Board 8 > Ermine plays Persona 3 FES! (First time playthrough) *Spoilers I guess*

(+) Yeah! (+)

I started a couple days ago and am up to around the middle of June I think now? Fuuka has just joined the squad and felt like sharing my thoughts up to this point.

So, the only other Persona game I've played is 5 and have done 1 single playthrough of that. I'd say my ranking of the characters for 5 would be something like...

Morgana >> Makoto > Akechi > Joker = Futaba > Ryuji > Yusuke > Ann > Haru

Anyways, back to P3. I'm honestly not that big a fan of the music so far, there's a couple of songs that I enjoy but the rest is really more not my thing. The battle system and in general battles are more difficult than in P5 (both on normal) but I don't mind that really. I enjoy a difficult fight. The only thing I DON'T like is how unforgiving it is if you get struck first instead of getting the enemy from behind. If you come across a set of enemies that have an AOE attack that is super effective against one of your members, there is like an 80%+ chance or higher they can literally wipe your whole squad before you even get a chance to retaliate/run. A couple times it's happened where a bunch of those floating book things get the first turn and they spam AOE before I even get a turn and wipe my whole team.

I'm still not sure how I feel about everything being in just one huge dungeon and then the event stuff being in a small isolated scenario. I feel they could flesh out the story parts a bit more in that aspect. I'll be in Tartarus for 1-2 hours on any other day but then when it comes to a full moon plot thing, it literally takes 20 minutes to do and then it's done.

I'm sure you guys are more interested in character stuff so lets see...

Junpei sucks.

He's basically a much much worse version of Ryuji and gets on my nerves a lot. Any of his moments where he's attempting to be funny or amusing fall completely flat as well (I'm looking at you ghost story time)

Yukari...

I'm very torn on her really. Sometimes she can be pretty chill and decent to talk to, but she has this thing where she will literally become obsessed with something and won't shut the fuck up about it. The ghost story and Fuuka joining the team are two instances in particular so far that she's driving me up the wall about. Literally the last 4 days she's been like "ohhhhh wah i think we forced Fuuka to join and I think it's wrong please listen to me". Fuuka seems totally fine with it what are you even talking about.

Other than these few instances, she's pretty alright but holy shit she needs to stop obsessing over these minor things.

Mitsuru

Nothing wrong at all to say about her. Good personality, good dialog / VA and overall just great to have around. If everything stays the same she will be a staple for my team.

Akihiko

Also have nothing bad to say about him. Chill guy with good dialog and VA. If all stays the same he "should" be a staple for my team as well.

Fuuka

She seems pretty quiet and reserved but I don't have too much to say about her yet since I've only seen her for like a week so far. I'm glad she's swapped with Mitsuru since I was more interested in using Mitsuru on the team than her but we'll see how she develops.

NO KOROMARU YET PLEASE I NEED GOOD BOI ON MY TEAM FOREVER.

Ranking of main cast so far.

Mitsuru > Akihiko > Fuuka = Me? > Yukari >> Junpei
---

I'll do some quick rankings of the social links so far.

Kenji sucks.

Kazushi is kinda meh. I was alright with him to start but started to go more cold on him as time went on. His latest chapter in his link about wanting to win for his nephew is cool though which brought him back up slightly.

Yuko is okay... either on the okay to meh side so far with her.

Bebe is alright. Not really a fan of this type of character but Bebe honestly seems like a fine person so I can't dislike him that much

Mitsuko and Bunkichi are both decent. I enjoy going to their bookstore to talk to them. Though their "forgetfulness" can get a bit stale at times.

Maya sucks.

Maiko is a bit hit and miss for me. Little kid characters are hard to do correctly, especially so to not make them annoying as all hell, but I'm invested in her story even if she can be a bit of a brat at times.

And I think that's all who I've met so far in terms of social links!

Oh yeah, Elizabeth's first scene taking her around the mall was absolutely hilarious and my favorite scene so far. Her pouring tons of money into different fountains made me laugh audibly each time.

In terms of music again, these are my 2 favorite songs so far...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcxzv0YMfKg" data-time="

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPKn9C5jvYU" data-time=" (At 51 seconds in particular is awesome)
---

P3 gameplay drives me nuts. So many things are just setup to unavoidably kill you it is beyond unfun.

My advice is to absolutely overlevel and overprepare for the final boss.
---

Tag even though I can already tell we're going to agree on literally nothing.

A sample of things that make me very sad:

I'm honestly not that big a fan of the music so far

Junpei sucks.

He's basically a much much worse version of Ryuji

(Junpei is 2nd best Persona main character and Ryuji is probably 2nd worst imo)

Maya sucks.

I will say I think P3 has the weakest social links overall, or at least the least number of good ones. (Though the ones that are good easily stack up with the rest of the series and in fact P3 has what is easily my favorite social link a bit later on in the game.)

A few other things I could say but I think I'll wait until you're further.
---

Does Junpei get better or is he always just "I wanna get girls alone haha that's just what guys are like"?
---

What do you think of Mitsuru Kirijo of the Kirijo Corporation, working for a group sponsored by the Kirijo Corporation of which Mitsuru Kirijo is an integral part due to being the namesake of the Kirijo Corporation, an organization founded by the father of Mitsuru Kirijo?

Also, this game actually made me cry, just FYI.
---

Tag. Hype!

Junpei does get a bit more depth later on.
---

pyresword posted...

Tag even though I can already tell we're going to agree on literally nothing.

A sample of things that make me very sad:

I'm honestly not that big a fan of the music so far

Junpei sucks.

He's basically a much much worse version of Ryuji

(Junpei is 2nd best Persona main character and Ryuji is probably 2nd worst imo)

Maya sucks.

I will say I think P3 has the weakest social links overall, or at least the least number of good ones. (Though the ones that are good easily stack up with the rest of the series and in fact P3 has what is easily my favorite social link a bit later on in the game.)

A few other things I could say but I think I'll wait until you're further.

Also there's 2 songs I like so far!
---

Junpei is great. He can be a bit of an ass at times, but hes got lots of great moments. I definitely like him way more than Ryuji who maybe has one somewhat decent moment and spends virtually the whole game just saying shitty adults and hey everybody were Phantom Thieves. Hes probably the stupidest character between 3-5 which says a lot because there are several idiots in the series. The rest are just funny and/or good while Ryuji is just....not

I actually think Ryuji is a better Junpei for the most part, like Ryuji is a lovable sort of scamp and Junpei is like actually an asshole a fair amount of the time. I don't dislike Junpei but he's kind of a prick.
---

Ryuji was a prick to Morgana for almost the entire game. I mean they insulted each other all the time, but Morgana was at least right about Ryuji being a fucking dunce. He kept calling Morgana useless when he was probably the single most replaceable member of the team lol

swordz9 posted...

Ryuji was a prick to Morgana for almost the entire game. I mean they insulted each other all the time, but Morgana was at least right about Ryuji being a fucking dunce. He kept calling Morgana useless when he was probably the single most replaceable member of the team lol

My opinion on Ryuji is probably a bit better because the anime does a much better job with his and Morgana's relationship really.

I honestly could completely do without Morgana's obsession with Ann and it's EASILY his least redeeming feature. I understand people disliking that aspect of him, but everything else about the kitty is great for me.
---

Junpei > Ryuji > Yosuke

Ryuji is cuter but more one note.
---

I will say at least both Junpei and Ryuji elicit reactions from me, that's more than I can say about Yosuke
---

Also yea Ryuji was way too harsh and argumentative with Morgana but *P3 spoilers don't look ermine*at least he didn't actively fuck over missions like Junpei
---

After like 2 hours spent in Tartarus we are back in the real world not fighting endlessly.

And I am now a proud member of the Art Club!
---

Koro-chan spotted! Very very good doggo
---

You should support him in the Save My Canine if you haven't already.
---

Raka_Putra posted...

You should support him in the Save My Canine if you haven't already.

I already heavily contributed to his win in Save My Persona character!

In save my Canine I've got so many good doggos to look out for, him included. It's hard to save everyone.
---

Are Persona games any good if the storyline doesn't interest me? I read through the whole plot of 5, and it sounded so nonsensical.
---

TomNook posted...

Are Persona games any good if the storyline doesn't interest me? I read through the whole plot of 5, and it sounded so nonsensical.

You don't read a plot of a game that is ONLY plot condensed into a few paragraphs and expect it to translate.
---

TomNook posted...

Are Persona games any good if the storyline doesn't interest me? I read through the whole plot of 5, and it sounded so nonsensical.

Do you enjoy Pokemon games?

Gameplay is very Pokemonlike
---

Zigzagoon posted...

Raka_Putra posted...

You should support him in the Save My Canine if you haven't already.

I already heavily contributed to his win in Save My Persona character!

In save my Canine I've got so many good doggos to look out for, him included. It's hard to save everyone.

Fair enough!
---

Zigzagoon posted...

Do you enjoy Pokemon games?

Gameplay is very Pokemonlike

I like them well enough, because I like customizing my team and searching for additional people to add to my roster. How would you compare your liking of this compared to them?

scarletspeed7 posted...

You don't read a plot of a game that is ONLY plot condensed into a few paragraphs and expect it to translate.

?
---

TomNook posted...

I like them well enough, because I like customizing my team and searching for additional people to add to my roster. How would you compare your liking of this compared to them?

I enjoy Pokemon gameplay more because I like looking at cute / cool monsters more. The overall gameplay is more in-depth for this though but the formula of battles is still very similar. Find the weak point of an enemy and exploit it.

In terms of customizing it's not at Pokemon level for sure. The main character is always a jack of all trades where you can have many different personas that you use and optimize but the rest of the cast will only have 1 persona which limits their abilities and what they can really do in battle.
---

Thanks! Sorry, I didn't mean to derail your topic, but you have good taste in things, and I wanted YOUR opinion because this game series has been popular lately.
---

To be fair, it should be noted the main character's Personas are customizable enough to make up for not being able to change your team mates' Personas.
---

Spending the rest of the night in Tartarus. Grinding for levels wooooop
---

Mitsuru all I need

Maybe some Akihiko-senpai on the side
---

I think one critical difference between Persona and Pokemon from a gameplay standpoint is that in Pokemon you can make a team out of pretty much whatever you want. Some pokemon are better than others, but everything is more or less usable as the game continues and they level up even if it's just a level 2 Pidgey you found in the first route.

Persona more or less forces you to continually replace your personas as the game continues, because individual personas level up at a very slow rate and stop learning new abilities pretty quickly.

The customization aspect is still very strong because of how fusing personas works*, but I wouldn't exactly say you could just make a cool team out of your favorite personas the way you can with Pokemon.

*For TomNook's benefit, the main method of acquiring Personas in these games is by fusing 2 or more personas to create a new, different one which will have better stats and inherit some of the the abilities known by the previous 2.
---

All that said, the gameplay is very strong also, but I do believe the main reason to get into the Persona games is the story and characters.

If you're just interested in the gameplay mechanics I'd recommend other games in the SMT series instead. (at least based off SMT: Nocturne, which is the only mainline SMT I've played) The gameplay is stronger anyways and you also wouldn't have to deal with a crapton of story stuff which you might not care about anyway if you don't think you'd be into it.
---

Level 20 get! Now I can store up to 10 personas!
---

The cast of Persona 3 is just so bad compared to the later entries.Yukari and Junpei are just too much condensed awful and most of the other characters are just... there. You cant even form social links with most of them to help gain some small amount of caring about them.

and lets not even talk about the battle system, why would you make a highly technical RPG and then make it so you cant even control most of the party? Persona 1 was a hot piece of garbage but at least there you didn't have to light candles to the elder gods and pray that your group of dipshit followers don't heal the wrong person or waste turns trying to inflict status on bosses.
---

PrinceKaro posted...

The cast of Persona 3 is just so bad compared to the later entries.Yukari and Junpei are just too much condensed awful and most of the other characters are just... there. You cant even form social links with most of them to help gain some small amount of caring about them.

and lets not even talk about the battle system, why would you make a highly technical RPG and then make it so you cant even control most of the party? Persona 1 was a hot piece of garbage but at least there you didn't have to light candles to the elder gods and pray that your group of dipshit followers don't heal the wrong person or waste turns trying to inflict status on bosses.

Portable rectifies all of this (except teammate social links, unless you play Female MC), btw

Man, Kenji is actually the worst
---

http://puu.sh/DmVIF/400a3945dc.jpg

My thoughts exactly
---

3s got a great cast. I mean Yukari sucks, but shes tolerable if you play as the girl in Portable. The only other meh character is one Ermine hasnt gotten yet I think, but we all know who Im talking about since the character is almost universally disliked

Persona 3 has the best characters in the series imo. They aren't "fun" like P4 or P5 characters, but this isn't really that type of story or setting in the first place. (Though yes, the one swordz is referring to I still don't like at all...)

Also yes Kenji sucks. One of the series' worst social links. God I hate him.
---

4 has the most bland characters which makes it the worst for me
---

Man I cant even fathom somebody playing 3-5 and thinking 4 has the most bland cast

Yosuke and Yukiko are just not interesting to me \_()_/
---

I dont like Yukiko either, but like half the cast of P5 is literally just there. If Morgana wasnt constantly lusting for Ann you could forget she even existed after the first 1/4 of the game. Ryuji is so one note he makes PQ Teddie look good and Haru barely registers at all. They couldve just cut everybody other than Joker, Makoto and Morgana and it probably wouldve been an improvement honestly

And yet I still like then all more than Yosuke and Yukiko even while I mostly agree with your points, although I like giving Ryuji a bit more credit
---

We have reached July! Only a few more days until the next full moon ooo spooky
---

And as usual Yukari is freaking out again lol
---

Yeah, see I can get not liking them, but finding them bland aka boring when they constantly have stuff going on is what Im finding hard to believe. I mean you can just say Yosuke sucks, but I think hes pretty far from boring.

Just started first few social links with Mutatsu and his is already better than most
---

Full moon day. I wonder what will happen?!?
---

Maybe nothing will happen and it will be a totally ordinary day. You never know!
---

Full Moon Mission complete. Battle of attrition with both bosses basically, just keep pelting away.

I wonder what this mysterious group is that keeps showing up. What's their deal?

But I've got no time to think about that, exams are in a week!
---