Board 8 > Anagram plays Persona 3 (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Anagram posted...

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

Kinda.

Unless this was a P3P change, if you go to the big staircase in the lobby you get the option of starting at 1F or whatever the highest floor you've reached.

In addition, and this I am 100% sure of so don't worry, there are fixed teleporters on mini-boss floors that connect to the lobby and each other. There's probably a device in the lobby that if you examined it it said you didn't know what it was. That's the lobby one. The first one is on 5F IIRC.
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Darn, then I got to 4F and went back when I probably could've gotten to 5. Oh well.
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Anagram posted...

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.

Didn't really think about this but it's true. Also doesn't help that I had costumes on my MC the entire time playing P3.
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Also with Tartarus don't be afraid to just skip lots of enemies and go up to the next level. It gets really repetitive otherwise.
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I never watched this video for Persona 5 before, how is Sojiro supposed to cover that up? Seems pretty cut and dry to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgW41uwP8co" data-time="
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Also, this game's story seems vaguer than P5's. In P5, by this point I knew exactly what the goal was (to destroy Kamoshida's Castle). Here it's just to investigate Tartarus?
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The story is more like 3 arcs of 1 whole story while P5 was like 8 seasons of a TV show
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Yeah, p3 definitely has acts. And it's generally a lot more punishing than p5, not just because you can't select which skills your fused persona inherits.
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Anagram posted...

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.

The lack of costumes in P3/P4 is good (and something you'll get used to, I imagine). The costumes worked in P5 due to the theme, but it wouldn't work for P3/P4, where the emphasis focuses much more on the fact that the fact that the party is made up of high schoolers who are in way over their heads.
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The FeMC bikini outfit really emphasized that
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I have confirmed that if you leave at night and return without doing anything, you don't automatically go sleep.
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Joined the Kendo team, figure it'll have some battle benefits.
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^5 that's the club I joined.
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Anagram posted...

Joined the Kendo team, figure it'll have some battle benefits.

Social Links giving benefits outside of making Fusion easier is something that only started with Persona 4, and even then the effects were relatively minor. Persona 5 is when they started adding all sorts of extra stuff.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Social Links giving benefits outside of making Fusion easier is something that only started with Persona 4, and even then the effects were relatively minor. Persona 5 is when they started adding all sorts of extra stuff.

Bah

Also, how do I equip items on my allies?
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Talk to them in Tartarus and the option should show up.
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Is there somewhere to go to hang out with Junpei and Yukari? I don't see them at the school like I did Ryuji and so on in P5.
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Anagram posted...

KamikazePotato posted...

Social Links giving benefits outside of making Fusion easier is something that only started with Persona 4, and even then the effects were relatively minor. Persona 5 is when they started adding all sorts of extra stuff.

Bah

Also, how do I equip items on my allies?

In FES... I think you can talk to them while they're following you around in Tartarus and if you "give" them equipment they'll equip it.

I'm assuming if you're asking this that's it not possible to get to them through the equip menu but I guess take a look at that just in case.
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Anagram posted...

Is there somewhere to go to hang out with Junpei and Yukari? I don't see them at the school like I did Ryuji and so on in P5.

Junpei (and all future male teammates) are not S. Links in FES. Yukari may or may not pop up, I forget. Her usual place is in the classroom IIRC, butttt you need Max Charm to start her link and on top of that you need to advance the story past a certain point (Late July IIRC) to access it.

IIRC I mentioned it in the first iteration of the topic, but Courage reaches max fastest, then Charm, and Academics takes forever. It's definitely possible to have Charm (and Courage!) maxed by that Late July date when Yukari becomes available but that's probably unlikely unless you put a focus on making sure Charm is raised.
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xp1337 posted...

Junpei (and all future male teammates) are not S. Links in FES. Yukari may or may not pop up, I forget. Her usual place is in the classroom IIRC, butttt you need Max Charm to start her link and on top of that you need to advance the story past a certain point (Late July IIRC) to access it.

IIRC I mentioned it in the first iteration of the topic, but Courage reaches max fastest, then Charm, and Academics takes forever. It's definitely possible to have Charm (and Courage!) maxed by that Late July date when Yukari becomes available but that's probably unlikely unless you put a focus on making sure Charm is raised.

Huh, thanks. I guess the male teammates are added as social links if you play as a girl, and the female teammates are removed? Or something?
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It's also recommended that you ace at least one of the major tests (will take a lot of Intelligence), which is more time sensitive than stuff like Charm. If you don't ace at least one major test then you miss out on a Social Link.
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Anagram posted...

Huh, thanks. I guess the male teammates are added as social links if you play as a girl, and the female teammates are removed? Or something?

The girl can Social Link everyone in the party. Persona 4 Protagonist can as well. It was eventually made canon that the reason for this is because the Persona 3 Male Protagonist is naturally introverted and closed off from people, while the Persona 3 Female Protagonist is a lot more outgoing.
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Anagram posted...

xp1337 posted...

Junpei (and all future male teammates) are not S. Links in FES. Yukari may or may not pop up, I forget. Her usual place is in the classroom IIRC, butttt you need Max Charm to start her link and on top of that you need to advance the story past a certain point (Late July IIRC) to access it.

IIRC I mentioned it in the first iteration of the topic, but Courage reaches max fastest, then Charm, and Academics takes forever. It's definitely possible to have Charm (and Courage!) maxed by that Late July date when Yukari becomes available but that's probably unlikely unless you put a focus on making sure Charm is raised.

Huh, thanks. I guess the male teammates are added as social links if you play as a girl, and the female teammates are removed? Or something?

Playing as the girl in Portable adds the male teammates as S-Links and they end up replacing people, the girl teammates stay.

For instance, Junpei is Magician and so Kenji (your Magician Link) is not a link at all. The girl teammates have the romance part of their links removed, and in Yukari's case Charm isn't a requirement and you can start the link immediately because she's relieved to have a girl her own age on the team so there's no gate on her link.

A lot of the links and requirements get shuffled around like that.
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That seems like a neat dynamic for a second playthrough, but since I don't have a PSP, that won't be happening. Oh well!

Is there anything in particular I should be doing to raise academics?
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As general advice, one thing you should definitely be doing is playing at the arcade at night. It's an efficient way to raise stats, but expensive at first, requiring some amount of grinding in Tartarus. Since the stat-boosting game is not available on Sunday, that's a good day to go into Tartarus also.
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Made it to floor 6, had to withdraw due to a lack of SP. At least I got the teleporter working this time. When do I hit the barricade?
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Anagram posted...

Is there anything in particular I should be doing to raise academics?

I don't remember specific ways. There's a good number though. It's been mentioned before, but I think it needs to be reiterated that Academics takes a LONG time to max out, like three times as longer as a Charm or Courage.
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Anagram posted...

Is there anything in particular I should be doing to raise academics?

The "optimal" way to raise all social stats revolves around Game Panic, a store at the Mall. It rotates what stat it raises by the day Charm -> Courage -> Academics. With Charm on Monday. It loops, and Sunday it doesn't help with social stats. It gives a +4 boost to the stat (these values are hidden, but for comparison, studying in your room at night is only +2). Problem is, it costs money to use Game Panic and early game unless you grind it'll make you broke very quick.

Something you may want to know is that generally speaking, you want to spend your After-School/Day period on Social Links because almost all links in FES are daytime. Only 2 take place at night. So night should be when you focus on social stats (and Tartarus of course.)

I won't overwhelm you with more min-max style tips on this unless you ask for them, but my recommendation for Academics would be: If you feel you have money to spare, visit Game Panic (It helps Academics on Wednesday and Saturday.) If you don't have the money or it's not one of those days and you don't want to spend it on another stat, then just study at night. It's not as effective, but it is free.

Also, on occasion (kind of like Kawakami's Link's benefits in class from P5) you'll be given the option to stay awake for the lesson or take a nap. Always stay awake. It's free academics points, the lesson usually is on the test, and napping just improves your condition which isn't worth missing the Academics.
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Thanks for the tips. I've been using the tea shop to raise charm at night, not the arcade because it was more expensive.
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Tea shop for Charm isn't bad. It's your best option if you need to save money, yeah. (Karaoke is the cheaper Courage option)

Like I said, arcade is very costly, especially early. Using the cheaper options is definitely fine.
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People made a big deal of the bookstore opening, went there, all I get is "manga is stacked up" when I examine the door
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Wow, okay, the arcade is very expensive.
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Anagram posted...

People made a big deal of the bookstore opening, went there, all I get is "manga is stacked up" when I examine the door

There's two, I think. Did you try the one on the first level? Second floor one is just there as decoration.
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Anagram posted...

Wow, okay, the arcade is very expensive.

lmao, yeah. I wasn't kidding when I said early game use for it for min-max purposes involves lots of grinding for money in Tartarus.

Feel free to use the cheaper versions until your money situation is better. FES is not a game you're gonna get Max S-Links for everyone blind. So don't even worry about it.
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xp1337 posted...

Anagram posted...

People made a big deal of the bookstore opening, went there, all I get is "manga is stacked up" when I examine the door

There's two, I think. Did you try the one on the first level? Second floor one is just there as decoration.

I did not, thanks.

Also, Yukari's Sunday outfit is nothing at all what I expected.
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Gonna play more tomorrow

One thing I liked about Persona 5 in retrospect is that it gave you a clear deadline to do dungeon stuff. I said this before, but it seems very vague in P3.
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The deadline is always the next full moon, and there's always a counter that tells you how long you have until the next one.
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Yeah, the full moon is your replacement for the deadlines in P5.

However, strictly speaking, Tartarus is separate from that. You could, hypothetically, ignore Tartarus and it wouldn't game over you. You would, however, likely be screwed by being underlevelled. You'll probably get a better idea of how it works once you reach your first (second if you count the Awakening scene) Full Moon.

As a general rule of thumb, you should aim for reaching the barrier in Tartarus before each Full Moon arrives. If you can do that, you should be fine in terms of level.
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I just realized Yukari's uniform is a completely different color and style from literally all of the other uniforms.
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I like this completely unimportant scene where a math teacher repeatedly screws up basic algebra, then assigns the problem as homework. I've had that teacher before myself.
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If kendo is just about a confidant, can I join all of the teams to get different confidants?
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Okay, is this Student Council kid supposed to look like a Nazi? Because he has the armband and style of dress and everything.
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The mutually exclusive choices lead to the same link. It's not even P4 style where they give you a slightly different version iirc

Reg posted...

The mutually exclusive choices lead to the same link. It's not even P4 style where they give you a slightly different version iirc

Oh, that's disappointing.
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What determines if you get to play the card shuffle game? Because I'm not getting it a lot on this newest visit to Tartarus, and I'm not getting much yen as a result.
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Anagram posted...

What determines if you get to play the card shuffle game? Because I'm not getting it a lot on this newest visit to Tartarus, and I'm not getting much yen as a result.

It's random. I think the odds increase if you end the battle on an all-out attack.

Anecdotally I feel like it happened more when MC got the final blow as well but I have nothing backing that up.
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Got to floor 10, opened up the teleporter, went for the boss, lost immediately to the Dancing Hands. Didn't go to the lobby and save because my allies were tired and would bail.

Kill me.
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I feel bad about using multiple days for anything that could theoretically be done in one day, but that might just be conditioning from Persona 5. Am I expected to spend a day getting up 5 levels, then just leave if I can't fight the boss?

Also, is there anything in particular I can be doing to earn more money?
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What is the significance of an enemy with distress icons coming out of its head? In P5, that meant they wanted to talk, but that's not a thing in this game.
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What's the significance of a Death-marked card? It said Death draws near, but I was almost at a staircase anyway and just left.
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