Persona 4

try and fuse a yoshitsune persona and you have yourself the best persona in the game, it doesn't require any maxed out links either, you just need to be level 75.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Maxon said:
I wouldn't rely on the fox, ever. Paying cash just to restore SP isn't helpful at all since it just sets you back from buying HP restoring items and better equipment. It's far better to just use the dungeon escape items and come back the next day.
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That was my approach early on, but it's become apparent that I'm running out of time to max out my most important social links. In some cases it's already too late. At this point, every day is precious.

I save cash by not buying many healing items or the best equipment. You can find decent gear in dungeons and the more magic-oriented characters have such low strength that extra 50 or 100 attack doesn't make much difference. Similarly, the high endurance of more physically strong characters means it's not necessary equip them with the very best armour. And it's not all about stats: though Yukiko's current weapon has low power, it has high odds of inflicting confuse, which I find far more useful. I've not had to buy her a weapon for absolutely ages.

Recalling Personas from the compendium... now that's where I sink most of my cash. Fusing those high-level Personas is obscenely expensive.
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Being the n00b that I am, I just buy the best stuff for everyone.
 
RetroRainbow said:
I've also discovered, unfortunately, I didn't get the 'true ending'. Apparently, you only get that on your second play through. I've read up about it, and it seems really tacked on. :/
Although, I was wondering why in the manga they had so much emphasis on the gas attendant's face.
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I understand that you can get the true ending on the first playthrough as well.
 
DDS is harder than Persona. Out of the SMT related games, Persona 3 and 4 and are something akin to Atlus' attempt at making newbie friendly games. Their proper, more hardcore titles focus as much as possible on gameplay and as little as possible on story. If you find P4 hard then you'll be in for a world of pain when you have to fight random battles constantly in dungeons that go on for hours, followed by 5 minutes of story and then another dungeon that goes on for hours. I never did warm to any of the SMT related games I've played beside P3 and P4...

Less cut-scenes? The story sequences go on forever in P4. It had like a 3-4 hour opening before the first dungeon became playable, and each monthly plot chunk goes on for around 30 minutes at times. There's a lack of backgrounds, character animations and plot advancement, but I don't get how you can say there's a lack of cut-scenes. Unless you mean there's a lack of animated scenes - then I can understand, though there weren't many in P3 because they take up a fair amount of DVD space and cost money, which is bad when Atlus clearly make stuff on the cheap.

What bothers me is how short and simple the social link scenes are. Most reveal nothing of interest and only contain a few lines of dialogue. It's fun getting higher ranks and being able to fuse new, better personas because of those ranks, but I would've rather cared about the relationships the MC is meant to be building. I didn't really give a toss when I got rank 10 with Yosuke because the dialogue in each scene was forced and repeated itself over and over in slightly different ways, usually involving Yosuke being emo over a girl he barely knew, saying stuff like, "I wonder if she's watching from heaven..." What a loser!

I'm trying to also get Chie and Yukiko to rank 10, Chie currently being 8 and Yukiko 7. Yukiko has been a problem, often deciding to take me for walks instead of getting closer to the max. Since I got 1st place on the second round of tests, I'm hoping I'll have enough points to get her to rank 8 at least once the 4th dungeon is out of the way.

Talking of which, the 4th dungeon looks pretty cool in terms of design - it looks like an old school game. I was getting bored with the dull dungeon designs, so it's great to see a dungeon that looks nice. I'm going to beat the boss of the bonus dungeon of the 3rd dungeon, highering the levels of persona I need to fuse whilst doing so, and then I'll have a go at beating it in a day to save time. My fox slink is now at rank 5, meaning I should save a few quid in the event of me needing to use the fox to heal up.
 
I posted this elsewhere. Since it's so long and about P4, I thought I'd C&P it. Sorry about the wall of text!

Before playing it, having only seen the trailer, I called P4 'P3.5: Yellow Remix' because of how similar it looks to its much loved prequel. I pointed out that the only changes made to the dungeons seemed to be the insertion of doors (awe inspiring stuff) and, aside from there being ONE new floating type of shadow visible in dungeons, I wasn't exactly wrong. I wasn't right, but I wasn't far off.

Don't get me wrong, though - P4 is an improvement in many respects. However, it's more a case of minor touch-ups that improve the experience considerably, such as the ability to see what spells do outside of battle and not having to guess, rather than a complete revamp. But, in truth, I didn't want a new experience with P4, I wanted the same experience with fixes made to everything I found to be troublesome, and they did correct a lot of issues.

To start with, relationships no longer reverse if you don't see one your social links for two months. That was a very serious problem for me with P3 because, on the first playthrough in particular, I found myself trying to do too much, often starting social links and then leaving them to focus on others. And, moving on to another social link fix, there's no longer a danger of female social links reversing on you because of jealousy, which was yet another serious issue for me because I wanted to level up more than one girl beyond a certain point without first having to get one to the dizzy heights of rank 10. The ability to simply pick your girlfriend this time around is a huge plus.

The improvements didn't stop there, either. Playable characters now become more useful in battle as you become closer to them, making the playable character social links the most important. The ability for other characters to take a mortal blow for the MC, preventing game over where possible, is priceless, and it makes those social links seem special.

...But, whether because of a lack of effort or ideas, the actual social link scenes are rather poor this time around. I've gotten Yosuke to rank 10 - my first so far - and I was bored of the social links with him after the first few times. He simply repeated the same emo rubbish in every scene, going on about Saki-senpai (the use of Japanese suffixes in English has caused me to do so!), a girl he barely knew, thinking about if she was watching him from heaven. I found myself wishing she'd struck him with a bolt of lightning from heaven...

Not all of them are poor - the nurse and drama club links seem interesting - but the majority I've seen so far have been too short and too dull to impress. What I said about Yosuke also goes for Chie and Yukiko, which is an awful shame when there could've been some great backstories thrown in. Should I care about Chie having a wimpy friend who liked Yukiko more than her? Should I care about Yukiko learning to cook? The answer is no.

In a way, the games plot itself, or rather the way the game is structured, is what caused the issues I have with the social links. Before you get to use the characters in P4, you learn their darkest secrets, seeing what makes their darker sides tick. And, after seeing the most interesting aspects of each character from the get-go, there's little of interest remaining to be shown in social links involving them. That's why their social links seem so...forced, repeating dialogue over and over instead of adding depth to the cast.

Talking of the structure of the game, I prefer going to different dungeons instead of just climbing one endless tower of doom. It's a deceptive change since all that's really changed this time around is the dungeon layout and floor count changing when you go into new dungeons instead of when you reached a new tower block. But it works far better in P4, with the monthly story events getting tied into the dungeon this time around and not not occurring at a random location in the real world.

...Sadly, however, for all the small gameplay corrections Atlus made, ranging from the ability to use the square button to move around the game world in seconds, they seem to have failed to improve the one aspect of P3 that ultimately resulted in me dropping it after 70 hours - the story. Both P3 and P4 start out great, presenting a dark mystery that kept me gripped to my TV...but, like P3's plot before it, the story of P4 seems to be no more than an excuse for the game to last as long as is needed for the social links and the statistics of the main character to rank up. Each month a character gets introduced, yet there's never any real plot advancement. I've gone through something like 4 months of the game and, aside from new characters, nothing has changed from the start. I get the feeling it's going to go the way of P3; seemingly building up to something epic and then becoming pathetic once the fog (no pun intended) clears, revealing a poor story that had been procted by lots of mystery. Since I've seen no indication of the story walking a different path this time around, I'm not holding my breath in the hope of everything coming together in a satisfying manner.

Atlus also failed to fix the other issue that resulted in me dropping P3 - the evil known as skill inheritance. As all P3 players know, fusion became hell towards the end because getting the few skills you wanted a new persona to have, out of the sometimes 20+ available, often took hours because the skill inheritance system is a random one. Rather than simply allowing players to pick which skills they want to keep, Atlus made it needlessly messy by forcing players to refresh again and again in the hope of getting lucky. Why they made it like that I don't know because it adds nothing to the experience outside of pure frustration. Having patience and luck isn't the same as having skill, so why not just make life easier, and more enjoyable?

I don't know if I'll make it to the end of P4. When I was playing P3 I'm sure I thought, 32-35 hours in, that I'd be playing it for over 100 hours because it was so addictive. I feel the same way about P4 right now. The real test will be when the wheels start to come off of a story hanging on a huge mystery and the big, end-game fusions come into sight. Right now I can see myself playing it for 10 hours+ in a row if I have time/don't feel the need to sleep, and I truly hope I feel the same way whwn I near the 70 hour mark this time around.

Edit: Oh, I almost forgot to mention the biggest fix Atlus made - the ability to control the entire party. The AI in P3 was retarded more often than not, so it's great Arlus saw sense and did the smart thing, preventing players from dying because of stupidity of the AI.
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Just finished it. I went for the normal ending but I'm going to do the true ending tomorrow.
 
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I'm currently in November so I think that I'm close to the ending now, i'm surprised that i haven't spoiled myself by reading the ending.

However I heard that there are multiple endings to P4, once I have seen the ending, I'll give my verdict.
 
good to see i'm not the only one then :) , to me i think what brought it down from surpassing P3 was basically how the story just kept getting added on towards the end, it felt like an attempt to just drag it out, especially the true ending conclusion, where as in P3 the story just flowed so nicely and never felt dragged out IMO
 
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Overall, P4 has superior characters and characters development. But as Aion put it, I hated how Yosuke evolved in the Social Links. He kept moaning about Saki, and he hardly known her.

But... I can't believe I miss Morooka already, since he got murdered. Despite being a twat, he's the best adult character in the game imo.
 
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OMFGLOL said:
good to see i'm not the only one then :) , to me i think what brought it down from surpassing P3 was basically how the story just kept getting added on towards the end, it felt like an attempt to just drag it out, especially the true ending conclusion, where as in P3 the story just flowed so nicely and never felt dragged out IMO
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To be fair, that's how it was with the first half of P3. However, it wasn't so noticable since it acted as a set up for the second half.

I thought P4 did a good job of throwing the player off the trail with Mitsuo and Naratame. The only disappointing aspect was Adachi being the killer. The reasons they gave were good, but it just felt tacked on. It could have been anyone really. However, the fight with Izanami is the most epic boss fight I've ever played (except for fighting Ganon in Ocarina of Time).
 
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Maxon said:
OMFGLOL said:
good to see i'm not the only one then :) , to me i think what brought it down from surpassing P3 was basically how the story just kept getting added on towards the end, it felt like an attempt to just drag it out, especially the true ending conclusion, where as in P3 the story just flowed so nicely and never felt dragged out IMO
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To be fair, that's how it was with the first half of P3. However, it wasn't so noticable since it acted as a set up for the second half.

I thought P4 did a good job of throwing the player off the trail with Mitsuo and Naratame. The only disappointing aspect was Adachi being the killer. The reasons they gave were good, but it just felt tacked on. It could have been anyone really. However, the fight with Izanami is the most epic boss fight I've ever played (except for fighting Ganon in Ocarina of Time).
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yeah izanami's boss fight is really epic especially the music, but i still felt the battle with nyx was better but thats just me. As for Adachi being the killer i too was dissapointed as i was i sort of suspected him since he reminded me of ikutsuki from P3, being that guy who acts like an idiot but is dark deep down, so i was dissapointed they went with him in the end. Also it was a bit stupid the ammount of stuff you would need to know in order to get the true ending, how i would have guessed i needed to go to junes food court and **** without a guide is beyond me.
 
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OMFGLOL said:
Maxon said:
OMFGLOL said:
good to see i'm not the only one then :) , to me i think what brought it down from surpassing P3 was basically how the story just kept getting added on towards the end, it felt like an attempt to just drag it out, especially the true ending conclusion, where as in P3 the story just flowed so nicely and never felt dragged out IMO
Click to expand...
To be fair, that's how it was with the first half of P3. However, it wasn't so noticable since it acted as a set up for the second half.

I thought P4 did a good job of throwing the player off the trail with Mitsuo and Naratame. The only disappointing aspect was Adachi being the killer. The reasons they gave were good, but it just felt tacked on. It could have been anyone really. However, the fight with Izanami is the most epic boss fight I've ever played (except for fighting Ganon in Ocarina of Time).
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yeah izanami's boss fight is really epic especially the music, but i still felt the battle with nyx was better but thats just me. As for Adachi being the killer i too was dissapointed as i was i sort of suspected him since he reminded me of ikutsuki from P3, being that guy who acts like an idiot but is dark deep down, so i was dissapointed they went with him in the end. Also it was a bit stupid the ammount of stuff you would need to know in order to get the true ending, how i would have guessed i needed to go to junes food court and **** without a guide is beyond me.
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That's why I play JRPGs with a guide. The Persona games are long enough with a guide, nevermind without.
 
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Too many spoilers :/

So, without using spoilers, how would you sum up your experience with the game, Aion and all those who've also played it? Should I be looking forward to playing it over the summer?
 
CitizenGeek said:
Too many spoilers :/

So, without using spoilers, how would you sum up your experience with the game, Aion and all those who've also played it? Should I be looking forward to playing it over the summer?
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basically it will probaly be unlike any JRPG you have ever played before, unless you have played other entries in the SMT series. It has a steep difficulty curve too, especially in the beginning and if your a newcome to the franchise, but if this is your bag then you shall have lots of fun with this game!
 
CitizenGeek said:
Should I be looking forward to playing it over the summer?
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Should you be looking forward to playing one of the best JRPGs on PS2? Yes. Yes you should.

There are so many things I love about Persona 4: the modern day setting; the vibrant design and soundtrack; the sympathetic characters; the intriguing story (though Aion would disagree) and themes; the compulsive fusion; and, hell, a billion other things. Unless you're overly fussy (HELLO AION) you'll almost certainly love it.
 
OMFGLOL said:
CitizenGeek said:
Too many spoilers :/

So, without using spoilers, how would you sum up your experience with the game, Aion and all those who've also played it? Should I be looking forward to playing it over the summer?
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basically it will probaly be unlike any JRPG you have ever played before, unless you have played other entries in the SMT series. It has a steep difficulty curve too, especially in the beginning and if your a newcome to the franchise, but if this is your bag then you shall have lots of fun with this game!
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This is especially true for Digital Devil Saga, which is the next Megaten RPG I'll play. I've heard from my friend that recommended I try it that it's almost as hardcore as Suikoden.

Get it, CG. It's fun stuff.
 
CitizenGeek said:
Too many spoilers :/

So, without using spoilers, how would you sum up your experience with the game, Aion and all those who've also played it? Should I be looking forward to playing it over the summer?
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You should, definitley. The characters are somewhat believable (more believable than P3), character development is superior and I massively prefer the story. Though I've heard it degrades in quality as it goes on =/ Boss battles seem easier and it seem less challenging than P3. But P3 gave you a cheap challenge as the biggest challenge seem to be your incompetent allies who wound up making a mistake now and then.
 
My view is that Persona 4 is a fantastic RPG that will keep you occupied for hours on end.

Everyone has pretty much said all thats good about it, all that I can add to it is that there was a surpising amount of humor which I loved.
 
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