Persona 5

Persona 5 looks fucking awesome.

Going to love me some Persona hopefully this year (Don't fuck me over Atlus with a 2017 release date)

let them fuck you while i film

Having spent the last few weeks replaying Persona 4 Golden on Vita has reaffirmed it as one of my all time favourite games.  I've deliberately kept away from pretty everything P5 related, but have seen a few very favourable comments.  With that in mind, I've ordered a copy of Persona 5.

And yes, because I'm a sucker for nice things, I ordered the Take Your Heart special edition.

Persona 5 Launch Trailer



Persona 5 Sizzle trailer

I'm going to resist the urge to read that spoiler!

It's pretty spoiler-y. Better save it till after you've finished the game. You won't be disappointed.

Sock wrote:

You won't be disappointed.

With the game, or with the contents of the spoiler tag?

The spoiler, but you probably won't be disappointed with the game either.

OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER
OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER
OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER
OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER
OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER
OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER
OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER
OH, LOOKIN COOL JOKER

Sorry, I have flashbacks.

Sadly, I still prefer Morgana over Teddie

I am enjoying 4 golden a lot more than 3 which honestly surprised me as a lot of people made out if you like one you'd like the other I think they are different enough though. This ones a lot less serious and is better for it. It no Atelier Ayesha though.

brandon wrote:

let them fuck you while i film

Classic BD

BD's favourite P5 character is that pervert, Yusuke Kitagawa.

Superbuu3 wrote:

It no Atelier Ayesha though.

You think Atelier Ayesha is better than P4G?

That's a first! 've played a couple of Atelier games on PS3 and enjoyed them, but they've not been as anything like as complete a package as P4G is.

Anyway, my copy of Persona 5 arrived a couple of days ago, and as I said above I paid extra for the Take Your Heart premium edition, featuring a few extra goodies such as Morgana plushie, steelbook case, soundtrack CD, artbook and what I can only assume is the school bag from the game. The box is freakin' huge, so not sure where I'm going to stash it. I've thus far managed to avoid the temptation to play it as well; I'm off to the States for a fortnight in a few days, so don't want to get started until I'm back.

SimianWonder wrote:

Superbuu3 wrote:

It no Atelier Ayesha though.

You think Atelier Ayesha is better than P4G?

That's a first!  've played a couple of Atelier games on PS3 and enjoyed them, but they've not been as anything like as complete a package as P4G is.

Anyway, my copy of Persona 5 arrived a couple of days ago, and as I said above I paid extra for the Take Your Heart premium edition, featuring a few extra goodies such as Morgana plushie, steelbook case, soundtrack CD, artbook and what I can only assume is the school bag from the game.  The box is freakin' huge, so not sure where I'm going to stash it.  I've thus far managed to avoid the temptation to play it as well; I'm off to the States for a fortnight in a few days, so don't want to get started until I'm back.

Firstly as a whole I like P4G.

This has huge improvements over 3, firstly none of the characters are emos, assholes or bland that describes everyone in 3 except shinjiro. Being able to fully control teammates is great. Multiple dungeons makes the game feel a bit more open. I can barely remember the story from 3, but i'm pretty sure the whole thing starts with exploring because its there rather than having a clear motivation. So i prefer how this story set out. One thing worse than 3 is there is no penalty for missing opponents or hitting a enemy thats nulls or absorbs, this makes the difficulty in this game a joke as I will always have 4 turns to check for the 4 main weaknesses. I know there is an artificial difficulty in the game to make you gain reduced XP that just sounds grindy (being forced to use Agi instead of agilao sounds like a insanely long fight).

Atelier Ayesha was said to be very different to the rest of the series, which was why it was popular among atelier fans. It had a really solid combat experience, which focused on positioning of party members, which I have to say is one of my favourite battle mechanics most enemies in that were around your level problems only occured if you bactracked and then may find the enemies weak (I won the PSV enhanced edition so at some point I'll play that hopefully it fixed that issue). I've been been extremely underleveled for Persona 4 and managed to beat everything decisively as weaknesses are easy to expose (normally takes 1 turn from each character to expose). Bosses have way too much health which just means it takes way too long to kill a boss the secret base boss took ages as he had so much health but yet was completely incapable of killing me. It almost feels like bosses in this game have to use one hit kills as a way to finish off your party (which they can't do now as I equip my leader with an accessory that stops it) and social links allow your team mates to live. The combat is fun, but this is a complete joke compared to mainline SMT Lucifer's call/Nocturne, in which enemies strategically use debuffs and buffs and you don't have analysis reminding you of weaknesses (which i'm pretty certain mainly exists so that samey looking enemies can be recolored and not confuse the player) the other SMT games i played you actually fight the demons and you can recruit them all.

I like parts of Persona 4, and I am having fun with it, but the pacing is really messed up with how you have school, summer holidays was possibly the worst section of the game as no dungeon events by a long shot (i'm currently mid dungeon in November). Dungeons are easy to do in one run. So it feels like long stretches of doing school and dungeons. Yes you can split it up but any completionists can't help themselves and will do dungeons in one run to maximise time to finish up everything else.

I will say the social events are handled well enough that i do care about certain characters. I definitely think this is marketed to people who want social simulators in there game (i won't use the term dating sim as there's the choice of platonic friendships) and almost don't want to admit it, a quick peek at the forums and the insane amount of topics about loving characters gives that away.

I definitely think P4G is a good rpg, as far as Vita RPGs go my favourite is Soul Sacrifice Delta with Ys: MoC being my second. Next on my to beat list on vita after this is probably Oreshika tainted bloodlines, and i want to play the trails games and lost odyssey.

EDIT: also feel stupid not having maxed out social links before as i didn't realise they improved the personas of team mates, I also decided to be in an intimate relationship with everyone because i can only assume this blows up in MCs face as the game warns you that it shouldn't. I guess new game plus I'll deal with this part more sensibly, I'm sure a second run will be quick as i can skip story and dialogue (I'll likely play on easy to rush dungeons too).

Finally getting settled in to P5, and within half an hour I've already heard P4's Rise loud and clear. I'm not sure if Laura Bailey was even credited for P5, but it's definitely her.

Gents, I may require spoiler-free advice, if that's possible?

I've beaten the first Palace (though it did take two separate visits, three if you count being forced to leave to do the Call-card) and am running about a little aimlessly doing a couple of social links - sorry, Confidants - and trying to rank up my social stats. I've just unlocked Mementos and have beaten the second quest to stop the bully, but unlike P4 I don't have a solid grasp on the schedule I think I should be following. Two or three of my Confidants will not advance with me because I still lack Guts/Kindness, so what is the most efficient way to raise these?

If you can already get jobs, working at the flower shop will raise your Kindness level. Once you get a plant, you can take care of it once in a while for some bonus points without taking up any time as well. Guts can be raised by reading at the school library, drinking at the coffee shop and doing that Big Bang Burger job challenge thingy. Complement all of that with reading books during opportune moments offered to you and seeing movies related to your desired stats when they're on at the theater.

You'll have to max out your social stats in order to max out your confidants, so if you cannot advance with the confidants, spend some time improving your stats. IIRC, the most effective ways to level up your stats are:

- Kindness: work at the flower shop in Shibuya / use a fertilizer (from the flower shop) on the plant in the attic once every two weeks or so (always have a spare one with you) / Hierophant confidant (use a guide for this one, it's really stupid) / Tower confidant (becomes available around September)

- Charm: Bath house (on Monday and Wednesday it gives a bigger bonus) / Devil confidant (around June I think)

- Guts: Big Bang Burger challenge is the best / Death and Hanged Man confidants

- Proficiency: craft stuff at your desk (keep reloading until you get the +3 bonus)

- Knowledge: answering the teachers' questions / study sessions.

Other stuff:
- you get +2 Knowledge for studying at the diner (+3 on rainy days),and +1 to a different stat based on what you ordered
- always have books with you (from the school library or the bookstore); you get points towards various stats and you can read them in the train without spending time
- in Shibuya underground there is a stand that sells drinks every Sunday (+1 point, 5000 yen)
- prioritise the Fortune (June) and Temperance (May) confidants, you'll save a LOT of time.

Thank you both, really informative.

Chou, I see you've got the platinum trophy for the game - did you do it on a 1st play through, or does it require multiple attempts?  And did you use a walk through or do it blind?  I only ask because I've done several runs of Persona 4, both the vanilla game and the Vita's Golden version, and I find following a walk through does suck a lot of the enjoyment out of the game because I feel like I'm following a checklist rather than playing a game for fun.

It requires at least one and a half playthroughs. I recommend making an extra save file around October and using that to do activities such as fishing, reading books and playing the videogames for the trophies. Also, pay attention to Mishima's messages because a lot of them need to be read to start Mementos' missions.

Getting the platinum on your 2nd play through is going to be super easy anyway since you can start the game with your previous playthrough's social stats and so you'll have a lot of extra time. You can spend a lot of that time in the gym for extra hp and sp.

I used the spoiler-free guide on Gamefaqs early on to find out which activities I should be doing to improve my stats and the confidant guide to max out their ranks. Guides are not necessary if you take advantage of the Temperance and Fortune confidants' abilities.

Oh, I forgot to mention the importance of the doctor. At rank 5 you can buy an SP regeneration item for one of your characters. It's extremely expensive though until you get to rank 7. Those are essential for completing Palaces in one day.

There is also an exp and money exploit that you may want to try.
Exp Exploit: There 2 days in November and another 2 in December that the weather condition will be "flu season". If you wait for about 5 minutes in Mementos without moving, the Reaper will show up and there is a chance he'll be infected by the flu (insta-death).

Money Exploit: Fuse a persona with high luck and Pulinpa (Sandman is a great choice). Mementos bosses (well most of them, check the wiki) can be confused and they may drop money. I think I had around 70 luck and they were dropping ~100k yen per turn.

As you can tell, I really love this game. I have even bought most of the DLC personas!

Thank you, Chou, that's all really good advice, even if a lot of it is perhaps some way ahead of my current progress. Speaking of which, I've just entered the second palace and had the scripted encounter with the treasure demon. It looks like I lucked out - nothing seemed to phase him, yet Morgana connected with Lucky Punch, scored the crit and prompted the Hold Up I needed to recruit it. It seems to make skill transfers considerably more lucrative, possessing the lesser most versions of all elemental attack-all versions, even rarer variants like Psi and nuclear attacks (which are both new to P5).

I'll assuming there are other demons throughout the game that offer similar skills, only those of the higher tiers (mabufudyne, maziodyne etc)?

On the subject of DLC persona, are any of them worth a purchase? £2.49 isn't a great sum of money, but if the Persona are for nostalgia only, and kind of suck then I don't want to waste my money. Izanagi was the starter in P4, for instance, so while it's cool to see him, he was almost immediately disposable in his own game. On the flip side, if they offer rare or unique skills that are unavailable any other way then odds are I could be tempted.

Yeah, the treasure demons usually have only one weakness, so it's hard to catch them. The first one is weak to Psi attacks I think, which are pretty rare at this point (I'm pretty sure I failed). Each palace has a unique treasure demon, but all of them show up in Mementos too and there is an item that increases the chances of encountering them. Just keep in mind that you need them to complete the persona compendium and that the last two of them are extremely easy to miss (they will appear ONLY in Mementos on a specific floor right before the end of the game; I can be more specific, but I don't want to add more spoilers). Btw, the last one can be crafted into an item that gives +5 to every stat! I equipped Ryuji with that since he is a physical attacker and he doesn't need sp regeneration.

As for the DLC personas, those have unique skills, but they aren't really great. The ones that stand out are:
- Kaguya (has the strongest offensive skill in the game and can be min/max'd -which is a very tedious,  expensive and unnecessary process- to have 99 magic, agility and endurance)
- Messiah (necessary to craft the best female armor and can also be used to pass the Insta-heal skill to other personas)

You can use the following fusion calculator to check the skills of all personas:
https://chinhodado.github.io/persona5_calculator/#/list

A bit irrelevant, but I thought you may also want to know the best persona skills.

Offensive:
Hassou Tobi (Yoshitsune only) / Shining Arrows (Kaguya only) / Black Viper (Satan learns it, can be transferred)/ Megidolaon / One-shot kill (high critical chance)

Passive:
Insta-heal / elemental boosts / elemental amps / magic ability (those increase the damage of magical attacks) / Snipe / Cripple (same, but for gun skills) / Ali dance / Angelic Grace (increase evasion) / Firm stance (lowers damage) / Spell Master / Arms Master (reduce cost of magical and physical skills) / Repel Element / Drain Element (Repel/drain curse and bless are the most important because they also block those infuriating insta-gameover attacks) / Apt Pupil (increases critical hit ratio)

Other:
Debilitate (best skill overall) / Charge / Concetrate / the 3 Auto-ma skills (start the battle with all stats buffed)

On my 2nd playthrough, I had a Trumpeter with Charge, Concetrate, the 3 auto-mas and Debilitate and a Yoshitsune with Hassou Tobi and a bunch of drain skills. Yoshi was ridiculously OP.

Yoshi was my end-game Persona 4 Golden persona, and I had enough skills on him that he could null or absorb everything except almighty. Power Charge + Hassou Tobi was just the icing on the overpowered cake.

Appreciate the info on the other topics as well. I've now finished the second Palace, and I've gotten Death confidant up to rank 6 (100k for the highest tier SP recovery item - ouch!) and need to raise Guts to start the Confidant with the homeroom teacher in the maid outfit. So, whose high-school fantasy was that written in mind of?!