Together RPG - Persona 3 - 2/1 - 4/1

[ElkinFencer10]

Hey, I played this game a few months ago!

[TSTR]

Crush as much Tartarus as you can stand/your characters can make it through without getting wore out. I think they also overhauled the "tired" status system in P3P too?

[MrPopo]

I believe so; I think you only get tired after getting out of the dungeon in P3P.

[Exhuminator]

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post; although the plot is intriguing I was confused the first time the protagonist used an Evoker. During that initial battle on the roof top, he just grabbed the dropped Evoker, put it to his head, and pulled the trigger. I found this strange because at that point in the story, the protagonist doesn't know what an Evoker is, and for all he knew he was putting an actual gun to his head. All I can figure is he was so scared of the shadow monster, that he was actually trying to kill himself.

Anyway, last night I played through Tartarus until a gate remained closed, and I was told I could go no further. This happened once I reached floor 16. Upon leaving Tartarus suddenly my party was "Tired", so I think that status effect does indeed only take hold once leaving Tartarus.

I'm currently four hours in, at the beginning of May, and on floor 16 of Tartarus. I am not allowed to go any further. I've been doing random things around town and school. I've failed to join any clubs, but I am a member of the Student Council. Haven't had any dating opportunities yet, I'm probably doing something wrong insofar as the whole social link stuff is concerned. I try to talk to anyone I'm around at least. Fusing's go well, as I've been fusing Personas whenever possible to create stronger ones as I go forward. I was a bit taken aback to find you gain Personas as bonus cards after battle, as opposed to classic SMT where you negotiate with demons to have them join your party.

At this point I'd call the game extraordinarily formulaic, but that's not a criticism, just an observation. I like the atmosphere, monster designs, NPC interaction, and mysterious backdrop concerning the apathy syndrome, shadows, coffins, Tartarus and all of that. If I have any criticism, it's that so far Persona 3 has been cake easy, like babby's first JRPG easy. When I started P3P, it had five difficulty levels. Now I always choose "Normal" by default when playing a game for the first time, so that's what I did here. I'm surprised how simple P3P has been regarding challenge, in contrast to Nocturne and Soul Hackers. Hopefully the difficulty will start to creep up soon.

[MrPopo]

None of the enemies have Mudo/Hama yet; I think the second set of Tartarus floors has that. Persona 3 and 4 do indeed start off as easy, though Persona 4 at least has the initial boss fights be pretty hard. Enemies get better at striking weakness or being varied to prevent you from getting easy All Out Attacks as the game goes on.

[Exhuminator]

In Nocturne I had a Magatama which voided Mudo and Hama. I guess I'll just fuse a Persona in P3P which can cast Tetraja. I am glad to see elements of the Press Turn system in place in P3P. Meaning that enemies can eventually begin to exploit bonus moves against you. That was one of the nastiest thing enemies would do in Nocturne; daisy chaining bonus attacks as a domino effect of death.

[Stark]

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post; although the plot is intriguing I was confused the first time the protagonist used an Evoker. During that initial battle on the roof top, he just grabbed the dropped Evoker, put it to his head, and pulled the trigger. I found this strange because at that point in the story, the protagonist doesn't know what an Evoker is, and for all he knew he was putting an actual gun to his head. All I can figure is he was so scared of the shadow monster, that he was actually trying to kill himself.

I thought the same thing! As an outside observer, I understood what was going on, but WTF is he doing??!? No one told him what that does.

I'm stuck at level 16 of Tartarus too, but I think that is about to change as I'm at a place outside of Tartarus and preparing to battle something. Hopefully I've leveled enough!

[TSTR]

The dating stuff only comes when you level up your Social Links with a chick (or guy, I guess, never did P3P) to a certain level, IIRC.

Also, I love the student council girl.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, FeMC can date the males of the team.

[TSTR]

Oh yeah, I knew that. Just didn't know if the S.Link progression was the same.