I’m just about to fight Shadow Kanji in the Steamy Bathhouse and I have a few thoughts up to this point:
This game is hard! I’m barely staying alive in the upper floors of the bathhouse. I’m a bit under-leveled I guess(level 21), but we get clobbered sometimes! The random battles are like short boss fights for me right now.
I still hate swinging at the random encounters to gain advantage. In P3, I got better at it because I switched to foils that struck very quickly. In P4, they force you to use swords and the delay between pushing square and hitting the enemy is KILLING ME!.
This game has been harder than P3 for me so far.
I like that each dungeon has a different vibe. It’s window dressing mostly, but at least they did more than P3 to differentiate them.
Definitely grind a bit. Do the optional quests to locate something in the dungeons, fight the bonus bosses, and generally keep going back in when you can (I know you have the down time until the heavy fog occurs after you rescue someone). The next few rounds are exceptionally hard.
I used the fact that they stopped at elevated terrain in P3. It did take me a while to get the rhythm for them in part 4.
Definitely will agree with you there, but I think three had a lot more opportunity to grind up levels. Here thanks to the down time that occurs when you rescue someone you miss out on some time. Of course that’s the perfect opportunity to work on your social links before you go all out on the dungeon.
I have been trying, but it seems like on floor 10 of the Bath House, which is what I’m using, the enemies are not giving enough experience. I’m getting about 300 pts. a battle, which takes too long to level up, in my opinion.
I am just about to fight Shadow Rise at the top of the Strip Joint, which has been a very interesting dungeon. It’s July 2, I believe.
Please keep all spoilers past this point of the game to yourself!
I suspect the young detective as being involved with the murders. No real reason; I just do.
The strip joint dungeon has been WAY easier than the first two. I actually have been able to level up here without fear of instant death. Does the game ease up a bit on the player?
Yukiko has way less HP than the others. Weird and annoying.
I have found it to be great that I can control the other characters. I feel less need to have all elemental spells on my own character, since I can force the others to use theirs. In P3, it got annoying wathcing Mitsuru Mind Charge herself instead of just casting her spell and knocking the enemy down.
Is there anyone to raise the stats of your Personae? I played the arcade games in P3:FES to raise the stats of my Personae. I miss that option so far.
I’ll make no comment on the mystery until you reach that point in the game.
As I recall I thought some of the upper floor enemies were a pain (and of course Dark Teddie) but yeah, I guess it isn’t as bad as the next… I want to say two IIRC. The next one is a bit rougher and then the one after that had a fairly big jump in difficulty.
She’s a girl, silly. Girls have to be the weak healer; making them strong fighter in anything other than an action game wouldn’t be normal.
Were you really expecting anything different in a jRPG? Or Japanese game in general for that matter…
Yep, being able to use tactics makes the whole game easier to deal with.
I’m not aware of one but I never used it in P3. I cycle through Persona too quickly for a stat buff to anything except the final tier to be worthwhile.
Yeah, I rather hate the way Arcana Shuffle is handled in this game, and I am not a big fan of the Arcana Chance concept. It seems to end up more bad than good and the bad effects(only 1 exp per battle for example) seem to last too long.
I remembered which ones did which and so while I’d never take a Death or Devil card I’d cheerfully pick up the one that could make every monster purple if it went “bad” (there the bad result was really the good one in my mind). If the downside could be managed I’d gamble for the upside.
By the way, it was only in the Strip Joint dungeon that I realized that if you use Goh-M(or whatever it’s called) to leave a dungeon, you can re-enter from the floor you left.
I had assumed that I could only return to floors with bosses and mini-bosses.
This also may have made me feel the first two dungeons were more difficult. I was on the top floor or so of them, having climbed quite far and on my last SP’s.
So, I just watched the post “Rise recovery” cut scenes.
No spoilers past this part of the game.
Teddie has a body? Weird. I’m wondering if he’ll fight with us in the Bear Suit or out. Don’t tell me.
So, that detective is really a girl. Do they think we can’t tell that in advance? It’s voice acted by a woman. It’s really obvious.
I have to say that I was surprised King Moron got killed, and that it appears to have happened outside the TV is definitely a cool twist.
I think this game just equaled Persona 3 for me in terms of liking it. I won’t really decide which was better until I have finished this one, but this one has really had a better pace of plot development.
I don’t recall being particularly ahead of the curve at that point, but I found Shadow Teddie fairly easy too. All I did was guard after every Mind Charge and when Nihil Hand was about to go off. The only really threatening things were the odd Mabufudyne NOT preceded by a Mind Charge and his hit-all physical skills that he didn’t seem to use all that often.
I had no Mabafudynes. Only Mabufulas, all Mind Charged.
I don’t remember his “all hit” physical attack, either. I remember his “heat wave” atack, which was oddly not absorbed by a fire-absorbing Persona. I assume heat wave is just…non-elemental?
I blocked after he charged the second time, and Nihil Hand gave literally no challenge, which meant he wasted three turns.
No kidding! So much of Persona 3 and 4 require having just the right Persona who can heal, inflict the right elemental damage, and aborsb/nullify the bosses elemental strength.
Who is in charge of naming and animating these attacks? Heat Wave sounds and looks hot like fire!
I’m in the month of November and have just saved Nanako. I do not believe the delivery man is the killer, as he seems to be saving people. I think he also sees people and tries to save them.
I still totally suspect Adachi, the deputy police guy. If it is him, I called it as early as May/June in the game. He just seems…odd.
I love this game, by the way. It is better than P3 in many ways. I love that S. Links relate to battle. I love that the dungeon is more manageable. I now realize that 256 floors or so is TOO FUCKING MUCH for a game.
I do, however, wish the floors were not random in the dungeons. I mean, with distinct dungeons, why not just plan out the maps? I guess people would post the maps on the internet, but who cares?
I feel the first 20s % of this game were brutal, while the last 40 hours or so have been better. What is up with some of the early bosses? I had my ass handed to me in some of those fights, but had no problem since the 3rd dungeon or so.
