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Arist
Feb 13, 2012

who, me?


Worth noting that apparently you need to get your Bond level to 99 to max out everything (and people are ending the game with it in the 50s, so you might wanna be careful how you spend them).

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Missy Hyatt
Nov 20, 2004

1978 ~ 2023

Ytlaya posted:

Can you get enough bond points throughout the game to level everything up?

No, I finished the story at around bond level 60. With the extra bond exp skill maxed you get a 1.5x multiplier to the xp gain for it and all the xp you get throughout the game counts. You have to do ng+ on merciless (which is ridiculous, my level 99 Joker got 2-hit killed within seconds of the opening tutorial) or grind in the postgame for 10+ hours if you want to get it to 99.

I’m doing the latter just for the last trophy, I have my kill-time on the last request miniboss down to around a minute and all I have to do is hold R1 and press x while I sit and watch tv.

NG+ on any level other than merciless doesn’t scale or give useful xp at all, so there’s no benefit to doing it other than getting to the first velvet room to fuse the final persona for the compendium trophy.

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



THE AWESOME GHOST posted:

Am I bad or is this game hard? Alice is absolutely kicking my rear end regardless of what I try
Alice took me a few tries. I really had to wait for the attacks that had a lot of ending lag and lay into her then. I got lucky with a sale on a couple of the revive items, so when Morgana and Ann went down in the first phase, I used those at the start of the second to pick them back up. Joker ended up going down right before the end, so I was thematically playing as Ann for the final blow.

BearDrivingTruck posted:

The first Jail being ridiculously harder due to lower resources is pretty on brand with Persona 5 Shin Megami Tensei Atlus JRPGs as a whole imo
FTFY

THE AWESOME GHOST posted:

Also is it just me or is the translation / writing in this game so far way better than Persona 5? I didn’t play Royal which apparently was better but the base game often felt like it had lines they just forgot to translate
From what I understand, P5's localization (especially vanilla) had a lot of executive meddling from the Japanese branch in the main plot, which is why it's so rough and some of the side content is much better. I'd believe it since Atlus USA is usually pretty good, IMO.

Blockhouse
Sep 7, 2014

You Win!
What I've learned while going through the first Jail is that even if you run out of SP Yusuke can still clutch it out against any boss that likes to spam basic attacks or physical spells because you can counter their poo poo all day long

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
Unfortunately a lot of later bosses won't flinch from Yusuke's counters, but it's still pretty good free damage and Freeze > Technicals is a solid strat on anything that isn't immune to it.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug
I like this game when it’s not wasting my time but holy hell it likes to waste my time. Just let me refill my
HP/SP at checkpoints without jumping through two loading screens, god drat!

Empress Brosephine
Mar 31, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I kept dieing to the first mini boss lol I'm not in for a good ride but atleast I'm having fun

Blockhouse
Sep 7, 2014

You Win!

ApplesandOranges posted:

Unfortunately a lot of later bosses won't flinch from Yusuke's counters, but it's still pretty good free damage and Freeze > Technicals is a solid strat on anything that isn't immune to it.

I think he's my favorite non-Joker character to play at this point but it's still early.

Fojar38
Sep 1, 2011


Sorry I meant to say I hope that the police use maximum force and kill or maim a bunch of innocent people, thus paving a way for a proletarian uprising and socialist utopia


also here's a stupid take
---------------------------->

Ugly In The Morning posted:

I like this game when it’s not wasting my time but holy hell it likes to waste my time. Just let me refill my
HP/SP at checkpoints without jumping through two loading screens, god drat!

I'm playing on PS4 so I wasn't sure what the big deal with this complaint was until I saw Switch load times. Yikeseroo.

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Arist posted:

Worth noting that apparently you need to get your Bond level to 99 to max out everything (and people are ending the game with it in the 50s, so you might wanna be careful how you spend them).

Keep in mind though that this includes the bunch of SP-sink "raise your stats slightly" skills which you don't really need to touch before the hardest mode. If you don't really touch those you'll have enough for everything important.

shrike82
Jun 11, 2005

i'm enjoying the game but there're a lot of minor gameplay/UI issues that're getting more annoying as i play
one of them is the dpad buttons for switching the controlled character not being fixed

Morpheus
Apr 18, 2008

My favourite little monsters
So I'm at a point near the end of the game where I can leave my current city and the game is telling me a lot of plot is about to occur, so finish things up. To be specific, I'm about to head to Tokyo Tower. Am I going to be locked out of stuff until I beat the game or something? I've only got a request to beat a powerful shadow, so I'm not super concerned, but I'd like to know.

Fojar38
Sep 1, 2011


Sorry I meant to say I hope that the police use maximum force and kill or maim a bunch of innocent people, thus paving a way for a proletarian uprising and socialist utopia


also here's a stupid take
---------------------------->

Morpheus posted:

So I'm at a point near the end of the game where I can leave my current city and the game is telling me a lot of plot is about to occur, so finish things up. To be specific, I'm about to head to Tokyo Tower. Am I going to be locked out of stuff until I beat the game or something? I've only got a request to beat a powerful shadow, so I'm not super concerned, but I'd like to know.

You have two dungeons left. The one you're going to end up in after progressing is short but you will be locked in it until completion and won't be able to shop or go to different dungeons. After completing that, you will enter the final dungeon, where you will still be able to go to the hideout and shop, go to different dungeons, and complete requests, but you will no longer be able to move around on foot outside of dungeons.

Xad
Jul 2, 2009

"Either Sonic is God, or could kill God, and I do not care if there is a difference!"

College Slice

Tae posted:

I feel like I'm the only one that had a much harder time with the 2nd boss than the first.

Nope this happened to me too and I even switched down to Normal mode from Hard mode for that fight specifically. It felt like the game really wanted you to smash the ice to break him out of his own charged ice move thing, but he usually moves into the center of the room when he does that and then...he's out of range of all of the ice crystals?

For context I beat the first boss on hard after a few tries, but 2nd boss definitely took longer than that and I felt like I was making much less progress, so I turned the difficulty down and beat it like two tries later

Omobono
Feb 19, 2013

That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

Jail 2 done and post-Jail scenes done.

Gameplay comments:
Yusuke shreds single targets at the speed of sound. With a +crit (low) accessory he can stunlock large enemies clearing 3 to 5 shields in a row before they recover, I can't imagine what he'll do with bigger crit boosts. My go-to for this is 3xattack, spam special until bufu comes out, repeat. 2xattack, spam special should also work.

Joker is still Joker. Not load-bearing this time around thankfully.

Sophia is beyond my skill level, any tips?

What's the point of follow-up attacks (outside like Makoto getting her elemental infusion when doing one)? Big enemies are not stunlocked during those, no way you can fully perform a follow-up into the midair special.

Only 2 data points so far but I'm thinking that each Monarch boss fight is designed to be countered by the Phantom Thief in the spotlight during the storyline. Ann can easily solo Monarch 1 and Monarch 2 was clearly designed from the start as the case study for Yusuke's moveset.


Story comments (see first line in the post for when in the storyline I am):
I'm glad(?) these idiots STILL don't understand the concept of operational security. How many times did they get burned this way?

In their defense Ichinose is giving me Pancake mk. 2 vibes. The way she talks about hearing Morgana, I'm suspecting she can understand him alright and is being careful of not showing it.
I tried to access the log to see if she responded to something only Morgana said but it was another scene and I doubt they'd repeat that particular way of foreshadowing the twist anyways, you have to assume most players will remember about Pancakes-kun.
Also, speculation, but she's totally Sophia's mom, or at least aunt.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

Omobono posted:

Jail 2 done and post-Jail scenes done.

Gameplay comments:
Yusuke shreds single targets at the speed of sound. With a +crit (low) accessory he can stunlock large enemies clearing 3 to 5 shields in a row before they recover, I can't imagine what he'll do with bigger crit boosts. My go-to for this is 3xattack, spam special until bufu comes out, repeat. 2xattack, spam special should also work.

Joker is still Joker. Not load-bearing this time around thankfully.

Sophia is beyond my skill level, any tips?[/spoiler]

The good news is that there's a +crit (high) accessory later on, and he'll just keep upgrading his crit moves as he levels. The bad news is that bosses stop flinching about crits unless you break a shield. Yusuke is very good though and he's arguably better than Ryuji on element-neutral targets for a while til mid-late game when Ryuji gets enough passives (and Matarukaja) to really let rip.

Sophia isn't very complex, but she's not really anything special offense wise compared to Morgana. She's really fine spamming her melee combos, Perfect Catch when you can but you're probably not gonna main her much. Her main damage comes from her spells, especially since she gets Amp faster than anyone else. Abuse her Y>X for free Rakunda, though the AI (ha) is perfectly adept at using it themselves.

Omobono
Feb 19, 2013

That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

I mean, my point is that Yusuke can crit shred a shield in the time a big enemy recovers from a 1-more.
Getting that first shield down can be difficult, but then he shreds 2 to 4 more for basically free (and at least one third of the lifebar) depending on crit luck and what the rest of the party does.

Mirello
Jan 29, 2006

by Fluffdaddy

THE AWESOME GHOST posted:

Also is it just me or is the translation / writing in this game so far way better than Persona 5? I didn’t play Royal which apparently was better but the base game often felt like it had lines they just forgot to translate

A bit late but I totally agree, overall the characters have much more unique voices and I can't remember a single awkward line, as opposed to P5 where so many scenes were marred by awkward dialogue

Harlock
Jan 15, 2006
My main party has been Yusuke, Ryuji, and a Haru/Makoto trade off depending on the situation. This group just melts everything. Joker covers most weaknesses and does primary healing.

I don't think there's a real bad character, which is good, but I'm not a fan of Morgana's combos.

Missy Hyatt
Nov 20, 2004

1978 ~ 2023


~25 hours for the main story
~5 hours for the post-game requests
~15 hours of killing shadow of god over and over

BearDrivingTruck
Oct 15, 2011

You see the most shocking sights sometimes
How vital is upgrading weapons and armor? I'm feeling like my money can be better spent on healing items and Velvet Room business.

e: lmao cold Sophia

BearDrivingTruck fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Feb 28, 2021

Item Getter
Dec 14, 2015
Played a year ago in the Japanese version and not going to play through again in English just now but curious about a minor translation thing.
In the Japanese version, when you go to different cities and use Sophia's shop she will use stock phrases in the local dialect of whatever region you are currently in. Did they try to do anything with this in the English version?

Kind of a random note but since several people have gotten far into/finished the game by now I will mention it. I always enjoy the sort of dream logic that the Persona series uses for cognitive versions of characters, locations etc. ever since the first game in the series. For me the single coolest story related detail in this game was (Dungeon 5 spoilers) how Akane's cognitive versions of the Phantom Thieves that you encounter in the Kyoto dungeon appear as entirely black silhouettes, because she has only seen the phantom thieves in disguise as part of their calling card videos in the original game where they only revealed themselves as black silhouettes. And they aren't straight up opposite/evil versions, nor are they Shadows in the usual sense, but instead Akane's own ideal of the Phantom Thieves that she's projected her own desires for revenge on, that would have somewhat different objectives and morals than the real Phantom Thieves. I thought it was a fairly neat twist on the usual "fight an evil doppelganger of your character(s)" trope that has been done so many times in video games and the Persona series itself. Overall it was a neat expansion of themes of the Phantom Thieves' relationship with their followers from the original P5. Honestly it was probably more interesting, conceptually, than much of the rest of the main plot of the game.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

Item Getter posted:

Played a year ago in the Japanese version and not going to play through again in English just now but curious about a minor translation thing.
In the Japanese version, when you go to different cities and use Sophia's shop she will use stock phrases in the local dialect of whatever region you are currently in. Did they try to do anything with this in the English version?

As far as I can tell, nope, she just has some generic phrases she uses for all of them.

Also in the final dungeon. Pretty good game so far, I'm expecting a nice emotional pay off for the finale like Persona games are wont to do.

Sophia unlocking Pandora was a great scene.

BearDrivingTruck
Oct 15, 2011

You see the most shocking sights sometimes
Spoilers for Jail 3: hee ho hee ho hee ho

Dr. Fishopolis
Aug 31, 2004

a shark on beer is a beer engineer

BearDrivingTruck posted:

Spoilers for Jail 3: hee ho hee ho hee ho

that fuckin parade killed me dead, i had to pause and catch my breath

and then everyone letting loose with their best hee hos for the rest of the scene holy poo poo

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
Am I just getting super (un)lucky or are Fusion Accidents more common here than normal? It almost feels like they've included the main series thing of some races being more likely to end up giving you accidents, or something, considering I've gotten two in a row trying to make Mothman earlier and just now got two in a row trying to make Mitra.

Missy Hyatt
Nov 20, 2004

1978 ~ 2023

Dragonatrix posted:

Am I just getting super (un)lucky or are Fusion Accidents more common here than normal? It almost feels like they've included the main series thing of some races being more likely to end up giving you accidents, or something, considering I've gotten two in a row trying to make Mothman earlier and just now got two in a row trying to make Mitra.

I only had one in my entire play through and it wasn’t until I was mopping up the compendium in the postgame.

Arist
Feb 13, 2012

who, me?


This game has fusion accidents!?

Argent Cinereus
Feb 25, 2013
I've gotten at least two by the end of the second Jail. Sort of helps with getting higher level versions of earlier personas for fusion, but that's about it so far. I don't think they put fusion accident exclusive personas in, which would be rough unless you could increase the chances of those.

Missy Hyatt
Nov 20, 2004

1978 ~ 2023
There aren’t any accident exclusive personas and there are only a couple that you don’t collect normally just playing through.

I think I only had a handful of gaps to fill when I finally started actively trying to finish it up.

Being able to level them with PP makes it trivial, especially since you can summon and delete the high level stuff you have repeatedly to change money into PP. Theres absolutely no reason to grind out levels in combat for individual personas when it comes to filling it out.

Missy Hyatt fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Feb 28, 2021

Sydin
Oct 29, 2011

Another spring commute
Fusion accidents are a terrible mechanic and I was very sad when I got one because all it meant was that I from then on I had to back out and save before every fusion or risk the game handing me some terrible low level persona I didn't want and making me pony up to resummon to fuse the persona I actually wanted in the first place.

Missy Hyatt
Nov 20, 2004

1978 ~ 2023

Sydin posted:

Fusion accidents are a terrible mechanic and I was very sad when I got one because all it meant was that I from then on I had to back out and save before every fusion or risk the game handing me some terrible low level persona I didn't want and making me pony up to resummon to fuse the persona I actually wanted in the first place.

Where has all your money gone? Are you vending all the trash from jails?

Personas are so cheap and the game sprays cash at you so constantly after the first dungeon that this should never be an issue.

Hunt11
Jul 24, 2013

Grimey Drawer
Just finished the 5th dungeon and holy poo poo that was amazing.

Fojar38
Sep 1, 2011


Sorry I meant to say I hope that the police use maximum force and kill or maim a bunch of innocent people, thus paving a way for a proletarian uprising and socialist utopia


also here's a stupid take
---------------------------->
Lucifer can combo into free Gigantomachia, Blazing Hell, and Morning Star :allears:

Namnesor
Jun 29, 2005

Dante's allowance - $100
This is exactly the kind of thing I thought Persona 5 needed more of, I'm so glad Strikers is finally fulfilling my want of seeing these dorks be dorks together.

BearDrivingTruck
Oct 15, 2011

You see the most shocking sights sometimes
Post 3rd Jail spoilers: I really appreciate the game giving you the option of framing a ferris wheel trip with Futaba as "family time"

e: more spoilers: yeah, wow, Zenkichi is definitely in the pantheon of great Persona characters

e2: even more spoilers: oh my god did Zenkichi send the Thieves into his daughter's room knowing full well she's a huge Phantom Thieves fan and has covered her room in merch

BearDrivingTruck fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Mar 1, 2021

Owl Inspector
Sep 14, 2011

There's an outlaw camp right here with some shady folks eatin' beans. yeehaw chucklefuck.
this game's boss fights sure are full of absolutely incessant and unending dialogue I have no time to focus on whatsoever

Blockhouse
Sep 7, 2014

You Win!
Just BARELY beat the first Jail boss

almost no HP, no SP, ran out of healing items

The last leg of the fight was just me spamming Yusuke's physical attacks while yelling "PLEASE DIE"

BearDrivingTruck
Oct 15, 2011

You see the most shocking sights sometimes

Blockhouse posted:

Just BARELY beat the first Jail boss

almost no HP, no SP, ran out of healing items

The last leg of the fight was just me spamming Yusuke's physical attacks while yelling "PLEASE DIE"

Congrats, it gets way less rough going forward

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Arist
Feb 13, 2012

who, me?


Added a few tips to the OP:

Arist posted:

Helpful Gameplay Tips!
  • This is a Persona game with musou stylings, not the other way around. Attacking weaknesses and using buffs/debuffs are critical.
  • Using items to keep your party's HP and SP up are vital.
  • Party revive items can't always be bought at the shop, so save them for key fights. This also means that keeping someone with Recarm in your party is much more useful than it was in Persona 5 proper.
  • Joker can use one of his equipped Persona's base skills by hitting the Special attack button in the middle of his combo, with the skill changing based on when in the combo. This costs no SP, though the skill will be weaker than if it was cast manually.
  • The other party members can do the same thing, though it is less versatile because they cannot change Personas.
  • Playing as every party member is important because it will unlock their Master Arts, which are special upgrades to each character only gained through repeated use.
  • The first Jail is much harder than the rest of the game, in typical Persona fashion, due to low money and SP. If you can get through that, you can get through the rest.
  • Dodging is important. It seems to affect how often the rest of your party gets hit by attacks, not just your selected character.
  • When you destroy one of a strong enemy's shields, they will stagger for a moment, interrupting any casts they were performing. If you can hit their weakness, consider doing it while the enemy is casting to interrupt them.
  • You're going to be overloaded with money eventually, but it's possible to turn that money into points you can use in the Velvet Room to level up Personas. To do this, simply summon a bunch of Personas from the Inmate Registry and then delete them from your stock.
  • Some of the most important Bond skills to grab early are: Bondmaker, Metaverse Medic, and Extortionist. The ones that simply increase your stats by 1 for each level are easily ignorable.
  • Keep on top of Persona fusion. Try not to be using egregiously underleveled Personas.

If you want me to add something, just let me know.

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