Persona 4

Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
Started playing it this morning. I'm now around 7 hours in, having made it passed the first game over deadline (Yukiko's Dungeon).

For around 1.5-2 hours, I thought I was going to have to drop or restart the entire game. I left the end dungeon boss until the 27th - 1 day before the deadline - and I found myself lacking personas and short on SP after fighting my way up to the 8th floor. Once you reach a decent level it seems you can no longer get shuffle cards and new personas. I was stuck with a crappy selection of mostly low level personas. It was only by luck that I had the combo required to create a great persona for the very, very difficult 'Yukiko's Shadow' boss fight. If not for me seeing a video on Youtube, I probably would've just given up.

I'm not sure how I'll be able to handle the rest of the game if the last boss and lack of shuffle cards are anything to go by. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, struggling to figure out what to do each day AND how to work in the dungeon side. It's become more stressful than fun for me ever since the intrduction/handholding period ended.

I'm trying to work on my knowledge because exams are coming up, and I've got it up to level 2, but every other stat is still level 1 at the moment. I'm not sure if I should continue focusing on the knowledge side or spread my efforts around more. And, of course, I'm also busy trying to fit in my social links so I can fuse decent personas. It's one big headache.

Anyone have any tips? I feel like banging my head against a wall at present.
 
I never actually found Yukiko's Shadow a tough battle, and and i still just used Izanagi. Also you still get the choice on suffle cards regardless of level, i tend to go back to the low level dungeons a fair bit to get some of them so i can use them in the basic 2-3 fusions, and the odd higher level fusion too.
I'll admit the main problem you will have now is SP conservation, as even after you leave a dungeon, your HP and SP remain the same, so until you get a specific NPC joining you into the TV world, you can't get your SP healed without leaving for a day and returning. I don't mind that aspect to be honest, as it does mean you have to watch how you fight a bit too.

Tips wise, keep in mind you can now take full control of your party, so take advantage of that a lot, as you can then think about everything instead of worrying about what the computer will do. If you're looking for quests which i expect you could be, you don't get them in the Blue room this time, instead talk to every NPC in town, school etc and see which of them have a request. Some will have general requests you can do outwith the TV world, some will be your typical "get item X from enemy X". You won't get the Persona requests at all until you get a social link with Margaret. You need 3 Knowledge for that however. Also during the time between new dungeons it usually a good idea to go through the old ones again, you will find a mini-boss like shadow on the top floor each time so its more training in preperation for the next dungeon.

Erm on the 5 stats, there is multiple ways to level it up, obviously. Erm library is still there, as well as part-time jobs which you can get off the notice board in the northern side of the town. There is a food shop there which i highly recommend going to during rainy days, as for 3000yen, you get the "rainy day challenge" which usually boosts 3-4 stats. Also during conversations in certain scenes, depending on what you say you can get a boost on certain stats too. Similar to the questions during class time, but i can't help with them as i'm not sure if the questions are the same as on the US version.

On the first set of exams, aim for 3 knowledge, you won't get top marks at all since you need 4 to be top of the class, and i certainly couldn't manage that first time round, but 3 should earn you top 10. Try to get other stats up in the meantime, and study in the library during rainy days too double the exp you get from it.

Here's hoping i haven't forgot anything =/ Need to carry on from where i am anyway.
 
You beat that boss with the standard issue zio persona? Then you must've been high level. It was hard enough to keep Yosuke and Chio alive even with the MC resistent to the nasty party hitting fire attack. Towards the end, I had to keep Yosuke and the MC casting Dia and Chio guarding until there was an opening to attack. It wasn't a short fight, and it wasn't easy when I didn't start with max SP.

If you're still able to get shuffle cards, I'm very unlucky. Ever since I've hit a certain level I've been unable to get shuffles even on the 7th floor, after I've exposed enemy weaknesses, unless I'm lucky. And I wasn't able to get any shuffles when I went back to the first floor in an attempt to farm some low level cards - I cleared the entire floor and got nothing. If I could get low level personas easy via shuffles then my persona problems wouldn't be so bad - I could spend some time maxing them out, getting all their skills, and then fuse away until I got a decent persona line-up, but...

I'm aware you can now control the full party, avoiding the retarded AI issues from P3. However, I'm actually finding P4 harder than P3 even with full party control. That's not really too shocking when my personas suck at present, though...

I wasn't aware off the rainy day event you mentioned. If it really does boost 3-4 stats, I'll be sure to look out for it the next time it rains. It'd save me a lot of hassle if I could pay 3k and level up more than one skill at once.
I know where you can level up the skills. My problem is working out what order to level them up in. So far, I've spent nearly all my non-slink/dungeon time in the library or studying at home in an attempt to not flunk the exams. Of course, that's resulted in my other stats not moving upwards, away from level 1.

...meh, all stress and little fun so far. Hopefully I'll stop feeling so pissed off with it once I get through the first few months and everything feels less new. Right now its headache after headache. /moan
 
The main thing i did when it came to the boss fights at the top of each dungeon was save and return to the real world, that way i can get new equipment from the items i got from enemies, more healing items and go in fully healed and with full SP so i can go full out on them. Keep in mind you don't get tired and such this time round, so you could easily go every day to get it done without having you or the rest of your group getting worn out. I usually get to the top pretty quickly each time, and usually have enough time for a second run through the place before i get to the boss. I'm pretty sure if i didn't do that with the boss i most recently fought that i would be struggling to beat him. I had one of the other characters Persona powered up as well at the time(no its not story related this time) So that also helped.

Persona wise, i can't really understand why you're getting so few in the ways of shuffle events, i get a fair bit even when i back track. Only other suggestion i can give is use the compendium a lot more, try and get as many combinations from what you have there and see how that works out.
 
The game becomes a lot easier after the first 2 dungeons in my opinion so hang in there.

Also for levelling up, my strategy throughout the game from the 2nd dungeon on was to get to the floor just before the boss battle and then run around on that floor with only the MC and another party member at a time to level everyone up much faster. As for persona's, just try and get one with the skill rakunda as thats a huge help and any persona that can use buffing skills like tarakuja,rakakuja etc.
 
I don't recall having a problem with any of the story bosses so far. That's somewhat in contrast to Persona 3, in which a few caused me a spectacular bollock ache. Defeating Persona 4's bosses seems to be more a case of chipping away at their health with your most powerful attacks than applying the correct tactics.

My advice would be to keep fusing and passing on your best skills -- only you seem to be having trouble finding cards. Again, I never had a problem with that so I don't know what to tell you. In terms of social links, prioritize your party members; as you'll already have discovered, they learn useful battle skills once they reach certain levels. And don't worry too much about stats at the moment. Just bear in mind that you get extra points when you study on rainy days. It can be stressful, I know, but try to take it easy.

One last piece of advice: try to finish a dungeon in as few days as possible. This will give you more time to do other things.
 
Never fear - I now have Jack Frost, complete with media and resist fire. I'm hoping he'll see me through until I reach the 20's and can fuse better personas. He's my only hope.

I haven't done any more dungeon crawling since beating Yukiko's Shadow and then reaching the 8th floor again on my next visit - ready to fight for the extra boss. I've been waiting for the next dungeon to open up, at which point I'll try to beat the extra boss from the first dungeon and complete quests. The next dungeon should be right around the corner now the gay biker has entered the picture.

Talking of which, I enjoyed the scenes where the gay biker chased around Chie and Yosuke and Yosuke ran into a door. It was nice just to watch some funny scenes imstead of getting a headache over gameplay matters.

I messed up my midterms to a certain extent because I didn't have level 3 knowledge in time. If not for me saving over a safety save file and not finishing reading the manly book in time for me to read the knowledge book, I might've made it, but...

Anyway. How did/do you guys plan your days? I always have a hard time deciding if I should do school social links, do outside school socials links, fish (...), raise skills, eat bad food or have a mental breakdown. The only certainty with me so far is that I spend 3k at the diner on rainy days in order to receive multiple stat boosts.

I'm going to try to raise only the playable character social links once most others are levels 2-3 and, since lots of people suggest it, clear the dungeons as soon as possible. But that doesn't help me plan how to balance skill raising and social links. ;___;
 
I started playing it yesterday. Seems ok so far (at the part where MC, Yosuke and Chie get sucked into the TV for the first time), but it's certainly no Persona 3. I'm still giving it a chance because I have faith it will get better.

Since this is only my second JRPG, I'm still playing on Beginner difficulty, so I don't forsee any problems.
 
In my experience, RPGs get worse - they never get better. Once you get used to the gameplay, boredom starts to creep in, the repetition eventually becoming too much. That's very true in the case of Persona - P3 and P4 are incredibly repetitive, forcing you to do the same tasks over and over for close to, or over 100 hours. The same graphics being used over and over doesn't help out the gameplay much.

And, like most RPGs, P3 didn't have a great story, and I doubt P4 will either. Both start out great, presenting many mysteries and having a dark vibe, but P3 fell flat once the plot started to become more clear. P4 will probably be the same, mainly because the gameplay will stretch the story thin, exposing its flaws.

In terms of the start, I remember P3 gripping me more. The anime opening was awesome, the idea of needing to shoot a bullet into your head in the hope your inner persona/other self stops it was great (though it never really got looked into after miniskirt-chan got over her fear - I think it was toned down at some point after the animated opening) and the lack of yellow colour scheme made the game better to look at. And, of course, for reasons unknown I don't recall struggling at the start of P3 like I am with P4.

I called P4 P3.5: Yellow Remix prior to its release and that's all it really is. A few changes aside, some good and some bad, most minor, it has the exact same gameplay engine as P3, plus the same cheap visual style. It doesn't do enough new to be classed as a true sequel, not in my mind at least.
 
Aion said:
Anyway. How did/do you guys plan your days? I always have a hard time deciding if I should do school social links, do outside school socials links, fish (...), raise skills, eat bad food or have a mental breakdown.
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Plan? Heh. I just do whatever comes to mind, unless there a specific stat that I need to increase in order to progress with a social link. At first I stressed over the wealth of options available, but soon I realized that it was pointless worrying about it.

I did give up fishing a while back. I couldn't catch anything decent, even on rainy days, and it just didn't seem worth the effort. Also, that "hammering a button repeatedly" lark is a surefire way for an old bastard like me to give himself RSI. My final tip is an obvious one: after dungeon crawling you're too tired to do anything other than interact with Nanako or Dojima, if they're available, or eat dodgy stuff from the fridge. So make sure you use that opportunity.
 
What gets to me is not owning what stats need to be high in order to give answers or start things at certain dates. I'm going to be in trouble if I need 3 of the 5 lesser stats to be high... That's why I keep being tempted to do the club slinks instead of playable character slinks - the stat boosts.

By the way, another question: Should I bother with part-time jobs? Money aside, it seems a waste of a day to raise one stat instead of a slink.
 
I've been doing the jobs and reading books, trying to keep all the stats relatively even, but maybe it's not worth it when you can level several stats by going to the diner on rainy days. I'd completely forgotten about the restaurant challenge, actually, since I made a failed attempt early in the game and never went back.

I really should load up my 60 hour save file and get cracking again.
 
When you can take the tutor and hospital janitor job then definitely do them, as they can be done at night, give a lot of money, plus with janitor job you get the devil and death arcana links and with the tutor job you get the tower social link which leads to the best persona in the game.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I really should load up my 60 hour save file and get cracking again.
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On that note, is Persona 4 a longer game than Persona 3?

I clocked up about 70 hours on P3 with a decent amount of grinding and got up to lvl 78 by the end.
 
Maxon said:
fabricatedlunatic said:
I really should load up my 60 hour save file and get cracking again.
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On that note, is Persona 4 a longer game than Persona 3?

I clocked up about 70 hours on P3 with a decent amount of grinding and got up to lvl 78 by the end.
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Well i suspose it depends how much you do in the game, when i first went through P4 i clocked in at just over 70 hours, on a second run through though i did a hell of a lot more social links and clocked in at around 80 hours.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I spent almost 100 hours on Persona 3 o_O
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Same here, I guess its because I played it on normal and 30 hours of that consisted of dying and trying again.

I am also enjoying Persona 4, I haven't really gotten far on it before I say if its better than Persona 3.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I spent almost 100 hours on Persona 3 o_O
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Like OMFGLOL has said, I think it has to do with how involved you get with side quests and the other features. I did about half the social links on P3 with full stats.
 
May as well update where i am now anyway. Currently into the Secret Lab dungeon at the moment and i quite like its design. Ok each room is roughly the same shape, but its still really quite nice. Obviously i should have taken out the secret bosses from the two dungeons before it, as i'm obviously not ready to take on the dyne spells, but still there we go.

Quite liked the school outing just before it though, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. I never expected that we'd be going to Gekkokan High as a school outing, and the fact that we see Chihiro and one of the teachers there too was fairly nice. Obviously we see none of the P3 cast, but still it was good. Mitsuru got a wee mention though.
 
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