Persona (Shin Megami Tensei)

Started P3P on series x.

Looks like shit, it is silly slow and boring to start and it's all a bit tedious and annoying after playing 4 and 5 more recently. Hasn't aged well, it should just stay in my nostalgia memories from when I played on psp years ago.

Suddenly 4 hours have gone, just reached the first barrier in tartarus and am hooked. It is brilliant.

I was still a (late) teenager when 3 came out, so I thought that was the coolest shit ever at the time. That and the flashy anime cutscenes, I remember thinking it was like if Gainax made an RPG. 4 and 5 never matches the tone of 3 IMO, though they’re also great RPGs in their own right.

Playing P3P and FES side by side on my deck really shows the absolute travesty that is the big drop in theme and aesthetics in P3P. It’s a better game for the tightened up gameplay for sure but it comes at pretty large loss. Like the first appearance of Orpheus, in FES you’ve got that super stylish fmv with all the right music and sounds, it’s pretty intense. In P3P your blank face protagonist picks up the evoker and triggers it with no hesitation or emotion.

Also P3P really is a lazy port, they just ran everything through an upscaler and called it good, even some of the iconography looks weird and distorted.

Aye, I'm considering dropping it too, especially if a proper remake is planned. Never played the original, so it's kind of hard to warm to this without a spark of nostalgia to keep me going.

Just found out that you can pay to heal AND restore SP though, which is nice for a change.

Probably because it was the most recent one. It was in 16:9 and it did include the girl protagonist playthrough with its unique soundtrack and social links. But yeah, FES >>>>

See now I'm wondering after my new found love for JRPGs if I should add this to the list. I loved 4 and loving 5. Worried this will be a step too far back with no nostalgia to paper the cracks.

Am tempted to replay 4 as been a long time since I've played that.

If you can emulate P3 FES, that’s the way to go. A lot of the things that 4 and 5 are praised for originated in the original Persona 3 release. FES added a few additional features, scenes, and an expansion focused on Aegis.

15 hours into P3P and I can confirm that it holds up fantastic. It is weird how playing retro games your mind fills in the blanks so quickly. The first 10 minutes are all "fuck me this low poly pretty static fighting looks shit." Then you start noticing little things like everyone using their gun differently or music changes and then suddenly it genuinely looks as good and immersive as P5. Weird how the brain works.

Just finished 3rd section or Tartarus, doing all Tartarus in one day as I always do in Persona games. It is very grindy and frustrating, but just stays on the right side of being stupid. Insta death dark spells that bypass damage should have been patched out though. Fuck Hama and that bullshit.

Speaking of grind I am dropping the requests already. Request 3 or something is a sword, guides tell me it is a rare chest in zone 1, or a level two weapon card. 35 cards and 10 chests later it still hasn't popped. And you can only get some things in certain areas. Completionist me want to do all these, but this old school grind can fuck right off.

Despite frustrations still 10/10 so far.

I'm enjoying P3P so far, the VN style is a great fit for the switch, and I don't think it looks too bad considering it's age. Not sure I'd want to play it on a big screen like this though. The lack of cutscenes sound like a bit of a loss but not the end of the world.

In persona 5 is it possible to max out all the companions without a guide?

I did the same and failed because I left one just too late. If you want to do it in one run, use a guide.

Royal, didn't want to use a guide, just wanted to know if I need to sweat over it or not lol. Think I'll chill on this playthrough and any future ones go for the max.

In terms of "answers" do you get more "points" as it were for the answers you give to friends etc? Didn't know that made a difference.

Each to their own but I never got the appeal of min/maxing stuff. Makes it less of a personal experience in my opinion, stops it being a game you experience and more a checklist to beat. But then there’s people who speed read books just to check off arbitrary lists on Goodreads so who knows.

Its something I tend to be more interested in for New Game+ or subsequent replays. In p4 and 5s case, I think you keep all your stats, which, along with the extended time in the expanded versions, gives you plenty of time to get the confidants up naturally (though maybe a guide to understand schedules or which confidants don't need persona boosts, etc.)

But on the first playthrough i agree its more fun to embrace your choices and roll with it.