Your thoughts on the Persona 4 phenomenon

[bluerocker]

-snip-

-snip-

-snip-

Do you at least get rewarded more for your efforts? In P3, I dungeon crawled like crazy for a bit (currently in 5/13) and received little character development/story in return. Or is all the story in the Social Links? If so, I probably need to start over and pump my attributes up. According to a FAQ I read, those are important to get new Social Links and you REALLY need to pump them up to start out well.

 

[Dragoon]

Do you at least get rewarded more for your efforts? In P3, I dungeon crawled like crazy for a bit (currently in 5/13) and received little character development/story in return. Or is all the story in the Social Links? If so, I probably need to start over and pump my attributes up. According to a FAQ I read, those are important to get new Social Links and you REALLY need to pump them up to start out well.

Well there is pretty much no story in Tarturus itself when you are just going up the level except the notes you find at the top of each level. All the story is on the Full Moon and most of the character development is in the social links. As for the attributes you should probably follow a guide and do what they say, to get the most out of Social Links you really need to get your attributes to certain levels by certain dates.

 

[G-Force]

I haven't played P4 yet, and I'm currently slogging through 3. Tell me, is it really THAT necessary to play 3 before 4? Because, so far, I'm not really digging 3. There's just SO much grinding...

In general the SMT series has been known to be difficult and they usually want players to overcome the challenges through skillful persona fusions as opposed to grinding. If you want to avoid the grind the best thing to do is start maxing out S.links and fusing strong personas.

 

[MisterShine]

Do you at least get rewarded more for your efforts? In P3, I dungeon crawled like crazy for a bit (currently in 5/13) and received little character development/story in return. Or is all the story in the Social Links?

One of the weak points of P3 that P4 addresses, each dungeon in P4 is about a specific person (usually a party member) that provides a look at the character and how they develop because of the crazy circumstances. Their S-Links after you complete their dungeon further explores the issues raised.

In P3, grinding up Tartarus doesn't really expand on the story at all outside the bits of documents you find as Dragoon mentioned, all of it happens during the full-moon missions, S-links and the various events that happen on some days. If the grinding is a little too much or annoying for you, I'd recommend playing the game on Beginner. Very little grinding outside of just working your way quickly up the tower is required, but you still need to pay attention to mechanics and your persona to beat the bosses.

According to a FAQ I read, those are important to get new Social Links and you REALLY need to pump them up to start out well.

Assuming you want to see all the stuff in one go, you'll need to follow a guide to the day to level up your stats and S-links right. This can be a little tedious having to keep a guide open all the time and doing what it says, but if you're okay with missing some things, here's what you need stats for:

Fuuka's S-link needs max courage, it starts mid-june.
Yukari's S-link needs max charm, and it starts late july
Mitsuru's S-link needs max academics, and it starts early/mid november. That's all you really need the stats for.

Also keep in mind there is a NG+ which lets you keep all your persona's and your stats for the next run through, giving you more than enough time to max all your links the second go around.

 

[Cheesepower5]

I love Persona. Not my favourite SMT series, but I'm glad people like it - shows I'm not alone.

 

[bluerocker]

-Snippy doodles-

There's a NG+? *Is a first time player of any Persona games* Does that apply to FES as well?

 

[Dybia]

Arena looks like an awesome legitimate sequel. It would be shit if they called it Persona 5, but they did right and even teased a huge element of Persona 5 in the true ending to Arena. That was an awesome way to give us the smallest of details on the next actual Persona title and give us even more of our favorite characters from the last 2 games.

 

[MisterShine]

-Snippy doodles-

There's a NG+? *Is a first time player of any Persona games* Does that apply to FES as well?

Indeed FES does as well.

P4 also has an NG+, while P3 transfers money, persona, stats, S-link items and MC level (as well as opens a new area in tartarus with a special bonus boss), P4 transfers all those minus MC level. Though we're still not sure how Persona 4: Golden handles it (the new Vita remake)

Arena looks like an awesome legitimate sequel.

Originally I had very little interest in buying Arena (I really just don't like fighting games.. especially at 60 bucks), then they have to go and announce it has like a 40-hour long story mode that actually adds to the Persona-verse.

Well played, Atlus. Well played.

 

[bluerocker]

-snip-

Ah! Now I don't feel like a total idiot in P3 then. I thought this was one of those RPGs where things are LOST FOREVER because of one play-through limitations; especially after reading the guide for Social Links. Thank you!

 

[keiji_Maeda]

I don't know about mass public opinion, what's that?

I would usually cynically attribute a lot of this multi-media merchandising to milking the fanbase, but I'm caught up in it too. I think games such as P4 deserve the whole media franchise treatment, within moderation. It's almost outdone Final Fantasy VII's franchise in a short period of time. I don't recall FF7 getting an arena treatment, an anime, and an updated remake. Yet ATLUS should stop after that and focus on the sequel.

Actually....me and a bucnhof other folks bought Ehrgeiz (god bless the ring) Just to be allowed to play as tifa/cloud and sephiroth back in thar olden days.

 

[TehCookie]

-snip-

Ah! Now I don't feel like a total idiot in P3 then. I thought this was one of those RPGs where things are LOST FOREVER because of one play-through limitations; especially after reading the guide for Social Links. Thank you!

Well the person above beat me to it, but like they said the NG+ doesn't transfer everything. You don't get to keep your items or personas but you keep your money and compendium so it's best to sell off everything you don't need so you can buy your favorite personas back.

Also in Persona there's no story in the dungeons. In P3 if you make it to the blockade you'll have no trouble with the boss and you don't have to go back to Tartarus until the next are opens up. If it's still feeling grindy to get there just remember to buff and exploit.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I don't know about mass public opinion, what's that?

I would usually cynically attribute a lot of this multi-media merchandising to milking the fanbase, but I'm caught up in it too. I think games such as P4 deserve the whole media franchise treatment, within moderation. It's almost outdone Final Fantasy VII's franchise in a short period of time. I don't recall FF7 getting an arena treatment, an anime, and an updated remake. Yet ATLUS should stop after that and focus on the sequel.

Ahem...

 

[dimensional]

My thoughts are Persona 4 is good very good its probably my third favourite RPG but I was sceptical of it beating 3 thankfully I was wrong very wrong. That said it is not amazing just great and I am far from seeing it as a phenomena it is still quite niche and that is why it is not hated much, its pretty small fry overall.

Anyway I love the game and the anime was ok as well and I am stoked for Persona 4 Arena but they are only selling to the converted you ask the average gaming crowd about Persona 4 and they wont have a clue what you are talking about.