Current Events > How difficult is Persona 3's higher difficulties?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not counting the final boss shenanigans

Would it just be a really bad choice to go above normal for a first playthrough?

It depends.

Hard isn't that hard at all. The highest difficulty is more annoying than anything. Random stuff can cause you to lose massive progress (4 also had random stuff wiping you but you could restart at the same floor, in 3 you can lose a massive amount of progress).

Random stuff as in you haven't saved in 20 floors on Tartarus, and then some enemy uses Mudo on the MC and it hits and goes Game Over.

Is whether or not enemies use instant kills on the MC affected by difficulty?

DeadBankerDream posted...

Is whether or not enemies use instant kills on the MC affected by difficulty?

No, enemies get a damage multiplier, which is fine, and also a bigger chance of enemy advantage which can cause you to get wiped by bad luck. It's that latter one that makes it actually scary on the highest difficulty.

I feel like enemies will target you if your equipped Persona is weak to Darkness or Light, and in these games enemies land them what feels like 25% of the time if you're weak to those spells. But I don't think Hard Mode does that. I think Hard Modes just multiplies the damage... and I guess enemies get advantage more often in normal confrontations.

it's smt, so it's not very difficult as long as you don't get too lazy and ignore fusion and mechanics the game gives you

it can get annoying when an unlucky ambush costs you a few floors worth of progress, but none of the bosses in the game are really difficult and are probably the easiest fights in the game