Persona Megathread: I Am Thou, Thou Art I

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Mechafunkzilla: Sep 11, 2006; If you want a vision of the future...

Strikers difficulty doesn't exist because you can break the game in half with fusion

# ? Jan 4, 2023 18:00

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# ? May 25, 2024 07:46

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Mechafunkzilla posted:

Persona 5 difficulty doesn't exist because you can break the game in half with fusion

# ? Jan 4, 2023 18:03

Shyrka: Feb 10, 2005; Small Boss likes to spin!

Mechafunkzilla posted:

Strikers difficulty doesn't exist because you can break the game in half with fusion

Speaking of, should you be levelling up every persona you grab? I don't know how limited persona points are as a resource.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 18:06

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Shyrka posted:

Speaking of, should you be levelling up every persona you grab? I don't know how limited persona points are as a resource.

There are some fusions that require levelled up persona, so yes but only if you're specifically chasing compendium completion or a particular target persona like Yoshitsune.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 18:18

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

Shyrka posted:

Speaking of, should you be levelling up every persona you grab? I don't know how limited persona points are as a resource.

I found that later on I had enough points to instantly grab the first few skills from a persona by leveling them up.

(Basically they're not exactly scarce; feel free to use them as long as you have enough set aside for anything new that you *really* want to upgrade right this instant, and even then it's not a big deal)

# ? Jan 4, 2023 19:29

Waste of Breath: Dec 30, 2021; I only know🧠 one1️⃣ thing🪨: I😡 want😤 to 🔪kill☠️� 😈Chaos😱� I need🥵 to. [TIME⏰ TO DIE☠️]

I'm too overlevelled for new game+ to be fun in strikers, but not good enough for merciless (died in the tutorial which I didn't even know was possible lmao)

# ? Jan 4, 2023 19:35

Neeksy: Mar 29, 2007; Hej min vän, hur står det till?

Mechafunkzilla posted:

Strikers difficulty doesn't exist because you can break the game in half with fusion

That's most SMT games if you use compendiums.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 00:53

Private Speech: Mar 30, 2011; I HAVE EVEN MORE WORTHLESS BEANIE BABIES IN MY COLLECTION THAN I HAVE WORTHLESS POSTS IN THE BEANIE BABY THREAD YET I STILL HAVE THE TEMERITY TO CRITICIZE OTHERS' COLLECTIONS

IF YOU SEE ME TALKING ABOUT BEANIE BABIES, PLEASE TELL ME TO

EAT. SHIT.

Waste of Breath posted:

I'm too overlevelled for new game+ to be fun in strikers, but not good enough for merciless (died in the tutorial which I didn't even know was possible lmao)

That's just the musou experience for you, assuming you mean NG merciless not NG+ merciless.

The games get dramatically easier with grinding, except for the top difficulty. Some of the levels tend to be impossible on it without NG+ or a ton of grinding and I'm pretty sure it's designed for NG+ (talking about musou games in general here).

Private Speech fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Jan 5, 2023

# ? Jan 5, 2023 04:16

babypolis: Nov 4, 2009

I finished the casino palace and lol at the million contrivances the game has to come up with to make sense of the animated cutscenes

# ? Jan 5, 2023 17:58

Feels Villeneuve: Oct 7, 2007; Setter is Better.

babypolis posted:

I finished the casino palace and lol at the million contrivances the game has to come up with to make sense of the animated cutscenes

i like the one in Futaba's palace where she just nopes out of a scene at the end because she isn't in the cutscene of them escaping the pyramid thing

# ? Jan 5, 2023 18:01

Hellioning: Jun 27, 2008

Hah, I didn't even realize that.

I understand the appeal of animated cutscenes but between P5 and FF13 they seem very risky to actually put in.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 18:02

babypolis: Nov 4, 2009

its kinda baffling tbh. is like 5 mins of animation truly so expensive that you have to contort the whole development of the game around it?

# ? Jan 5, 2023 18:04

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

well joker you don't have a yukata but you can't not dress up so how about you take off your glasses that's kind of like dressing up

ryuji you don't need to do anything, ~~your model already matches the one in the upcoming animation~~ nobody cares how you look

E: That sounds dismissive, but I honestly respect the script just not giving a gently caress and have much more beef with "yeah turns out you can shunt a literal army and their materiel into the metaverse no problem, let's never explore that and assume no villain ever thinks to do it again."

Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jan 5, 2023

# ? Jan 5, 2023 18:21

Sydin: Oct 29, 2011; Another spring commute

It is funny that the plot comes up with a contrived excuse for why Joker isn't wearing his glasses during the summer festival but in the opening cutscene of the group first approaching the Casino Joker is also clearly again not wearing glasses and it's just... not acknowledged at all.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 18:35

RenegadeStyle1: Jun 7, 2005; Baby Come Back

Do the rest of the personas have good music too? Sometimes I was just vibing to the persona 5 music and I usually don't like video game music.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 18:46

the sex ghost: Sep 6, 2009

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

Do the rest of the personas have good music too? Sometimes I was just vibing to the persona 5 music and I usually don't like video game music.

Each persona game is an album with a video game attached

# ? Jan 5, 2023 18:49

FireWorksWell: Nov 27, 2014; Let's go do some hero shit!

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

Do the rest of the personas have good music too? Sometimes I was just vibing to the persona 5 music and I usually don't like video game music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO54NPnSiYc

# ? Jan 5, 2023 19:02

Petiso: Apr 30, 2012

As with most things regarding style, P5 is one step ahead but the games' music is generally pretty good, yes.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 19:07

Terper: Jun 26, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd6MW-XhO5I

# ? Jan 5, 2023 19:08

Sapozhnik: Jan 2, 2005; Nap Ghost

The biggest frustration with the first-draft cutscenes being crowbarred into the final storyline is that Joker is railroaded into declining Yoshizawa's assistance for the December palace, purely because she wasn't in the base game and thus isn't present in any of the cutscenes that play there.

Well, that and her codename is derived from her real identity and not her fake one, which you don't discover until January, but the narrative could easily have worked around this.

One of the biggest criticisms of base Persona 5 was that Haru turns up way too late in the story and then when it came time to make an updated re-release they went ahead and did that.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 19:22

FireWorksWell: Nov 27, 2014; Let's go do some hero shit!

It's weird, because they did something like that for Akechi. At least. I don't recall him interacting with the PC more than three or four times before he joins the group in base P5.. Royal did a very good job in making him a character with more impact, for me.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 19:32

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

Eh it sucks for gameplay reasons and it would be really nice to have her around for any time at all, but narratively it makes no sense for her to join you at any other time than when she does.

Literally everyone except Joker and Morgana already knows her real name and it's probably common gossip that Kasumi is dead. There is no way this wouldn't come up if she were to formally join the gang; it's already convoluted enough that Joker never hears the name "Sumire" uttered until January. Plus she's already made it explicit that she opposes the Phantom Thieves (which is vital to her character arc) and only wants to keep Joker safe, and Joker's not the kind of guy who'd take an uncommitted newbie on their deadliest heist yet, that's not railroading him any harder than when he stands up to an abuser with no player input.

Even if they could slot her into vanilla cutscenes for free, they'd have to write an entirely different character for that to work.

E: I mean, Yoshizawa gets plenty of screentime, but is deliberately written in a way where it makes sense for her to mostly just interact with Joker and rarely the entire gang. Akechi's new confidant is also original one-on-one Joker time. Maybe they would have written a different story if they were free to replace the animation, but the stuff they did write slots neatly into the story as-is.

Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Jan 5, 2023

# ? Jan 5, 2023 19:50

Sydin: Oct 29, 2011; Another spring commute

I really just wish Royal had the Strikers NG+ feature where you just get all the party members at the start of the game for the purposes of being able to play around with them in combat, and the story just doesn't acknowledge it. It would be fun to actually get to dick around with Akechi and Sumire in early palaces. Granted I guess now that the game's out on PC it would be fairly trivial to just save edit them into the party on a NG+ file for similar effect.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 20:13

mmkay: Oct 21, 2010

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

Do the rest of the personas have good music too? Sometimes I was just vibing to the persona 5 music and I usually don't like video game music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-luILmoUQI

# ? Jan 5, 2023 23:43

Ohtsam: Feb 5, 2010; Not this shit again.

babypolis posted:

its kinda baffling tbh. is like 5 mins of animation truly so expensive that you have to contort the whole development of the game around it?

Part of it is the timelines involved and part of it is that persona�s dev budget isn�t actually all that big.

# ? Jan 6, 2023 22:26

ymgve: Jan 2, 2004; Offensive Clock

I see Persona 5 Royal is on Game Pass, so I guess I'll give it a try (completed non-Royal before, but didn't really put any effort in getting all social links). Can I get some vague hints about how I can max out all social links, without becoming too specific?

ymgve fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jan 6, 2023

# ? Jan 6, 2023 23:15

Endorph: Jul 22, 2009

ymgve posted:

I see Persona 5 Royal is on Game Pass, so I guess I'll give it a try (completed non-Royal before, but didn't really put any effort in getting all social links). Can I get some vague hints about how I can max out all social links, without becoming too specific?

rush the fortune teller social link. Use her ability to boost social stat growth to max out your social stats.

S. links in persona 5 are mainly gated by the social stats, not by time management between them. if you max out your social stats quickly and efficiently, maxing out all the s. links is pretty trivial.

# ? Jan 6, 2023 23:23

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Prioritize Temperance, which gives you blocks of time in class you can spend to read books or craft tools, as well as letting you pay to do more than one of certain activities a night. The final rank even lets you go out on days you entered the Metaverse.
Prioritize Fortune (up to Rank 5 at least), which can boost your social stat gain or give you Confidant points with someone who isn't ready to rank up.
On Sundays, try to prioritize Sun, who is the least available Confidant most of the time. He's generally only available on days off, and he's unavailable after mid-November.
Always bring a Persona of a matching arcana when you hang out.
Check your social stat progress in Leblanc's bathroom and know what rewards each activity will give you, including Confidants. Sun and Devil give Charm, Death gives Guts, Hanged Man gives Proficiency, etc.
Know the social stat gates, as well. For most stats (Proficiency and Knowledge excepted), there's no reason to bother pushing for a higher rank until the Confidant event you need is close to being unlocked. You gain plenty of passive social stats by doing other Confidants, jobs, and feeding your plant anyway.
The most blatant gate is Rank 4 Guts for Hanged Man pretty early in the game, so maybe prioritize that.
Trial by burger gives 1, 2, or 3 Guts for every attempt based on the challenge level, and if you clear a level you'll also get a boost of 1, 2, or 3 points of Charm, Proficiency, and Knowledge.
That said, feed your plant the best food, once it's unlocked. I believe every 16 days it needs to be fed.
Read the books in the school library, and get the Speed Reading book as soon as it's available in late June.
Get aojiru at the Underground Walkway every Sunday.
Try to build up a good stock of Mementos requests before heading to Mementos.
You don't need to do most outings with your team, but there's plenty of free days, so it doesn't always hurt.
The final day to max Strength, which takes no time, is the day before you enter the original final dungeon.
There are optional outings with Caroline and Justine that are fun and reward skill cards, but they're only available at night, so you might be pressed for time to get them during the midgame.
Do crosswords at Leblanc when they're available to get a small boost of Knowledge that takes no time.
There are also occasional TV quizzes that reward Knowledge for correct answers, so check the TV at Leblanc every night.
Honestly, maxing Knowledge is extremely easy now.
The convenience store job gives Charm now, as opposed to the nothing it gave in vanilla.
Try to get Ryuji to Rank 6 ASAP so you can go out with him at night for the Rank 7 event at the first opportunity.
The diner is closed until May in Royal, so you have to study in the library, which gives 1 Knowledge and 1 Guts. You also can't read a book in the library until May.
I'd also prioritize hitting Rank 4 of the new Justice Confidant because it unlocks the jazz club, which is kind of bonkers.
On that note, progressing in billiards and darts are extremely useful, though the former is gated by Proficiency.
Justice and the new Councilor Confidant are last available in mid-November. Justice ends at Rank 8, Councilor at Rank 9.
By the same token, Faith ends at Rank 5 at the normal end of the game.
Reminder that at Rank 7 or 8 of almost every non-party Confidant (plus Futaba), there's a Mementos request you need to fulfill.
On that note, Moon requires doing a bunch of requests to progress.
That's all I've got at the moment.

Royal is much easier to max everything than vanilla, tbh, and you probably don't need to know half of what I just told you. There's a ton of free time because the game lets you do stuff at night most nights when previously Morgana would tell you to go to bed.

# ? Jan 6, 2023 23:45

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

I know too much about this game

# ? Jan 6, 2023 23:55

Alacron: Feb 15, 2007; -->Have tearful reunion with your son
-->Eh; Fun Shoe

Arist posted:

I know too much about this game

I was gonna ask, did you do all that from memory or do you have it written down somewhere?

# ? Jan 6, 2023 23:56

Commander Keene: Dec 21, 2016; Faster than the others

That happens when you LP it twice.

# ? Jan 6, 2023 23:56

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Alacron posted:

I was gonna ask, did you do all that from memory or do you have it written down somewhere?

I looked up the time between houseplant feedings and had to remind myself if the library in April gives 1 Knowledge, 1 Guts or just 1 Guts. That's it.

Also I didn't even mention the optimal strats for most Confidants, which is to keep them more-or-less even so you're maxing everyone at close to the end of the game so you always have someone to spend time with if someone else is unavailable.

# ? Jan 6, 2023 23:59

Weird Pumpkin: Oct 7, 2007

Arist posted:

The final day to max Strength, which takes no time, is the day before you enter the original final dungeon.

Can't emphasize this one enough. I'm right about to beat the game and had literally 0 social links to do for half of the new semester, but had completely forgotten about Strength pre the final dungeon and so won't get all the social links :smith:

I looked up absolutely nothing related to the social links other than answers to get the best ones, and did basically zero planning (plus wasted a bunch of time slots with inefficient grinding) and STILL ran out of confidants, it's honestly super easy in Royal

# ? Jan 7, 2023 00:02

Shyrka: Feb 10, 2005; Small Boss likes to spin!

I spammed the hell out of Chihaya's fortune reading so I never had dud 'not ready to rank up yet' events and I still went into the third semester with Devil, Hanged Man, Tower, and Empress uncompleted. It was very stressful wondering if Haru would die because I hadn't maxed her out, or not get her third awakening. Luckily I was able to see all of her stuff and break her heart in Maruki's perfect world, and Ohya and Iwai filling the night slots meant I was able to max them out without cutting into third awakening/Haru/Sumire time.

Sorry arcade gun buddy, I guess I left you in the lurch after that Twitch guy humiliated you, hope things work out somehow.

Also I never touched the Jazz Club until near the end of the third semester and had no idea how OP it was.

Shyrka fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Jan 7, 2023

# ? Jan 7, 2023 02:13

Cantorsdust: Aug 10, 2008; Infinitely many points, but zero length.

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

Do the rest of the personas have good music too? Sometimes I was just vibing to the persona 5 music and I usually don't like video game music.

Oh gently caress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzsWfWkaF_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3X3g8LdVGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ue1JPFXEU

Or my favorite, and most remixed song of the entire Persona series, Maya's theme (personal favorites are Dance of Death PSP version and the Atsushi Kitajoh Rearrange Version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xITvmGWk7Vs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP2cFu6q-hQ

# ? Jan 7, 2023 02:14

NikkolasKing: Apr 3, 2010

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

Do the rest of the personas have good music too? Sometimes I was just vibing to the persona 5 music and I usually don't like video game music.

Each time you start up P4, you will hear this unbelievably great song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDHX0_FZ0n4

The theme of your awesome home with your new family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woNws4J4o1M

And it goes on like that all game. Many of the best songs in the game are pretty late and thus spoiler-ish so hope these two at least will intrigue you.

As for P2, the best theme for Best Girl. Also there are two versions of the soundtrack you can pick from on the PSP version, the original or the rearranged version (which this is).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0rF4f7eatE
From the original, one of the best songs that perfectly encapsulates what the game is all about - the unbreakable bond of friendship you have with your fellow party members.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn8_A6w6nP4

NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Jan 7, 2023

# ? Jan 7, 2023 02:44

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

Shyrka posted:

I spammed the hell out of Chihaya's fortune reading [snip]

This is response to someone asking about playing Royal for the first time; you should probably spoiler tag some of those details.

# ? Jan 7, 2023 03:06

ymgve: Jan 2, 2004; Offensive Clock

Arist posted:

Prioritize Temperance, which gives you blocks of time in class you can spend to read books or craft tools, as well as letting you pay to do more than one of certain activities a night. The final rank even lets you go out on days you entered the Metaverse.

Prioritize Fortune (up to Rank 5 at least), which can boost your social stat gain or give you Confidant points with someone who isn't ready to rank up.

On Sundays, try to prioritize Sun, who is the least available Confidant most of the time. He's generally only available on days off, and he's unavailable after mid-November.

Always bring a Persona of a matching arcana when you hang out.

Check your social stat progress in Leblanc's bathroom and know what rewards each activity will give you, including Confidants. Sun and Devil give Charm, Death gives Guts, Hanged Man gives Proficiency, etc.

Know the social stat gates, as well. For most stats (Proficiency and Knowledge excepted), there's no reason to bother pushing for a higher rank until the Confidant event you need is close to being unlocked. You gain plenty of passive social stats by doing other Confidants, jobs, and feeding your plant anyway.

The most blatant gate is Rank 4 Guts for Hanged Man pretty early in the game, so maybe prioritize that.

Trial by burger gives 1, 2, or 3 Guts for every attempt based on the challenge level, and if you clear a level you'll also get a boost of 1, 2, or 3 points of Charm, Proficiency, and Knowledge.

That said, feed your plant the best food, once it's unlocked. I believe every 16 days it needs to be fed.

Read the books in the school library, and get the Speed Reading book as soon as it's available in late June.

Get aojiru at the Underground Walkway every Sunday.

Try to build up a good stock of Mementos requests before heading to Mementos.

You don't need to do most outings with your team, but there's plenty of free days, so it doesn't always hurt.

The final day to max Strength, which takes no time, is the day before you enter the original final dungeon.

There are optional outings with Caroline and Justine that are fun and reward skill cards, but they're only available at night, so you might be pressed for time to get them during the midgame.

Do crosswords at Leblanc when they're available to get a small boost of Knowledge that takes no time.

There are also occasional TV quizzes that reward Knowledge for correct answers, so check the TV at Leblanc every night.

Honestly, maxing Knowledge is extremely easy now.

The convenience store job gives Charm now, as opposed to the nothing it gave in vanilla.

Try to get Ryuji to Rank 6 ASAP so you can go out with him at night for the Rank 7 event at the first opportunity.

The diner is closed until May in Royal, so you have to study in the library, which gives 1 Knowledge and 1 Guts. You also can't read a book in the library until May.

I'd also prioritize hitting Rank 4 of the new Justice Confidant because it unlocks the jazz club, which is kind of bonkers.

On that note, progressing in billiards and darts are extremely useful, though the former is gated by Proficiency.

Justice and the new Councilor Confidant are last available in mid-November. Justice ends at Rank 8, Councilor at Rank 9.

By the same token, Faith ends at Rank 5 at the normal end of the game.

Reminder that at Rank 7 or 8 of almost every non-party Confidant (plus Futaba), there's a Mementos request you need to fulfill.

On that note, Moon requires doing a bunch of requests to progress.

That's all I've got at the moment.

Royal is much easier to max everything than vanilla, tbh, and you probably don't need to know half of what I just told you. There's a ton of free time because the game lets you do stuff at night most nights when previously Morgana would tell you to go to bed.

That's a lot! Thanks for the info!

# ? Jan 7, 2023 19:23

Weird Pumpkin: Oct 7, 2007

Finished the game last night, I really enjoyed it! Definitely better than the base game that I played on release. Also, playing through the final base game sequence sober made it much easier to follow :v:

I'm sort of confused by the very final ending though. who were the rest of the phantom thieves being chased by so that they couldn't pick up joker? Moving on to strikers next, so I assume it's a hook for that?

Also kind of wild that we're apparently just totally cool with Maruki considering his attempt to literally take over the world and also attempted mind controlling of our friends! I think I'd be a little more angry about that and hold a grudge, but all the characters apparently are super chill with the whole thing???

Also: what's the deal with Sumire's phone at the start of the game? I assumed that was going to be a plot point of some form but I don't think it ever came up

# ? Jan 7, 2023 20:57

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# ? May 25, 2024 07:46

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Weird Pumpkin posted:

Questions

It's the police that are trying to tail Joker. The PTs led them on a merry chase as distraction while Maruki drove him to the airport.

The PTs' dialogue during Third Sem before and during the palace infiltration show that they recognize Maruki as being different from the 'lovely adults' they've targeted in the past, so they're not really inclined to punish him further.

Yeah, Sumi's phone issues never really being addressed is kind of a hole in the plot.

# ? Jan 7, 2023 21:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Persona Megathread: I Am Thou, Thou Art I

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