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Persona 5 |OT2| Someone must have been helping you go to bed early. Talk!

Jiraiza

Member
Indeed, she, Makoto and - thus far Haru, have all really surprised me in how much I've taken a shine to them. I avoided any spoilers since the second trailer so I had a pre-build perception of what they'd be like: a lot more cliched than what I eventually got. Is it me or are their Confidant - Futaba's in particular - storylines also a whole lot more engaging than party members from the previous games?

I think it helps that the characters are actually well developed in the main story instead of leaving most of the characterization in the social links. It's still a shame how isolated the SLs are, though.
 

Stalwart

Member
Some details I really appreciated.

HUGE ENDGAME SPOILERS

There are some real gut punches at the end here, especially if you've played the series before. Saving Igor and Lavenza and having your harsh treatment in the Velvet Room be totally reversed into a compassionate relationship. Helping your party remember what they started this for and reminding everyone about the value of persistence in the face of injustice. Having your party appear in the Velvet Room was pretty cool. And walking back into the Velvet Room to fuse--what was before harsh treatment by Caroline or unemotional business by Justine is now a familiar, gentle glance toward Lavenza as you walk through the door together.

I played through this part late at night and actually got a little misty. Just the
final, FINAL, Day of Reckoning heist to do now.

Yeah it's great, I'm so sad that the game is over and can see myself doing another playthrough as early as next month.
 
Oh, and to add to the HUGE ENDGAME SPOILERS in my previous post,

I love that the theme of breaking free of things oppressive or rigged against you carries through into the goddamn Velvet Room, of all things. It was always this safe space for the protagonist before, but now it's harsh and cruel, and then you find out that even the Velvet Room was rigged against you and you set it to rights. So it feels like the theme of this game was applied even more thoroughly than in 3 or 4.

I really love the Persona Team's insistence on making their themes reflect in basically every part of game design. It's like damn good writing, except in mechanics format.
 

mike6467

Member
Palace 5:

Oh, what do ya know? The airlocks reset when you backtrack to save. Because of course you would, because you need to make sure you don't lose progress when you trigger whatever that exclamation mark is. Wait, that exclamation mark is just an elevator that leads to another safe room? God. Damnit.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Palace 5:

Oh, what do ya know? The airlocks reset when you backtrack to save. Because of course you would, because you need to make sure you don't lose progress when you trigger whatever that exclamation mark is. Wait, that exclamation mark is just an elevator that leads to another safe room? God. Damnit.

It gets worse.
 

Trago

Member
I hit a plateau at 3 for kindness without too much thought, are you regularly treating that plant you have in your room? Also I just opted into the florist job once work was an option, which really helped and just focused on that since the convenience store doesn't net you anything but cash, and I was already doing other stuff to boost proficiency so I never focused on the food service Jon.

Actually not a bad idea.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
Second palace boss on hard:
While I liked the idea, totally not a fan of the execution. Randomly spamming elements at your party has always been an awful Persona boss design. There's no way you can reasonably defend yourself against it. I liked that you had to prioritize and kill the separate pieces, BUT the game is horribly opaque about the mechanics of it all. I didn't know until luckily hitting the correct Rampages that the revival of the pieces took a boss turn and could only be done once per turn. Until I happened to learn that by chance, I was struggling to get all 4 pieces low to kill within one party turn.
 
I'm at 8/29:
I've grown to love Yusuke so much, I find so much of what he does to be so funny. Creeping around at the beach in a hoody and using his fingers to frame random things.

About 51 hours in, Social Stats are 4 in everything except for Kindness which I feel like must be super close at this point, and I have 4 Confidants maxed (Lovers, Chariot, Death, Sun.) I feel like I have a pretty good shot at maxing all Confidants in my first play through which would be nice.

Also the thread title took me a second but I love it haha.
 

mrmickfran

Member
Sojiro has the same voice as the narrator from Catherine.

It would've been great if he read the coffee trivia in his voice.
 

Plum

Member
So does "I feel like my bond with x will increase soon" mean that hanging out with a confidant will increase the rank? Just finished the first palace and I want to use my free time wisely.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
So does "I feel like my bond with x will increase soon" mean that hanging out with a confidant will increase the rank? Just finished the first palace and I want to use my free time wisely.

You can also check the rail map and it will tell you straight out if your confidant level will rank up.
 

totowhoa

Banned
Second palace boss on hard:
While I liked the idea, totally not a fan of the execution. Randomly spamming elements at your party has always been an awful Persona boss design. There's no way you can reasonably defend yourself against it. I liked that you had to prioritize and kill the separate pieces, BUT the game is horribly opaque about the mechanics of it all. I didn't know until luckily hitting the correct Rampages that the revival of the pieces took a boss turn and could only be done once per turn. Until I happened to learn that by chance, I was struggling to get all 4 pieces low to kill within one party turn.

I figured out using that move with Ryuji would trivialize the boss fight on my second attempt :) fused a persona with it and got it next attempt.

So far the first two bosses have been great IMO. They feel a little less like sponges than prior games too.

Also, amazing OT title lol
 
Any tips on raising knowledge etc, eg knowledge is the library or the diner better for revision? For charm is just taking a bath best?

Also are people focusing on one stat then raising another, eg max knowledge then charm? So far I raise each up a level focusing them each in turn. However really want to maximise the stat increases whilst ensuring plenty of time ff or confidante, I definitely won't max all confidante on this playthrough however is it feasible for all party members, and a couple of others?
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Eh, mostly a step down.

Outside of select few party member I can't remember much of 4's SL while some of 3's are still pretty memorable even outside the party.
 

Kindekuma

Banned
Any tips on raising knowledge etc, eg knowledge is the library or the diner better for revision? For charm is just taking a bath best?

Also are people focusing on one stat then raising another, eg max knowledge then charm? So far I raise each up a level focusing them each in turn. However really want to maximise the stat increases whilst ensuring plenty of time ff or confidante, I definitely won't max all confidante on this playthrough however is it feasible for all party members, and a couple of others?

Diners on rainy day is best for knowledge. Studying at the library is free but unlike the diner you get a +1 stat bonus on Guts/Charm/etc. Worth the money IMO. I don't really necessarily rotate specifically, but some stats need to be higher than others for S.Links so I have Rank 4 Knowledge, Working for Rank 4 Charm, and Guts. Kindness sortof taken a back seat at the moment at 2 but I know that's gonna bite me in the ass sooner or later.

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to max all S.Links in your first run, when stats carry over in NG+ you can focus all your time to S.Links.
 
Sojiro has the same voice as the narrator from Catherine.

It would've been great if he read the coffee trivia in his voice.

Wow I like him even more now. Also is the Thou Art I VA the woman who plays Catherine?

Eh, mostly a step down.

Outside of select few party member I can't remember much of 4's SL while some of 3's are still pretty memorable even outside the party.

Yeah I think P4 has better party SL but P3 wins in the external characters.
 

FHIZ

Member
I just realized that I've gone far past 7/7, the "don't stream past this date." I was going to try and make note of why that was the date given, but I can't for the life of me figure out why. Was there any particular reason 7/7 was the specific "don't stream past this" date?
 
Last Boss Spoilers:


My last boss sequence was truly a battle to remember.

I was at the final turn of the last boss battle when he charges up for his most powerful attack which would've wiped out everyone. My backup party is already in their last legs. I was not prepared for the last dungeon.I didnt stock up on healing items. I have already used up all my SP healing items and I am struggling with almost no more ways of healing. Yaldabaoth uses his final attack and then as a last attempt at fighting back, Futaba uses Final Guard. MC then proceeds to use swift strike (my strongest skill) and the world was saved. Holy Shit I was sobbing throughout the ending sequence.

I'm about to start palace 3 in my new game+ and im steamrolling everything on hard difficulty. No more studying in the diner for me this cycle thank god. Will play merciless on my third play through hoping to have a full arsene build run or
Satanael
as I did a full izanagi run in p4g in the hardest difficulty.
 
Alright, so I'm debating just making a ton of ultimate Persona and strutting through the rest of the game. Since I've been beating palaces in one day this whole time and Mementos runs and whatnot, I feel like I gave myself a pretty healthy challenge by having relatively low levels and evening it out with the XP Boost from large Arcana Confidant stuff.

But with the benefit of Strength 10, I am so tempted to just take my Level 55 ass and make Level 80 Personas and just steamroll Palace 7. Unsure how to approach this.
 
so uhm...
finished the first palace..
I confirm my impression, the game is really glorious..
BUT...
with the removal of sp refilling option in dungeon and the scarcity of sp items, heck..
Since I'm trying to do a full//semi-full completionist first run, I'm doing a lot of save//reload to plan the events...
But no matter what, in order to finish the first palace in one visit, I had to downgrade the difficulty of the game to normal.. And even then, I finished the palace @level 9... It was brutal..
Oh well, happy that it's difficult, but literally with so little option to charge sp, I'm better off with a physical attacker party and just use two char (mc + X) as mana battery with dia.. unless things change dramatically as stuff goes on I'll definitely drop
morgana or tamaki... takami phys damage is too low, so unless she has the mp to sustain her casting, her party slot seems a waste..
..

we'll see :X
 

duckroll

Member
Personally I was a huge fan of P2 and P3, and felt P4 was a huge step back in terms of characters and setting because I don't really relate to a country bumpkin setting and I honestly don't care to. The more laid back school setting and the scooby doo detective stuff wasn't the hook I needed from Persona and that along with my old BC PS3 dying and taking all the saves with it back then basically soured me on progressing in the game. Later I got it again on Vita and played like 10-20 hours but got distracted by something else.

I'll say P5 is a huge improvement as it returns to the urban setting with lots of dark edgy shit. Lol.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Oh yeah, forgot about dojima/nanoko, those were the only ones I remember outside of select party members from 4.
 

duckroll

Member
Oh yeah, forgot about dojima/nanoko, those were the only ones I remember outside of select party members from 4.

I really liked the Dojima/Nanako set up in P4. In fact, that was probably the one thing I appreciated from the game. You were actually in a family setting that didn't feel oppressive or fucked up. It was refreshing. The rest though, no thanks.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
so uhm...
finished the first palace..
I confirm my impression, the game is really glorious..
BUT...
with the removal of sp refilling option in dungeon and the scarcity of sp items, heck..
Since I'm trying to do a full//semi-full completionist first run, I'm doing a lot of save//reload to plan the events...
But no matter what, in order to finish the first palace in one visit, I had to downgrade the difficulty of the game to normal.. And even then, I finished the palace @level 9... It was brutal..
Oh well, happy that it's difficult, but literally with so little option to charge sp, I'm better off with a physical attacker party and just use two char (mc + X) as mana battery with dia.. unless things change dramatically as stuff goes on I'll definitely drop
morgana or tamaki... takami phys damage is too low, so unless she has the mp to sustain her casting, her party slot seems a waste..
..

we'll see :X

Dude, do the doctor SLink. SP management is a joke in this game and it's honestly super easy. I do zero grinding and I'm bruteforcing through with gun and physical skills.
 
Any tips on raising knowledge etc, eg knowledge is the library or the diner better for revision? For charm is just taking a bath best?

Also are people focusing on one stat then raising another, eg max knowledge then charm? So far I raise each up a level focusing them each in turn. However really want to maximise the stat increases whilst ensuring plenty of time ff or confidante, I definitely won't max all confidante on this playthrough however is it feasible for all party members, and a couple of others?

Knowledge will come to you in the most frequent places, as long as you study early, you'll find just answering questions in school will help with boosting that with the occasional few sessions of studying.

As for charm, the bath house helps, but I got most of mine through the Sun and Devil confidants, the former being unlockable fairly early too. Just hang with these two every other evening.

Edit:

Dude, do the doctor SLink. SP management is a joke in this game and it's honestly super easy. I do zero grinding and I'm bruteforcing through with gun and physical skills.

Seconded. This game lets you handle SP in a far more reasonable way than any of it's predecessors, as long as you're chasing S.Links much of the combat and dungeon chores fix themselves.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
I really liked the Dojima/Nanako set up in P4. In fact, that was probably the one thing I appreciated from the game. You were actually in a family setting that didn't feel oppressive or fucked up. It was refreshing. The rest though, no thanks.

Sojiro/
futaba
doesn't hit those highs but I still really like how they developed.

Sojiro is a total bro.

Seconded. This game lets you handle SP in a far more reasonable way than any of it's predecessors, as long as you're chasing S.Links much of the combat and dungeon chores fix themselves.

I wouldn't say it's reasonable, more unreasonable in how much of a non-factor it turns SP management into. :p

Can't complain though. Just more time to do the fun stuff.
 
P4 had the greatest S.link, the one where you insult a child.
iDEQV4G.jpg
 
P4 had the greatest S.link, the one where you insult a child.

Cannot for the life of me find a pic since this game is still new in English, but I distinctly remember a dialogue option during a confidant (Ryuji I think) simply being: "...what a dick." Any game where that is an option is a winner in my eyes.
 
Oh yeah, forgot about dojima/nanoko, those were the only ones I remember outside of select party members from 4.

yup this is true. Especially how getting closer to nanako and dojima impacts the story later on. daisuke and kou are my bros though.

confidant story spoilers:

I really like how most non party confidants has a mementos request at level 8. How much changing the hearts of those oppressing them affects their story so that they can move forward. It felt in line with the goals of the phantom thieves. It really helped making you feel like you made an impact for these characters. Them revealing that they figured out you are a phantom thief is just icing on the cake.
 

Mediking

Member
I wanna upgrade and decorate my room... I got a tv... what else can I get? Is that all story progression stuff? I've beaten the 2nd Palace and got a few days to do whatever.
 
I wanna upgrade and decorate my room... I got a tv... what else can I get? Is that all story progression stuff? I've beaten the 2nd Palace and got a few days to do whatever.
I beat the fourth palace yesterday and I have like one item. If it happens, it must be late game.
 
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