Board 8 > Anagram plays Persona 3 (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

People enjoyed my Persona 5 playthrough topic, so I figured why not do another one? I started the game like five months ago and got like two hours in. Last thing I remember is getting back from the first tutorial mission in the dungeon. I don't know whether or not to just restart, so B8 can tell me. Here's what I remember:
- There's a Dark Hour after midnight where monsters show up and normal people turn into cocoons
- Four high schoolers and an older man who has some job at the school formed a club with a silly name to investigate
- There's a big computer they use to watch things
- There's a dungeon called Tartarus in the Metaverse? I don't remember what its deal is
- You can't control your party members

My goal is to beat the game by January 7, which is when school starts back up for me.
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Yeah, you've pretty much got the gist of everything you need to know at this point, so just keep going.
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Oh, I remember one of the high school girls not knowing who her father was, and the older guy being about the right age, so I called him secretly being her father. I hope that turns out to be 100% wrong and for myself to look like an idiot, but we'll see.
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that's generally what I root for too
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Burn my tag.
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LeonhartFour posted...

that's generally what I root for too

Oh you
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Mitsuru best Persona girl

Also tag
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Best Persona game hype
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Which version: Original or FES?
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Are you playing the superior PSP version? If not, why?
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PSP version actually lets you control your characters, so yes it's much better
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I am playing FES. I heard about the PSP version being superior, but I don't own a PSP.
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There are ways to play the PSP version without owning a PSP you know...

Like borrowing it from a friend.
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Persona 3 Portable is digitally available on the Vita if you have one of those. Not much reason to change and replay the intro at this point though.

Don't have a Vita either. I'm playing on the PS2... I think. I don't actually remember if I put the disk in the PS2 or PS3.
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The PSP version has worse overall presentation than the PS2 version, so unless you just want to play as the girl instead of the guy, it's a wash on which one is better.
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Raka_Putra posted...

Burn my tag.

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FES is much better than the PSP version. You like walk around and stuff as opposed to everything being through menus and point and click screens. Much more immersive. Plus, I actually ended up enjoying not directly controlling the party members. You can influence their actions such as attack, defend, buff, etc, but not directly control what they choose to do. Made the game a bit more immersive and it was kind of fun having to account for not having direct control.

Except of course this will happen at some point
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/Precto/persona3comic.jpg
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Walking around town is easily the worst part of Persona games so I'm glad they took it out
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trdl23 posted...

Raka_Putra posted...

Burn my tag.

I want to get around to replaying p3, but first I need to fix my ps2
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OliviaTremor posted...

FES is much better than the PSP version. You like walk around and stuff as opposed to everything being through menus and point and click screens. Much more immersive. Plus, I actually ended up enjoying not directly controlling the party members. You can influence their actions such as attack, defend, buff, etc, but not directly control what they choose to do. Made the game a bit more immersive and it was kind of fun having to account for not having direct control.

Except of course this will happen at some point
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/Precto/persona3comic.jpg

The walking and immersion aren't worth shit relative to the mere chance of the thing described by that comic coming to pass.

Also Female MC has better social links tbqh

Immersion and atmosphere is worth a ton, actually.
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Running around town is fun exactly once, then it becomes tedious when you have to do it every single day
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Tag.
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Gonna start after class tonight, around 7 PST.
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And so resumes the adventures of Frank Larsson, whose last save was in Tartarus.
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Oh man, I forgot about Junpei. I think of him as a Ryuji knockoff, but obviously it's the other way around.
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devastating insult to junpei right there
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Ryuji wishes he could be as good as Junpei.
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Haha, nice flip phone, jackass.
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I never felt like

tag tag tag tag taggggg
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Met the school nurse? who said he'd only talk if I'm tired or sick.
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"Who, these girls? I don't even know their names. They talk so much they give me a headache."

Said literally closer to the girls than to the guy he's talking to.
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So is Junpei the Morgana of this game, who's gonna tell me to do plot stuff when I want to explore?
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Anagram posted...

Met the school nurse? who said he'd only talk if I'm tired or sick.

If you're ever tired or sick and you talk to him you can take a medicine he gives you for a free point in courage (no time passes.)

So, I mean, if the opportunity arises, do so but don't stress about it. Even from a min/max standpoint trying to abuse that is unneeded.
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I'm assuming you can't go out at night and do Tartarus during the same night.
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You can't do an activity that passes time, no.

I... think you can leave the dorm and do stuff that doesn't pass time, like shopping, and then return to the dorm and go to Tartarus but it's been years so I'm not positive.
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I'll be honest: fighting enemies while dressed in normal school clothes is weird. I don't know if P4 or P5 invented costumes, but it was the right call.
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P5 invented costumes. P4 the characters just wore glasses with their regular outfits. Though you could change their costumes... not that it was usually any more fitting. >_>
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Okay update

I am the worst at striking first in this game.
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Haha, it takes a while to get used to if you're coming from Persona 5. It can also be a bit tedious if you're insistent on getting player advantage and wait for them to be facing the opposite way so you can charge them for an advantage.

You'll adjust! ...probably >_>
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What are the penalties for fatigue, and how do you get rid of it?
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xp1337 posted...

Haha, it takes a while to get used to if you're coming from Persona 5. It can also be a bit tedious if you're insistent on getting player advantage and wait for them to be facing the opposite way so you can charge them for an advantage.

You'll adjust! ...probably >_>

I haven't been waiting for them to turn around at all, I've just been attacking. That's probably part of my problem.
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Got to the third floor, lost bow girl. Junpei almost went down, too. Didn't reach the barricade, which was the goal. Is there a way to revive people who are down?
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xp1337 posted...

You can't do an activity that passes time, no.

I... think you can leave the dorm and do stuff that doesn't pass time, like shopping, and then return to the dorm and go to Tartarus but it's been years so I'm not positive.

I'm pretty sure once you go back inside after you've been out at night, you automatically go to sleep.
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Social Link formed with Kenji the boring, normal-looking guy.
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Anagram posted...

What are the penalties for fatigue, and how do you get rid of it?

Lower Accuracy/Evade and more susceptible to crits. Also, if it's your party members who are suffering from it, they'll ditch you the next time you return to the main lobby and be unavailable for the rest of the night. As for curing it, you can't do so within Tartarus. You need to leave and wait for your condition to improve.

More in-depth:

Condition goes: Great -> Good -> Tired -> Sick

Great occurs randomly (probably not really random but idk) for your party members. You can get it on your MC by either spending a night by going to sleep early (never worth it) or at random (for real random) by using the bathroom at school I think. It gives you better accuracy/evade/crit evade.

Good is the normal.

Tired is what happens after you've been fighting in Tartarus for a bit. (If you start at Great you'll jump past Good to Tired for whatever reason.) It also happens automatically after you leave Tartarus even if you were in good condition at the time you left.

Sick is a more severe form of Tired. I... don't think it can occur if you keep fighting at Tired, but I forget.

Every time a day ends and you're at Tired you have a chance of having it cured at random or having it worsen to Sick. This is for real random and you could hypothetically save scum it, but again, not worth it. I think you can cure it 100% if you visit the nurse and refuse his experimental medicine that gives courage. He then gives you normal medicine which restores you to good. This also isn't worth it IMO, the courage is more valuable.

Party Members at Tired/Sick aren't available to be in your party. If they become Tired while in your party, they'll stick around... until you return to the main lobby at which point they leave you. The exception is if it's the night before a Full Moon. Then they'll stay with you forever.

At the start of the game, you get tired really fast, but as you gain levels it gets a lot better and you can go for a long time without it happening.
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Anagram posted...

Got to the third floor, lost bow girl. Junpei almost went down, too. Didn't reach the barricade, which was the goal. Is there a way to revive people who are down?

Eventually you get the revive skills on Persona but those won't show up for a bit, I think. There are revival items, not sure if they're available to buy at the Mall from the start or if they appear later. They *probably* are random drops from the briefcases found scattered around Tartarus.

LeonhartFour posted...

xp1337 posted...

You can't do an activity that passes time, no.

I... think you can leave the dorm and do stuff that doesn't pass time, like shopping, and then return to the dorm and go to Tartarus but it's been years so I'm not positive.

I'm pretty sure once you go back inside after you've been out at night, you automatically go to sleep.

Huh. You may be right, that could be a P3P change or just something I've confused. I know entering the dorm in After School/Day automatically changes to night... but I thought you could freely exit/enter at night without advancing time. I guess Anagram can test this if he cares to by saving and seeing if he can if it matters to him.
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Stopped for now. I'll check the save thing later, I saved at night in the dorm anyway. Junpei is sick, Frank is tired, gonna have to not return to Tartarus for a while anyway. I think I handled it poorly.

Can you teleport back to where you were if you teleport to the lobby?
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