>>170000
hai kid wanna /ss/?

>>170007

>If you choose to play as an inconsistent two-faced weirdo, that's your own choice (and makes you literally a man with multiple personas, appropriately) but I'm not sure you can call it a fault with the game.

I think you can, at least when those are quantifiably the best choices (the ones that complete the Social Link the fastest, and make them happier with you.) Mutatsu likes you better if you initially tell him you don't have friends. Aikinari will like you marginally more at first if you say he's right about life being hopeless. Kaz likes you more if you encourage him to keep training. Kenji likes you more when you tell him to totally go for the teacher.

Those social link choices outright give you more points on the little numerical value that tells the game what Social Link you're on, the game encourages that play-style to a degree.

(There are good Social Links, mind you. Bebe is great, Mamoru actually seems like a good guy, and Bunkichi and his wife were kind seniors who gave me melon bread and stuff, just off the top of my head.)

Also, you do have to cheat on your girlfriend. All five of them. Granted the guide I'm following is set up specifically so that you get all of them to rank ten before you ever get any other girl at any one time to a lovers point. Sure, you could just not initiate the social links, but given the plot of the game, the rewards for doing the social links, and the penalties for ignoring any social link (much less any female romance) I think we can assume the game wants you to do them. It's just unfortunate that this automatically makes you get romantic as a side-effect, and thus you're a cheating bastard.

I'll admit this, though, it's my fault for being frustrated with the playthrough. It really is perfectly detailed guide, actually, you don't even need luck, you just need to do what it says to the letter. I just wanted to see all of the social links for once, I never managed it in one shot in either P4, or P4:G.

>>170015

Of course they like you better if you tell them what they want to hear. The reality is that no one person will get along equally well with everybody they come across, especially when you're dealing with as wide a range of people as P3's social links put you in touch with.

Given how difficult getting them all in one go is, I think it's really safe to say that forcing the player to choose what to prioritize, and so having each player end up with a run that feels uniquely theirs, is an intentional design decision, and one that I really like. The choice to sacrifice roleplaying for completionism (or, I guess, playing a creepy social chameleon with no compunctions about five-timing) is yours, not the game's.

That said the way romance links are handled in vanilla P3 truly is awful. That is one of the ways P4 improved the game's systems by leaps and bounds.

TBH I know it sounds weird to say but P4's MC actually did seem like he had a character.

Even when he was dealing with a bunch of different people he just seemed like the strong, silent type who was incredibly level headed to the point of it affecting others (see how many times "Calm Down" is a dialogue option).

>>170024

Well, the same could be said of both P3 MCs. Look at how many chipper responses with exclamation points the female protagonist can serve up.

>>170024
I read hiimdaisy's comic and watched (part of) the P4 anime before I actually got to play the game, so my ability to see the P4 protagonist as you're "supposed" to see him has been irrevocably destroyed. He is stuck somewhere between Yu Narukami and the kid who wants to shout out the answer to every mystery but doesn't have enough Common Sense to do that yet.

>>170006
I do think you could argue that P3 perhaps had better Social Links.... except that in P4 the most notable social links are the main cast, as opposed to side character link the admittedly awesome monk or the adorable old people. And I LIKED the main cast of P4, with the possible exception of Rise.

P3 (I should specifically say FES since that's what I played) only had social links for the girls... and except for Aigis I hated them all. For the boys I either hated them (Junpei) or at best was alright with them (Akihiko, who to his credit seems to have vastly improved in what little I've seen of Arena).

The Persona games are, in my opinion, primarily about the character, far moreso than any main plot. And when I don't like 90% of the characters, and particularly despise the main cast, then something has clearly gone wrong.

>>170032

We're obviously not going to agree on the merits of P3's cast, but I'd argue that making most of the S. Links party links was actually a big flaw in P4. In P3 your protagonist develops a whole web of relationships with people from all walks of life. Old people, businessmen, school friends, your life touches everybody and emphasizes a sense of connectedness, especially at the end when they become plot-relevant.

In P4 at the end of the game, odds are good that your S. Link tally will be 'Your family, your school friends, and the nurse who wants your dick'. Your net just gets cast much shorter. And the S. Links weren't integrated into the plot except in a severely half-assed way but then the entire final act of P4 is incredibly half-assed so.

It is a given that Junpei < Brosuke.

>>170028

That's probably because when P3P came out, and they got the chance to rewrite the social links for the girl, they already had the experience of P4 under their belt, which made better use of the game engine's narrative structure.

>>170018

Here's the problem with that idea, though: there's no functional reason to do that at all. I'll try to be a little clearer; I'm kinda muddling up my points.

Here's an example: Say you have a hack and slash, and the button-spam light combo kills most of everything. There's plenty of other combos, and plenty of upgrades and this and that, but you have no real reason to ever do those things. People naturally drift towards efficiency.

P3:FES is kinda the same way: There isn't a sliding meter or a different outcome for playing a different way, we don't have a Paragon/Renegade meter in this game. There are answers that give you more points to the social links than others. When you have a quantifiable system, you end up with choices that are "best" or "correct."

(That's probably why they said they're planning on a new game engine for Persona 5.)

Plus, there are rewards for completing social links (ultimate Arcana persona) and rewards for completing all the social links (more story events in the epilogue, and more specifically, Orpheus Telos.)

If there's a reward for doing something, then it's also a penalty for not doing it, which is something I think most of us are naturally conditioned against. Completing a social link is basically how you play the game.

Roleplaying, choosing differently, becomes intentionally choosing the “wrong” choices. From the mechanics of the gameplay, you’re harming yourself.

The other bit is that you’re given so little time to do all of this. In fact, even on a NG+ playthrough, I would still need some form of guide to help with the social links, because the big thing the guide gave me was the ability to start Yukari, Fuuka, and Mitsuru as soon as they were available. I was at maximum Charm, Academics, and Charisma by September or so, lacking one of these stats wasn’t the reason I messed up.

P4 improved this, really, if you follow a max social link guide with P4, or P4:G, you’d end up with a few months totally to yourself. You could actually indulge in “spending time” with your girlfriend because, fuck it, you have time.

That’s a kinda funny picture, now. “I completed all the social links, now I can just spend all my free time boning.”

>>170037

I would argue that's actually a strength, personally. It added something to the gameplay that was more immediate and noticable than Social Link points towards fusing personas.

Besides, I totally didn't give a shit about Kenji, Tanaka, Pol Pot Junior Odagiri, or Nozomi. Mamoru was human and likable, if a little bland (Though thank you for Helel, buddy.) Other S. Links were girls I cheated on and people who were nice, but acted like idiots thanks to my guidance. Bunkichi and Mitsuko were nice people, but I had very little to do with resolving their situation, they just thought I did, and they reached the solution on their own. I was there with them, yes, but that's all I did.

Bebe was delectable.

>>170041

The 'reason' to do it is that by your own description, you're hurting your game experience by not doing it, by making your protagonist come off as a wishy-washy weirdo.

And honestly, I'd say that what you're doing is far less efficient than just going through the game and picking what seems right to you. You need to constantly refer to a guide, which is really not necessary if you just play. It might be a more efficient use of in-game time, but it isn't more efficient in terms of real-world time, and it's not like it's an incredibly difficult game that requires you to eke out every edge you can in order to get through it. Someone who just casually plays will get through it just as easily as someone who obsessively follows a guide.

Basically, your complaints seem to be mostly self-inflicted wounds to me.

>>170043

My main reason for a 100% initial run through is because I tend not to finish New Game+ runs. I had Persona 4 for years, but I never got past Naoto's dungeon in my NG+ run. I haven't touched P4G since starting this game up, and next up on my Shin Megami Tensei priorities is The Answer, followed by either my Female MC run through on P3P or Persona 1 (followed by Innocent Sin.)

I want to get through as much of the fun part of this game as possible, because that's what I consider to be the fun part, the Social Links and the story.

I'm still having plenty of fun with this game, mind. I've been playing for about two or three goddamn weeks straight by now. I realize I implied otherwise, but really analyzing and thinking about a game and what it's game mechanics tell you is part of how I enjoy a game, or a movie, or a show. I'm a big-time armchair critic like that, I love thinking about what the game mechanics imply, what message you take from them in addition to the message the story dishes out.

Playing through this game gives me something to talk about, both here and anywhere in real life where people have played it (I got a buddy of mine who loves the series as a whole just as much as I do, even more so.) It lets the fanfiction and fanart make sense, it lets me in on the joke so to speak, it lets me join conversations like this in the first place. That's the part I really care about, not how I should or shouldn't play the game.

If I buy a copy of Persona 4: The Golden on PSN, can I play it on my PS3?

>>170323
No.

>Persona 4 Arena Story Mode
>Wow this is actually a really great story, I--
>Labrys' route
>OH MY GOD THAT'S THE FUCKING PIER
>THE FUCKING PIER WHERE YOU MEET AIGIS IN P3
>FUCK YOU I'M NOT CRYING

>>177987
shh its ok i cried like a bitch you can shed a few tears there there

All I know is that the plot of P5 should totally be following up on the final plot hooks of Arena, and the ones behind Arena should turn out to be Nyarlathotep and some human partner of his.

Persona 3's history teacher loved Japanese history. Persona 4 had Japanese symbology for its big drive.
Persona 4's history teacher loved Egyptian history. So, who else is betting on Persona 5 having Egypt stuff everywhere?

YOU GUYS

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI 4

IS SO FUCKING GOOD

OK so irritation at the obvious sequel-bait ending aside P4Arena's story was really fucking good. 10/10 would recommend.

Well, irritation at the sequel-bait ending and the fact that the fandom seems to be utterly ignoring the possibilities of Naoto/Mitsuru

I mean seriously this is the closest thing I can find

So apparently there is DLC for SMT IV that allows you to break the game. Out right now is the stuff for very easy experience, and soon there will be stuff for extra money, demons and app points. AND APPERENTLY YOU NEED TO BE THIS OVERPOWERED TO BEAT SOME OF THE STUPIDLY BROKEN DLC BOSSES

So yeah, ATLUS seems to be really good friends with Intelligent Systems even down to the DLC patterns.

i herd it was shit

>>178175
A good 80% of those comments are just people whining that a game that's not Persona isn't Persona 5

>>178176
Good job on almost but not quite grasping the point of that picture.

>>178175
Wow, if people really think it's going to be like persona they are fucking retarded.

So far I like it. The story exists and it's not the worst story I've gone through it's actually a kind of engaging one. It doesn't have social links and it's kind of hard but I can still go through it.

It's not soul hackers thank god.

So there are a bunch of rumors around atlus. Like it's getting auctioned, it's going to be bought by nintendo... Regardless of if it's true or not. I really hope atlus uses this to become a truly independent 3rd party developer. I don't want them going exclusive for any console and I think anyone else would try to hinder them.

>>178275
So, was Soul Hackers good?

>>178432
What part of
>It's not soul hackers thank god.
was unclear?

>>178433
Well, I was wondering what made Soul Hackers not a good game.

Soul Hackers is great. It's not the best, but it scratches a SMT1/2 itch.

>>178447
Ugh. You really must like really boring games, with very little plot, and boring grinding points until FLASHBACK level 20 when you were at level 13. I didn't get far before dropping the game like a rock. That was the worst thing ever. Also the play coins. Worst thing ever.

>>178468

No, I just like first person dungeon crawlers and monster fusing. SH offers hours of both.

So, in some form of DLC/Update/Super Street Fighter Bullshit Sequel, Yukari Takeba and Junpei Iori have been announced as new characters from Persona 4: Arena.

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201308/16038447.html

Yukari managed to land an acting gig as the pink ranger in a Featherman show.

Junpei is a little league baseball coach.

In addition, you can now play as each character's Shadow, which just changes how a character plays slightly, and it seems you can cancel out of combos by jumping, now, but I'm not sure if that's limited to Shadow characters.

(Elizabeth and Labrys lack shadow modes.)

When I think of what was missing from Arena, I sure think "gee, how about those lovable scamps Junpei and Yukari, Arena doesn't make me want to kill myself enough, but they'll fix that problem!"

>>179148
Since it's Arc Systems Work, you really should've said "Guilty Gear Isuka XX Accent Core Plus R #Reload" instead of Super Street Fighter.

>>179148
It's more like BlazBlue Continuum Shift than Ultra SF4.

>>179148
There are also two currently unnamed characters that are also coming into the game.

>>179162
Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?

>>179166
What's that, some kind of lame Persona fanart?

>>179167
I think that's his official sprite for P2P actually.

>>179168
>P2
Stop it with your fanfiction. Persona's like GTA, it started with 3.

I lost seven hours of play in SMT IV after I screwed up my alignment during the lock and got screwed out of Neutral entirely. Had to redo the entire Blasted/Infernal Tokyo part all over again. I would've ripped my hair out and shit a brick if I went through all that trouble and ended up running into anyone other than Stephen in the forest.

Time to go do several hours of sidequests and grinding to prepare to KILL MY FRIENDS.

Incidently, I'm actually having fun running through Persona 1's remake on the PSP. It's just kinda...why are two-handed swords a different class of damage from one-handed? I can actually trace the development of the damage types from this game to P3 and P4's more simple systems.

Is it me or do the art styles of the character designers for Trauma Center/SMT4 and Persona/Catherine look reeeaallly similar? Soejima's stuff is a little more lithe but they both have similar ways of drawing noses really low on the head and large glassy eyes. Probably why the Persona 2 updated art didn't have such a dramatic change.

>>179214
I spent a full year thinking SMT IV's character designer was Soejima trying to subtly emulate Kaneko's style, up to and after I got my copy of the game. I thought Trauma Center was his work too. It wasn't until someone pointed out to me Doi existed that I stopped looking like a retard.

>>179219
Who designed the guys from Persona 2 by the way? I see both Kaneko and Doi credited for it, but seeing as Doi's style is basically the lovechild of Kaneko and Soejima it's hard to tell when Kaneko isn't using his fancy 3d coloring.

>>179235

Pretty sure it's Kaneko, he also did Devil May Cry 3's Devil Trigger designs.

Unlike or moreso than it's predecessor, Persona 4 was a game very much focused on people. While the SEES had to traverse the same dismal tower in lieu of advancing the story and all heading towards some vague goal of stopping the Dark Hour, the bizarre and oftentimes embarassing dungeons the Investigation Team explores are infinitely more personal as they were spawned out of a single character's mind, replete with desires and insecurities which were explored for the simple (well compared to P3's epic journey) act of saving another person's life and stop a maniac from hurting others ala Persona 2, though it evolves into something much, much bigger.

You were never really required or altogether enticed by the plight of the SEES, as you couldn't form (except as P3P's fem protag) social links with all of them (you look elsewhere for the Emperor, Magician etc.), leaving their problems to ultimately come out during the plot (Akihiko's brotherly concern for Shinjiro, Junpei's budding romance with Chidori, Ken's quest for vengeance). If you were intrigued by them from the start, then you were golden; If not, well, bad luck. The Investigation Team's problems form a bond with you outright as you are given a brief taste of who they are, get to fight their dark sides, and help them accept them. One is encouraged to get to know these people even further, not because they are consistent enigmas, but because there must be more to them. As they have bared it all to each other from the get-go, they are much more at ease with one another and don't have to put up facades of normalcy or what they believe to be more appropriate guises. (Yukiko reveals her inner hyena, Kanji's compassion never overstates his easily provoked temper, Rise can indulge in perky mannerisms she is comfortable with, etc.) These various flavors clash, bump into each other, oftentimes accuse one another of something or the other, but ultimately accept it all, and are better for it.

>>179863

I would agree with this assessment, except that I'd say it doesn't so much "evolve into something more" as it "stumbles and falls onto it's face and then lies down in the mud trying to get to something more". When Persona 4 tried at the last second to switch gears into a P3-style world threat, it fell apart completely.

>>179870
The issue was how it was done rather than what happened. It could have been anything and it still would have been bad because we got absolutely no real hints. Honestly, Golden fixes that a bit but it needed more.