Alright so I've got a question.
I recently caved in and grabbed pic related, and so far I've been having a blast with it. But, at the same time I have reservations.
In games like this with random time-based events, I hate missing out. I hate finding out about something I could have done early on to improve my late game outcome or missing out on events/quests just because I didn't visit (x) at (y) date/time.
So my question for all you Persona fans is this: is it better to play the game blind the first time, going with what you think is best, or are there any paths/choices that you feel are essential to the experience?
I would like to be able to experience as much as I can, and even though I've only finished roughly a month of in game time, I can't help but feel like there is a lot of stuff that veterans went for right off the bat that put me at a disadvantage, thanks to the "see what other people chose" button.
waifufags need not apply, I don't give a fuck what makes your peepee hard, I'm here to talk about the game
Alright so I've got a question
It's not as bad as you think. Search a spoiler free guide for the best ending and you'll be fine.
Play it blind, just do what feels right, if you want to hunt for all events do it in ng+
Do whatever you want. Getting the best ending does not require you to max out all the social links, just go with whatever sounds fun. There's nothing wrong with ignoring Chie all game. You just gotta max out Marie's social link before December ends to get a bonus dungeon.
Don't look shit up, because you will get spoiled on things.
Barest information, there are a few social links you want to focus on before the end of the year as they will be locked out eventually.
Adachi
Nanako
Dojima
And Marie but you get a lot of free days to work on this one just before the end of the game. You can do most dungeons as soon as they're available, but you want to do the last one as late as possible.
you’re going to have an unfun time if you keep looking at a guide every couple minutes to find out what to do for specific day. At most you should look up the what answer to classrooms questions are and what responses get you most points during slinks. Other than that you should not worry too much on what you’re going miss out and explore everything you can on your own
>So my question for all you Persona fans is this: is it better to play the game blind the first time, going with what you think is best, or are there any paths/choices that you feel are essential to the experience?
I'm in the same boat and I think going blind is best. The game actually requires you to use your brain at times. I would leave this thread ASAP because you will get spoiled. I got spoiled just by noticing how a certain somebody was getting more attention than he seemingly deserves which clued me in on his involvement in the story.
Marie... I had her at level 9 before she disappeared. I got spoiled that she is important for the true ending. I'll have to go back a long time if I want to max her out. I guess it will be a very long time before I go back to get the true end.
you don’t need Marie for the true ending
That's reassuring. I was going for max because she's cute but Rise-chan is cuter. It's kinda cute that they made her not a tsundere but at the same time getting Rie Kugimiya and not doing a Tsundere is sinful. Naoto is excellent too but I'm not getting her maxed during my current play through either.
OP here, so far I've only looked up test answers as far as walkthroughs are concerned.
I just get a constant feeling that I'm missing out for content, like I'm always two days behind on what I should do compared what the game wants me to do.
Are there more freetime periods as the game progresses? Like times where I'm left to my own devices rather than story progression that occurs every week?
Also I feel like I fucked up because I started my game gunning for Chie but honestly I've felt more drawn towards Yuki so I almost feel like restarting entirely to change some of my choices.
Just play blind. You'll miss things, you'll make suboptimal choices, and you'll mess some stuff up. It's all fine, you can do a 100% run in NG+.
And since they moved Margaret's story to NG+ for some reason, if you like her, that's the only way to get her background.
I'm not sure at what point you're at. If you give us the date it would be useful. I'm at January on a first playthrough so I'm not an expert. But what I can say is that you get more freedom as the game goes on. If you finish a dungeon early you can basically fuck around for a week or two depending on how quickly you finished it. Each social link that's also a romance has a friendship option as well. You can easily max Chie and chicken out at the last moment. That's what I did with Yukiko. I got tired of the constant fighting so I set the difficulty to Very Easy and just breezed through the dungeons very quickly. Gave me plenty of time to do social links. I don't think the game is strict so don't feel pressured into doing what I did but definitely consider it if you want more time to do S.Links.
Play blind would be my recommendation, but here are a couple tips.
Cycle saves. Maybe keep one at the beginning of every month and every week in case you fuck something up and want to change it.
Don't neglect your social stats, you'll need them leveled up for several social links.
Focus on who you like and the party members you are using, you get gameplay benefits for leveling them up.
The only S. Link I'd call mandatory is Marie, hers unlocks a late-game bonus dungeon that you'll want to do.
Try to have a matching Persona with you whenever you hang out with someone, it makes a big difference in how fast you'll rank them up.
Have fun, you can always do NG+ and fast-forward through shit you have already did to see more S. Links. You'll have a better time doing what you want than following a guide.
>Are there more freetime periods as the game progresses? Like times where I'm left to my own devices rather than story progression that occurs every week?
Yes, and as you max more and more of the nighttime SLinks you can use the Shrine to beef up your others, makes progress go much faster.
If you're so worried about getting 100% then just load that NG+ clear file user was posting in the earlier threads and play fresh on NG+. It'll have social stats maxed which frees up a huge amount of time for everything else.
>Also I feel like I fucked up because I started my game gunning for Chie but honestly I've felt more drawn towards Yuki so I almost feel like restarting entirely to change some of my choices.
Just lean into it, it's a role-playing game, the meaningless choices you make are flavor for your role playing. Your character initially was taken by Chie, but grew an attraction to Yukiko, that's a good story.
Also: Yukiko is far better with JP voices btw
I tell people to save Marie for NG+. You want to have SOME content you haven't done yet, y'know?
>Also: Yukiko is far better with JP voices btw
Is sub > dub an Zig Forumsutist only thing? I thought everyone on Zig Forums knew this. I can't imagine the dub being any good for something like this. I changed the voice to JP as soon as I got the game.
Does anyone feel bad for going for Chie or Naoto? Cucking your friends is very mean-spirited.
The english dub is very good.
I ended up doing a 100% achievement run with the english dub only, even in NG+. It was mostly a nostalgia decision but it is still a very good choice, superior to JP version for some. I fucking hate japanese Igor and Yosuke
I've been contemplating this since I started.
The dub voices aren't bad by any means but I watch almost every anime dubbed so I'm curious what sort of different inflections the native language provides.
Also, with combat, is it expected that you spend time grinding the same dungeon to defeat the end boss? I assume so since you get ample time between knowing who to rescue and when the cut-off date is. But is it important to grind between those times? I would be pissed if I got to a dungeon where the minimum level was higher than what I had reached, just because I spent more time developing real world stuff than grinding the same mobs.
Unlike Zig Forums you'll see morons defending even the lowest possible dubs here, to the point it derails threads. XBC2 is almost ruined by the shitty dub, but people wanna play with the Welsh Catgirl...
that's what makes the relationships interesting, instead of having a retarded harem cast you end up feeling the impact of your decisions on who to get involved with
>There's nothing wrong with ignoring Chie all game.
>t.yukikofag
what a bucha jokahs
You should try do every dungeon in one attempt, as in, one single day. It's fine if you can't (early on it's very tough because you've got such few options), but each day you go into the dungeon is time you're not spending on anything else.
Normally I'll go in, re-clear the previous dungeon (This is quick, since you're now more powerful than it) because an optional boss is added at the end and you get strong weapons for the relevant party member by doing so. Then after that I'll clear the new dungeon, all on the same day.
Expected level goes up by 10 each time, so if you fight Golden Hands and kill them reliably you'll be at or above the power curve fairly reasonably. I'm not min maxing or grinding, but I'm slaughtering every Golden Hand I come across and I'm about 20lvs above the curve.
>Also, with combat, is it expected that you spend time grinding the same dungeon to defeat the end boss?
Depends on the difficulty. The monsters can be tough and your health and SP does not regenerate on its own, so it's reasonable to go home and come back rested the next day. Personally I have no patience for autistic JRPG grinding so I just set the difficulty to very easy and dodged shadows wherever I could. Breezed through them in a day.
Yeah I'm playing on normal and don't really want to lower it from there. A little grinding doesn't bother me, I'm just concerned about when grinding is or isn't necessary.
Also, personas. I'm so lost with this shit. Is there a certain loadout that i want to aim for or certain Arcana to focus on; should it be based on who I have in my party?
I feel like this is the most empirical aspect of the game and I'm utterly lost on what to do.
Can I just pokemon this game and focus on one persona with others just as status whores or is it better to build a balanced team to complement any situation?
You never have to grind in Persona games, and especially not in Golden (there's so many Golden Hands), grinding is just a crutch for not making good enough Personaii.
Don't stress over building Personas, you'll just get the hang of it as you go, for now just make cool things with cool abilities.
Golden gives you a way out too if you do give up, where in Vanilla and every other Persona game you need to change and fuse constantly (some SMT games don't even let your Demons level up), in Golden bevayse of how Shuffle Time works you can instead just make one Godlike Persona that grows with you throughout the game. +Stat cards are common, and largely just lost in fusions otherwise. And Skill cards + Magician cards let you give yourself the most powerful skills. My NG run was using Izanagi only and it was perfectly fine.
It's not how you're meant to play though. If you wanna do it normally or properly, try build mostly general purpose. If you're running Yukiko then you probably don't need a strong Fire magic Persona, but one that's good at Phys is always great, and things like Null or Reflect Phys are always solid.
I'll usually have a physical damage one, a magic damage one and a healing one.
>Also, personas. I'm so lost with this shit. Is there a certain loadout that i want to aim for or certain Arcana to focus on; should it be based on who I have in my party?
Based on the party. (You) can do anything because you can make tonnes of personas. I use Yukiko as a support and for fire damage. I also use two other characters, one as an Ice damage power house and another for damage. Therefore, I have personas that can buff allies (since no one else has those abilities anymore) and personas that can do fire or ice damage based on what the enemies are like, as well as a few random ones. I'd say it's not necessary to focus on a specific persona to level up because you'll always be getting shiny new personas as you move through the story
That aside, personas can improve your relationships with people. Each major character has an arcana and if you a persona of the same arcana your dialogue choices will give you more affinity points towards that character. Yukiko is Priestess (I think?) so if you have a persona of the priestess Arcana you will get along with her better. Keep a persona of the same arcana as your friends to improve your relationships.
Personally I just collect personas that look cool/cute/hot. Undine is charming and Cybele is pure sex.
Fellas. Is it Persona (naturally plural), Personas, Personaii, or Personapodes?
Persona or Personae. Post some lewds of Rise kudasai
>That aside, personas can improve your relationships with people.
Note for this, that's why you should he generally always carry around the relevant cheapest Personas for any SLinks you're focusing on. However, some don't need it- Empress, Death and Hermit are all guaranteed rank ups each time, there's no need to carry their Arcana.
Persona is singular, plural is Personas. Latin plural mostly, but not always, involves puttings 's' at the end.