Board 8 > I have purchased Persona 5.

(+) Yeah! (+)

swordz9 posted...

If youve never played any SMT stuff I cant wait to see how you react when you see Mara >__>

Isn't Mara one of the bosses in Kamoshida's palace? In fact, I think that's what this is referring to:

Anagram posted...

So the boss is a giant penis with a mouth. I'm not sure what I expected, but it certainly isn't this.

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That's not Mara's true form
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I should also say that I'm really liking the game's music.

I'm a little unclear on why they didn't just voice everything, they voice like 40% of the dialogue and I can't imagine it would be that much more difficult to just finish it, but eh.
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Anagram posted...

I can't imagine it would be that much more difficult to just finish it

Why not? It was probably script changes or translation issues and such. There's like thousands of pages of dialogue, I'm amazed they got anything voiced at all
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If there's one thing I don't really like about this game, it's how many days have unexpected events that you can't skip or do anything else during.
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foolm0r0n posted...

Why not? It was probably script changes or translation issues and such. There's like thousands of pages of dialogue, I'm amazed they got anything voiced at all

I imagine it was a lot of work, but they obviously already had all of the voice actors already present. I don't know anything about voice acting, though, I was just assuming they finished all of the translations before actually doing the voicing.
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Voice acting is one of the most expensive things to do when making a game that also isn't strictly necessary, so it was probably budget reasons.

Anagram posted...

foolm0r0n posted...

Why not? It was probably script changes or translation issues and such. There's like thousands of pages of dialogue, I'm amazed they got anything voiced at all

I imagine it was a lot of work, but they obviously already had all of the voice actors already present. I don't know anything about voice acting, though, I was just assuming they finished all of the translations before actually doing the voicing.

Actually there's a crapload of unused voice lines in the game for some reason. Not just unused battle stuff, but stuff for cut plot lines. And they're all dubbed.
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Finally got a new main quest with the artist guy.
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I've heard people say that P5 makes it hard to play P3 and 4 due to updated game mechanics. What exactly is different between them?
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You just have more direct control over the gameplay, such as which skills to pass on to your fused Personas. In the original P3, you couldn't even control any party members in battle except the protagonist. Your Confidants give you a lot more benefits than S. Links do in the previous two games, too.
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Yeah Confidants are the big thing, I'd say. They have such a huge impact on every part of the game thanks to the benefits they give you, while S Links really don't do anything other than level up your personas upon fusion. Because P5 improved on the system so much, P3/4's S Links feel almost pointless by comparison, which isn't great considering they're the main focus of half the game.
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Well, Persona 4 gave your party members benefits when you leveled up their S. Links, but it was on a much smaller scale than what P5 does.

I would disagree that it makes the previous game's S. Links feel "pointless" because I didn't want to do them for the gameplay benefits. That was just a bonus.
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Hence the "almost!" Story is great but IMO things are generally better when elements in a game all have significant meaning to the gameplay. That's what makes the medium unique, after all.
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IDK on the whole I do agree the Confidants are better than S.Links but it isn't because of any gameplay integration. It's that the writing is much better. I couldn't really care less about what you get from them and specifically didn't look anything up or focus on ones I wanted to get perks from when I played because it kind of cheapened it for me.

Xiahou Shake posted...

Hence the "almost!"

I mean I wouldn't even put an "almost" there either

the gameplay bonuses aren't the point of having them in the first place
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Did P1 and P2 have confidants and stuff?
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Nah, that started with P3. It's a big reason why the series took off at that point.
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P5>P4>P3 in S. Links. The gameplay benefits don't matter to me that much, I'm in it for the writing which is still overall better, but not by a ton.

P1 and P2 do not have S. Links / Confidants.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Nah, that started with P3. It's a big reason why the series took off at that point.

I see, thanks. It just interests me that I hear constant talk about this series but nothing about P1 and 2.
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I'm currently playing through P5 for the the first time as well, but am much further along than you. I, too, remember a period where I couldn't find Ann anywhere for a while. Then she just showed up finally.
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Guess I've got the unpopular opinion here on the whole gameplay vs. story thing! That's fine, though. It's good that folks can engage with the game and love it for different reasons.
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guffguy89 posted...

I'm currently playing through P5 for the the first time as well, but am much further along than you. I, too, remember a period where I couldn't find Ann anywhere for a while. Then she just showed up finally.

Well I finally got to the second major villain and again I can't find her anywhere. It's kind of weird.
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Anagram posted...

Hm, thanks. I keep getting a confidant opportunity for Yongen-jaya, but I'm pretty sure that's just the clinic lady. There's one for the school, but that's just Ryuji, and the mall doesn't light up with one, so eh.

To expand on this - When you open your quick travel map, you can press square on a location to get more info on it. Most notably, if the confidant icon is showing up there, it shows you which confidant(s) are available there at the moment and even if they're going to rank up if you spend time with them.

As for Ann specifically, I know people have mentioned this before but her normal location is the Shibuya Underground Mall (where the flower shop, etc. are). It's possible I suppose that she might hang out in your classroom until you pass the Kindness check, but I'm guessing not because you'd obviously find her if that were the case.

The final thing I can think of, but shouldn't be relevant to your situation, is that Palace Progression can mess with party member availability. Specifically, if you're at the point where your next step is to send a Calling Card, none of your party will hang out until you actually do so.
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xp1337 posted...

To expand on this - When you open your quick travel map, you can press square on a location to get more info on it. Most notably, if the confidant icon is showing up there, it shows you which confidant(s) are available there at the moment and even if they're going to rank up if you spend time with them.

This is very useful, thanks. I still can't level up with the doctor girl because I have low guts, but eh.

Anyway, I'm on the museum palace now. I have three lockpicks and I'm hoping to manage this entire thing in one day.
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Also, any advice for how to get a specific persona with a specific ability? I have a sidequest for a jack frost with mabufu.
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IIRC that one you can just level up and it'll learn it eventually

you will also pick up Skill Cards throughout the game that'll let you put skills directly on a Persona...I think there's free DLC that gives you a handful of good ones?

Other than that it's just breeding stuff onto other stuff, which I am too lazy to pursue at length
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Hmm, I think the way I'd approach it - without using a fusion table/guide, would look something like this. Sorry if this gets a bit wordy.

1. Get ahold of a Persona with Mabufu. What kind of persona it is doesn't matter, we're just looking for the skill so we can pass it via fusion.

2. Head over to the Velvet Room. Under fusion there should be an option that shows you what you can make. I forget what it's called, but instead of picking two persona to fuse, it shows you every possible result you could make with what you've got on you.

What you're looking for is either Jack Frost, or failing that, Jack Frost's Arcana (Magician). If by chance, you can actually fuse him with the Persona that has Mabufu, congrats you win! But we'll keep going assuming you're not that lucky.

Next best case is that you see Jack Frost as an option, and can fuse the Mabufu Persona into one of the Persona you need to make him. You'd fuse the Mabufu Persona into that, passing Mabufu down, and then fuse that with whatever the other ingredient was and you're done.

If none of this applies...

3. The way fusion works is that your result is determined by the Arcana of the personae you fuse. So Fool + Magician = Death Persona, Magician + Priestess = Temperance Persona, etc. So if you see Jack Frost or any other Magician type on your possible list, you can look at the two persona used and know that combo gets you a Magician type. Your goal will now become getting your Mabufu Persona fused into one of those two types.

So let's say you see a Magician possibility on your list from a Priestess + Hierophant fusion. You know that combo will always give you a magician so if you can fuse your Mabufu guy into a Priestess or Hierophant type, you've got one half of the equation and can summon the other half from the compendium if needed.

Continuing with this example, let's say you fused your Mabufu Persona into a Hierophant type. Now all you need is the right Priestess type to combine with it to give you Jack Frost. The only tricky part here is while Priestess + Hierophant = Magician, what Magician you get is based on the level of the personae you're fusing (specifically their base level, it ignores any levels you gained after.) So if you try looking at a fusion and you're not getting Jack Frost but say, Nekomata - a stronger (Level 17) Magician type what you need to do is try fusing with a weaker Priestess type. Basically, the game takes the average of the two persona levels to determine what you're going to get.

So yeah...

There's also a special case where if you fuse two Persona of the same type, you always get that type back. So Magician + Magician = Magician. Let's say you tried but you just can't get Jack Frost out of that, only Nekomata. So if you fuse Nekomata (and passed Mabufu to it) you can now fuse it with another Magician type and you're probably going to get Jack Frost. There's more to this but I feel this has gotten a bit compicated as it is so I'll leave that out for now.

A bit later on you'll have an alternate - if unreliable - way to get skills on Persona as well, but really fusion is the best way to deal with this kind of thing in most cases.
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Tom Bombadil posted...

IIRC that one you can just level up and it'll learn it eventually

This is true too, in this particular case Jack Frost will learn it naturally at Level 12.

i uh... forgot that because that's usually not the case for those requests

>_>
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I remembered it because I filled it accidentally and haven't done any of them since :P
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Thanks.

I can tell these are going to be recurring, and I may just not bother unless the rewards are crazy good or something.
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Well, you do gain a few ways to get skills on persona without messing with fusion later on but yeah it's up to you if you want to bother with the requests.
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The rewards for that quest line are very much worth the effort if you at all enjoy fusion, I'd say.
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By the way, I like how Kamoshida's medieval castle has medieval guards and the museum has security guards, nice little touch.
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So is every dungeon in a Persona game some real world location warped into a fantasticized version? Because I'm so far digging this museum.
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Anagram posted...

So is every dungeon in a Persona game some real world location warped into a fantasticized version? Because I'm so far digging this museum.

Nah. That's a P5-exclusive.

P4 has a similar undercurrent thematically but it's not the same. P3 is completely different.
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Also in P3 and P4, dungeons are randomized hallways, not handcrafted. So there are no puzzles or anything.

P3's sole dungeon is a gigantic over 200 floor tower called Tartarus that just changes aesthetic between sections.

P4's dungeons are conceptually sort of like Palaces, but only really visually similar in terms of aesthetic.

xp1337 posted...

Nah. That's a P5-exclusive.

P4 has a similar undercurrent thematically but it's not the same. P3 is completely different.

Aw, that's one of the cooler elements for me.
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Bleh, you can't finish this dungeon in one day. Lame, I'm not even close to exhausted.
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Xiahou Shake posted...

The rewards for that quest line are very much worth the effort if you at all enjoy fusion, I'd say.

You don't have to enjoy fusion for the payoff, those rewards are crazy powerful.

I would suggest a guide for it if you can't wrap your head around it. P5's is a lot more forgiving but I think I still needed it for a few ranks.
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This boss that confuses you and makes you throw away money and use valuable items is a jerk.
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I am choosing to assume that having an old shogun wearing lipstick is some kind of Japanese cultural thing I just don't get and that this is supposed to look serious and threatening.
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the museum was one of my favorite dungeons. I liked the small nuances like the looped recording.
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guffguy89 posted...

the museum was one of my favorite dungeons. I liked the small nuances like the looped recording.

I forgot to mention that, that's a great touch.

I had to look up who Goemon is. He's not a literary figure like the other protagonists' personas, so that seems like an odd move.
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Goemon's a tricky one since he was a real person but he's by far better known today through a famous play showing a heavily fictionalized version of his life.
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If we're allowing for that kind of thing, it's kind of surprising King Arthur isn't around in this game. Unless he is and I haven't found him yet.
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Anagram posted...

xp1337 posted...

Nah. That's a P5-exclusive.

P4 has a similar undercurrent thematically but it's not the same. P3 is completely different.

Aw, that's one of the cooler elements for me.

Yeah, dungeons is the one area where P5 clearly blows the other two out of the water.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Yeah, dungeons is the one area where P5 clearly blows the other two out of the water.

I don't know about the actual mechanical design of the dungeons, it's nothing special, but the idea of "egotistical person emotionally warps reality into how he views the world by turning a mundane location into a fantastical scary version of itself" is legitimately one of the smartest ideas I've ever seen in a video game.
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Well, Persona 4 does something similar with its dungeons in that they're created by the unconscious perceptions of the one who creates them. It's just that the people who create the dungeons in P4 are generally good guys, not bad guys.
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I enjoy how everyone is all "Madarame is unforgivable" and they're treating him as if he was one-one-thousandth as bad as Kamoshida, who was clearly much more evil and harmful.
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