedious to maneuver through and you can level up and get the Personas you want for the next boss fight Tartarus fairly early in any given month, and reach the gate for the next block of meaning you have nothing to do for the rest of the month until the full moon except either spend more time in Tartarus or do social links, or level up your social stats.
P4 does a much better job of introducing more social links early in the game and giving you more stuff to do in general in the town in addition to the bosses not being tied to a full moon so you can go in and do a few floors of the dungeon, leave, spend a few days doing social links or whatever, go back in and finish the dungeon if you feel so inclined. P4 has so many more little improvements like that over P3 it's pretty astounding, especially now that I'm playing through P3 again.
I probably never would've played this if it weren't for GAF. I don't play a lot of RPG games and I'm generally not that interested in them.
After reading all the praise my Vitabros were lavishing on it my curiosity got the better of me. I bought the game physically, full price, then left it on the shelf for more than a year. I kept planning to start but I knew it was a huge time investment so I kept postponing it. Then I had a vacation coming up. So I promised myself I'd finally play this game. I booted it up hopefully and worked through the first couple of hours. Once the game started opening up, I felt overwhelmed! What if I make the wrong choice about who to hang out with, what if I fuse the wrong Persona, what's with all these stats!?
I put the game down shortly after that and didn't return for months. When I finally did I decided to just let go and see what happens. Some 80 hours later I had finished the game with the true ending. It was an amazing experience. I loved the cast, the soundtrack, the social links. Even the dungeons grew on me by the end.
I'm currently playing P3FES and I find myself missing P4G. I feel much less connected with my party so far. Probably because you don't build social links with (all of) them. The story takes much longer to get going as well. I'm about 20 hours in and I finally feel like it has some direction now. P4G felt more focussed from the start.
I also feel weird about some of the social links. I'm encouraging some of them to do stuff that I should be talking them out of and others are, at least so far, just unlikable.
I'll keep going because so far it's not terrible at all but it's just different and I have trouble adjusting.
After reading all the praise my Vitabros were lavishing on it my curiosity got the better of me. I bought the game physically, full price, then left it on the shelf for more than a year. I kept planning to start but I knew it was a huge time investment so I kept postponing it. Then I had a vacation coming up. So I promised myself I'd finally play this game. I booted it up hopefully and worked through the first couple of hours. Once the game started opening up, I felt overwhelmed! What if I make the wrong choice about who to hang out with, what if I fuse the wrong Persona, what's with all these stats!?
I put the game down shortly after that and didn't return for months. When I finally did I decided to just let go and see what happens. Some 80 hours later I had finished the game with the true ending. It was an amazing experience. I loved the cast, the soundtrack, the social links. Even the dungeons grew on me by the end.
I'm currently playing P3FES and I find myself missing P4G. I feel much less connected with my party so far. Probably because you don't build social links with (all of) them. The story takes much longer to get going as well. I'm about 20 hours in and I finally feel like it has some direction now. P4G felt more focussed from the start.
I also feel weird about some of the social links. I'm encouraging some of them to do stuff that I should be talking them out of and others are, at least so far, just unlikable.
I'll keep going because so far it's not terrible at all but it's just different and I have trouble adjusting.
There's social links with most of the party members, they just don't open up until later in the game and have specific requirements. Mitsuru requires you to have scored first in an exam, have max Academics, and doesn't start until November, as an example.
Really? I thought it was just the females. That's good to hear then, though I feel they should open up way sooner. I battle shadows with these people and live in the same dorm but there's not been any socializing in the four or so months since I got there.
I messed up and you quoted me before my edit. It is just the females, which is kind of dumb. They tied the social links with the male members to FeMC in Portable, which is awful.
This is where P3P shines a bit
. You can have social links with EVERYONE on the SEES team if you play as the FM Main Character (even Koramaru !), which makes everyone being friends and working together in the end more realistic and nice . You can even have a social link with Shinji (a character who appears latter in the game)
.That isn't the case :l. I remember you can have S. Links with Yukari, Aigis, Fukka and Mitsru too if you play as the FM Main Character (though some of the requirements are much less demanding; you don't have to be popular to start Yukari's S. Link for example).
I took a week off of work in hopes of finishing up at least one game, and this game was my target.
73 hours, completed. What a ride.
I'm pleasantly surprised how they ended up making each character likable. A lot of RPGs have throwaway characters who are either added too late into the story or have no significant value to the plot. This game had none of that.
73 hours, completed. What a ride.
I'm pleasantly surprised how they ended up making each character likable. A lot of RPGs have throwaway characters who are either added too late into the story or have no significant value to the plot. This game had none of that.
I mean that the males are tied to FeMC specifically, and you can't have social links with them as the male MC.
Oh, I didn't understand you at first; sorry man
. That is a bit odd through, as they had the time to make S. Links for the male cast for the FM Main Character but not bother to alter them to work with the Male Main Character. I guess they didn't do that due to how the FM Social Links would 'replace' the Male ones (as some S. Links are switched around; Junpi's S. Link took the place of the other character for the Male Main Character for example).This is where P3P shines a bit
You can even have a social link with Shinji (a character who appears latter in the game)
I hope so, I plan on playing P3P with FeMC for a 2nd playthrough.
I find that very odd, coming from P4 to this. Even though I didn't start to focus on my party's S.Links until way later at least they were available early and without weird requirements, usually. I think only Naoto required a high intelligence stat.
You can't even max the links without romancing the girls, can you?
This is how I feel. It would probably be one of the best games I've ever played if it weren't for the absolutely terrible dungeons. As it stands, I've been on the
Rise
SMT IV is similar. Maybe I just need to restart both of these.
Well, for some stupid reason, the Persona team figured the male character only wanted to get with all of them rather then be friends with them :l.
I can sorta get some of the S. Links be locked into this
(Aigis and Yukari for example, as they are the 'cannon' love interests for the Male Main Character)
. At least (I think?) the FM Main Character isn't forced into romancing anyone, so I guess that part is improved in the Portable version of the game
.skLaFarebear
Member
It's alright. I think it's the worst SMT game I've played, but it's still better than a lot of the shit RPGs you can find out there
Not going to find many with that opinion.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
The finest game on the Vita, and possibly my favorite game of the past 10 or so years. I wish I could get the feelings I had in that game more often. It's just so, so good.
Coolbgdog12
Member
My favorite game of all time. I absolutely adored the soundtrack, first video game soundtrack that I listen to even when not playing the game. The characters were amazing and the script was very realistic. The girls in the game... *sigh*
Chie Satonaka>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yukiko>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ms.Kasigawi is hot.
Game is amazing.
Chie Satonaka>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yukiko>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ms.Kasigawi is hot.
Game is amazing.
This game is worth every penny of $60 + tax. $20 is a steal. How many of these threads of I didn't think i would like it, but now it's my favorite game do we need before people will give it a chance?
Agreed. The characters are so well done. I also think it was a great decision to keep the protagonist silent. I feel like I'm actually him and that these guys are my real friends, you know? Very few games are able to create that feeling so well.
BaraSailey
Member
Amazing game; I never wanted it to end. Definitely one of my favorite games of all time, and pretty much the main reason I bought my Vita. One day I'll do new game+ and max out all the social links.
That's a little extreme. I was excited to play it after all the GAF praise, and picked it up earlier this year on sale. I fail to see the greatness tbh. As others have said, the dungeons are pretty weak, but take them away and there's very little gameplay left, it would just be a school/social simulator. The story was interesting though, and the voice acting was great, but that wasn't enough for me. I got as far as unlocking Kanji before giving up on it.
Question for those who do multiple playthroughs: What do you differently each time? If the combat is not tht great, how do you stick with it to the end each time? It's not a short game and the lack of variety makes me wonder how you keep it interesting.
How is the combat not great? Its a pretty standard SMT JRPG in the combat
skLaFarebear
Member
I really like the dark atmosphere that comes with the SMT games. Persona 4 felt like I was playing a SOL anime. Its sequel though is fucking amazing.
You carry over a lot of things from NG+ meaning your second playthrough is much faster than the first. About why though, idk maybe trophies or
for fusing a persona only available in the second playthrough if you beat the true final boss.
First time was the experience. I sort of like to rush through on some games to experience the story.
Second time I took my time and did a lot more of the social links.
Third time was my competitionist run where I got the platinum on the game.
In general, Golden has a nice little feature of letting you fast forward through cutscenes. It makes going back and doing missed content much more easily done. As for the dungeon crawling, I generally tried to do more and more of the challenging stuff each time with higher difficulties. I was able to get into rhythms for the dungeons and they were never really as bad as many people claim they are for me. The gameplay itself is quite fun if you embrace letting the game give you a challenge with boss battles and such (and not break the system like I did my first time through).
Considering Persona 4 arena and arena 2 have you revisting the characters, yes it's weird.
You are mostly correct, but I recommend you try some of the other non-Persona MegaTen games if P4 hasn't put you off. The gameplay is considerably better. That said, the combat in P4 is pretty much a watered down press turn. It's okay, and certainly not one of the things wrong with the game.
I seriously hope they fix the gameplay (and the dungeons especially) for P5.
Manmademan
Member
Unless you're using a FAQ the first run through, getting all of the social links is impossible. A second run through is mandatory if you're looking to get the social links you missed, and fuse some of the rarer personas.
Well I've never played an SMT game before so I have no frame of reference. I thought the actual combat mechanics were good fun, but the actual dungeons themselves were bland as hell so by the time I got to the boss I was ready to move on. You even have massive fans of the game in this thread saying they wished the dungeons were over quicker, so the combat can't have been that compelling.
Yeah, play other MegaTen games dude.
Strange Journey in particular if awesome dungeons are your thing. The game puts Persona's dungeons to shame.
Usually the difference between the more mainline SMT games and the Persona subset is that Persona has a greater focus on story/characters/etc while the more main SMT games have a greater focus on the gameplay/dungeon crawling/combat/etc. Generally, that focus is also considered to result in better quality for each series in each aspect.
Barrylocke
Member
Dungeon design and combat design are two different things. For instance, I adore the combat in Tales of Innocence on the DS thanks to its fun aerial combat, every character being a blast to play as, and the A.I. actually being really good, especially for a Tales game. However, the dungeons in that game have no puzzles, no defining features, and are basically blank, boring mazes with no maps to help out in. The combat may help to soften the blow of the dungeons ,but it doesn't eliminate it.
People who like Persona 4 (and 3's) combat but dislike the dungeons likely feel similar to this.
skLaFarebear
Member
Persona is probably the worst when it comes to combat in SMT. SMT4 and Devil Survivor: Overclocked felt like heaven in comparison
And DDS is similar to persona, except it has a better press turn combat system, and you can add/remove any skills you want to yourself without permanently losing them, which is something Persona really should have had.
Why are you stating this as though you don't know if it is true or false yet you claim that you have played up until Kanji? Calling all DetectiveGAF!
Persona 4 Golden has the bike trips where any character can relearn one of the moves they've forgotten. If you mean the MC's personas, there are so many you'll never really find yourself keeping one for any significant length of time until end-game. Persona 4 Golden once again also has skill cards, so you could just slap a skill from a card on a persona, so yeah...
Not sure what the combat is like in DS, but SMT is still classic Press Turn. Persona uses a different system completely called One More! They share some similarities, but still different enough to have to be called different things. Nothing wrong with preferring one over the other, but it is what it is.
DJ Lushious
Member
Any pointers for someone who has just gotten around to playing this game?
I just finished beating
and I found that boss to be challenging. How do I know when to defend? Defend seems like such a useful tactic, but it's like the bosses I have faced so far have telegraphed any of their big moves.
I just finished beating
Shadow Chie
I recently just started playing Persona 4: Golden and I just can't put it down. I'm completely in-love with the Persona Fusion system and building Social links is fun.
I'm not far in at all though. I'm still at the point where you are
.
I was trying to play The Last of Us Remastered, but Persona 4 just eats up my time and attention lol.
I'm not far in at all though. I'm still at the point where you are
trying to rescue Kanji
I was trying to play The Last of Us Remastered, but Persona 4 just eats up my time and attention lol.
shadowfall
Member
Great game. Chie was my first waifu. I even watched the anime series. One of the most addictive vita games.
I took my time, didn't skip anything and did as many social links as I could. I played it on Easy though since I mostly wanted to enjoy the story the first time around, so maybe that's why I beat it so fast?
I did the same and it took me about 50-55 hours to see the true ending, so that sounds about right!
MiguelMexMIstery
Member
Daria Morgendorffer
Member
I beat my first playthrough on easy with most social links maxed in 45 hours, I got the Golden ending too so it's quite possible to do.
fargofallout
Member
I'm almost done with my second time through right now. It has shown me I am still capable of enjoying a JRPG, which I was beginning to think was impossible. I'd probably put the game in my top 10 of all time. My only real complaint is the bosses (I can stomach the dungeons for the most part), which are just too long and boring. I think going for an epic fight, but having said epic fight just be an enemy that does mostly group attacks and has a lot of health, is pretty silly.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about it in comparison to recent Final Fantasy games, and I can't properly express why I like Persona so much more, other than it has a sense of goofiness that Final Fantasy severely lacks, and the characters are infinitely better. I'm really hopeful for Persona 5.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about it in comparison to recent Final Fantasy games, and I can't properly express why I like Persona so much more, other than it has a sense of goofiness that Final Fantasy severely lacks, and the characters are infinitely better. I'm really hopeful for Persona 5.
Overall? Probably Dojima. Such a likable character.
Poor guy had a tough life.
Girl-wise?
Rise. Sorry, haters!