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Persona Community Thread |OT8| Coming Winter 2014

Hey guys, I have two GAF friends who have been complaining on Twitter about how the leveling system sucks in Persona 4 Golden and how they spend hours grinding because if they don't they get their ass kicked by mid game bosses on normal.

I can't fathom this. Did anyone else have this experience? I feel like it was one of the least grindy JRPGs I played.
 

Sophia

Member
Hey guys, I have two GAF friends who have been complaining on Twitter about how the leveling system sucks in Persona 4 Golden and how they spend hours grinding because if they don't they get their ass kicked by mid game bosses on normal.

I can't fathom this. Did anyone else have this experience? I feel like it was one of the least grindy JRPGs I played.

They're trying to level grind to compensate for strategy, which outside of a few areas (Black Frost to 43 for Agidyne + Fire Amp) doesn't really work in a game like Persona 4.
 
Hey guys, I have two GAF friends who have been complaining on Twitter about how the leveling system sucks in Persona 4 Golden and how they spend hours grinding because if they don't they get their ass kicked by mid game bosses on normal.

I can't fathom this. Did anyone else have this experience? I feel like it was one of the least grindy JRPGs I played.

Tell them to start fusing new, higher-level Personas. Grinding out party members shouldn't be an issue unless it's for materials for weapons or sidequests.

Edit: That's another thing. Make sure their gear's up to snuff.
 
Alright. Starting P4G for the 3rd time, determined to make it through on this one.

Here we go again with the opening 5 hours that I'm so sick of by now -_-
 
So I am finally getting around to finishing P3 FES. I got to the top of Tartarus on 1.3. What is there to do until the 31st? Any tips for [Final Boss] (reccommended level, personas)?

Im level 72 using Aki, Mitsuru, Aigis all 71/72. Personas I have are Odin, Thor, Loki, Thanatos and a couple more that have -dyne skills.
 
So I am finally getting around to finishing P3 FES. I got to the top of Tartarus on 1.3. What is there to do until the 31st? Any tips for Nyx (reccommended level, personas)?

Im level 72 using Aki, Mitsuru, Aigis all 71/72. Personas I have are Odin, Thor, Loki, Thanatos and a couple more that have -dyne skills.

Get you some Nihil weapons, especially from Lucifer/Helel, Mara, and Metatron, iirc.

Incidentally, you'll want to do Aigis' s-link.
 
You can fast forward the dialogue scenes in Golden , but i dont remember with which button was.

Start i think....

Yup, and thankfully you even need to confirm by pressing it again. I hate it when VN sections in games don't explain which button does what, so I end up skipping dialogue (and not every game has a backlog, so then you're pretty much fucked if you want to read all the dialogue).
 
So I am using the first floor of Monad Block to level my characters because regular Tartarus aint giving me shit for exp. Is there any reason to complete it besides 1 million yen ( which I can't even use since I have max moneys)
 
This will never die.

It's a PersonaGAF tradition.

And like many PGAF traditions, why we celebrate it has completely flown over my head.

It's from OT 1 or 2.

The running joke was that new info on Persona 5 would be released in the new Famitsu mags which are released on Tuesday. A play on the Kamiya tweet, iirc.

Oh, NOW I remember! XD

Yeah... that was fun until we really started to feel the drought.
 

jello44

Chie is the worst waifu
And like many PGAF traditions, why we celebrate it has completely flown over my head.

It's from OT 1 or 2.

The running joke was that new info on Persona 5 would be released in the new Famitsu mags which are released on Tuesday. A play on the Kamiya tweet, iirc.
 
So I am finally getting around to finishing P3 FES. I got to the top of Tartarus on 1.3. What is there to do until the 31st? Any tips for Nyx (reccommended level, personas)?

Im level 72 using Aki, Mitsuru, Aigis all 71/72. Personas I have are Odin, Thor, Loki, Thanatos and a couple more that have -dyne skills.

Nyx isn't very hard, just very very very long. You shouldn't have much trouble since you got to the top already, just keep track of everyone's tactics so they don't get themselves killed. Also, if you've been hoarding items up until now, use them.
 
Nyx isn't very hard, just very very very long. You shouldn't have much trouble since you got to the top already, just keep track of everyone's tactics so they don't get themselves killed. Also, if you've been hoarding items up until now, use them.

Also, since all three of your planned party members can heal, get the heart item from Narcissus. It prevents charm, which in turn will stop them from healing the boss and undoing all your work.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
We haven't reached consensus on embedding P5 images in this thread yet, right? There's certain images it'd be cool to discuss without having to link them each time.

But anyways, there's a subject I've been thinking about: character portraits. Before their confirmation, there was a recurring debate about whether or not people wanted them for Persona 5.

Those leaning against side stated that, if P5's models were to be akin to Catherine's, they'd prefer the facial expressions and animations of characters to speak for themselves instead of 2D portraits. Those leaning for portraits would usually talk about the series tradition, or simply because they liked the portraits.

Now we've got confirmation that P5 will both have great character models with facial expressions and 2D portraits. What I want to know is if anyone thinks this could create some sort of dissonance in scenes. Like, now that character faces aren't just really basic and static, will they always have to match exactly what their 2D portraits are also showing to make sense? Would it be weird if a 3D model facial expression differed from what the 2D portrait was? Does a reliance on 2D portraits potentially take away from the amount of expression they want to convey with the 3D models in a scene? Like, which takes priority over the other? Is there a way for both the good 3D models to work in conjunction with the 2D portraits?

So far, the only example we have is Morgana (excluding the Velvet Twins because their models didn't appear with the portraits). Morgana worked in the scenes he/she was shown because their model was completely set apart from what the 2D portrait was showing, so the portrait kind of took "priority." I just wonder how it'll work for the human characters.
 

Sophia

Member
We haven't reached consensus on embedding P5 images in this thread yet, right? There's certain images it'd be cool to discuss without having to link them each time.

But anyways, there's a subject I've been thinking about: character portraits. Before their confirmation, there was a recurring debate about whether or not people wanted them for Persona 5.

Those leaning against side stated that, if P5's models were to be akin to Catherine's, they'd prefer the facial expressions and animations of characters to speak for themselves instead of 2D portraits. Those leaning for portraits would usually talk about the series tradition, or simply because they liked the portraits.

Now we've got confirmation that P5 will both have great character models with facial expressions and 2D portraits. What I want to know is if anyone thinks this could create some sort of dissonance in scenes. Like, now that character faces aren't just really basic and static, will they always have to match exactly what their 2D portraits are also showing to make sense? Would it be weird if a 3D model facial expression differed from what the 2D portrait was? Does a reliance on 2D portraits potentially take away from the amount of expression they want to convey with the 3D models in a scene? Like, which takes priority over the other? Is there a way for both the good 3D models to work in conjunction with the 2D portraits?

So far, the only example we have is Morgana (excluding the Velvet Twins because their models didn't appear with the portraits). Morgana worked in the scenes he/she was shown because their model was completely set apart from what the 2D portrait was showing, so the portrait kind of took "priority." I just wonder how it'll work for the human characters.

Xenosaga 3 on the PS2 actually did something similar. The game used a combination of full fledged real time cutscenes for it's bigger scenes, and basic cutscenes with RPG like dialogue boxes for when the characters were largely conversing. All fully voiced regardless. There wasn't really much of a dissonance, honestly.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Xenosaga 3 on the PS2 actually did something similar. The game used a combination of full fledged real time cutscenes for it's bigger scenes, and basic cutscenes with RPG like dialogue boxes for when the characters were largely conversing. All fully voiced regardless. There wasn't really much of a dissonance, honestly.

That's true, Persona 5 will have real-time cutscenes with no 2D portraits, so there's that when it doesn't come to the average conversation, but I'm also trying to imagine how Catherine would have been if there were 2D portraits during the average Stray Sheep conversation, for example. I guess then, I could kind of see portraits being implemented in those because the camera was usually static and character emotion was generally conveyed through their body movements, but even then it's weird to think of since there was still an emphasis on the expressions themselves.

Actually, it's interesting for me to consider now that Catherine didn't have 2D portraits, even though P Studio could have implemented them the same way they might be used in Persona 5 (and that "Fake Vincent's" first appearance in P3P was through a 2D portrait).
 

Lunar15

Member
Cutscenes = faces have a lot of expressions and emote.

Dialogue within the game that isn't a fully animated scene = relatively static faces on the models + character portraits.

That's my guess at least. It is kinda weird that we haven't seen a whole lot of dialogue scenes. We haven't even seen in-game portraits for any of the party members outside of Morgana yet! Unless that weird cut-out thing was actually representative of how some scenes will play out.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Unless that weird cut-out thing was actually representative of how some scenes will play out.

See, this is part of what drove me to think about this. I contend that it's possible that 2D portraits aren't actually a constant in everyday dialogue scenes, and that those eye shot cut-ins could be a way to dynamically replace them when there is a fair amount of motion going on in the scene.

This shot, for example:
JcOzjpm.jpg
I see this as a walk-and-talk type of scene. One which occurs commonly, where the camera is following the group. But I also don't see 2D portraits popping up while it's happening and obstructing the actual frame, so I see the eye cut-ins popping up during something like this instead.

If this is the case, that's what makes me wonder when specifically the 2D portraits would have their place. Like you mention, I think they'd be during scenes with very little motion or camera movement, where the focus isn't really on the faces of the characters. Scenes that recur really often, like hanging out in the hideout or dialogue in the classroom.
 

Lunar15

Member
Going by how creative even the menus are, I think P-Studio is going to try a lot of different ways to do scenes, depending on the situation.

The faces look really static on that one screenshot. Like you said, this is probably where cut-ins would be helpful. Then again, P4 had a few very short walking & talking scenes. There's enough room to have a portrait on the left side here.
 
That screen in particular looks like it's framed specifically for a portrait on the bottom left. From what we've seen portraits are decently sized but the actual dialogue boxes are much smaller relatively speaking than they are in P3 and P4, so a dialogue box would fit pretty well at the bottom too. The framing plus the seemingly static faces make me think that that screen in particular was taken when someone wasn't talking or the portrait was edited out.
 
Hey guys, I have two GAF friends who have been complaining on Twitter about how the leveling system sucks in Persona 4 Golden and how they spend hours grinding because if they don't they get their ass kicked by mid game bosses on normal.

I can't fathom this. Did anyone else have this experience? I feel like it was one of the least grindy JRPGs I played.

I have a friend trying to play through the game and was finding it too difficult. I found out he fused his first Persona nearly 2/3 of the way through the game.

We haven't reached consensus on embedding P5 images in this thread yet, right? There's certain images it'd be cool to discuss without having to link them each time.

But anyways, there's a subject I've been thinking about: character portraits. Before their confirmation, there was a recurring debate about whether or not people wanted them for Persona 5.

Those leaning against side stated that, if P5's models were to be akin to Catherine's, they'd prefer the facial expressions and animations of characters to speak for themselves instead of 2D portraits. Those leaning for portraits would usually talk about the series tradition, or simply because they liked the portraits.

Now we've got confirmation that P5 will both have great character models with facial expressions and 2D portraits. What I want to know is if anyone thinks this could create some sort of dissonance in scenes. Like, now that character faces aren't just really basic and static, will they always have to match exactly what their 2D portraits are also showing to make sense? Would it be weird if a 3D model facial expression differed from what the 2D portrait was? Does a reliance on 2D portraits potentially take away from the amount of expression they want to convey with the 3D models in a scene? Like, which takes priority over the other? Is there a way for both the good 3D models to work in conjunction with the 2D portraits?

So far, the only example we have is Morgana (excluding the Velvet Twins because their models didn't appear with the portraits). Morgana worked in the scenes he/she was shown because their model was completely set apart from what the 2D portrait was showing, so the portrait kind of took "priority." I just wonder how it'll work for the human characters.

Considering the massive amount of dialogue sure to be in the game, I doubt most of the game will be animated with the same quality as Catherine or what we've seen in the trailers. Dialogue portraits will probably still go a long way to help out with the presentation in smaller scenes and social link events where animation will probably stay pretty simple. Just my guess.
 
A lot of JRPG's have taken the approach of using 3D models in the same way that they'd have used portraits. Even a few Atlus games, like Raidou and PQ.

Although I doubt P5 will be doing this, since we know that they're at least using 2D portraits for the minigames.
 
A lot of JRPG's have taken the approach of using 3D models in the same way that they'd have used portraits. Even a few Atlus games, like Raidou and PQ.

Although I doubt P5 will be doing this, since we know that they're at least using 2D portraits for the minigames.

Hell even the Dingo version of P4D was going to do something like this, with 3d models talking in place of the static portaits.

qf0tLSg.jpg
 
I personally hope the old character portrait displays of P3/P4 are kept to a minimum in P5. One thing I'm looking forward to with P5 being on new hardware is the changes to the presentation. I personally love those animated tear outs we saw in PV1 with the close ups on the characters' faces. I hope that's more indicative of how the majority of conversations will go in P5.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot that we did see Ryuji's phantom 2D portrait and another of Morgana's in some capacity before:

http://i.imgur.com/cAKCucl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KrLGami.jpg

So we know they'll at least be used during normal dungeon crawling, which was to be expected.

Looks like those are the equivalent of the "i found a tresure chest/stairs/the reaper" type quotes from the previous games.

Wonder if they'll use that style for general dungeon chit chat too?
 

Lunar15

Member
Oh yeah, I forgot that we did see Ryuji's phantom 2D portrait and another of Morgana's in some capacity before:

http://i.imgur.com/cAKCucl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KrLGami.jpg

So we know they'll at least be used during normal dungeon crawling, which was to be expected.

Despite having seen this footage before, there's a ton of details I missed here.

money signs on the map, guessing that's treasure. The big thing is that crazy meter in the center. It seems to show that weird stalker king guy, who I'm assuming is the boss and subject of this dungeon. I wonder, do you "steal" his soul progressively as you steal items in the dungeon? Perhaps it's like a real heist where you really do have to plan your route ahead of time in order to steal the most stuff
 
Despite having seen this footage before, there's a ton of details I missed here.

money signs on the map, guessing that's treasure. The big thing is that crazy meter in the center. It seems to show that weird stalker king guy, who I'm assuming is the boss and subject of this dungeon. I wonder, do you "steal" his soul progressively as you steal items in the dungeon? Perhaps it's like a real heist where you really do have to plan your route ahead of time in order to steal the most stuff

I thought that gauge was like an "awareness" meter, where the number increased every time you were seen by a passing sentry or something. Your explanation makes way more sense, haha. I'm curious to see what it actually turns out to be. I wonder if it's just for the king dungeon, or if there will be something similar for all of them?
 

_Ryo_

Member
Guys, I had another P3 related dream last night.

I was Makoto, in school. The classroom was full of party members and other social links. We wondered how we got there, the doors were locked and we could not escape. The windows were blocked, the lights were out, and everyone was panicking.

Then a voice came creeping "hue hue hue hue." we couldn't tell where it was coming from. Junpei tried to get the window open, while Chidori was looking for clues at the teachers desk when out jumps from the chair and onto the table

Monokuma.

O_O
 
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