SMT/Persona: General Discussion (P4 Arena, P4 Golden, P5, SMT: IV, Etc.)

[Skull]

For better or for worse, Katsura Hashino's style of directing games tend to be pretty heavy handed and unsubtle in their use of themes and motifs.

That's not meant as a knock if you like that sorta thing though.

[TomPen94]

Oh I like the game, it's just that now it's just misery and sadness and no fun allowed. The dormmates can't even greet me without making a sadface.

The look and length of Harabah doesn't help either.

I guess I trully get it now, why people say this game is so depressing.

[Laserman]

Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers details Yusuke Kitagawa, Makoto Niijima, Futaba Sakura, and Haru Okumura

[TomPen94]

Man... This game found a way to be beautiful even in the saddest moment.

Living with Determination - Iwatodai Arrange is such a good track for this part of the game. Seeing everyone in the dorm sitting at the same table during these times... and the way the Judgement Social Link progresses...

Oh man...

[Lily Emilio]

Wait, are you playing the original P3 or the FES version? Because there is "The Answer" chapter that worth seeing as well.

[Nikiri]

seeing or playing, cuz I saw ppl saying that "The Answer" is pretty grindy

(I have to get through it some time)

[TomPen94]

Wait, are you playing the original P3 or the FES version? Because there is "The Answer" chapter that worth seeing as well.

P3FES. I know about the Answer, but I'll worry about that when I get to it.
But now that we're talking about it, how long is it?

[Lily Emilio]

It's not too long, probably around 1/4 of the main game in length. And you won't start with w/e you had from the main game, so don't need to prepare beforehand.

[TomPen94]

T H E A R C A N A I S T H E M E A N S B Y W H I C H A L L I S R E V E A L E D

[TomPen94]

Well... That's that... for now... Still have The Answer to clear, but The Journey is done.

Endgame spoilers

I had a slimmer of hope, just the tiniest bit, that the MC would survive... even though I knew beforehand that would not happen (Door-kun memes are everywhere). I think technically he isn't really dead, but that'll probably be expanded in The Answer.

Honestly speaking that final stretch in January made this entire game for me. It is so good. My favorite bit of story from both P3 and P5 actually.
The final boss is pretty dope. The Nyx Avatar looks so fucking cool and that music is amazing. Long af tho, 14 phases, holy shit...

Also Chidori survived... kinda... I'd like to think she eventually remembered everything like how the MCs remembered it all during Gradutation Day. At least give this one to Junpei. Pls Atlus.

The Answer shouldn't be too long, should take me about a week to beat it. Gonna get on that... tomorrow.
After that it'll be P4, but I think I'll wait for my new PC to arrive. My current PC already struggled at times with the emulator in P3 (like, whenever there were more than 3 shadows on screen) so I'm thinking P4 might be a bit too much.

[Mattias]

I never played the Answer so I don't know what's in there, but in P4 Arena, Elizabeth's entire story route is about her finding MC again. IIRC there's only one fight in it, though that may be Labrys' route I'm thinking of.

[Tobias]

No there is a couple fights in Liz route. All of them involve her just wandering around and trolling people till they fight her and then curb stomping them. She beat the final boss because he interrupted her.

Spoiler:

also IIRC the route enters with her encountering the final boss from the answer, teleporting it to the moon, and one shotting it while singing.

[TomPen94]

So the spin-offs actually have important story bits...

So this is one of those franchises.

HAHA do you get it

Should've seen it coming

tbh

[Skull]

Eh, I don't know if I'd call the Arena games' lore "important". As cute as Labrys was, you can probably skip them.

The PQ games undo themselves by the end so they definitely can be skipped.

[Mattias]

Yeah, not really important to anything overall, but if you like seeing what happens to the P3 cast after a few years, it's pretty good. Part of the reason I want P5 Arena so bad is to see the same happen to the P4 crew.

[Lily Emilio]

Well... That's that... for now... Still have The Answer to clear, but The Journey is done.

Endgame spoilers

I had a slimmer of hope, just the tiniest bit, that the MC would survive... even though I knew beforehand that would not happen (Door-kun memes are everywhere). I think technically he isn't really dead, but that'll probably be expanded in The Answer.

Honestly speaking that final stretch in January made this entire game for me. It is so good. My favorite bit of story from both P3 and P5 actually.
The final boss is pretty dope. The Nyx Avatar looks so fucking cool and that music is amazing. Long af tho, 14 phases, holy shit...

Also Chidori survived... kinda... I'd like to think she eventually remembered everything like how the MCs remembered it all during Gradutation Day. At least give this one to Junpei. Pls Atlus.

The Answer shouldn't be too long, should take me about a week to beat it. Gonna get on that... tomorrow.
After that it'll be P4, but I think I'll wait for my new PC to arrive. My current PC already struggled at times with the emulator in P3 (like, whenever there were more than 3 shadows on screen) so I'm thinking P4 might be a bit too much.

The real challenge is going through P1 and P2 IS + EP through all of the classic toxic SMT bullshit. Those games are really dope tho, despite all the classic tortures.

[TomPen94]

A time loop plot... kinda lame tbh...Metis is cute tho.

[TomPen94]

It's Grind City mate!

The lack of a compendium is fucking with me big time. I tend to neglect fusing Personas with a purpose, I just wing it and hope for the best.
If I want a specific Persona, I just use the Compendium and buy back any needed Personas. Since I can't do that here... I'm just grinding for levels...

Basically I'm having a grinding session in-between every boss. I guess this brings me back to the old Pokémon days when I didn't even know what I was doing in the gsme so I just overleveled everything... but it's not particularly fun either.

The memories you see after each block are neat though.

[TomPen94]

The Answer spoilers

I am NEVER doing that again...

Akihiko is so obviously right, why are there 4 different factions. What a stupid fight.
What the hell did they do to Yukari? Why was she acting like this? Like I get the point that she wants to see the MC again... but whining about it and trying to pry the key from Aigis after she had already lost the fight? How pathetic... C'mon you're better than this.

Aaaand there's the Door-kun meme. Tbh I kinda like that his death was retconned like this... He isn't really dead, but if you take him off there everyone dies so... better keep him there.
I think this definitely leaves the door open to his revival if Atlus chooses to pull that trigger. And I kinda want them to do it tbh... Funny how I said Akihiko is obviously right yet here I am indulging in the idea of getting the MC back.

I guess Erebus can be considered to be some sort of cognition-based thing? Or is this just my wishful thinking?

Even so I can't say I liked The Answer all that much. Grindy as hell, the Abyss of Time seems to generate dead ends after dead ends so the dungeon crawling wasn't fun, and the story was infuriating at times.
Also you forced me to attack Koro-chan! WTF dude?!!
The only good things out of this mess are the soundtrack (Heartful Cry in particular is really good), the memories at the end of each block (Mitsuru's in particular was my favorite) and the slight 0.01% chance that the MC is not dead.

[Twi]

The Answer spoilers

I am NEVER doing that again...

Akihiko is so obviously right, why are there 4 different factions. What a stupid fight.
What the hell did they do to Yukari? Why was she acting like this? Like I get the point that she wants to see the MC again... but whining about it and trying to pry the key from Aigis after she had already lost the fight? How pathetic... C'mon you're better than this.

Aaaand there's the Door-kun meme. Tbh I kinda like that his death was retconned like this... He isn't really dead, but if you take him off there everyone dies so... better keep him there.
I think this definitely leaves the door open to his revival if Atlus chooses to pull that trigger. And I kinda want them to do it tbh... Funny how I said Akihiko is obviously right yet here I am indulging in the idea of getting the MC back.

I guess Erebus can be considered to be some sort of cognition-based thing? Or is this just my wishful thinking?

Even so I can't say I liked The Answer all that much. Grindy as hell, the Abyss of Time seems to generate dead ends after dead ends so the dungeon crawling wasn't fun, and the story was infuriating at times.
Also you forced me to attack Koro-chan! WTF dude?!!
The only good things out of this mess are the soundtrack (Heartful Cry in particular is really good), the memories at the end of each block (Mitsuru's in particular was my favorite) and the slight 0.01% chance that the MC is not dead.

Spoiler:

His fate is worse than death. He's a permanent seal because they can't kill Nyx and she'll keep coming because humans keep longing for Death. Even in the fighting games its mentioned that Elizabeth basically kills Erebus (its basically the collective desire of humanity to meet its end) yearly to ease his burden, but they can't free him. His body is likely long gone too.