The Persona Series: Who Wants To Talk About Murders?!

Greetings, my fellow Persona fans. I post this new thread for three reasons:

1. To create a place on forum where people can come to ask for advice in any of the games in the series. I personally have only played Persona 3:FES, and Persona 4(Both Golden and Regular) and I would be very happy to offer advice(Both for the combat, and for the more social aspects of the game.) for either of them. I make no claim to be a specialist(An RPG lover, yes, but not a specialist), but I am pretty good(Considering I beat both games with Max S-link, First Playthrough, True Endings. And yes...Max S-link runs are as hard to pull off as you'd think.)

2. To post speculation or new data that pops up regarding (the announced but otherwise naught but speculation) Persona 5. I am keeping an eye on this one like a hawk, and if anyone finds new data, or has any theories, I implore you to post them here, and reveal them. :smallsmile:

And finally...

3. To post our opinions about Persona 4: The Golden. Speaking of which...

My opinion on the new voice actors:

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Teddie's new voice actor: Brilliant. I'd go so far as to commit blasphemy and say Sam Riegel is better than Dave Wittenburg. He's a tad more goofy, and more exhuberant, which works for Teddie. And his new lines...hilarious. :smallbiggrin:

Chie's new voice actor: ...A mixed bag. Erin Fitzgerald is not precisely bad. In a couple ways, she's superior to Tracy Rooney, with some of the more low-key lines. However...the lines where Chie's shouting, or yelling...Erin occasionally does them squeakily. It's not an unforgivable thing, and she does grow on ya, but some of them are annoying.

The new Social Links:

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Aeon: A very good link, one which draws you into the new character, and makes you like her, in my opinion at least. She grew a lot on me after the bonus dungeon, and I rather hope another Aeon makes its way into Persona 5

Jester/Hunger: I'll be frank, I never quite know how to take this one. The person who does it is an extremely well-known consumate liar, and I've never been sure how much of what he says to you is true, and how much is bogus. Nonetheless, assuming at least part of what he says is true...it certainly sheds light on him.

Other Miscellenious Things:

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The New Combo Attacks: Occasionally worthwhile to do the last damage to random battles, otherwise not that useful.

The Scooter Bits: Fun, but still kinda superfluous. Still, the ability to add other abilites to your teammates or bring back old ones is nice.

The Extra Abilites Gained for your Team from their Social Links: A-freaking-mazing. This MUST be in Persona 5. If not, I will be dissapointed.

New songs, new days, and new events: Still fun, as always. :smallbiggrin:

Now...back to Persona 5 a moment. Right now, I have no data on it. However, I do have some hopes:

I hope they keep the psychological themes from 4, or at least something similar.

I hope they make different social links into teammates. I'm hoping for Tower or maybe Death.

I hope, if they do decide to bring back the Big Bad of Personas 1 and 2, as many assume from the events of P4:Arena, then I hope they do it believably.

...My apologies for the massive post. :smallamused: I declare this thread open! :smallcool:

EDIT: And to anyone who's wondering, the sub-title of this thread is from this.

The way I see it, Persona 5 will go one of two ways. Either pick up where Persona 4 Arena left off, with the Investigation Team and Shadow Operatives each working to uncover the new threat, or it will be its own thing with only tangential mention or cameos of other Persona titles, as the previous games have been.

I've come to think that I'd prefer the latter, for two reasons. One, that's part of what's made the past couple of Persona games so great to begin with - they're each their own, completely self-contained story. Two, that means that the obvious sequel-bait that is the ending of P4A is setting up Persona Arena to be a series in its own right, which would make me extremely happy. :smallbiggrin:

As for what specifically I'd want in P5? Biggest thing: the ability to choose what skills a Persona inherits. The Devil Survivor series introduced this to SMT, and it needs to become a regular thing. Re-selecting a Persona fusion umpteen million times because the skill inheritance is random is the single genuinely bad part of those games and needs to go away. I will be completely fine if this leads to Personas having more limits on what skills they can have in order to balance it (i.e. the way the Devil Survivor demons get only three active and three passive skills, as opposed to any combination of eight on Personas), that's more than worth the trade-off.

And really, that's about all as far as specific hopes go. I trust Persona Team completely when it comes to writing, so I'll just wait eagerly to learn what we're getting in that department, and my other gameplay changes would be minor. I'd like to see the three physical types from Persona 3 brought back, and I'd like the main character being KOed to no longer be an auto-game-over, but that's about it, and I won't be especially bothered if those don't happen.

Haven't played P4G myself. It's the only thing on the Vita that I'm interested in, and even being one of my favorite games of all time, one remake is not going to sell me a system.

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Originally Posted by Zevox

The way I see it, Persona 5 will go one of two ways. Either pick up where Persona 4 Arena left off, with the Investigation Team and Shadow Operatives each working to uncover the new threat, or it will be its own thing with only tangential mention or cameos of other Persona titles, as the previous games have been.

I've come to think that I'd prefer the latter, for two reasons. One, that's part of what's made the past couple of Persona games so great to begin with - they're each their own, completely self-contained story. Two, that means that the obvious sequel-bait that is the ending of P4A is setting up Persona Arena to be a series in its own right, which would make me extremely happy. :smallbiggrin:

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I couldn't agree more. Quite frankly, I picked up P3:FES on a whim, and knew nothing about the Persona series. And from that moment on, I've been a big fan of the series. Re-connecting it...would be interesting, but it would ruin that stand-alone aspect, which would, as you said, stink.

Haven't played P4A just yet, since my local game store hasn't dropped the price yet. Once it does, I'll scoop it up. :smallbiggrin:

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As for what specifically I'd want in P5? Biggest thing: the ability to choose what skills a Persona inherits. The Devil Survivor series introduced this to SMT, and it needs to become a regular thing. Re-selecting a Persona fusion umpteen million times because the skill inheritance is random is the single genuinely bad part of those games and needs to go away. I will be completely fine if this leads to Personas having more limits on what skills they can have in order to balance it (i.e. the way the Devil Survivor demons get only three active and three passive skills, as opposed to any combination of eight on Personas), that's more than worth the trade-off.

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Well...not to spoil it, but in Golden...you can choose what they inherit, with no limitations. It...is...AWESOME! :smallbiggrin: And it makes Margret's S-Link SO much easier.

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And really, that's about all as far as specific hopes go. I trust Persona Team completely when it comes to writing, so I'll just wait eagerly to learn what we're getting in that department, and my other gameplay changes would be minor. I'd like to see the three physical types from Persona 3 brought back, and I'd like the main character being KOed to no longer be an auto-game-over, but that's about it, and I won't be especially bothered if those don't happen.

Haven't played P4G myself. It's the only thing on the Vita that I'm interested in, and even being one of my favorite games of all time, one remake is not going to sell me a system.

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See...not sure how I feel about either of these. The multiple physical types were interesting, but it made attacking physical-weak Shadows a hassle, cause of how some of them were weak to pierce, but not slash...it just got annoying to me after a while. As for the death thing...I kinda like that, since it's had justification in both P3 and P4. Wouldn't mind seeing it go, but I guess I'm not too concerned if it stays.

I love it, being quite frankly. Even though it's technically all I got the Vita for, it was worth it. :smallsmile:

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Originally Posted by Zevox

Haven't played P4G myself. It's the only thing on the Vita that I'm interested in, and even being one of my favorite games of all time, one remake is not going to sell me a system.

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On the other hand, its has sold it to me. Or rather the fact that the device has almost the entire series (only missing Eternal Punishment, which will probably make it). But P4G isn't out over here 'til the 22nd of Feb.

I'd like to see a return to indirect control in P5. I know not many people agree, but P3 and P4 spend no small amount of effort in putting you in the protagonist's shoes, and indirect control reinforces that. I found FES's AI worked well enough if you used the tactics commands, though the act freely mode certainly wasn't good enough.
Also, it'd be interesting if the various party members had priorities in battle based on their personalities and relationships, with how much weight your orders have being based on the character and group S-Links, and maybe a 'leadership' stat on the protagonist.

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Originally Posted by Ogremindes

On the other hand, its has sold it to me. Or rather the fact that the device has almost the entire series (only missing Eternal Punishment, which will probably make it). But P4G isn't out over here 'til the 22nd of Feb.

I'd like to see a return to indirect control in P5. I know not many people agree, but P3 and P4 spend no small amount of effort in putting you in the protagonist's shoes, and indirect control reinforces that. I found FES's AI worked well enough if you used the tactics commands, though the act freely mode certainly wasn't good enough.
Also, it'd be interesting if the various party members had priorities in battle based on their personalities and relationships, with how much weight your orders have being based on the character and group S-Links, and maybe a 'leadership' stat on the protagonist.

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Europe, I assume? :smallsmile:

Eh...FES was good with its AI, provided you had previously attacked the enemy in question with the element beforehand. Cause if you HADN'T attacked a wind-absorbing enemy with wind, Yukari would do it...like a moron. I understand the desire for indirect control, since the Protag. is so important and central...but I hate not being in control of my team, cause controlling them keeps them from acting like idiots.

Excellent choice for the title.


When it comes to P5, I'm hoping for the same basic combat mechanics as P4:Golden. The battle system is fun and not absurdly frustrating. A few S-Links similar to the Jester in P4:G would be interesting- a false Arcana that turns into their real one which is probably from the Thoth deck would make for some REALLY neat S-Link interactions and storytelling.

The stuff you mentioned would be awesome, too. Which mythology do you think/hope they wind up using for it?

How would you all compare P3 FES to P4?

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Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

Europe, I assume? :smallsmile:

Eh...FES was good with its AI, provided you had previously attacked the enemy in question with the element beforehand. Cause if you HADN'T attacked a wind-absorbing enemy with wind, Yukari would do it...like a moron. I understand the desire for indirect control, since the Protag. is so important and central...but I hate not being in control of my team, cause controlling them keeps them from acting like idiots.

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Oh, I had forgotten about that. Scan is the key I believe. Even for bosses, scanning helps the AI, even though it doesn't reveal much to you.

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Originally Posted by The-Mage-King

Excellent choice for the title.


When it comes to P5, I'm hoping for the same basic combat mechanics as P4:Golden. The battle system is fun and not absurdly frustrating. A few S-Links similar to the Jester in P4:G would be interesting- a false Arcana that turns into their real one which is probably from the Thoth deck would make for some REALLY neat S-Link interactions and storytelling.

The stuff you mentioned would be awesome, too. Which mythology do you think/hope they wind up using for it?

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Thanks. :smallbiggrin: I love Hiimdaisy's comic.

Agreed. Though, I doubt they'll remove the normal ones.

:smallcool: A lot of people seem to be claiming it might be Norse, which would suit me just fine.

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Originally Posted by Grinner

How would you all compare P3 FES to P4?

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It is a...difficult comparision. The battle system in 4 benefits from direct control, and the teammates you get are...in a few ways, more paletable than the ones in FES, in personality that is. That being said, they are still both great games with amazing plots and the tough but do-able battles that mark all Atlus games. If I had to grade them:

P3 FES-9.2
P4-9.5

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Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

Haven't played P4A just yet, since my local game store hasn't dropped the price yet. Once it does, I'll scoop it up. :smallbiggrin:

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It's great. My personal pick for game of the year last year, actually. Though you could easily say that's because it caters absolutely perfectly to my tastes - I've long been a big JRPG fan, have been a big Persona 3 and 4 fan since I first played them a few years ago, and have become a big fighting game over the past couple of years. And Arc System Works, the company that did the gameplay half of the game, also makes my other favorite fighting game series, BlazBlue - which is also the series that got me into fighting games. So, yeah, perfect storm for me there.

Still, Labrys' story in that is simply excellent. Served as a great reminder to me of what Persona Team is capable of. The rest of the story is good too, though it suffers a bit from the use of ArcSys' storytelling style, where every character gets their own story mode. Normally that works well in BlazBlue, since every character is off doing their own thing, and they have in-story excuses for alternate timelines to exist - doesn't work as well in P4A, since it makes many of the stories quite repetitive, with each character doing much the same thing as the others. You do get some good joke endings out of it, though.

Also, the music? Amazing. Simply amazing.

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Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

Well...not to spoil it, but in Golden...you can choose what they inherit, with no limitations. It...is...AWESOME! :smallbiggrin: And it makes Margret's S-Link SO much easier.

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Hallelujah! :smallbiggrin:

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Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

See...not sure how I feel about either of these. The multiple physical types were interesting, but it made attacking physical-weak Shadows a hassle, cause of how some of them were weak to pierce, but not slash...it just got annoying to me after a while.

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But it encouraged using particular team members as well, to make sure you could strike each potential physical weakness. And it made the physical Persona skills much more meaningful - in Persona 4 a lot of them were very redundant, since they kept all of the old ones but changed them all to doing the same damage type. So you'd have things like Bash and Slash being basically the same move.

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Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

As for the death thing...I kinda like that, since it's had justification in both P3 and P4.

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:smallconfused: It did? I don't recall it having any. To me it just straight-up made no sense once you had teammates able to cast Recarm, or if you were carrying Revival Beads.

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Originally Posted by Ogremindes

On the other hand, its has sold it to me. Or rather the fact that the device has almost the entire series (only missing Eternal Punishment, which will probably make it).

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I already have a PSP, including Persona 1-3. Though I didn't really like what I played of 1 and 2. Some frustrating things in those, particularly with the demon negotiation system, and the stories didn't manage to grab me before I gave up.

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Originally Posted by Ogremindes

I'd like to see a return to indirect control in P5. I know not many people agree, but P3 and P4 spend no small amount of effort in putting you in the protagonist's shoes, and indirect control reinforces that. I found FES's AI worked well enough if you used the tactics commands, though the act freely mode certainly wasn't good enough.
Also, it'd be interesting if the various party members had priorities in battle based on their personalities and relationships, with how much weight your orders have being based on the character and group S-Links, and maybe a 'leadership' stat on the protagonist.

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Yeah, I'd be among those that disagree. If anything, I'd like to see the protagonist less defined by the player. Give him (or her) voice acting, at the very least. Persona 4 Arena already took a step in that direction by giving Yu Narukami a cannon name and defined personality, after all.

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Originally Posted by Grinner

How would you all compare P3 FES to P4?

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Largely, I don't try to. They're both amazing. It's why I can only refer each as being "one of my favorite games of all time" - they're tied for that top spot.

I simply can't pick between them as far as characters and story go. Persona 4 made some gameplay changes I liked - controllable party members, ability to determine whether a social link with a female character becomes romantic or not - but then Persona 3 Portable adopted those as well, so, yeah. As mentioned I did prefer Persona 3's three physical attack types to Persona 4's one, but I consider that minor.

I will say that Persona 4 beats Persona 3 in music. Reach Out to the Truth is the best battle theme, ever. Persona 3's is okay, until it gets to the rap-like portion, which I really dislike. Also, Never More is a more memorable end theme than whatever P3's was. Though I did still like most P3's, just with the exception of that portion of the battle theme - its just that, unfortunately, since you're in battles so much, you hear that more often than just about any other track in the game. It got to the point where I was muting the TV and putting on some other music while in Tartarus at one point.

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Originally Posted by Zevox

It's great. My personal pick for game of the year last year, actually. Though you could easily say that's because it caters absolutely perfectly to my tastes - I've long been a big JRPG fan, have been a big Persona 3 and 4 fan since I first played them a few years ago, and have become a big fighting game over the past couple of years. And Arc System Works, the company that did the gameplay half of the game, also makes my other favorite fighting game series, BlazBlue - which is also the series that got me into fighting games. So, yeah, perfect storm for me there.

Still, Labrys' story in that is simply excellent. Served as a great reminder to me of what Persona Team is capable of. The rest of the story is good too, though it suffers a bit from the use of ArcSys' storytelling style, where every character gets their own story mode. Normally that works well in BlazBlue, since every character is off doing their own thing, and they have in-story excuses for alternate timelines to exist - doesn't work as well in P4A, since it makes many of the stories quite repetitive, with each character doing much the same thing as the others. You do get some good joke endings out of it, though.

Also, the music? Amazing. Simply amazing.

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Dude...don't make me want it so bad! :smallamused:

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Hallelujah! :smallbiggrin:

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:smallbiggrin:

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But it encouraged using particular team members as well, to make sure you could strike each potential physical weakness. And it made the physical Persona skills much more meaningful - in Persona 4 a lot of them were very redundant, since they kept all of the old ones but changed them all to doing the same damage type. So you'd have things like Bash and Slash being basically the same move.

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True. Though, IMO, the physical attacks could stand a bit of parsing.

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:smallconfused: It did? I don't recall it having any. To me it just straight-up made no sense once you had teammates able to cast Recarm, or if you were carrying Revival Beads.

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Yeah.

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In P3, your main character contained the Death Shadow within him. If he dies, rather than the long drawn out Nyx approaches Earth thing, Death comes immediately. All that holds that back, is the Main Character Surviving.

And in P4, the main character represents Hope in Izanami's game, just as Adachi represents Emptiness and Namatame represents Despair. If the main dies, no more Hope. No more Hope, no more humanity.

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Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

Yeah.

[story stuff]

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:smallconfused: I was under the impression that being KOed in a battle was not the same as being killed, unless you had a total party wipe. Thus why your allies are revived (albeit with 1 hp) after a battle even if you don't use a revival spell or item. Heck, thus why revival spells and items work at all, yet you can still have drama from certain story events.

Aside: you should probably spoiler those, well, spoilers. Unless you intend for us to be able to freely discuss spoilery events, in which case adding a [spoilers] tag to the title would be appropriate.

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Originally Posted by Zevox

:smallconfused: I was under the impression that being KOed in a battle was not the same as being killed, unless you had a total party wipe. Thus why your allies are revived (albeit with 1 hp) after a battle even if you don't use a revival spell or item. Heck, thus why revival spells and items work at all, yet you can still have drama from certain story events.

Aside: you should probably spoiler those, well, spoilers. Unless you intend for us to be able to freely discuss spoilery events, in which case adding a [spoilers] tag to the title would be appropriate.

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I think partly, it's gameplay and story segregation. But, those are, at the very least, kinda workable reasons.

Done. :smallredface:

Ah, a Persona thread! Though I think we should expand to a general SMG thread... otherwise we're missing out on some other great games (Devil Survivor, Strange Journey, the main-line SMT games).

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Originally Posted by Zevox

As for what specifically I'd want in P5? Biggest thing: the ability to choose what skills a Persona inherits. The Devil Survivor series introduced this to SMT, and it needs to become a regular thing. Re-selecting a Persona fusion umpteen million times because the skill inheritance is random is the single genuinely bad part of those games and needs to go away. I will be completely fine if this leads to Personas having more limits on what skills they can have in order to balance it (i.e. the way the Devil Survivor demons get only three active and three passive skills, as opposed to any combination of eight on Personas), that's more than worth the trade-off.

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As somebody who moved from Devil Survivor to Persona (well, technically, the Strange Journey and THEN Persona), not being able to choose inherited skills was such a pain. I agree that it should definitely be limited in some way, though... what if you could choose, say, two skills to be definitely inherited, and the rest were random as previously.

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And really, that's about all as far as specific hopes go. I trust Persona Team completely when it comes to writing, so I'll just wait eagerly to learn what we're getting in that department, and my other gameplay changes would be minor. I'd like to see the three physical types from Persona 3 brought back, and I'd like the main character being KOed to no longer be an auto-game-over, but that's about it, and I won't be especially bothered if those don't happen.

I haven't yet played a game with anything more than a Phy/Gun split, so I suppose I shouldn't really comment on that... but three different types of physical moves just seems like it'd be annoying. The protagonist being an insta-game-over is definitely something that needs to change, though. There's nothing worse than being ambushed and dropped before you get a chance to act. Still possible without the protagonist's death being... well, a death sentence, but much less so.

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Originally Posted by Ogremindes

I'd like to see a return to indirect control in P5. I know not many people agree, but P3 and P4 spend no small amount of effort in putting you in the protagonist's shoes, and indirect control reinforces that. I found FES's AI worked well enough if you used the tactics commands, though the act freely mode certainly wasn't good enough.

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I think this'd work best if they got rid of game-over on protagonist death, as discussed above. Haven't played a game with indirect control yet either, but I've seen many complaints at the many game overs caused by P3's AI, and using Marin Karin instead of a Dia spell.

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Originally Posted by The Dark Fiddler

Ah, a Persona thread! Though I think we should expand to a general SMG thread... otherwise we're missing out on some other great games (Devil Survivor, Strange Journey, the main-line SMT games).

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Believe me, if I had played those games, I would have expanded it.

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I think this'd work best if they got rid of game-over on protagonist death, as discussed above. Haven't played a game with indirect control yet either, but I've seen many complaints at the many game overs caused by P3's AI, and using Marin Karin instead of a Dia spell.

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Freaking Mitsuru...:smallmad:

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Originally Posted by The Dark Fiddler

I haven't yet played a game with anything more than a Phy/Gun split, so I suppose I shouldn't really comment on that... but three different types of physical moves just seems like it'd be annoying. The protagonist being an insta-game-over is definitely something that needs to change, though. There's nothing worse than being ambushed and dropped before you get a chance to act. Still possible without the protagonist's death being... well, a death sentence, but much less so.

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I like the multiple physical categories because it helps even out the value of being Physical weak/strong/immune. With a single unified Physical category, having Phys Weak is a death sentence (because even caster-variety enemies sometimes just up and smack you) while being Strong, Immune, or even Draining Phys is radically overpowered. Splitting that into the three sub-element varieties means each one can be balanced for resists/weaknesses more like it was a standard element instead of being the one 'element' that you will encounter more often than any other and will be hit with in almost every fight you get into.

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Haven't played a game with indirect control yet either, but I've seen many complaints at the many game overs caused by P3's AI, and using Marin Karin instead of a Dia spell.

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If they wanted to go to indirect control, I'd like to see something like FF XII's conditionals tree, probably with available terms/number of conditions/obedience to those conditions linked to your S-Link with the particular group member and/or the overall party S-Link.

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Originally Posted by tyckspoon

I like the multiple physical categories because it helps even out the value of being Physical weak/strong/immune. With a single unified Physical category, having Phys Weak is a death sentence (because even caster-variety enemies sometimes just up and smack you) while being Strong, Immune, or even Draining Phys is radically overpowered. Splitting that into the three sub-element varieties means each one can be balanced for resists/weaknesses more like it was a standard element instead of being the one 'element' that you will encounter more often than any other and will be hit with in almost every fight you get into.

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Yeah, and that applies to both your Personas - it's so much easier in 4 to get a Persona that's immune to nearly everything than in 3 because of that - and to enemies. Enemies that are weak to physical attacks in 4 are a total joke, because anyone can destroy them with basic attacks. Enemies that are weak to particular physical types in 3 aren't quite so easy (although the first enemy or two that's weak to physical attacks were weak to all three, if memory serves), since only certain characters can hit that particular physical type.

As a moderate but nowhere near complete SMT veteran, I will say this:

Devil Survivor-level of being able to choose what to inherit is too damn convenient and broken. Non-deterministic inheritance system isn't perfect, but the idea of the knowledge and application of mechanics and theory tilting the odds in your favour is something I find to be far more rewarding than what Devil Survivor did. And it's also magnitudes better than the deterministic system used in SMT2.

Removing game over-on-main character defeat is not easy to do without killing the Megaten feel. When your main character is roughly equal to other party members in mechanics, like Serph is to rest of the DDS cast, Maya and the P2:EP cast, or El to the other 2 humans in Last Bible, you can get away with not having game over on protagonist defeat. But for a P3/P4 style protagonist (special snowflake being able to change personae) or a Nocturne (the only human in the party), or Strange Journey (only human in the party), or Raidou (see preceding two), I find it to be a critical aspect of the atmosphere and SMT's general standard of being tougher than a pushover.

So...I have officially picked up Persona 4: Arena. First off, a big 'THANK YOU' to Zevox for convincing me to pick it up, since it's a freaking awesome game! :smallbiggrin: I haven't played any story modes yet, but I have tried everyone out against the computer. My thoughts:

Yu: A typical jack-of-all-trades(And I don't mean that negatively.), he's capable of at least putting up a good fight from pretty much any angle and any distance, not to mention some of his best moves don't need his persona. (Raging Lion comes to mind.) One of my top five.

Yosuke: Can you say, speed demon? This dude, played right, laughs at almost everyone else when it comes to manuvering around the field. He's not the strongest, not by a long-shot, but he's got great combo potential plus the aforementioned speed. Another of my top five.

Chie: An odd mixture of moderate speed and moderate power, coupled with moderate combo potential. I think her biggest issue is a lack of any real ranged moves, meaning she can be countered hard if her opponent knows her timing well.

Yukiko: As much as this pains me to say, I really don't like Yukiko in this one. She's too frail, and her distance moves all have unusual timings and can be avoided too easily. She's not bad, played competently, but I still haven't found a good niche for her, myself.

Kanji: Power incarnate, at the cost of moving like a lump. However, his capacity for both high damage output and withstanding the same endears him to me, and the Brofist is so awesome. :smallbiggrin:

Teddie: Quite frankly, Teddie is hilarious, and his moves all make me laugh, since he doesn't even seem to be fighting, more like flailing about, and he can still eek out victories.

Naoto: A very technical character, who kinda demands her player know all of her moves by heart. That said, she is a potent force provided she can keep her distance and her gun shooting away at her opponent's fate gauge.

Mitsuru: Lots of interesting moves, but she just doesn't do it for me, and I'm not entirely sure why. I love her instant kill though.

Aegis: Awesome with a capital SOME. The ability to strike from any distance, coupled with the sheer power her Orgia mode grants her AND the mobility she also gets from it, makes her a one-robot kick ass machine. The third of my top five.

Elizabeth: A glass cannon if there ever was one, Liz still gets lucky because she has a ton of moves which deal status ailments out the wazoo, which she can dole out with ruthless efficiency. The fourth of my top five.

Akihiko: Ah, and here's the big man himself, my fav. Character. Yeah, he has no ranged moves apart from Maziodyne, but he's got a respectable defense coupled with some really fun to chain special moves, and I adore his instant kill. My final top five pick.

Labs. and Shadow Labs.: Not too bad, though I don't play as either often. But I can see the appeal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

So...I have officially picked up Persona 4: Arena. First off, a big 'THANK YOU' to Zevox for convincing me to pick it up, since it's a freaking awesome game! :smallbiggrin:

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You're welcome :smallbiggrin: . Glad to see someone else picking it up and loving it.

As far as characters go, took me a long time to whittle down my choices, but I wound up a Labrys main myself. Which is weird, because I normally don't go for big bruiser types, but Labby works better for me than anyone of that sort ever has. Fairly simple combos which can lead to big damage (immense damage if she reaches red axe level and uses her D Beast super), good range on her moves, a good oki tool (Weaver's Art: Sword), an amazing reversal super once in awakening mode - yeah, everything about her just wound up working for me.

Naoto I consider my second - I love going for her instant-kill Mudoon to close a match - and I was also playing some Elizabeth and Yukiko. Elizabeth actually gets some amazingly lengthy and damaging combos for a zoning character, and can even do them with relative ease once you learn to her use her Ex Garudyne to set up juggles, since she's continually gaining meter and will almost never be unable to use Ex Garudyne if you get a hit. Yukiko is hard to use, yeah, but still a lot of fun.

I really wish Mitsuru weren't a charge character, though. I'd like to play her, but I just can't get the hang of actually using charge moves practically in a fight, especially in combos.

Honestly, I'm of the opinion that you can't just get rid of the "game over on MC death" thing just because it's an annoyance, or a pain. The game mechanics themselves are part of why the games work.

I will say though that the ideas behind why game-over on death of the P3/P4 MC are a bit too out there for many people to grasp, and even then it's kind of a leap in logic. I mean...Getting into some spoilery endgame stuff for P3. Don't read if you haven't finished it. I'd do P4, but then I'd be turning my post into a CIA document, so I'll hold off.

Spoiler

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For games supposed to be focused around the "will of humanity as a whole" then why is it that ONE person decides whether or not humanity succeeds or fails? P3 is all about death, but in the end the idea is that not all of humanity wants death, therefore humanity as a whole shouldn't be granted death. Yet if the MC dies? Everything ends right then and there. It makes sense though, if you take your knowledge of the final battles

As far as P5 goes, I really do want to see a Persona game combining the casts of P3 and P4, since they are part of the same world and universe (P4A shows this, and it's been kinda established anyway). The issue I could see is who gets to be the MC, unless they pull something like ToX and prompt you to choose which side you want to play from.

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That and Minato from P3...

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Originally Posted by Eliirae

Honestly, I'm of the opinion that you can't just get rid of the "game over on MC death" thing just because it's an annoyance, or a pain. The game mechanics themselves are part of why the games work.

I will say though that the ideas behind why game-over on death of the P3/P4 MC are a bit too out there for many people to grasp, and even then it's kind of a leap in logic. I mean...Getting into some spoilery endgame stuff for P3. Don't read if you haven't finished it. I'd do P4, but then I'd be turning my post into a CIA document, so I'll hold off.

Spoiler

Show

For games supposed to be focused around the "will of humanity as a whole" then why is it that ONE person decides whether or not humanity succeeds or fails? P3 is all about death, but in the end the idea is that not all of humanity wants death, therefore humanity as a whole shouldn't be granted death. Yet if the MC dies? Everything ends right then and there. It makes sense though, if you take your knowledge of the final battles

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See, I simply disagree there - I don't think that game mechanic contributes anything to the story in that regard. Even looking at it in hindsight as you suggest, it strikes me as a weak justification for the mechanic, not an example of the mechanic contributing anything.

And as I've mentioned before it makes no logical sense anyway, particular if your party has any means of reviving you (whether items or someone knowing Recarm/Samarecarm), and even if they don't, if you win the battle your fallen party members get revived with 1 health, so apparently being KOed in a fight doesn't mean death unless you get a total party wipe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eliirae

As far as P5 goes, I really do want to see a Persona game combining the casts of P3 and P4, since they are part of the same world and universe (P4A shows this, and it's been kinda established anyway). The issue I could see is who gets to be the MC, unless they pull something like ToX and prompt you to choose which side you want to play from.

Spoiler

Show

That and Minato from P3...

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Considering the situation with Minato there, I think Yu is the obvious one they'd go with if they did that. Unless they decided to make Mitsuru or one of the other major P3 characters (Akihiko or Junpei?) playable, but they're too well-established as their own people to remake them as the pseudo-silent-protagonist, pseudo-player-avatar that Persona main characters have been. Not that I'd mind one of them being the main character without being turned into that sort of character, personally, but since that's how the series has worked so far I think it's safe to assume it will continue that way.