[PS2] SMT: Persona 3 (The RPG to keep talking about, since :awesome:) Now with more PEZ.

Originally Posted by Syndrome

Alright, I'm now 3 hours into this game.
First impressions are great, the art style and music really fits and are to my liking. The menus are great, controls feel good and battle is fun.

My only worry at the moment is ...

Spoiler:

Tantarus. Will most of the fighting in this game occur on Tantarus, and will it always look the same? I mean, it gets a little repetive, although battle is mostly fun.

Spoiler:

All fighting takes place on Tantarus as far as I'm aware. There are texture set changes as you get higher up, but every floor is randomly generated so don't expect much in the way of variety. This unfortunately is my major beef with SMT games. Fortunately fighting is only half of what makes up Persona 3.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Quote:

Rush on enemies you know you can defeat regardless of knowing their weakness? I have problems conserving SP, but it's never been a huge deal to me.

Yeah, and actually learning how to use and time rush gives you a reasonable level of control over the other characters in battle and is the only real way to control SP consumption (they still use SP even if commanded to conserve). Just check the order of attacks and keep track of who's turn it is. You can toggle on and off rush to force someone to use a physical attack rather than blowing SP.

Anyway,

I have a question if someone is able to answer it. I'm trying to avoid reading any FAQs so it's why I'm asking here. I'm going to put the question in spoilers as not to risk spoiling anything for some people. It's a very minor spoiler regarding the first term finals.

Spoiler:

Anyone know what Academics level is needed to score top of the class in the first term finals?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

As good as the battle system is, I hope I'm not the only one enjoying the high school sim aspect a lot more than the fighting aspects. This game just has a unexplainable level of charm drawing me in exemplified by the event at the very start of summer break:

Spoiler:

Operation Girl Hunt had me lol'in. It's not like the premise is anything new but just the way the game pulled it off was perfect. The music choice and the fact that they put you in standard mission exploration mode was great.

The social link situations are also all worth pursuing. None of the content in them has had me thinking they were overly stupid, illogical, boring, pointless, cheesy, etc.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Rock

There's one thing about the process of Persona fusing that's been really bothering me: You're basically lost if you don't use a fusing guide or note down combinations on your own. Just why is it that the game can't provide you with a list of recipes?

I don't want to resort to GameFAQs just to find out how to fuse that certain type of Persona I require to beat a certain boss. Experimenting isn't an option and trying a sheer infinite amount of combinations takes ages.

I don't know, but the entire fusing business still doesn't sit right with me. That's a shame, especially since it seems to be a central aspect of the game.

I actually save then do some experimentation and write down the results. Personally it's a nice throw-back for me and allows for some discovery rather than just going through the motions and getting the results you were after. The fusion system is daunting at first but if you spend some time messing around with it I think you'd pick up how fusion and inheritance works as there is a logic to it based on their type. An in-game fusion history would be good though.

My major problem is remembering what skills do what. Most of the skills are basically romajinized Japanese/Chinese so the names themselves are not descriptive for most English speakers AND you can't even see the skill descriptions until you actually get into battle and equip the Persona.

Speaking of which, has anyone come across a good skills list for the English version of the game?

Most amazing jew boots

After a marathon weekend run I finally beat the game as I had to break my addiction to the game before the school semester is in full swing. Let me just say best last boss ever.

Spoiler:

The Nyx Avatar battle will be the most memorable boss battle ever.

-Awesome boss design. Check.
-AWESOME background battle music. Check.
-Actual difficulty. Check (if you don't overlevel yourself in the optional dungeon)

Also the narration by Nyx as s/he changed forms was great. It was probably the one element that makes the entire battle stick out in my mind.

Originally Posted by Guest

Spoiler:

I cried tears of joy when Shinjoro died.. Does he get replaced? Without giving me a name just say yes or no please. I'm hoping Chidori joins.

Nope

Also about the FES issue. All I can say is that Jim Ireton, the VP for Atlus US is someone who I have dealt with on both a personal and business level in the past. Inside infoz tells me that P3 was a pet project of his and he's been extremely pleased with the response it's been getting here. I wouldn't give up on the possibility of FES just yet. Jim is gamer before he's a businessman and is the main reason you see so many releases for Atlus that you'd never expect. They don't run Atlus like a big corporation like say Square-Enix. Take the time to email him and tell him how much you enjoyed P3 your desire to see FES released in the US and I can tell you he'll seriously consider the prospect if for anything a service to the fans.

I was speaking idiomatically.

A new Persona could end up being extremely good or extremely depressing news for me. At the risk of INNOVATION INNOVATION being screamed in my face, the next Persona would have to be very close in graphic style, music style and execution to Persona 3 for me to be really excited about it. If they could basically take Persona 3 and deepen the simulation aspect and have the choices have more of an impact on the main story and clean up the random dungeon aspect, I would consider it the perfect announcement.

But I guess I'll have to wait and see what they announce for it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Oh sure, FES rumors start picking up again right after I read through an entire spoiler transcript of Episode Aegis.

Oh well, I still want it for the social link conclusions alone which I haven't read yet.

How ya doing, buddy?

YouTube - Persona 3 Intro

Skip to 52 seconds.

Yeah this pretty much confirms FES is coming to the US. Exciting!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Chaotic

Not to get anyone's hopes down, but has anyone else looked at the source for the countdown site?

Looks like someone copy-pasted a previous page is all.

Plus there is nothing to announce about Trauma Center. Atlus USA isn't a developer and Atlus Japan doesn't have a game for them to localize.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Does anyone happen to know if the remixed music for FES shows up in the main game or are they limited to Episode Aegis?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Apparently you don't need a completed game to carry over your character personality stats and the Persona list. It just uses the current value from whatever saved game you have.

I'd just start over with FES converting what data you currently have.



This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.