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I was actually wondering if the thread title meant you were going to do a no-social-links challenge run. Guess not.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:38
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Dragonatrix posted:it is importantto think about these advantages and disadvantages when choosing between the two. Dragonatrix posted:Anyway, so, the music note from before is how you know you picked "right" and this one is a clear sign of choosing the "wrong" option. In this instance, it doesn't even matter though. You need 1 point to get Kenji up from here and getting either one correct gives 5 points (7 if you use a semi-hidden mechanic). Dragonatrix posted:Maybe, yeah. This scene just means he's going to rank up if we hang out with him. If this scene plays, that's definitely going to happen but the reverse is not necessarily true. It should be obvious why I'm going to skip this whenever it plays in the future.
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Apr 10, 2017 23:08
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Mzbundifund posted:I was actually wondering if the thread title meant you were going to do a no-social-links challenge run. Guess not. It would be possible, if quite difficult. Though funnily enough, early game wouldn't be as bad as a max links run since you don't have to spend money as much as you do in the max run. There are a few plot links that have to go up, but barring a big XP boost whenever you do fusions, I think a no links run is possible. It just makes most of the game real fuckin' boring since you're deliberately ignoring most of the content.
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Apr 10, 2017 23:12
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So I am now learning that P5 does not have an obligatory platypus discussion and am now very sad. Dragonatrix, why would you do this to me. They have poison spurs and lay eggs! Why wouldn't they be mentioned? More seriously, I forgot just how quickly Kenji nosedives in to creepy.
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Apr 10, 2017 23:45
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Arcade Rabbit posted:More seriously, I forgot just how quickly Kenji nosedives in to creepy. I think Kenji's link is a big part of why people say that p3's protagonist is a sociopath; it starts out with an explicit statement that you're doing these things for selfish reasons, and a large chunk of the "correct" responses feel like you're just telling him what he wants to hear when anyone can see that it's going to end badly.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:26
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What are you talking about? It's just an overly intrusive guy that wants to hook up with his schoolteacher because he has a thing for older women. What could go wrong? 
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Apr 11, 2017 00:35
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Keeshhound posted:I think Kenji's link is a big part of why people say that p3's protagonist is a sociopath; it starts out with an explicit statement that you're doing these things for selfish reasons, and a large chunk of the "correct" responses feel like you're just telling him what he wants to hear when anyone can see that it's going to end badly.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:51
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Commander Keene posted:Magician, and Chariot, and Hanged Man... There are probably others, but those are the ones I could think of off the top of my head. It's one of my problems with P3's Social Links. The other main problem won't likely be coming up for a while.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:09
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Yea the improvements in social links is one of the reasons I like 4 better.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:12
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Anime Reference posted:You forgot the absolute worst, Moon. loving love Fiona Apple posted:Yea the improvements in social links is one of the reasons I like 4 better.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:30
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This is why i ask people which version of p3 they played because i only played p3p and it seems crazy to me that junpei wasn't a social link.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:37
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Junpei wasn't a Social Link because plot. I've only played FES, but P3P (especially the FEMC's side) used a lot of the gameplay refinements implemented in P4, and a lot of the FEMC's Social Links are supposedly much better for it, AFAIK.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:45
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Commander Keene posted:Another thing to note is that if you say "Yes" to any of these scenes, you are locked into that Social Link scene during your After School time slot. For obvious reasons, never answer "Yes" unless you are 100% certain you want to go with that Social Link that day. I believe that's only in P4, and even then not for all of the scenes. At least in P3P, I could say whatever I wanted at lunchtime and still have control at the end of school.
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Apr 11, 2017 02:00
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I don't get why people are calling Kenji a creep. I mean, weirdo, for sure, but creep? He has a crush on his teacher, that's it. It's not like he told the protagonist about how he goes through her garbage, or steals her panties, or some other thing that would justify calling him a creep.
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Apr 11, 2017 02:00
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Did you not notice the massive creeper vibes he gives off when he talks about Yukari? I mean he asked whether Minato had been in her room before, which carries a pretty weird connotation.
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Apr 11, 2017 02:22
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Yeah, "Hey you live with a girl, do you get to just, I dunno, walk into her room or something?" isn't really super weird or anything.
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Apr 11, 2017 02:35
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Oh god Nina. Wait hold up, Teachers can exhort cake from students? Best profession. I can't believe I forgot the police just let you buy deadly weapons in 3. Also the accessory stat boosters in P4G atleast are % based. Why do I not remember the Pharmacy Shop keep's magnificent face? I mean its been like 6-7 years since I touched this, but cmon that face! Jeez Mitsuru, why not just call them "Lost Ones".. Persona NPCs are actually kind of interesting, a good chunk of them do tell their own little story like a Falcom game, but theres absolutely no way to actually know if someones dialogue has changed, sometimes it happens the next day, sometimes its the plot, sometimes it takes a month, and its not dictated by location so I tend to lose interest easily. I think Strength is my favorite social link in 3, I'm just a huge fan of sport's induced tanned skin in japanese stuff for some reason. A ton of early 2000's cartoons had platypus jokes and theres an entire cartoon based off the joke basically, platypuses must be hilarious and we just dont get it. If theres one thing I have to give Persona props for, its the 3D world, theres alot of effort put into making the world look like unique people actually live in it. And lots of little things that dont need models get them, like that little Police mascot . I love going to someone's house or something and seeing all their hobby stuff and whatnot, so when games give me the same experience, its a great feeling. I'm hoping you make sure show off anytime FES does this cuz its kind of not possible in P3P. @GoneRampant, you should probably specify the female route rather than just saying in portable. If I remember correctly Kenji is still the Magician on the dude side, and well obviously female only characters dont just take over on the dude route. Sorry that was so much  I just started commentating and more kept on showing up. I think I'm gonna start a replay if I can get my PSP working.
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Apr 11, 2017 04:32
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MythosDragon posted:@GoneRampant, you should probably specify the female route rather than just saying in portable. If I remember correctly Kenji is still the Magician on the dude side, and well obviously female only characters dont just take over on the dude route. Fair enough, I'll be more clear about it from here on out.
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Apr 11, 2017 09:15
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Dragonatrix posted:
Isn't she correct? If I'm not mistaken this is a warning to vanilla P3 players, in that game you don't get tired in Tartarus the night before a full moon, making it pointless to spend time going to Tartarus any other day, so they fixed it in FES by making it possible this time, only your teammates won't automatically go back to the dorm when they're tired so you don't get locked out of training. Mzbundifund posted:I was actually wondering if the thread title meant you were going to do a no-social-links challenge run. Guess not. Ha, same here, specially since at the beginning he was picking the "jerk" answers.
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Apr 11, 2017 09:32
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Not an update just yet, but more of a heads up that there's a fairly new thread here for a game that Definitely Isn't Persona 5, Honest. Probably would've mentioned it sooner, but I just noticed that it's up this morning (I am super observant  ) so I wouldn't be surprised if someone here was interested and didn't see it either.
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Apr 13, 2017 08:17
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 We're nearly done with April already, but we won't be making much progress on that front today.  Want To Be Close / Time Gossiping: Huh? A bookstore? Listening: Yeah, leave Iwatodai Station, go straight for a while, and it's after you cross the crosswalk. We've been at this school for a while... You should explore more often! > The first bell has rung.  In terms of the actual day, a lot of them are going to go like this for a while. Fixed start of day chatter, maybe a small scene for class stuff, day over have fun. When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life I will gladly take it up on its offer to do whatever. 'Cept today is a Saturday, so we can't hang out with Kenji or Kaz. I know, it's such a shame. Suppose we've got no choice but to check out the new bookstore or something.  Oh, but Kenji's here, huh...?  I was just about to head home, but I don't really feel like walking. ...Hey, that doesn't mean I'm looking for an unlocked bicycle, alright?Oh don't worry Kenji, I totally believe you.  More importantly, we have the bookstore just over in the strip mall. Nice that this one opens up pretty quickly, at least... one day, Antiques Store. One day... Joy > An old man and woman are behind the counter.   What would you like today? We have fresh mackerel...!  Hey, you're a student, aren't you? You must be from Gekkoukan High, right? That means you've probably seen the persimmon tree there... Huh? It was planted right beside a walkway in a courtyard at the school. > But, it's not clear how the tree and this old couple are connected...  I'm sorry. He's rambling on like an old man. Just ignore him.> After saying goodbye to the old couple, you decided to leave the bookstore. Want To Be Close / TimeWell, that was a scene alright. It didn't give us anything and it didn't even advance time...  But we've seen a tree at the school before, briefly. It was just by the gym, so it's right through here.  > It must be the persimmon tree that the old couple at the bookstore were talking about. > You found a leaf on the ground.  Despite having the regular item icon, the leaf is actually a key item. Hmm, I wonder... is this really the right tree? Joy How many guests? Smoking or non-smoking? Hm? Excuse me, but may I see that leaf in your hand... It must have grown quite a bit to produce such splendid leaves... ...Wait, so you didn't come here to buy books? Did you come here just to show us this? Um, no... Nah-uh, I don't believe you. > The old man is showering you with praise. I've been meaning to go see that tree for a while now, but I'm not sure if these stumpy old legs will make it that far... ...That wasn't meant to be a pun. You know, "stumpy," "tree stump." Catch my drift? Very clever, dear. If you don't mind, would you tell us your name? Then, we'll call you Makoto-chan from now on! > You got to know the old couple a little better. The Power of The Heart > A mysterious voice rings in your head...   Joy  Come visit us if you get bored.> After saying goodbye to Bunkichi and Mitsuko, you decided to go back to the dorm. Iwatodai Dorm  If anything happens, it'll be you guys who have to deal with it.Hm, I don't see anyone around except Akihiko. I suppose that makes sense...  But, if you stumble across an enemy, you might have to fight it by yourself. That can be pretty dangerous... But if you're strong enough, the enemy will be afraid of you, so you won't have to worry.I still don't really see anyone else around here.  It's a popular vacation choice this year, it seems. Airports are filled with air travelers...  Well, that makes sense. Hawai'i is apparently pretty great. I've heard especially great things about Waikiki. Anyway, there's clearly no one else around and we have no money (a whopping 10 yen!) so I guess we'll just go study and slee-  Oh, well, Yukari and Junpei are up on the second floor at least.  When you're tired, you don't hit as hard, so it takes longer to beat an enemy. Plus, you get hit more easily. "You youngin's don't know what's good fer ya... Back in my day, we knew when ta rest!" I understand your point, but what's with the corny impersonation...? Oh, that's the room up on the fourth floor. We've been there twice before, technically.  Oh, but if you wanna go to Tartarus, she said it was alright.  It's the only way we'll achieve our objective in Tartarus.Okay, so folks ARE around but we do have no money at all left. This presents a problem.  Fortunately, Tartarus exists and so we can hopefully fix a bunch of problems at once. The Voice Someone Calls So, this place at the base is the ideal spot to change equipment and check stats for everyone that isn't the main character. Since, y'know, they're static and aren't getting in the way.  We'll also briefly check out our allies' Personae. Unlike Makoto, they both are stuck with one each. Yukari only has Io, who is really not that great early on. Low Agility, overall worse Strength on average, and no offense until level 5 presents a problem for the moment. Her resistance to Wind is semi-useful and weakness to Elec doesn't matter at the moment. Yukari also happens to have the lowest HP out of everyone period which is going to be especially nasty in the long-term.  Junpei, meanwhile, has Hermes and he's very much the opposite. Generally tankier and much more of a Strength based offense. He has nothing BUT offense for a while, and Cleave doesn't vary his elements at all unfortunately. He can only uses 2h Swords and Cleave also deals Slash damage, but at least if/when it misses he won't eat poo poo. His resistance to Fire will boost his already fairly good survivability even further but that weakness to Wind might prove to be a big liability in this first trip.  A few floots up, there's a barricade preventing you from going any higher. The tower seems to have a number of these interspersed amongst its floors. I know I told you that the layout changes each day, but these barriers seem to be in fixed locations. While this is VERY EASY to do in the first trip on Maniac difficulty on Portable (honest Maniac is absurdly easy...), it might as well be actively impossible to do so here. We'll do as much as we can, before we functionally have to leave. tartarus_0d01 So, the first time we step foot in a new floor (second time for 2F because of the tutorial), Mitsuru chimes in with something. Sometimes it's to give you an idea of where the next boss fight it (like here), sometimes it's even less useful. Anyway, welcome to Tartarus! For real this time! It sucks and I dislike it. A lot. Fortunately for you, this place being a randomised piece of poo poo means while I get to slog through it all, you get selected highlights instead.  So, despite being in Tartarus, the location listed is Thebel. As you might recall from before, this is the first block of Tartarus which is a worrying concept. Thebel is a minor mistranslation (albeit not from Japanese) and is intended to be Thevel, which is a Hebrew word that means "the world." This seems like a stretch, even with the Japanese B/V mess-up in the same line as L/R stuff, I appreciate. HOWEVER! It also has a subtitle: The Garden of Worldliness.  Since almost every floor is randomised, sometimes you get the stairs immediately. Sometimes you have to slog through a large area. Sometimes you don't even get an access point and can't leave easily. Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out So, let's talk about the Shadows in this area. It's very, VERY important to Analyse them as soon as possible.  Not necessarily for your benefit, although that too, but because it makes your party members better because they're AI only. And the AI is... very inconsistent but secretly really unfairly good when setup correctly. See, from this they know not just the elemetal affinities but things like "does ailment work" despite that not being listed anywhere. Annoyingly, Analyzing Shadows doesn't list enemy skills or the like. Makes it a bit inconvenient to try and determine what Persona to have Makoto use, though you can generally intuit the broadstrokes from their Arcana and the elemental resistances. Also Analyzing isn't an immediate thing either, so you generally have a round or so of waiting for it to kick in. It's kinda dumb.  Like how the Cowardly Maya is weak to all primary elements except Ice and is a Magician so of course it uses Bufu.  A nasty thing that'll become apparent here is that half the Shadows (right now) are Resistant to Fire. That means Orpheus can only be useful via Bash, which is also our only means of Strike elemental damage right now for if/when that matters.  That they also end up being weak to other elements doesn't necessarily matter. We have no easy way of doing Elec damage until level, uh, 7 at the earliest for example. We CAN get Ice damage from an Apsaras but that requires getting rid of both Pixie AND Orpheus and it's not worth it this early.  Though there IS a thing that isn't the Cowardly Maya that is weak to Fire. It's kinda weird that the two Magician arcana Shadows are weak to Fire, since Fire magic is what the arcana specialises in.  Oh and with this being on Hard mode, right now we take - from Neutral damage no less - around about half our max HP if we're lucky from any given skill. This happens a lot right now, so I just reload whenever it happens for convenience. tartarus_0d01 So, there's nothing else exciting or interesting on 2F so we'll head on up to 3. Maybe something useful will spawn or whatever.  Like this, this is nice. Sadly, this is pseudo-rogue-lite so while the general idea of the contents is determined fairly early, the specifics are determined when you open it. It's weird and confusing, yes. This case, for example, would always contain Yen in this instance but it would be a semi-randomised amount; it could be anywhere from a little under 200 to around 3000.  ...As REALLY NICE as seeing a Gold Shadow immediately is, it's also a mean trap. Not only is it already aware of us and thus will get away, if we did catch it it'd escape then instead. Very tanky, lots of HP (100 flat for the one here), runs, gives no exp etc. etc. A Metal Slime in many regards.  So, let's talk about one of my least favourite things about Hard mode. This Shadow spotted us at the exact moment as my sword hit it. Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out That means we get Ambushed. If you don't get the Advantage, but you hit the enemy on Normal or Easy then no one gets the advantage. This CAN happen on Hard mode but it's rarer. If the enemy is aware of you, even if you get the first hit on the map, you will still get ambushed. It's really dumb and kind of annoying but we'll get around it eventually.  Although, Junpei is not filling me with confidence. Especially with the way knockdowns work in Vanilla and FES... tartarus_0d01 Skipping on up to 4F now and Mitsuru lets us know, albeit vaguely, that the first boss is on the next floor. There is a non-zero chance that we won't even get to it this trip... After The Battle Not much on this floor right now either, so we'll look over the Shuffle Time!! rewards. We can get new Persona this way, and for a little while is the only way to get ones we've fused away. But we can also get Minor Arcana cards which no longer have Persona attached to them (which they did in 2 and only 2 for some reason). Honestly, the Suit of Cups is a nice thing to get just for general survivability and preserving SP. It's not a GREAT HP heal right now, but it's not nothing and can help make a difference.  Suit of Wands is pretty important because holy gently caress do we get no EXP from fights here.  It's a very, VERY small gain right now but it pushed that particular fight up to 5. From a whopping 4!  4 is the average from any and every fight right now, but we get 2 an offputtingly common amount of times too. This isn't a Hard mode thing; this is just the early game kind of has broken EXP scaling. It gets better later on, thankfully.  Of course, this leaves the Suit of Pentacles, or Coins, which just straight up gives you money. Not great amounts right now, but money is money.  We already know about the Persona gains, and while it's most commonly Pixie it can be other stuff too. Apsaras is a nice pull since she makes useful fusion fodder (though Pixie has better skills if you can get her up a level) and... tartarus_0d01 She has Bufu! And better Magic than either Pixie or Orpheus! Her resistance to Ice is a nice boon too, though that weakness to Slash means if anything (except the Hand) hits Makoto, that procs a One More.  Through pure luck, we managed to get some nice footwear from a briefcase too. These are way better than our default gear, so I'm slapping them on Makoto right away. Increased Evasion is always a good thing.  ...But that's still a common pull. That, right there, is a gold chest. That means rare loot! These only have a real chance to spawn on specific floors but they can contain very nice things. This one is on 4F so it has something we'll want 2 of maybe. Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out But it IS guarded by a random Shadow, through pure chance. Since we have Apsaras as our active Persona and Orpheus in our stock, they can let us use a special Fusion Skill.  If you're wondering what Apsaras and Orpheus have to do with each other, the answer is nothing really. Sure, Apsaras is a non-specific Hindu woman because it's a plural. Apsara is just the name for a nymph of cloud and water. Orpheus, of course, is a Greek guy who got tricked hardcore by Hades. The connection is musical, as an Apsara is usually married to a heavenly musician. Hence why the skill is called Cadenza, yes. It's half a Sukukaja with proportional healing that doesn't help right now. The evasion boost is nice but I wouldn't bother outside of weird niche situations. Honestly, if it wasn't for the game having a way in which it tells you outright how to make every Fusion skill, you'd be forgiven for not realising most of them exist because they're really dumb. Portable mercifully adjusted the way Fusion Skills work and I greatly prefer its system, which we'll get to later on don't worry. After The Battle ...And because I haven't had good enough luck yet, the Shuffle Time drop included a weapon card. Which netted a Practice Bow instead of a Rapier again. Sure, this is Yukari's default weapon but that's not why I want it. tartarus_0d01 The rare chest on 4F means it contains a Juzumaru. This is a useful 2h Sword that I'm giving to Junpei right away.  It's stronger than the Imitation Katana AND increases his accuracy ever-so-slightly. That's nice and all, but that +20HP is the real benefit here. Making the closest thing we have to a tank even tankier seems like a weird decision, but this could prove useful later.  Makoto, meanwhile, gets the Practice Bow. An odd choice but having someone with access to Pierce damage who isn't Yukari (and thus will mess it up) is going to be useful later.  Floor 5 is a very special floor. It's layout is predetermined, and it has no random Shadows crawling around. It has fixed locations for the stairs, entrance, chests... everything.  It doesn't have an Access Point though. Not really. It has this thing, instead.  There is actively zero reason to ignore this since it helps with a couple things.  It's a checkpoint within Tartarus and gives us a place to warp back to later on if we so choose, and it lets us warp to any other Terminal Points we've activated too.  The one on the first floor is always active, since it's where access points kick us out after all. Oh and it's not immediately obvious but returning here is an automatic full restore of all HP and SP. You can bet that was removed in Portable!  Gonna throw down a fresh save, get annoyed by the fact that I'm not level 5 in FES yet and then just roll with it anyway and take on the boss.  Empress Venus Eagle x3 (Portable) Master of Tartarus / Danger Zone   Yeah, so this is absolutely true but Mitsuru is neglecting something important.  We have two people with bows. This makes the fight way easier, because they're eagles. And that means in grand SMT/RPG tradition, they're weak to being shot. Which means Pierce damage!  Although bows are bad and miss a lot. It's kind of annoying but we'll deal.  Really, the most annoying thing about the AI is that our control over it right now is limited. As a result they mainly focus fire on one target when attacking. Since one of the Eagles was Down, Junpei opted to Cleave her. Downed targets take slightly more damage than normal, you see, but in return they're no longer prone.  These particular Eagles have this nasty trick up their sleeve. Garu in itself isn't particularly strong, but...  This is what it does to someone who's Neutral. Yikes.  This is what it does to someone who's weak. Not much of a difference, huh? That's because Junpei's tankier and thus has a higher Endurance.  But this? This is what it does on a resistance. If we could actually rely on Yukari, she could probably solo this fight without really having to try. Sadly that's not an option. And not just because her AI is rock stupid right now.  See, as a weird thing vanilla and FES have... interesting ways they deal with the way Down works as a mechanic. As a result of that, they are the only (modern-ish) Persona game(s) where you sometimes want to not do All-Out Attacks. It's weird and feels backwards and wrong...  But when something gets up, that uses its entire turn. This was changed immediately for Persona 4 and thus was backported into Portable as well. This is insanely exploitable and you bet I will be using this to makes things go much easier and quicker.  The Eagles being, well, eagles slash dudes with their claws when attacking normally. So definitely don't bring Apsaras as your main Persona for this fight, not anything with a Wind weakness (which while 100% possible here is unrealistic to get). They can also cast Magaru just to gently caress with you further, but that's rarer and didn't happen on either the FES nor Portable fight so whatever.  Junpei gets "actually" tired now, which is annoying and a severe limitation to our Tartarus treks right now but because this is tied to our level will quickly stop being relevant later on. Around the second block or so, you can be forgiven for forgetting that this mechanic even exists. After The Battle Oh, uh, and the Eagles have 150HP ad 100SP each, and along with being weak to Pierce are immune to Wind, Bless/Expel and Curse (they use Wind and are a boss so you can't instant kill them)... and drain Fire just because. That's a nasty trick on the first boss/miniboss but that's not even close to the nastiest trick in the first block alone. Those Empress Masks will also come in handy sometime down the line. Don't worry about it until then.  End tartarus_0d01 Since treasure on this floor is fixed, we'll always get a Bead Chain which is insanely nice. Full HP restore to everyone can certainly come in handy. Kinda weird that we got it so early, but I'm not complaining about that.  Going up to the 6th floor is a thoroughly bad idea without dipping back to the ground floor for our guaranteed full heal... but if we do that, Junpei will leave now that he's tired.  So bad ideas it is! We won't be here long, because Mitsuru is accurate here. There's a couple new Shadows around from this floor onwards. Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out Like this guy, who I swore was from a higher floor... Well, we can't hurt him easily, so we'll decrease his defense for 3 turns at least.  He's basically Reverse-Yukari in a lot of ways. Sadly, we can't even take advantage of that Wind weakness right now. If we gave up Apsaras and Orpheus, then Makoto could have Garu but Yukari gets it at level 5 and the Eagles finally let her reach level 4, so...  It's still not a difficult enemy normally, though it's gotten more dangerous now. Since Junpei got tired, that's going to snowball just as a matter of course. It's sort of inevitable since our levels were identical when we entered and all. After The Battle Oh and the Grave Beetle gives 7EXP base, so I wanted to Wand it up to 8. The game had other ideas and decided to proc Wand's secondary effect and give Apsaras a stat boost.  Later on, I decided to grab this now just to get it over with. Sometimes cards have this skull on 'em. They don't do much different to normal...  But, they're cursed to poo poo. This doesn't do anything immediately, though. tartarus_0d01 It does make Mitsuru spout this line earlier than normal, but it still doesn't do anything. She says this twice or so, by the way.  And then she says this... and then in the audio, you hear constant chains rattling. And if you pay attention to the minimap, there'll be a Shadow dot moving around. Specifically beelining right for you.  That would be this kind-looking fellow right here. Rather than a generic blob, his actual model is out and about on the map. Complete with his dual-wielded revolvers. Alright, let's see what we're dealing with then.  Death The Reaper Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out Because he's always VERY aware of our presence, it is actively impossible for us to get the Advantage. But because Hard mode hates you, he'll almost always get it. Not like he needs it, since he has 99 Agility in every version of P3. In fact, it's his only stat that is a consistent 99.  I'm sure we can take him, though. I mean he's only using a Heavy Elec spell. How bad could it be?  Oh, just basically quadruple our hypothetical HP cap no big deal. Sure, Yukari won't realistically ever get 999HP but still.  Yeah, so, uh, The Reaper is (in theory) a very end-game Optional Boss who appears on almost every floor (ones like the 5th floor are excluded). Usually, that's because you lingered for too long, so he's like a soft-time limit to minimise grinding, for some reason, but things like Cursed Cards and special other things can make him spawn sooner.  In vanilla, he has 4444HP (because 4 is Death) and 9999SP. To cap it off, he has 66 in all stats except Agility which is 99. FES and Portable change that a bit to give him 5000HP flat (because 4444 is boring) and 12000SP. Oh and he has 99 in Magic now too. The Path Was Closed  Needless to say, yes, we will be fighting him for real later on.    But until then, just gonna be avoiding the gently caress outta this guy. Occasionally he'll still pop up and then I'll get to kite him around like an annoying MMO trash mob or whatever. The Voice Someone Calls Back in the real world (where the only difference is that Death didn't just casually waltz in and shoot magic bullets), everyone is shattered and leaves immediately. This is also a thing that was removed in Portable, I guess to make up for having to pay for healing now.  Now, we COULD leave as well with our progress to 6F secure and ready for next time. But this presents a problem for Makoto. See, he needs to be level 6 before Tuesday or so. Plus we need at least 9600 Yen to finance the week ahead. So far, we have neither of these things...  Solo and Tired. Well, at least he'll gain EXP quicker but what could POSSIBLY go wrong with this? Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Apr 9, 2018 |
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Apr 16, 2017 23:25
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Dragonatrix posted:Solo and Tired. Well, at least he'll gain EXP quicker but what could POSSIBLY go wrong with this? Everything. This game's a dick.
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Apr 17, 2017 01:19
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With the power of constant reloads, nothing can ever really go wrong. Unless you quit out of frustration, which, given the game, is a real possibility.
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Apr 17, 2017 01:49
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Ah, the plight of a Max Social Links run early-game: You have nowhere near enough levels to last long in Tartarus, but you need to press on to get the money to make it to next week. Anyway, on today's episode of the Arcana, WORDS: The Hierophant The Hierophant represents education, authority, obedience to the law, conservatism and one's relationship with the divine. It actually serves as the male counterpart to the Priestess Arcana, and is known as "The Pope" in some tarot decks. Hierophant characters are typically older than the protagonist and serve as a semi-mentor figure, and usually are obsessed with the past and a tragic event that happened in the past... which when I write it down serves as a bit of spoiler for the character arcs of every single Hierophant character in the series, but in my defense, Persona 3 is over a decade old, and let's not lie and claim any of us are going into this blind. Makoto's Hierophant Link is represented by Bunkichi and Mitsuko, the kindly book store owners at the mall. They're a very easy social link to level up, since their store is open every day except for Sunday. In fact, Hamuko also meets the old couple, making this one of the first links that wasn't changed much for Portable- a few Persona got shuffled around for other Arcana, but it was otherwise unchanged. In-game, Hierophant Personas share a common mythological theme of characters with great wisdom or sage-like figures with the power to see the past and future. Mechanically, they have a habit of varying wildly and don't have a definable trait like "Uses fire" or "Uses physical attacks and buffs." There's a good balance to Hierophant Personas and they can be suited to do a fair few different tasks down the line. And as a special bonus, a bit more coverage of Yukari and Junpei: Yukari Voiced by: Michelle Ruff. Arcana: Lovers (Social Link for both male and female characters) Yukari fills the standard RPG role of being the healer- thus, she is the second most important person in the party at any given moment. Yukari's Persona is Io, a mortal priestess of Hera in Greek mythology who got turned into a cow by Hera when Zeus was... well, Zeus. As a Persona, Io is a wind specialist, meaning she knows how to blow her enemies away, but is rendered helpless at the sight of exposed electrical wiring (That's my way of saying "She's strong against wind but is weak to electricity attacks"). With the highest Magic stat of anyone in SEES, Yukari is leaned heavily towards a support role in combat, learning many of the healing and revive spells. Much like Junpei and his Fire skills being better for knocking enemies down over sheer damage, Yukari's bows are better sorted to knocking down enemies with a Pierce weakness over doing raw damage. That really sums up much of Yukari's skills: She gets steadily more powerful wind spells alongside more effective heals and status ailment cures as the game goes on. With her Wind magic, healing and bow, Yukari makes for a versatile character. Yukari is voiced by Michelle Ruff. Yukari is one of her more notable roles, but she's also known primarily for voicing Rukia in Bleach from 2006 to 2014, Luna in the Viz dub of Sailor Moon since 2014, Euphemia li Britannia in Code Geass, Gabby in Pokemon Generations, Katherine in Catherine, two of the potential voices for a female Avatar in Fire Emblem Awakening, Rita Mordio in Tales of Vesperia, and in future games in the Persona series, Sadayo Kawakami in Persona 5. Junpei Voiced By: Vic Mignogna Arcana: Magician (Social Link for female characters in Portable) Ta da da da, time to talk about my personal favorite character in Persona 3! Junpei fills our early-game tank requisite role. Using two handed weapons, Junpei deals in Slash Damage with a side of fire. Junpei's Persona is Hermes, the messenger of the Greek Pantheon. As mentioned previously, Junpei is of the Magician Arcana, so Hermes' messenger status fits in with the symbolism of the Magician- who serve as the link between the physical and spiritual worlds. Hermes' reputation as a trickster also makes him a good fit for the Magician and Junpei's character. (Non essential trivia while I'm on the topic: Hermes was originally intended to be the MC's Persona before they chose Orpheus) Hermes, like any good Magician Persona, loves his Fire attacks, which as we saw, means a strength towards fire attacks but a weakness to wind attacks. He specializes, however, in strength- Junpei has one of the highest Strength stats of any members of SEES come the endgame. Junpei's quite good HP throughout the game lets him use his heavy hitting melee attacks quite often, making him both a good attacker and tank. Unfortunately, Junpei's Magic stats... leave a lot to be desired. Hermes learns a lot of Fire attacks, but because Junpei's magic stat trails behind, he serves better as a way to hit enemy weaknesses rather than going for an outright kill strike. Thankfully, Hermes picks up the slack on the physical side, learning attacks in all three physical elements- Strike, Slash and Pierce, giving Junpei some versatility in physical damage as the game progresses. Buff-wise, Junpei learns Re Patra, which cures knockdown, and a few of the Rakukaja buffs. centered around raising the party's defense. But the biggest detriment of Junpei is that the early game is a cruel mistress to him. This boss alone had Drain Fire and could use Wind, and Junpei's gonna see a lot of bosses that are strong against physical or fire attacks, or have Wind spells, or... really, any combination of things that gently caress Junpei over. He's not great for an early portion of the game's bosses, but when you get past that other side, Junpei begins to pull his weight much more effectively as more enemies show up that he can exploit the weaknesses of- it just takes a little time to reach that point. To avoid more intense spoilers, it does in a way mirror his character arc, but we'll get back to that. Junpei is voiced by Vic Mignonga, perhaps best known for his role as Edward Elric in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist. Some of his other more notable roles in anime and games include Tanaki Suoh in Ouran High School Host Club, Kou Ichigo in Persona 4, Matt Ishida in Digimon Adventure tri, Broly in Dragonball (A role that consistently damages his voice; Vic's told a story that his agent apparently opens every phone call to tell him he has to voice Broly again with "Vic, I'm sorry.") Rin in Free, and perhaps most recently, Qrow Branwen in Rooster Teeth's RWBY. GoneRampant fucked around with this message at 11:58 on May 22, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 02:06
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GoneRampant posted:As a Persona, Io is a wind specialist, meaning she knows how to blow her enemies away, but is rendered helpless at the sight of exposed electrical wiring (That's my way of saying "She's strong against wind but is weak to electricity attacks"). I enjoy the fact that Junpei is split between being people's least favorite or favorite character. Personally, I hate his hat, and that's all I remember about the dude. I hate most hats. Are there any Myths about Hermes being anything other than fast? Cuz as it stands my thoughts are "Not protag material" and "Doesn't lift". I've never really developed much of an interest into Greek Mythology, so most of my knowledge is straight out of Hercules. Pretty sure Mitsuru is my favorite character, but I played this when I was 16 so theres a good chance I jumped straight to the hottest girl and never looked back. Also jesus, that was 6 years ago, I should replay.
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Apr 17, 2017 02:46
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MythosDragon posted:Are there any Myths about Hermes being anything other than fast? Cuz as it stands my thoughts are "Not protag material" and "Doesn't lift". I've never really developed much of an interest into Greek Mythology, so most of my knowledge is straight out of Hercules. Whenever Zues wasn't raping mortal women, he was usually hanging with Hermes. They'd disguise themselves and go have adventures that usually ended with the lesson "don't gently caress with strangers, because it might be these two assholes and you'll get turned into a pig or something." He also gave guidance to Odysseus at several points in The Odyssey. He's the god of athletes, so that might be where the physical prowess is coming from. Keeshhound fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Apr 17, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 03:19
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God of Athletism sounds about right. Also I'm reading a webcomic called cucumber quest, and one of the recent commentaries was and I quote "My battle music is titled “Desperate Clown Dance for Everyone’s Souls at the End of the World”. I dont know, I thought it was funny since I actually got atleast one of the references.
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Apr 17, 2017 03:49
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MythosDragon posted:Are there any Myths about Hermes being anything other than fast? He's responsible for the Trojan war in a way. After Artemis tossed the golden apple with the engraving "to the fairest" in between Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena at the Wedding of Thetis and Peleus (parents of Achilles), the three goddesses asked every man important enough or handsome enough to matter about who deserved the apple the most. Up until Hermes, every man who was asked responded with, "lol nah this is a trap." Hermes told the trio, "hey, you know who is handsome enough to matter, but dumb enough to answer? Paris of Troy."
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Apr 17, 2017 04:05
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Hermes is also known for his love of wordplay (which probably comes out as endless bad puns) and riddles, but it's his way of imparting knowledge and wisdom to those who can figure him out. He's something of a trickster god, not to the level of Ananse or Coyote, but he's up there. When it comes to his actual dealings with mortals, he basically enjoy ripping on them, but he winds up as a staunch supporter and patron to those who gain his respect and favour. He's like that one guy in your group who loves screwing with everyone, but the second anyone else tries something, he's the first one to leap to your defense.
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Apr 17, 2017 04:29
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I have to say, the Reaper having two ridiculously huge handguns was not what I was expecting the first time I saw this guy.
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Apr 17, 2017 04:55
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Persona 3 was a very experimental game, and while it payed off big in some ways, others... well, there's a reason you don't see some of this stuff in later games. Like here, the Social Link aspect was very much a hit, but this rouge-like dungeon crawling... didn't. It's frustrating for a lot of reasons, but the big one is the Tired mechanic in vanilla/FES really put on artificial limit on how much the game will let you advance on the combat side of things. This is especially bad on a NG Max-Social Link run, which pretty much requires you spend as little time as possible in Tartarus in the beginning to raise your Social Stats... but that requires money that you get semi-randomly from the dungeon the game actively limits you from grinding... yeah, early game Persona 3 combat-wise really sucks. The move to more set-piece-y dungeons in P4 and P5 worked out much better than this amorphous blob of Platonic Ideal of Dungeon Crawling P3 has going on.
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Apr 17, 2017 09:19
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I learned new stuff today, this is a good day. Tbh, all of you look like masochists for purposely making this hard on yourselves. I only use Hard mode when theres a disclaimer like "Post Game with Story Content is Hard Only"...... Oh the suffering, level 200 enemies when I'm barely at 100. I actually like setting my allies to AI for that slight touch of realism, I have to agree that making it the default was retarded though. The Marin Karin thing makes me laugh and I cant wait to see it.
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Apr 17, 2017 10:32
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Dragonatrix posted:Since treasure on this floor is fixed, we'll always get a Bead Chain which is insanely nice and I'm already terrified about it being wasted frivolously. If we get low on HP but not in a situation worth using this, the AI will still use this. Yukari and Junpei might have their own item stashes we can't touch, but the reverse is emphatically not true. Wait, what? I'm pretty sure teammates can't touch the main inventory. This is more noticeable at the end of the game when they keep using laughably low tier items if they don't have healing spells.
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Apr 17, 2017 11:04
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Dragonatrix posted:See, as a weird thing vanilla and FES have... interesting ways they deal with the way Down works as a mechanic. As a result of that, they are the only (modern-ish) Persona game(s) where you sometimes want to not do All-Out Attacks. It's weird and feels backwards and wrong... GoneRampant posted:but is rendered helpless at the sight of exposed electrical wiring GoneRampant posted:Unfortunately, Junpei's Magic stats... leave a lot to be desired. Hermes learns a lot of Fire attacks, but because Junpei's magic stat trails behind, he serves better as a way to hit enemy weaknesses rather than going for an outright kill strike. MythosDragon posted:I learned new stuff today, this is a good day. Making AI control the default is fine. Making it mandatory is a bit more questionable. The ally AI in Persona 3 has its idiosyncrasies, but it's actually pretty good especially for the time the game was released. I was disappointed that Persona 4's AI was incredibly dumb by comparison. I feel like most of the complaints were from people who expected "Act Freely" to allow them to coast through the game and never truly got the fact that you have to act like a leader and direct your allies. For example, I never noticed Mitsuru's infamous "Marin Karin spam" because I didn't just leave her on Act Freely. I also compulsively analyzed enemies, which meant the AI almost always knew which ailments worked.
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Apr 17, 2017 21:58
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You don't like Tarturus? Is that just you, or is it another one of those things goons hate? Tarturus basically is the game for me, so you might as well be playing Kirby and telling me you don't like copying abilities. Having a long full-game dungeon tower like this is probably why I like this game better than Persona 4.
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Apr 18, 2017 12:35
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magikid posted:You don't like Tarturus? Is that just you, or is it another one of those things goons hate? Pretty sure distaste for Tarturus is near-universal. DRPGs in general arnt the most popular subgenre, and people like looking at different environments in games.
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Apr 18, 2017 13:01
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Tarturus is dull and goes on for way too long.
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Apr 18, 2017 13:14
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magikid posted:You don't like Tarturus? Is that just you, or is it another one of those things goons hate? I don't hate Tartarus myself. The blocks are frequently changed enough that you don't grow bored of them unless you do a large amount of grinding.
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Apr 18, 2017 14:06
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I didn't mind it overmuch in this game (probably helped by the fact I muted it and listened to music whenever I went spelunking). It had definitely outstayed its welcome by the end though. Seeing it reappear in P4 was one of the things that had soured me on the game by the end. Having actual crafted dungeons in P5 was a breath of fresh air.
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Apr 18, 2017 15:15
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The tartarus equivalent in p5 is hated by most as well.
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Apr 18, 2017 15:55
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