Current Events > Persona 5R advice? What's different from P5 vanilla? (minimal spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I got up to Futaba's palace in vanilla and then a hardware problem lost me my game save.

Off the top of my head:

-2 new S Links (Counselor and Kasumi) and 1 revamped S Link (Akechi)
-You are able to perform activities inside LeBlanc after a dungeon or story event, instead of going right to sleep (Morgana backs off finally lol)
-New area to explore on the map with minigames and such
-a new 3rd semester, new endings and 2 new party members (though they're literally only playable in the last 10 hours of the game lol)
-Gun ammo gets replenished between battles
-Various new events and scenes sprinkled throughout the game
-A trophy room that lets you look at cutscenes, art, etc. You purchase this with point you obtain by completing achievements in the game.
-New "Traits" system for personas (think of Skills in Pokemon)
-A battle mode that lets you fight P3 and P4 protags, as well as puzzle battles
-New sidequest to do in Mementos with collecting stars for Jose
-2 new super bosses

That's pretty much everything major iirc. I should note that in order to get the 3rd semester, you must get counselor to rank 10 by November, and you must get Akechi to rank 8 by November and Kasumi to rank 5 by December to unlock extra scenes and perks for the 3rd semester.

NeonOctopuses posted...

Gun ammo gets replenished between battles

that seems strange, is there an overall rebalance

they made it ridiculously easy even on the hardest difficulty

Doe posted...

that seems strange, is there an overall rebalance

It's definitely way better than vanilla. I think the balance is that you have less ammo in your gun at a time, but you get all that ammo back after the battle is over. As with the Get Smoked Kid's perk, the instant down move now just has a limited number of uses to it per dungeon run and doesn't consume ammo.

silverpine posted...

they made it ridiculously easy even on the hardest difficulty

This is what I'm afraid of if true, the best SMT games have difficult that make getting that one more level to get a new demon that solves your problems so satisfying

Oh I should also ask. Is it as hard to do all SLinks in this game without a guide as it is in P4G?

Yeah, it's really easy. I suggest just starting on Hard.

silverpine posted...

they made it ridiculously easy even on the hardest difficulty

Merciless is easy now?

I'm playing it too right now. I'm up to 4th palace however. So where you were originally lol. I'm still spoilering certain things to be safe, but it shouldn't be anything you didn't know already.

Treat it like a new Persona game. There are new ways to get stats/relationship points that you couldn't before (for example, you can now clean Leblanc by going to the restroom, earning you both a point in kindness and a relationship point with Sojiro. There's more examples of that sort thing but better to let you find out for yourself)

Most of the new stuff is geared towards the end however. There are some new confidants and a reworked one too. Won't say more for obvious reasons.

I've noticed some dialogue changes to really make clear what Kamoshida and Madarame did. There's really no room for any doubt now (not that there was much to begin with, but still).

There's a new way to traverse parts of the Palaces, but I'll let you find out what I mean by that.
Boss fights play out a bit differently now too. So some strategies you did in the original might not apply now.

There's new stuff to Mementos to make it less of a chore. I'll leave it at that as well.

You can hang out with the Twins now. But I've not noticed any in game benefit in doing so besides the comedy.

I've seen new sprites when characters talk too.

As others have said, the game does feel easier.

Holy_Cloud105 posted...

Merciless is easy now?

Yes, it's made objectively easier from Vanilla. Gun ammos not reloading was one of the complaints a lot of western players had with the game.

Holy_Cloud105 posted...

Merciless is easy now?

Merciless is one the easiest difficulties in the game imo, since they didn't bother rebalancing the game around weak/crit/tech damage being tripled, and the exp was bugged, giving you triple instead of half, IIRC.

Oh yeah, and all the bosses are completely different mechanically now. Some are better (like Palace 1's boss) and some are....worse (like Palace 5's boss)

Smiffwilm posted...

There's a new way to traverse parts of the Palaces, but I'll let you find out what I mean by that.

Smash gave this one away lol

Smiffwilm posted...

There's new stuff to Mementos to make it less of a chore.

My friend told me Chariot rank 10's auto kill gives EXP now so you can go to some rooms and mementos and grind to lv 100 in an hour or two. Not sure how ill stop myself from at least partially abusing that.

Smiffwilm posted...

I've noticed some dialogue changes

Okay so this might sound bizarre because I don't know what I'm talking about myself because I never got this far. But I read in a thread once that P5R made a controversial change to some apparently important scene in a "breaker room" or maybe engine room and people were disagreeing whether it was better or worse. Does this sound familiar?

Doe posted...

Okay so this might sound bizarre because I don't know what I'm talking about myself because I never got this far. But I read in a thread once that P5R made a controversial change to some scene in a "breaker room" or maybe engine room and people were disagreeing whether it was better or worse. Does this sound familiar?

I know the section, but I've yet to experience the new stuff there myself, so someone else will have to field this one lol.

I can't think of that scene at all. I assume its Palace 7, but iirc it plays out the same as it did in Vanilla.

The only scene having a "controversial" dialogue change that I'm aware of is the one with Ryuji and the two flamboyant dudes, but that was a minor and unimportant scene to begin with, and supposedly Royal's version is more accurate the the Japanese script.

How much more easy it is really depends on what you do.

There's a new minigame/social event you can do to level up your Baton passes, giving them added power bonuses, hp/sp recovery, etc. Those make the game stupidly easy.

The new Switch and pc versions come with all the dlc. And I do mean all of it, including the "tine saver" bonus items; as a consequence, it loads you up with money, items, and accessories that trivialize the early game, if you choose to use them. As do the freebie "crossover" personas that are automatically dumped into the compendium.

That said, most of the boss fights were significantly harder, in my experience. A d every dungeon usually has at least one random encounter that can easily one-shot your party, if given the chance (provided you don't overlevel, or abuse the ever loving shit out of the guillotine and lockdown systems).

Overall, the problem isn't necessarily that the game is too easy, but the game gives you a lot of options to MAKE it super easy. The option to go through with the standard, intended difficulty balance is still very much there.

So can I turn off all the ez dlc and crossover content on GamePass if I want?

Doe posted...

Oh I should also ask. Is it as hard to do all SLinks in this game without a guide as it is in P4G?

Nah. You should easily max out all your confidants now as long as your remember kawakami and chihaya exists and to borrow the books from the library (or go to the book town) that gives you double the perks (borrow the speed reader book and the movie appreciation one (I forgot what the name of it is off the top of my head, but it will give you double the social stats for watching movies and dvds) for activities.

You get so much money now just from regular fights that you will easily be able to pay their service fees. Speaking of which, make sure to drink your smoothie every sunday at the underground walkway, lol.

Another thing everyone forgot to mention *minor spoilers here* is the new dungeon feature called will seeds. Basically each palace has these missable items called will seeds now.......they are very easy to come across, but they are missable once the palace disappears. If you play a lot of jrpgs then you should already have the habit of looking into every corner in a dungeon so you should be able to find all these on your own no problem.

If you find all 3 will seeds in a dungeon (you always fight a mini-boss when you find the last will seed) then you will get a accessory for your troubles......the vast majority of these accessories is pretty damn strong, but its still cool since you can customize your party a bit more with these.

I don't quite remember if you can turn off all those dlc personas though.....honestly I just ignored them since royal alone already makes the game easy enough. Those dlc personas will make it total overkill.

I recommend playing on hard since that one is actually more challenging then merciless.

Doe posted...

So can I turn off all the ez dlc and crossover content on GamePass if I want?

All the personas and equipment are given to you, but you don't have to use them.

NeonOctopuses posted...

All the personas and equipment are given to you, but you don't have to use them.

Yeah, just don't use them. As for the free 100,000 yen... uh... keep summoning and releasing Personas until you get as close to 0 as you can?

You just keep it >_> It really isn't that much money in the long run

NeonOctopuses posted...

You just keep it >_> It really isn't that much money in the long run

it is in the early game.

There's the rub. Persona 5 in general just gets easier and easier as you go, with how many options, features, and perks it opens up for you and how much money it gives you. The first two palaces are pretty much the only truly difficult parts of the game, purely because of how limited your resources are.

That 100k yen basically turns those into a solid stomp. Unless you just choose not to spend it, with an arbitrary "never have less than 100k in the wallet" rule. Or, as smiffwilm suggested, spamming the summon/release cycle.

NeonOctopuses posted...

It's definitely way better than vanilla. I think the balance is that you have less ammo in your gun at a time, but you get all that ammo back after the battle is over. As with the Get Smoked Kid's perk, the instant down move now just has a limited number of uses to it per dungeon run and doesn't consume ammo.

Its not really balanced at all. It does make the first palace ridiculously easy, just spam your guns. The sp restore items in the palace sure makes one shotting a palace much easier.

ChildOfHades posted...

Merciless is one the easiest difficulties in the game imo, since they didn't bother rebalancing the game around weak/crit/tech damage being tripled, and the exp was bugged, giving you triple instead of half, IIRC.

So this might be a stupid question, but is hard harder than merciless now? I wanted to play it on whatever is hard. Doing the first palace in one day on hard and merciless in vanilla was rough but fun.

Holy_Cloud105 posted...

So this might be a stupid question, but is hard harder than merciless now? I wanted to play it on whatever is hard. Doing the first palace in one day on hard and merciless in vanilla was rough but fun.

Hard is absolutely the hardest difficulty

I remember Merciless has some weird exploits in it that technically make it easier than Hard somehow, but I forget the details

The biggest issue with merciless is that all weakness do 3x the damage, for both you and the enemy. It is essentially everyone is a glass canon mode.