Current Events > Persona 5 Royal playthru topic *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Irony posted...

I thought he was easy in vanilla, but struggled in Royal for some reason

They changed how he works in Royal.
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Having the fight being much easier on the "hardest" difficulty is poor game design.

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YellowSUV posted...

Having the fight being much easier on the "hardest" difficulty is poor game design.

It's supposed to be a high risk high reward style, but it's also the reason why I'm staying on hard difficulty.

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Still laughing at Futaba calling Mishima an NPC. She's not wrong.

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I'm admiring how sneaky Shido's plan is. They'd built up the Phantom Thieves for the previous 2 months, during which Akechi talked shit about them to tank his own value/stand for his own justice. Now the Phantom Thieves' reputation is tanking, they're the target of a massive investigation (spearheaded by the SIU director and Sae), and have no idea how to proceed.

Enter Akechi, who gives some banal words of encouragement to the Phantom Thieves, saying how he doesn't believe they're behind the murder of Okumura or the Principal. It's a great way to entrap them and get rid of them in one fell swoop.

That is, unless, the Phantom Thieves were expecting something like this. All along, they've been thinking that everything has been set up way too perfectly. Glad they realise it before it's too late.

What interests me is that Akechi obviously knows who the Phantom Thieves are are at this point. He was there at Okumura's Palace when they first entered. Yet he hasn't told Shido or anyone else about this. He's trying to get Shido's acknowledgement as a father figure, but I guess he feels a kinship with the PT being relative outcasts to the social order.

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Beat this game a couple months back, I liked it. Hadn't played a persona game in almost a decade, so it was fun remembering how catchy the soundtrack is for these games, the mix of social links plus dungeon crawling, and also was really pleasantly surprised by how the dungeons this time around where uniquely designed and actually had some light puzzle solving to them compared to 3 and 4. It's like they still had a tartarus type dungeon crawling location in mementos, but also the more uniquely designed palaces of p4 only even better.

Don't know where you are tc so just gonna cover this up with spoilers don't read yet but I don't understand how Akechi didn't have any contingencies in case Shido ever betrays him, that seems silly. I mean it's obvious that's what's going to happen, you'd think Akechi would have the upper hand since he's the one who knows how to work the cognitive system while Shido didn't even have some kinda barrier to his palace.

When I googled vanilla P5's ending, I thought it was much better than Royal tbh. I wasn't a fan of the whole maruki thing and definitely wasn't into caring about redhead girl. She's not as obtrusive as Mari, but she isn't a welcome addition either.
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saspa posted...

I don't understand how Akechi didn't have any contingencies in case Shido ever betrays him, that seems silly. I mean it's obvious that's what's going to happen, you'd think Akechi would have the upper hand since he's the one who knows how to work the cognitive system while Shido didn't even have some kinda barrier to his palace.

I've only beaten the original, but from what I can remember, he only did so to get the favour of his father figure, because he viewed himself as worthless, and only suitable as a pawn for Shido's plans. There was no need for a contingency plan because he basically had a fatalist outlook on his life. That obviously changed when he fought with Joker, but by then, it was too late. Couldn't sleuth himself out of that.

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Forgot about this but wasn't Shido Akechi's actual father? I seem to recall that he was born a bastard and it turned out that Shido was his father who had an affair with Akechi's mother or...?
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I have to wonder. Was Akechi a brilliant detective before he became a persona user, or did he become one as a result of being one? His "brilliant insight" reminds me of an arson investigator who found shit well before anyone ever knew about it, only because it was eventually found out that he was setting the fires that he investigated. He has no reason for his assumptions, but he says them with such conviction that you believe him. "It's impossible that the murder of Kobayakawa is a student of Shujin because they have no motive. It's even possible that he is being controlled by someone."

That's too direct for it to be speculation.

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Akechi being an "ace detective" seems like it was propped up by the media (probably under the direction of the Shido's group). Mr. Ace Detective didn't even know who the Phantom Thieves were until he saw them enter a palace right before his eyes.

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At least he has a sharp analytical mind. He figured out how Sae's palace operated, and even devised strategies to get around her behaviours, which surprised everyone else. Now, how much of their surprise was genuine or just to prop up Akechi's ego is another matter. I think letting him pretty much take point in the palace was calculated to let him believe he had full control over everything so they could more easily fool him with the Cognitive swap in Sae's palace.

This is my second time through this part of the game, and it's still as mind-bending as it originally was. I can't remember what the point of showing Akechi Joker's phone was, but it triggered a cognitive switch in him that made him believe what he was doing in the world as genuine. Just some real mind bending shit.

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I know his s.link was changed to give him more of a "hated rival" flair than in the original, and _I believe_ they better explained Akechi and Shido's relationship with a self-styled typical bad guy monologue that only serves as an exposition dump for the player. I'm only about to fully explore Shido's palace, so I can't speak any further than this as far as changes go.

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I wish I'd played vanilla P5 just to see how it changed since I feel like I want to experience the "original" story first but Royal came out just as I finally made my way through the backlog to P5.

what was the slink like before and called?
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saspa posted...

I wish I'd played vanilla P5 just to see how it changed since I feel like I want to experience the "original" story first but Royal came out just as I finally made my way through the backlog to P5.

what was the slink like before and called?

It was still a social link, but Royal changed it to make it more adversarial, with Akechi outright stating that he hates Ren at rank 8.

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That's what I meant, when that "I hate you" scene played I was like lol what. I know I'm playing an anime game but that was too ridiculously on the nose. I don't know if Akechi being evil is meant to be a spoiler or always known but if that wasn't just an obvious I'm the villain I don't know what is.
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The Akechi link leveled up as you played through the story in the original P5.

When Akechi reveals he's evil and murders a policeman, Joker feels like he understands Akechi better and the link levels up.
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looooool

I forgot about that.

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Ah, yeah. Secured the route to the treasure in Shido's palace. So Akechi is his bastard child. Completely forgot about that. I steamrolled the fuck out of him with Kali/Skull/Queen/Fox. Having Joker fully buffed, Akechi fully debuffed, with Charge+Brave Blade did over half his health in one blow. It was a slaughter.

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i clocked in 120 hours in the original doing bare minimum.

idfk how yo guys can re play that game even after a few years im exhauted just thinking about it,

also think P2 EP is the best of the series so far but they ve all been really good aside from 4

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ryudo500 posted...

idfk how yo guys can re play that game even after a few years im exhauted just thinking about it,

If a game is good, I'll play through it again if I enjoy it. I played through Persona 4 Golden twice back to back to get the platinum. My save on my Vita is at 176 hours.

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Bump

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Thanks. I forgot to post an update. Shido is done, and I'm basically just killing time until the final bit of Mementos opens up, or whatever. Tried the Reaper at 70, but the battle of attrition was too much for me. Need to amend my strategy for the next time I fight him.

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If I recall for some reason if you get ambushed the Reaper he only has one move per turn after the initial amush instead of the usual two. The only bad thing about doing it this way is that you can't switch party members in the fight.

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I beat him at level 71 this time. I made sure to have Debilitate and Thermopylae active, and got ambushed so I could use it easier. Then I wailed on him with Haru, Makoto, and Ryuji. Showtime attacks are great for extra damage, especially when you're fully charged up.

Also, a good way to "cheese" him is to cast Makarakarn on someone. That forces the Reaper to just use Charge + Megidolaon. Soak it, heal, and you don't have to worry about him having to target your weaknesses.

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I also used Thermopylae / Debilitate. Fight was really easy, basically just chipping away his health while he could barely hit hard enough to be a problem.

At one point Futaba charged/focused everyone and that was enough to do a bunch of damage in one turn, had a showtime do like 1800

Funny enough I had Makoto learn Debilitate from a jazz club power up so I don't even need it on Joker now

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I'm in the "final dungeon", going up against the Holy Grail. I'm about done the main campaign.

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Phantom_Nook posted...

The Akechi link leveled up as you played through the story in the original P5.

When Akechi reveals he's evil and murders a policeman, Joker feels like he understands Akechi better and the link levels up.

Oh my lol what? That sounds terrible. Maybe vanilla 5 had as many missteps as Royal.

Definitely getting P4G vibes from that and Adachi's social link. Not a good thing.
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saspa posted...

That's what I meant, when that "I hate you" scene played I was like lol what. I know I'm playing an anime game but that was too ridiculously on the nose. I don't know if Akechi being evil is meant to be a spoiler or always known but if that wasn't just an obvious I'm the villain I don't know what is.

I'm pretty sure it was meant to be obvious, with the real twist being that everyone knew already and had already prepared

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mehmeh1 posted...

I'm pretty sure it was meant to be obvious, with the real twist being that everyone knew already and had already prepared

I mean, with how big Persona 4's twist is, that his name and occupation is even remotely similar is very on the nose. I don't think anybody was fooled.

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So, that's how they bring Akechi back. I hope that we get a bit of an explanation for it. We never actually saw him die in P5, so him being alive isn't that big of a stretch.

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Ok. I was wrong with that assumption. Maruki already had the power of cognitive manipulation, and made Sumire take Kasumi's place to "heal her". I'm surprised that they dropped this bombshell so early in the extra content.

At least the change in cognition is just, well, mental. Break the barrier, and you break the spell.

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As someone who never got the chance to play vanilla P5, I'm curious over what you'll think of the new content Royal added and the whole Maruki thing.
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saspa posted...

As someone who never got the chance to play vanilla P5, I'm curious over what you'll think of the new content Royal added and the whole Maruki thing.

As I'm playing it, I find myself a little frustrated with it. I felt the original Persona 5 told a complete story. I haven't made it to the end of the extra content, but so far, it's added absolutely nothing to the story.

With P4G, they both spec'd for time with the calendar for new content (culprit dungeon in December; leave Inaba in April), and made sure that the content was before the final dungeon. That way it didn't interfere with the ending of the game. You know these games get all anime stupid when dealing with the final boss.

P5R did none of that. The game ends pretty much as soon as you defeat the final boss in December, and you take a lovely road trip home in April. The game is done at this point. Everybody's had their ultimate moments. This extra content feels like a Scooby-Doo mystery to me.

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Yeah that's how I felt and I didn't even play vanilla P5. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but I really didn't like that entire Maruki arc content or his pointless character. I had to google how P5 originally ended and when I saw it I thought "huh that's much better" and I wouldn't have changed it personally.

People always say that P5 is "too long" and "tedious" but I didn't feel that way while playing through Royal at all. Not until the Royal content ironically enough. To be honest if the game had ended when vanilla P5 ended I would have wondered what people were smoking for saying P5 went on for too long.

It's nice of them to include all these new animated cutscenes and whatnot but thinking back I just realized that Maruki is basically the Mari of this game moreso than the redhead. The redhead isn't as bad as Mari in terms of new additions, she's just bland. But the combination of Yoshizawa and Maruki might give Mari's annoyance a run for her money.

Funny that you compare it to a Scooby Doo mystery, I would have liked that lol. Like the beginning of P4 or something.
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Eh, I thought the final arc was a good corollary to the philosophy of the Phantom Thieves.

Of course, I wasn't a big fan of the whole "and now an evil god shows up" JRPG end sequence. I would have just ended the original game with Shido, personally, and skip the whole reality merging sequence straight into the Maruki arc in Royal if I could.

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Jabodie posted...

Eh, I thought the final arc was a good corollary to the philosophy of the Phantom Thieves.

I see what they're doing. They're basically turning what the Phantom Thieves were doing, and applying it to a macro sense. It's about a philosophical difference between the two. At the end of the day though, one is though justice, and the other is denying reality.

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Jabodie posted...

course, I wasn't a big fan of the whole "and now an evil god shows up" JRPG end sequence.

The megami tensei franchise practically invented that, it's their thing

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Not to hijack anything, but what tips do you have for facing Kaneshiro?

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Killmonger posted...

Not to hijack anything, but what tips do you have for facing Kaneshiro?

What part are you having trouble with?

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MC_BatCommander posted...

What part are you having trouble with?

Well, I havent particularly faced him yet, but I can already see that hell cause issues. I need to prepare myself before I jump into the fight.

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Ah. I didn't find him particularly annoying in either vanilla or royal. Recommend you have a persona with Dormina on Joker for the final phase, should be a cake walk otherwise.

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Oh yeah, I should mention that Im playing Royal, if that makes a difference.

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I find it interesting that Akechi keeps deflecting and ignoring questions that pertain to how he's still alive, and what he'll be doing after everything is done. It's almost like he's someone's cognition. Someone wanted him to still be alive.

Shido? His change of heart made it so that he wished his son were still alive? Is that what's happening?

Oh. Ren's wish that things were unfinished was what did it.

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Akechi knows he's gonna disappear if they beat Maruki, but still went through with it just because he doesn't want to be used anymore.
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Yup. He refuses to be used as a puppet, because that's what Shido did to him, more or less. Good to see that Maruki's a nice hypocrite, though. A good natured hypocrite, but one nonetheless.

Ok, so I've beaten Maruki. So far, the ending is the same as I remember it being.

I'm laughing at Morgana and Ryuji fighting infront of Sojiro. Sojiro just standing there, watching him argue with a fucking cat.

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Finally done with P5R.

I like the original ending better. If I hadn't been following a max confidant guide, perhaps the final month wouldn't have felt so empty and tacked on, but the extra content just didn't feel all that enriching to me. Kasumi and Maruki were both... inconsequential to everything.

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Alucard188 posted...

Finally done with P5R.

I like the original ending better. If I hadn't been following a max confidant guide, perhaps the final month wouldn't have felt so empty and tacked on, but the extra content just didn't feel all that enriching to me. Kasumi and Maruki were both... inconsequential to everything.

Which is why they're not mentioned in Strikers lmao

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