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I'm addicted to Persona 3

I've finished P4G first and then I went to finish P3FES. Both are great games and while P3FES annoyed me with some things (mostly unskippable cutscenes and the AI) it's a great game.

I did start The Answer but the lack of Social Links and the increased difficult kind of bummed me out. I will hold it off for a while and maybe try to finish it next year or something like that.
 
Zabuza said:
Should I be worrying about missing stuff when I'm going through days doing social links and whatnot? I know time is limited, but how limited?
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I think that trying to get everything in that game on your first playthrough will ruin the game. You pretty much have to follow a guide and lose all your freedom.

The theme of the game is to make the best use of the time you have. Just focus on the stuff that interests you most as a player and don't worry about seeing everything. There is always a New Game+ option if you are a completionist.

Zabuza said:
The Answer sounds terrible. Should I just YouTube the story bits?
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Don't even watch the story. It kind of cheapens the original ending. I wish I could unwatch it.
 
I'm halfway through December of P3P and coming to this after P4G.

After not playing many turn-based-RPGs for several years it was great playing these. Overall I prefer P4G, but there are some things about P3P I like better. I think P3's division of time makes management easier (with dungeon happening at night and not impacting the day), and I liked the division of physical attacks into 3 sub-types (though still pretty useless). I have also enjoyed Tartarus for the most part, though I can see how people don't like it.

What I didn’t like so much was the personal stat requirements to start Slinks with your party members. In P4 you can start right away, in P3 it happens much later in the game. Randomized persona skill inheritance also took some getting used to.
 
The psp version of P3 offers the option to play as a female main character (with diferent music, social links and the option to have a male assistant in the velvet room).
It also have the various gameplay improvements from P4 including the ability to work (though its a bit pointless), shops that open at night and the MC can equip any weapon.

However...
...70% of the game's graphics and almost all videos have been replaced with still images, leaving only the Tartarus exlporetion to have actual graphics.
Also the entire expansion from the fes version is missing.
 
I just finished P3 Portable and had a good time, but I too like P4 more. I'd give the nod to the P3 soundtrack, though, because the English enunciation in the vocal pieces isn't as nail-scratchingly bad as it is in P4. The melodies are nothing to complain about!
 
I've been playing Persona 3 FES for the past 2 years (yup) and I keep getting bogged down with the Elizabeth requests. Stuff like, creating specific Personas with specific skills causes me to consult faqs and really slows my progress through the game. Any advice? Is it kosher to skip the requests later on in the game? I think I'm a few hours past the
death of the guy with the touque
.
 
I started playing it. Got to the first dungeon type area before I lost interest.

At what point does this game "click" or get better? I have zero patience these days, lol.
 
Zabuza said:
Picked up Persona 3 FES for $2.50 yesterday (crazy deal) and decided to start it up today.

8 and a half hours later (with breaks...) I'm absolutely loving it. It is my first Persona game and I'm jumping into P4G next but I wanted to do P3 first since I heard it's difficult to go back to after 4.

The gameplay has me hooked though. Social links are a killer system and I like deciding how I'm going to figure out my day. And, as a guy who dislikes turn based battle systems in JRPGs, this one it pretty fun. Not controlling allies hasn't been a huge issue for me either. Soundtrack is godlike, and it runs and looks great on the PS3. Just loving everything about it so far.

The characters and story are especially excellent, even moreso when coming to this after playing Tales of Xillia. I'm flat out hooked, which is surprising to me when the last few JRPGs I've played have really burned me out.

Basically I just wanted to rant about how great this is, and EVERYONE should go buy it for $2.50 on the PS store. It's a stellar deal for the amount of gameplay you get.

A few questions: Anything I should know before I continue playing? I'm on June 2nd. I've heard there's a save file glitch. Should I be worried?

Are the other PSP Persona games any good?
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Hehehehehe

Zabuza said:
The Answer sounds terrible. Should I just YouTube the story bits?
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The reverse actually. It ends up sounding like fanfic at times.
 
You might wish to try Persona 3 Portable at some point. That edition of the game comes with a secondary protagonist (a female), who rather than changing up the dialogue by going from "he" to "she" actually significantly changes many of the Social Links. It's not quite a what-if, but an apt comparison would be the differences between a male Shepard and a female Shepard, if the gender choice also effected which party members you got.

That said, the first three Persona games (the second game comes in two parts) are radically different from Persona 3 and 4. They contain no Social Links and are basically standard JRPG takes on the SMT franchise. If you go into them expecting something like Persona 3, you'll be sorely disappointed. The combat is largely MegaTen standard, but it's more frequent and the addictive daily life segments are severely toned down by comparison. Persona 3 represents a dramatic shift in the franchise.

That said... If you're digging the Social Link aspect, I'd recommend picking up Catherine if you've somehow missed it. It's a fun little puzzle game which dials the Social Link stuff up to 11 while focusing on a tight, immersive story.
 
I finished the game a week ago and I end up loving it but man, the first months of the game are so "bad" in my opinion, the game only clicked with me after august. I prefer Persona 4 in every single way, I don't care if the story is more mature or not, so for me P3 is in no way better than P4. Playing The Answer right now and is kinda boring but it has some cool stuff that makes the original game story a little more deep.

I hate Junpei. lol
 
I'm at the end of the game, nearing the end of January. Game is alright to me but it was really hard to play after playing Persona 4 golden. The story didn't get really interesting until September and then again the pacing ruined it to me. Too much "wait until the full moon for shit to happen".
 
I guess you heard correctly. My first Persona game was P4G and it's instantly one of the best (and my favorite) games of all time. I would play that game in 3-4 hour (sometimes up to 5 hours straight) chunks and I don't often play video games for that long. I instantly fell in love with the series so I went and bought P3P on my Vita and started playing it.... it just didn't hook me in like P4G did. I've bought the game months ago and still have yet to beat it, I'm in the 70s floors in the tower. I don't know what it is but I do want to finish P3 one day.
 
vicissitudes said:
P3 > P4 sorry bros. I liked not being able to control AIs either. Added a new layer of difficulty
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I'm pretty you can do that in P4, it's your decision to do Direct Commands or leave it to them after Teddie says something like "Wow Yosuke, you suck!" and then the game proposes you to control them.
 
Was in the same boat OP when I bought it on PSP.
Bought it because I needed something to play and had heard people talk about it before.
When I started playing it I couldn't put it down.
 
MiguelMexMIstery said:
I'm pretty you can do that in P4, it's your decision to do Direct Commands or leave it to them after Teddie says something like "Wow Yosuke, you suck!" and then the game proposes you to control them.
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Oh yeah you're right. Felt like the game was designed to have you use full party control though. Meh. Maybe I'll play Persona 5 that way.
 
BennyBlanco said:
You are doing it right my friend. I loved every second of p3, then jumped right into p4g and there's no going back. I liked both games, but much preferred the tone and characters of p3. It's a fucking fantastic game from start to finish.
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I agree. Persona 4 brought a ton of expansion and improvement to the formula, but I much preferred the "Memento Mori" theme of P3 to the "Scooby Doo Murder Mystery" theme of P4.

I actually like to leave my party on AI command, though. It feels more in line with the feeling of the games, and I end up learning which party members most often make the best choices in combat and I learn to trust them them to back me up. It feels way more "Social Linky" than having everyone on Direct Control.

Both games had characters I fell in l love with, but I especially enjoyed Junpei and how I saw him as my in-game BFF and then he went through that whole "jealousy of the main character" arc.
 
I'm almost to the end of P4 and to August in P3 and so far I think I like the characters way better in P3 thus far. P4 has some great characters but man there's a few I could do without. I also prefer the way you regenerate SP in P3.

My biggest issue is that there seems like far less to do so what you decide to do every day is a lot less interesting, ultimately---makes it feel like a bit of a grind. And maybe it's just inherent to the character but (earlyish spoilers I guess?)
Fuuka's
voice actor seems a bit bad compared to the rest.
 
Same here OP. I was gonna create a similar thread but might as well just bump this one. P3P is godly, I dropped everything I was playing and have been sucked into the game ever since.
 
Gaffers, I need some assistance here. I know there have been numerous posts and threads about this, but I'm in ye olde P3P vs FES debacle.

I have both P3P and FES.

I have played about an hour of each so far.

I prefer gaming on my vita, I end up with more time to play (when I'm on the go, laying in bed, etc). But I feel like the "experience" on P3P is not nearly the same as FES. Just those amazing anime sequences alone, and of course the 3D environment. I just finished P4G last night and FES feels like a return to that type of gameplay whereas P3P feels more like a straight up visual novel.

Now here's a key factor for me: I don't care about the dungeons/battles. I have put both games on their easiest difficulties. I want to get through the dungeons as quick as possible. My main, #1 interest is on the story/experience.

So if I play FES, I feel like I'll have a better experience, though it will take me longer to get through it. If I play P3P, I'll have lots more time to play, but am I going to be playing something far inferior? How much anime stuff is in FES? Am I just being spoiled by the first hour? Or does it keep up this consistently?

Please advise! Thanks Gaf!

edit - and I'm only going to play the game once. i don't have enough time for multiple play throughs and I have a sizable backlog. so I'd rather not play fes first and then FeMC on P3P.
 
Problem with FES is that dungeons will be more of a slog due to the lack of the improvements brought by P3P. Enjoy your artificial and uncurable fatigue system!

Not sure which difficulty levels are available though.
 
Wolf Akela said:
Problem with FES is that dungeons will be more of a slog due to the lack of the improvements brought by P3P. Enjoy your artificial and uncurable fatigue system!

Not sure which difficulty levels are available though.
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FES has Easy Normal and Hard options. I have selected Easy. (though P3P also has Very Easy)
 
paulgandersman said:
Gaffers, I need some assistance here. I know there have been numerous posts and threads about this, but I'm in ye olde P3P vs FES debacle.

I have both P3P and FES.

I have played about an hour of each so far.

I prefer gaming on my vita, I end up with more time to play (when I'm on the go, laying in bed, etc). But I feel like the "experience" on P3P is not nearly the same as FES. Just those amazing anime sequences alone, and of course the 3D environment. I just finished P4G last night and FES feels like a return to that type of gameplay whereas P3P feels more like a straight up visual novel.

Now here's a key factor for me: I don't care about the dungeons/battles. I have put both games on their easiest difficulties. I want to get through the dungeons as quick as possible. My main, #1 interest is on the story/experience.

So if I play FES, I feel like I'll have a better experience, though it will take me longer to get through it. If I play P3P, I'll have lots more time to play, but am I going to be playing something far inferior? How much anime stuff is in FES? Am I just being spoiled by the first hour? Or does it keep up this consistently?

Please advise! Thanks Gaf!

edit - and I'm only going to play the game once. i don't have enough time for multiple play throughs and I have a sizable backlog. so I'd rather not play fes first and then FeMC on P3P.
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As somebody who also don't care at all about gameplay/battle, the only edge P3P has over P3 FES is FeMC, who I feel is a much more likable character compared to the regular MC and also has superior Social Links. Some of the male MC Social Links are really bad and he doesn't even have them for half the party members.

But if you're not interested in playing FeMC at all, then go for FES. Easy is easy enough.

Edit:
Aa, anime cutscenes. Mmm, there's a total of 25 of them. Most are very short, though. 6 of them are from the first hour.
 
Wolf Akela said:
Problem with FES is that dungeons will be more of a slog due to the lack of the improvements brought by P3P. Enjoy your artificial and uncurable fatigue system!
Click to expand...

That doesn't really matter if he's playing on Easy and doing dungeons as far as he can take them the first night. Fatigue won't set in on the main-character until later. When he's starting out it may be a problem to get to the maximum floors, but so long as he sets it to like 2-3 floors and then as he levels up to 5 floors/mid-boss and then to the maximum he can go before the gates/Mitsuru says "no more" he'll be fine.

The same thing is in P3P as well, isn't it? They just made it easier to not be fatigued like P3 did before FES removed that "full-moon fatigue" stuff to let people grind on full-moons instead of being fucked over like P3.

As for gameplay:

If you want P4's party controls: P3P.
If you don't give a shit (and really you shouldn't since AI controls are fine provided you set to "knock-down" or "heal-support" for 99% of battles) about party-controls: FES.

And if you're planning to do "The Answer"/Episode: Aigis, you're going to have to get used to not having complete party-control anyway for FES.
 
kewlmyc said:
Glad you're enjoying it, you have nowhere to go but up.
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9nu26kb.jpg


Oddly enough, I've been playing through P3P again for whatever reason.
 
The same thing is in P3P as well, isn't it?
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IIRC, in P3P, you don't get Fatigue until after you leave dungeon. They also added a cheap shop item that removes Fatigue. Fatigue pretty much doesn't exist in P3P. You can always reach top floor without that much issue.
 
Thanks for the advice all! I played more FES last night and I think I'm going to move forward with that. It's just more of the complete story experience I'm wanting.
 
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