The Persona Franchise (and Atlus in general I guess)

[Bobfoc]

I'm enjoying Persona Tactica. As a spinoff, it obviously lacks the things I like best about Persona, particularly the social links and character development, but I'm always up for some tactical turn-based combat. It's certainly fun enough to tide me over until Persona 6.

[stokeriño]

Whenever I play any Persona spinoffs, my main concern (aside from the gameplay of whatever genre they're trying) is that they're going to butcher the main characters by removing all their personality save for one joke (see: Akihiko, lover of protein). P5T has been okay on that count - with the noted exception of Makoto being slotted into the "lol she'll hurt you" trope that felt outdated in anime 20 years ago.

Oh, and Ryuji is in what I call his "golden retriever mode" turned up to 11, but there are at least of couple of story beats where he regains some nuance, so I'll let it pass.

[Bobfoc]

I tend to look at the spinoffs as non-canon anyway, so I'm not as bothered about the characters being a little off. As far as I'm concerned, the "real" Persona 5 story started and concluded in Persona 5 itself (because I never played Royal), with the side games being zany dream sequences.

[Ruki]

 

I have really been enjoying Erina so far. 

[stokeriño]

Top tip for anyone who is Platinum/100%-minded and playing Persona 5 Tactica:

Don't do what I did and save your one and only save slot right before the final battle (as in, on the Start Battle screen where you pick party members etc.), thinking "oh I'll just 'finish the game' and then come back to mop up the rest of the Persona Compendium and such".

As it turns out, you cannot return to the Hideout from that save point, and so my only option now is to NG+ and re-level all the way back to 95-ish from the start of the game. Quicker than in the original game since I have persona with EXP and Money boosts, end-game weapon equipped and such. But yeah, probably added at least 8 hours onto my Platinum time just by foolishness.

[Ruki]

Ha! One of the weapons upgrade for Fox is just a supersoaker. I love that. Going at a pretty decent clip, I think. About to go after the 3rd key in the 3rd kingdom. I think I read there are 4 kingdoms in total?

[stokeriño]

10 hours ago, Ruki said:

I think I read there are 4 kingdoms in total?

Correct. It think there's about 60 levels, but can't remember if that includes the Quests or not.

[Ruki]

Yo, didn't see that being the case... (late game spoilers), mission 41

Spoiler

Erina was a persona

 

....and I'm pretty sure she's Che Guevara???

 

[Ruki]

Finished up.... it feels weird to finish a Persona game in less than 50 hours!

My thoughts... story was fun, music was fantastic, characters were still wonderful (I'm glad we got more Haru, since she joins so late in P5/P5R), and the final cinematic after the last boss was epic! Some fun level design (especially the last battle), but it was on the easy side of things.

Spoiler

But yeah, like @stokeriño said, I'm really sick of having to fight a god or collective will of mankind at the end. I really hope they shake that up for Persona 6 & Metaphor Re Fantazio. 

No desire to get all the achievements though, that seems like a grind (I think I was level 83 when I finished? And no missions left, no idea how you'd hit 99). 

[stokeriño]

17 minutes ago, Ruki said:

Finished up.... it feels weird to finish a Persona game in less than 50 hours!

My thoughts... story was fun, music was fantastic, characters were still wonderful (I'm glad we got more Haru, since she joins so late in P5/P5R), and the final cinematic after the last boss was epic! Some fun level design (especially the last battle), but it was on the easy side of things.

  Reveal hidden contents

But yeah, like @stokeriño said, I'm really sick of having to fight a god or collective will of mankind at the end. I really hope they shake that up for Persona 6 & Metaphor Re Fantazio. 

No desire to get all the achievements though, that seems like a grind (I think I was level 83 when I finished? And no missions left, no idea how you'd hit 99). 

You can replay (almost) any mission at any time from the Hideout menu. I mainly used the first mission of Kingdom 4, which I could beat in 2-3 turns and if you have someone with the "Greatly increase EXP" persona trait, you literally gain a level every time.

I later learned that those persona traits stack, so if all three party members have personas with that same trait, you will gain 2+ levels every time!

The main grind isn't Lv99 but rather the ones that require money. Most I ever managed to get out of a mission was about 15k, even with 3x money boost personas. 😑

(Regarding the ending: there was a short period when I thought the post-credits scene wasn't going to happen, and I was getting ready to throw the game out the window. )

[Ruki]

Oh yeah, if that post-credits scene didn't happen it becomes absolutely awful!

[Ruki]

Tomorrow we gets news!

[Ruki]

 

The title of the trailer is the Royal Tournament. And it sounds like everyone in the world is going to be trying to become king? That's an exciting premise! 

[Ruki]

 

Hot dang, the video and music go hard.

[Ruki]

https://www.ign.com/articles/persona-3-reload-review?utm_source=instagram,twitter&fbclid=IwAR0VB9jQbbxJu470m_sw7DIQcodzC3I40TqnjjK74L86TyS64pK5l1CpQdY

 

IGN gives it a 9/10

[Bobfoc]

It seems to be getting positive reviews all round. One of the complaints I've seen is that it's easier than the original, but that isn't a problem for me at all.

[stokeriño]

My copy of P3R just got delivered to my house, but of course I'm not there for another two days am I. 🙄

Tactica got delivered two days early when I pre-ordered that. Could I be as lucky twice? Noooooope.

[Ruki]

I played for about 10 minutes (just got to the dorm) before I realized i was too tired and went to bed (also, it was midnight so...). But I'm excited to play today!

[apsham]

I started on this, while also laying on the couch with my cat on top of me... with a weighted blanket so I only made it a couple of days past Ruki.

I know I wrote about my inability to play these games unless I do it perfect with a guide. I intended to play P3 Portable and the other others before this landed - but I convinced myself to just play this guideless since there wouldn't be one right away (well... the game seems pretty 1-to-1 so far from what I remember from Portable, so that might not be true - but I've talked myself into it) so I'm gonna give it my best.

[Ruki]

Based on my first 10 minutes, Yukari and Mitsuru sound really close to their original voice actors which is nice! I think the biggest ones I'll struggle with are Junpei and Akihiko. 

Edit: Really digging Junpei's new voice! Also getting some weird slow downs (PC Gamepass)... most scenes are fine. But when I was introduced to the mall it dropped to like 10-15fps, and same at the base of Tartarus. 

 

Edit 2: Someone posted on Steam that turning off Reflections in these areas fixes it, and sure enough it does!

 

Edit 3: OFFICER KUROSAWA VOICED BY

Spoiler

LIAM O'BRIEN!? THE ORIGINAL VOICE OF AKIHIKO! I love that.