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BearDrivingTruck posted:No, it's actually a very useful strategy. And in the first dungeon you'll need it. Activate checkpoints whenever you see them That's the most incredible design decision ever. Holy gently caress, how did it take a shitzillion years for Atlus to figure that out, this is amazing. (I know it's part of the SMT charm, but holy crap- a first dungeon that doesn't hit like a truck is awesome.)
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# ? Apr 29, 2025 12:34 |
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you should be hopping in and out of jails to accumulate HP/SP consumables and cooking ingredients from sophia's shop and town shops over the course of the game they'll be handy in latter jails if you have the luxury of burning through them on bosses
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Omi no Kami posted:That's the most incredible design decision ever. well Atlus didn't really design it so
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Omi no Kami posted:That's the most incredible design decision ever. Oh, it still hits like a truck. The minibosses and boss are brutal. Luckily, like a true Persona game, the rest of it gets easier after this
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Just wrapped this bad boy up. Really awesome game, best telegraph dodger I've played in a while. It feels amazing to play, the way they translated SMT mechanics into a Musou is really cool, and the presentation is obviously top notch. My only complaints are that only Zenkichi, Ryuji, Yusuke and Joker felt good to play, everyone else either felt bad or had crappy move sets. Near the end of the game I used Yusuke for basically every fight just because him critting with his C3 and C4 was better at breaking shields than even the elemental weaknesses. Futaba is still an annoying character that only appeals to little freaks imo.
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fadam posted:Futaba is still an annoying character that only appeals to little freaks imo. ![]()
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honestly everything in this game hits like a truck the answer is just don't get hit
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Omi no Kami posted:That's the most incredible design decision ever. Maybe I'm an Entitled Gamer but if they were going to design it that way, might as well make the checkpoints already automatically refill HP/SP and save me from two loading screens... Blockhouse posted:honestly everything in this game hits like a truck the answer is just don't get hit For this I almost just wish it were an isometric game or something lol, I'm constantly fighting the camera
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One thing Makoto is really good at is fighting Konoe Haru and Morgana are the ones I could never feel I was using right, but Morgana got more use just for AI healing.
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Omi no Kami posted:Okay, so wait- I'm still on the first dungeon, but it looks like time doesn't pass when you leave jail? So is there any reason to not constantly bounce out to refill HP/SP, then dive back in? The only con is that it resets enemies and Showtime gauge, otherwise go nuts. bobjr posted:One thing Makoto is really good at is fighting Konoe Morgana's best move is pretty much his final Mastery Art, which is just fun. Otherwise yeah, I only really mained him for control over healing or for Garudyne spamming. Haru's a weird one. Her actual combos are some of the better ones among the cast (Y>Y>X and Y>Y>Y>Hold X are two good ones), but you mostly just skill/item spam late game. On paper, she's good; she gets Technical Expert and has a lot of ways to get Technicals (Psy off the ailments that she/Ann/Yusuke can inflict, Gun off Freeze/Shock/Dizzy) and she's your only status healer until Morgana learns Salvation (which won't be til postgame). I got decent use out of her during the meat of the main storyline. Towards the end though, she kinda tapers off. Her damage is actually solid and about on par with Yusuke (he has higher St and better shield shredding, she gets the Boost/Amp combo with One-Shot Kill and Riot Gun), and Amrita Shower/Heat Riser are still good... but her Psy damage is pretty much an afterthought since it doesn't inflict any ailments and you probably aren't using mental ailments much on bosses. Ryuji rules the roost on actual physical damage endgame, and while Gun skills can be useful, they also get nulled more often than Phys. She's still good enough that you can use her without missing too much if you like her, but I very rarely brought her as a member of the A-team.
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In case other people also didn't notice, the SP difference between normal spells and their Ma- versions is only 2 SP. I didn't notice this for a long time and tried to avoid casting those spells because I didn't want to use more SP, but the SP difference is small enough that they're almost just flat upgrades. I also found out that buff/debuff spells actually last a very long time. Only needed to cast them twice in the most recent boss fight (the Jail Warden for the 3rd dungeon). BearDrivingTruck posted:Oh, it still hits like a truck. The minibosses and boss are brutal. Luckily, like a true Persona game, the rest of it gets easier after this I think that the reason those early bosses were brutal is that most of us didn't really understand how to play the game correctly back then. Speaking of "the correct way," it's kind of a shame that the most effective way to play involves ignoring most of your characters' combos; you can basically get by with just using Persona abilities while focusing on avoiding enemy attacks. I still try to get in "active" combos, though.
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Omi no Kami posted:Okay, so wait- I'm still on the first dungeon, but it looks like time doesn't pass when you leave jail? So is there any reason to not constantly bounce out to refill HP/SP, then dive back in? CharlieFoxtrot posted:Maybe I'm an Entitled Gamer but if they were going to design it that way, might as well make the checkpoints already automatically refill HP/SP and save me from two loading screens...
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Ytlaya posted:In case other people also didn't notice, the SP difference between normal spells and their Ma- versions is only 2 SP. I didn't notice this for a long time and tried to avoid casting those spells because I didn't want to use more SP, but the SP difference is small enough that they're almost just flat upgrades. The difference does add up though, and there's actually a close-ranged gap in the Ma-spells that the normal versions can hit (Ma- versions hit in a cone, normals in a circle). One can use either and be fine, but I tend to use the normal spells. Unrelatedly, I was wondering why I liked Haru so much more this game, and it finally clicked for me. Was it the fact that she was present from the start? More opportunities for her to be in the main story and in group events? Her VAing feeling much more natural and less stilted? Well yes to all that, but also it was because she wasn't wearing her silly floofy sweater + polka dot leggings combo this game.
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Oh is the Showtime Gauge actually visible, I am probably just completely unobservant but I don't see anything except the prompt when it's full
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It's the gauge to the left of the character/Persona portrait on the lower left. The bars turn blue from bottom to the top.
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Well Merciless difficulty is living up to its name. MC is level 83 with like 9 well kitted max stat personas to switch through and the first jail is as hard as the first playthrough, if not worse since Merciless removes the restart battle option if you die, so any mistake kicks you back to your last save.
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Ok I'm at what I think is the the end of Jail 6 and took a moment to clear out requests and this is it. The best requester in the game, you cannot change my
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Main game done. Sophia is cool and good and humanity's companion. Meanwhile The final boss was on the easy side (way easier than the persona fusion unlock bosses) which is probably because I did those bosses and thus got a lot of extra levels. Really cool setpiece though. From a gameplay perspective, Sojiro's coffee and curry being the first SP restoration consumables you find in the item menu was an inspired decision. There's something in getting a second wind during a boss fight by invoking Leblanc's power. Now onto the postgame.
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I like how apprenticing for a year under Sojiro has turned Joker into the group's resident master chef. It's a neat little continuity detail and adds some much needed character to Joker. The final boss was severely disappointing, particularly after how incredible Konoe's was. I get that they wanted to make a scenario where all the thieves had to get involved, not just your party, but everybody just punching energy orbs for 30 minutes before pummeling on a mostly immobile statue was pretty lame.
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Right before the sixth Jail, Lavenza tells you about a series of challenging Shadow fights to unlock new fusions. Is there a recommended level to approach these? I managed to kill Seth but it took like twenty minutes.
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Arist posted:Right before the sixth Jail, Lavenza tells you about a series of challenging Shadow fights to unlock new fusions. Is there a recommended level to approach these? I managed to kill Seth but it took like twenty minutes. I was like 50 and it took me five so what level are you at?
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Blockhouse posted:I was like 50 and it took me five so what level are you at? I was like 48, and I might have overstated it a bit, but it was still not fun. I accidentally brought Morgana and it drains Wind so that probably explains some of it.
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Arist posted:I was like 48, and I might have overstated it a bit, but it was still not fun. I accidentally brought Morgana and it drains Wind so that probably explains some of it. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't look up its weaknesses ahead of time but my rule of thumb is if you're unsure of an enemies' elements always bring Yusuke and/or Wolf because unless it resists physical they're going to run roughshod over it.
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Spoiler for endgame content. I just got to the awakening cutscene of Sophia and that was a great scene.
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Arist posted:Right before the sixth Jail, Lavenza tells you about a series of challenging Shadow fights to unlock new fusions. Is there a recommended level to approach these? I managed to kill Seth but it took like twenty minutes. Yeah for the most part, around 50ish is a good time to get started and from then on you can start to do new ones (and the Dire Shadows) as they unlock. Worth looking up their weaknesses ahead of time so you can just optimize your team for them (I think the one in the 5th Jail definitely was a little bit rough for me). The Dire Shadows are really rough when you first see them but after the 5th Jail or so they're easier than the Unlock Shadows since they have less shields so you can just blast through them with skill spam.
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Hunt11 posted:Spoiler for endgame content. I just got to the awakening cutscene of Sophia and that was a great scene. Her LED face display cracking was a great way to approximate the mask tearing imagery
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Hunt11 posted:Spoiler for endgame content. I just got to the awakening cutscene of Sophia and that was a great scene. That might be my favorite one of those scenes across the whole series.
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(Final dungeon spoilers) Ichinose was a pretty good villain despite me being very bored of them when they first appeared in that I could tell from scene one she was being set up to be an endgame villain.
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Finished the first dungeon, halfway into the second. The game's combat sorta clicked with me in the decoy sequence where it's just you against a huge mob. Kept dying repeatedly by spamming attacks without dodging so I switch to a more cautious playstyle with more dodging and got more used to summoning Personas. Alice was easy to beat, to the point where I wondered if I was overleveled (15 in Normal Mode). Haru is very good so far. Game's humor is still landing very hard. Persona fusing seems very barebones though that may be because I am only level 21 or something. It's better to have a separate Persona for each element and not a single multi-element Persona, right? So you can have Boosts and Amps and poo poo? I keep wondering why nobody in this game is wearing a mask, I think COVID has altered the way I view society now.
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Alice is really rough for a lot of new players because it's one of the first fights where you actually have to learn to dodge things instead of just facetanking. If you learned that lesson earlier then you're bueno.
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I decided to do ng+ on merciless with the plan of grinding dire enemies for bond XP, repeating the end game request was just not doing it for me. Just finished the first dungeon. Was certainly hard, but not impossible. Judicious saving and use of the skill that recovers + revives everyone has helped, but for the most part just throwing as many incenses onto the last persona on the registry has been my go-to strategy (especially since the shadow I plan on grinding is weak to fire).
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I haven't been paying attention to Joker's persona elements lol, I just use whatever's highest level and in fights I assume I need to dodge everything or die and the other party members are what I focus on when it comes to elemental coverage
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It's easier to go 'oh you're using Maeigon? Well don't mind me if I'll switch to Abaddon and conveniently recover the health I'm gonna use a physical attack on'.
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PSA: On Merciless enemy slimes go back to being totally immune to physical, making them some of the biggest motherfuckers in the game
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One thing I've noticed about the dodge counter attack: if the enemy nulls or drains the element being used, it still does a bit of damage. Not sure if it just bottoms out at 'resist' or what, but it does make that going off not a liability. Made using Lilith for fire attacks on King Frost less dicey, certainly.
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So I just got to Okinawa. This game really does better with its story than original P5. It makes it feel like original P5 scenes had something "unbalanced" about them that is hard to articulate, but that was properly "balanced" in this game. I was also expecting that there would be like 2 or 3 more "episode of the week"-style areas before any significant plot happened, but it looks like there will be some interesting reveals in this chapter. I'm starting to actually have a pretty easy time, though not so easy that I'm willing to go to Hard difficulty. It seems like you can basically survive indefinitely if you have a good amount of SP items (and those items become quite good with the Bond bonuses to items - they seem to do almost twice as much). I'll get hit sometimes, but it's relatively easy to deal with.
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How does experience work for people in the back? Should I be rotating party members? Sometimes I settle into a group that works well together with lots of common weaknesses in the dungeon and I just sit on themOmi no Kami posted:Okay, so wait- I'm still on the first dungeon, but it looks like time doesn't pass when you leave jail? So is there any reason to not constantly bounce out to refill HP/SP, then dive back in? Very small reason to not leave but you lose your "Showtime" gauge entirely. So if you have like, 4 showtimes built up and leave for an SP boost they all reset back to 0. But I generally leave a couple of times throughout the dungeon, go shop for new equipment, fuse new persona with the money I got etc. You could just jump back in immediately but the dungeons are pretty long and it's worth leaving to do some of that stuff.
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:How does experience work for people in the back? Should I be rotating party members? Sometimes I settle into a group that works well together with lots of common weaknesses in the dungeon and I just sit on them It seems to be set at around 33% of the active party exp gain, based on rough observations when I was switching characters in and out to rounding everyone out to 99 in the postgame.
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# ? Apr 29, 2025 12:34 |
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History Comes Inside! posted:It seems to be set at around 33% of the active party exp gain, based on rough observations when I was switching characters in and out to rounding everyone out to 99 in the postgame. Are there any party members you won't really miss out too much if you just ignore them forever? I feel like there are too many
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