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The only other Persona game I have played previously was Persona 3 FES. So I consider myself a fan of the series. Ever since the game came out last year in English I wanted to play it, but I didn't have a ps4, but this Winter I got the console and the game. Oh boy it did not disappoint. Immediately I was impressed by the menus, ui, artwork, and the revamp personas. For more than 10 years SMT and Persona used the ps2 era same models, thankfully that era is over.

The gameplay in P5 is the press turn system found in other SMT/Persona titles. It rewards for taking advantages of weakness and punishes hard for ignoring them. In this game with the baton pass, it livens up things. The palaces were quite interesting because each one had a different theme, gimmicks, and personality that make me want to punch the shadows in the face for how cartoonishly evil they are. Not being randomly generated makes it more memorable. Mementos was a side attraction to grind a bit. 

The story in P5 was even better thanks to the strong dub the game has. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts are changing the minds of scummy people in the world. But are they just? Many twists and turns over the game to stop them and keep things interesting.

Spoiler
  • I didn't like when Morgana briefly left the Phantom Thieves when Futaba joined. He's not supposed to be a petty person, feels out of character for him to do so.
  • I think it was intentional that Akechi would betray Joker and that he was the traitor. However I didn't like that the team forgive him for all the murders he caused over the years. I understand where is he coming from, but it shouldn't be an unanimous decision especially by Futaba. His "death" needed more to it.
  • I liked how Sae slowly grows a heart through the story due to Joker's actions.
  • The idea that humanity wants to be imprisoned by a tyrannical God so that they can do nothing is sad. 
  • Out of all of the characters in the game, Mishima grew on me the most.
  • I wish I knew more about Lavenza and the real Igor in the game.
  • Kawakami is the best girl.

Amazing game, 2017 was a great time for JRPGs

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On 11/14/2018 at 8:18 AM, Water Mage said:

Brother! Another who has 12 as their favorite!  Thought it ties with 5 for me. 5’s job system is just too fun!

My only complaint about 12 is that I wish the characters interacted more with each other, they felt like strangers all the way till the end of the game. Something like the skits from the Tales series would have helped.

Sorry for the necro-ish reply, I haven't been here for a while.

I do like V's gameplay a lot, much better than anything else from 4-8 and 10.

I'm waiting for the Switch port of Zodiac Age, and I'm really wanting to try it out. I loves a good class system. I'll use all 12 classes. I heard anyone can be anything and you won't fundamentally mess up, although I will play with natural stat leanings. So Ashe and Penelo will get -Mages, the non-Tidus dudes physical classes, Tidus might be a good dual cannon it seems, so he'll be getting Red Mage I've decided, Fran gets whatever is left. I really haven't looked any deeper into things, trying to keep it blind, but I was fearful of messing up and had to check a little.

 

As for VIIRemake stuff. I wonder how far Episode 1 will go? Midgar + the dreaded Nibelheim flashback would work, if they could somehow fit in a Sephiroth battle.

Spoiler

It would not be hard, I would think. Just borrow from Crisis Core, except replace Zack with "Cloud", as in Cloud imagining how the battle went that "he", really Zack whose battle with Seph he never saw.

But while this gives sufficient intensity, and is a good break point in terms of the story, the stuff after that is much more low key, it seems short. Unless they add new stuff while in Midgar, perhaps before the game's classic opening the bombing mission? Or after that but before the rest of the Midgar arc stuff unfolds?

 

I also asked for the controversial XIII for Xmas. At only $5, if it is as bad as they say, it'd be a small loss. I just want to experience it for myself, rather than only read what others have to say about it.

 

After leaving things halfway into the Chapter 1s, I finally got back into Octopath Traveler. It wasn’t hard to readapt to it. Took two days to finish those first chapters, which were something of a slog.

I find for the story moments, I prefer to play docked, and but for anything else, I feel the big screen is a bit “tiresome” for when I’m just walking from town to town or grinding. I find standard battles to drag on sometimes, because enemies when they aren’t broken take too little damage. I am patient though, and now that subjobs are becoming mine, things are proceeding at a faster pace. And after the first couple bosses, I think they stop being HP sinks, if you have a team able to hit weaknesses and break them more quickly that is. That shouldn’t be such a problem with secondary jobs.

Character-wise, they’re all nice. Gameplay-wise…

Spoiler
  1. I’m stuck with Ophilia until her Chapter 4 is done since I chose her as my first, her heals are a little weaker than expected (yet it gives me reason to Boost them), but useful of course. She is stacked with SP boosting equips and two status effect nullifying accessories, to maximize her healbotting.
  2. Cyrus, powerful attacks able to hit all enemies are great, and he has a little utility from his weakness checking. At first, SP conservation was being an issue for him, yet then Therion came along and stole dozens of Inspiring Plums, and I decide to buy the pricey Dragon Scarf from Tressa’s mother. 6 SP per turn save on turns he ends a fight nearly makes his basic spells cost-free. His lower encounter rate passive makes the randoms infrequent enough that things are significantly more enjoyable.
  3. Tressa seems intentionally eclectic, good for grinding money, and the BP transfer might be great later, but is on the whole lacking. Purchase was initially used with some cautious fervor, but was dumped once Steal showed up. I might use it again later, I have 100k presently, with more in unsold items, but I’m a strategic spendthrift.
  4. Oberic Garamonde is the best, durable with real strong cost-free physical attacks, plus Level Slash whenever I need a party bash. I’ve kinda favored him, but he is great. I just wish the description mentioned his Thousand Spears had low accuracy- still very awesome for bosses with its power and guard breaking though (as long as I have enough Plums, the cost is bearable).
  5. Primrose- the buffs look strong, but I’m presently not just using them much. Buffs being single-target is certainly a blow against her. Although this game, so far it seems, is one where you’re better off funneling everything into a single attacker once you break a boss. Well not exactly, you want to nearly break the boss, buff, and then go whole hog with everyone, but when the bosses aren’t broken, they’re hurting you. So buffing and debuffing delays breaks, which isn’t exactly ideal either- strategic choice here. Anyway, I dropped Primrose once I got to the next town. She is my weakest character.
  6. Alfyn is very mixed leaning to lacking on the Skills front, and due to money being kinda tight, I haven’t played with Concoct at all. He was dropped after a trip to the next village. Want to level him for Inquire, but I’m going to hold off a bit on that.
  7. Therion is certainly a useful character, with his Steal being duly useful. In battle, he he is kinda eh at the moment, but stealing is reliable in this game, and any Plums he pilfers provides me with plenty of SP. As a Path Action, Steal is by far the absolute best! Loads of freebies, yay! I did save abuse I admit with some shame, but only on objects with at least a 50% success rate. And after doing it for a couple towns, including one where he got a Steal rate up from Inquire, I got tired of it. Now that I have seemingly up to snuff stuff, I’m holding off on anything not 100% chance.
  8. H’annit looks very strong, and that Skill lineup is beautiful. I want to use her, but I don’t have the room to do so. I mean I could drop Therion, or Cyrus when a boss is not weak to one of his spells, but just roaming the world blindly, I’d rather stick to my current team.

I’m mostly playing blind. Though I did hit GFAQs just to see if there was a difference between Inquire and Scrutinize, or Allure and Guide- that there really isn’t much of one is a shame, because Path Actions are a nifty idea. Different info and different summon Skills from NPCs would be one way of correcting this. Or perhaps every NPC could be in need of some health product, and Alfyn could concoct different remedies for them, receiving a reward little or great for doing so.

Getting back on track, I also looked at when subjobs become available. Apparently, now that I have Chapter 1 done for all, I was ready to go for getting the subjobs, which I read were somewhere near the Chapter 2 towns for the most part. I was really raring to get them, since they're adding a heckuva lot of flexibility that I was lacking on a 4-traveler crew. So far, I’ve nabbed half of them, surprised to see that they’re just in a straight line in the open in their semi-secret caves, though I do like the locations being hidden if just a little. Why not hide them in the back of the optional enemy-filled areas?

Oberic really wanted Hunter, because having access to four weapon types makes him so much more versatile (even if Apothecary has the Axe skills). That Crit & Accuracy buff should help fix Thousand Spears. As for the rest, well since I can shuffle them around, Cyrus will just take whatever gives him elemental weakness targeting for a given boss. Therion could grab Dancer for bosses to buff Oberic, but Merchant, as redundant as it is with Thief’s HP and SP drains, would give him four weapon types for normal affairs. Ophilia, healing will take up the majority of her time in boss fights, but Warlock for some versatile offense makes the most sense to me. H’annit if I can find room for her, will do the same as Oberic, but in reverse and take Warrior, or Thief.

Lastly, I also got a little lucky and killed two of those Caits. I had glanced on GFAQs that they can be OHKOed with a M Soulstone, and indeed that works with anybody. I could’ve killed a third, but I tried using an S Soulstone, and that isn’t enough. Therion and Tressa will have to keep me stocked with a few just in case.

 

There are plenty of other games, RPGs and not (a second BotW run, finishing Plague Knight), that I want and should be getting to, such XC2 and VC4. But I’m waiting until I get a larger Micro SD Card for Xmas for those two, since I don't want to have to shift their data from one card to another later.

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Going to explore 2nd dungeon first but on SJ Redux i tested and noted i can already beat Mithra. I created a Take Minakata on roids, with Charge, and Grand Pierce and he singlehandedly took 70% ish of Mithra's HP after buffing period

 

Kind of salty to learn that all those OP boss moves are exclusive, since the boss of WOG2 have a really rad multi Hit Ice move >_>

 

 

Speaking of WOG2... yeah fuck that dungeon and fuck whoever designed it.

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Just started playing trails in the sky and I like it so far!

I got this game like few weeks ago. Knowing its Falcom behind this, I expected that it will end up being a good JRPG and it turns out that it is so far!

Estelle Bright is my favourite character of the whole bunch as of now. I like her optimism and her goofy side as it gives her a lot of depth. Some of these characters have depth in them and I like it so far.

I like how you get to get different allies as the game makes progress as well instead of being stuck with whatever you have to deal with.

I guess the only thing I don't like about it so far is the music. Sure, there's few tracks that are great but I kinda expected Ys quality if you know what I mean.

But its still rocksolid. Certainly far better than DQ11 imo. I hope the sequel and the other trails games get better when I get my hands on them.

I can't believe that Falcom being not so high than Squenix is able to make engaging RPGs far better than the former...which is sad because Chrono Trigger still happens to be my favorite RPG and now they sunk rock bottom.

 

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6 minutes ago, Harvey said:

Just started playing trails in the sky and I like it so far!

I got this game like few weeks ago. Knowing its Falcom behind this, I expected that it will end up being a good JRPG and it turns out that it is so far!

Estelle Bright is my favourite character of the whole bunch as of now. I like her optimism and her goofy side as it gives her a lot of depth. Some of these characters have depth in them and I like it so far.

I like how you get to get different allies as the game makes progress as well instead of being stuck with whatever you have to deal with.

I guess the only thing I don't like about it so far is the music. Sure, there's few tracks that are great but I kinda expected Ys quality if you know what I mean.

But its still rocksolid. Certainly far better than DQ11 imo. I hope the sequel and the other trails games get better when I get my hands on them.

I can't believe that Falcom being not so high than Squenix is able to make engaging RPGs far better than the former...which is sad because Chrono Trigger still happens to be my favorite RPG and now they sunk rock bottom.

 

The music improves substantially as the series goes. The Third is when it fully hits its stride, although SC has quite a few good tracks, (FC does too but it’s on the lowest end of the spectrum for Trails both music and gameplay wise for me despite still being a solid experience)

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2 hours ago, Jedi said:

The music improves substantially as the series goes. The Third is when it fully hits its stride, although SC has quite a few good tracks, (FC does too but it’s on the lowest end of the spectrum for Trails both music and gameplay wise for me despite still being a solid experience)

Just got a doubt. Is trails of cold steel a continuation of Trails in the sky or is it a spin off? Are there any connections to the games like Phantasy star in the end?

 

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18 minutes ago, Harvey said:

Just got a doubt. Is trails of cold steel a continuation of Trails in the sky or is it a spin off? Are there any connections to the games like Phantasy star in the end?

 

Cold Steel is the 3rd Trails arc, the 2nd one (The Crossbell arc of Zero and AO) didn't get localized but theres some translations for it. 

They are all directly connected to one another.

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29 minutes ago, Harvey said:

Like you see characters from previous games or the stories are linked?

 

Both, depending on whats going on. As it is currently there are 9 interconnected games, with more to come in the next few years (although I believe Kondo said after Cold Steel IV they were gonna take a little break from Trails/Kiseki)

Edited by Jedi
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Continuing my first playthrough of Bravely Default that I started early this year and I'm getting more into it by playing along with HCBailly's LP. This game is definitely overbloated with mechanics, but it also means there's a half dozen ways to break the game which I always love in an RPG. I'm impressed that so many of the job classes seem genuinely useful. Compare this to this game's unofficial prequel, where more than half of the classes couldn't compete with the obvious best ones. Speaking of Four Heroes of Light, I'm noticing a few of reused enemies, and the nemesis battles have a remix of that game's battle theme which was a neat surprise.

I'm in chapter 3 and the amount of logical inconsistencies in the plot have piled up to a startling amount thus far. Not that this sort of thing has ever been a deal breaker for me with any sort of game, it's just surprising to see it so early and in such a critically acclaimed game.

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So after getting destroyed by the last boss of dark souls iii’s second dlc, I went back to Kingdom Hearts BBS and beat Terra’s story. Now I’m up to Radiant Garden in Aqua’s story, and enjoying using magic with her even though keyblade attacks are incredibly weak. The story at this point really feels like it’s chopped up into pieces to suit the three character approach, with Aqua being plopped into worlds after missing out on the beginning of each world’s story. This really punishes players that chose Aqua as their first character.

I also started another playthrough of Xenoblade 2, which would be my third after doing NG+ on my first save file. I felt like doing one since I have no other single player game on my switch now that I lost my copy of Zelda, and also cuz NG+ was incredibly easy.

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Been playing DQVII, I wary of it, but with the 3DS at the end of its life, I decide to get this one of the system's last great JRPGs I hadn't yet played. I've reached the point where I've FINALLY gotten vocations access.

I was aware the game has an infamously slow opening, and indeed, I have to agree the game takes much too long to open up vocations. Nonetheless, because I was fully aware of the sluggishness and accepted it, at least towards the beginning. 

The pre-vocations boss referencing DQIV was nasty strong, too much so if you ask me, at least the dungeon is short. And the arc of that island was unexpectedly touching in its later part, much better than the prior ones.

From what I understand, the cause of the delay in vocation unlocking is

Spoiler

Kiefer being in the party.  

They didn't want to make vocation outfits for Kiefer I guess. C'mon! At the least, they could've unlocked the lowest vocations and kept the higher ones sealed away until later.

Just keep the 2nd and 3rd tier ones magically out of your reach until Alltrades proper. And send a traveling priest of limited vocational power-granting of the Abbey to one of the early past towns, whom you drag to Estard in the present or something. How hard would that be?

I was rather happy when Kiefer finally left. He was not bad, but he was not in any way endearing to me either.

When I finally reached Alltrades, I was very disappointed by another long arc standing in my way from vocations! I did not enjoy it one bit.

The bosses were tedium and frustrating, and if one is going to make them so strong, could the developers at least have made them glacially slow so you can always heal before their next assault? And they needed healing items stronger than mere Medicinal Herbs by that point, or at the least a PC with natural Zing, or why not mass buyable Yggdrasil Leaves for once? Survival amounted to mere luck in enemy attack choices in some cases. It was unfun. It was Drag-on Quest.

Although I do acknowledge this is an updated PS1 game, its problems are in some ways holdovers from yesteryears. DQVIII 3DS being based on a PS2 game was incredibly better. By the time you unlock Priest in VII, Angelo and the Hero could long have had Fullheal, which is the one thing I've been really badly missing (or at least more Midheal access) in VII.

On that note, the first thing I decided to do after getting vocations was turning all three characters into Priests and mastering that for total Fullheal and Zing access via the Slimetree Forest. Once I grab Mervyn (I'm playing mostly blind, but I did read about vocation level caps and a few other details) I'll send him Priest too. After that, well nothing really matters, as long as I stumble on Multiheal, Omniheal and the important support skills like Insulate.

After mastering Priest for my current three, I made two saves. In the rare chance I ever replay this game, I don't want to go through the first sixteen hours ever again.

 

The game despite these frustrations is classic Dragon Quest though, which is good. And I'm expecting it'll only get better from here on out.

Edited by Interdimensional Observer
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Strange Journey progress

 

Ive played the game before so the curveball thrown in them is kinda whatever. As far as it goes, some dungeon quirks made me go why and seriously? And then move on

 

...but oh god the same CANT be said for Womb of Grief. WoG2 is your ussual convenyor + poison panel + pitfall dungeon combo we all totally love and like while WoG3 just replaces convenyor with even more poison panel and pitfall. Its a damn good thing Redux makes random ecounter cleaner an early game thing but i pity someone who tried to fully map the damn thing. Im not masochistic enough to do that

 

Oh yeah the whole boss design. I dont neccesarily think SJ bosses are particularly bad designed but yeah most of them is a "did they do or do not use OP moves" checkmark. I actually like Ishtar who used 2 turn phasing for her stuff giving enough counterplay while also being punishing enough but stuff like Asura is basically defend and hope for the  best esp since Rage is relatively speaking uncancelable.

 

On the other hand i never really liked SJ story and i know about the ending spoilers, but something about Alex and Womb of Grief gives me on a headcanony feel of gameplay and meta story integration on the same level as Persona 2

Edited by JSND Alter Dragon Boner
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Here's hoping that the game is going to be expanded to at least include Naoto (P4) and her side of the story, if not also Mitsuru (P3) and Detective Kurosawa (P3).

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I'm fairly sure we'll get more Akechi, given how his story seems truncated and how popular he is.

I've felt that him dying was a pretty rushed conclusion to his story. Him joining the party for real to finish off Shido's case and help out with the final dungeon would be a bit better, and then both him and the protagonist go to prison for the epilogue. Obviously, he spends his time, the protagonist gets released.

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just finished revisiting Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep few days ago, for the sake of both nostalgia and completion.

i must admit i didn't remember the last two secret bosses being so damn hard to defeat. they're utterly insane difficulty-wise, or at least they are in the original version for PSP.

playing in Critical mode probably made them even harder, however when i found out some tricks to make their battles easier, i almost got disappointed by how easy it was to exploit certain mechanics.

in the end, after trying over and over for some hours, i finally managed to defeat them. i consider myself done for good with anything related to battles in that game.

 

i'm currently revisiting KH Dream Drop Distance as well, in order to complete the whole saga once and for all.

Edited by Fenreir
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12 minutes ago, Fenreir said:

just finished revisiting Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep few days ago, for the sake of both nostalgia and completion.

i must admit i didn't remember the last two secret bosses being so damn hard to defeat. they're utterly insane difficulty-wise, or at least they are in the original version for PSP.

playing in Critical mode probably made them even harder, however when i found out some tricks to make their battles easier, i almost got disappointed by how easy it was to exploit certain mechanics.

in the end, after trying over and over for some hours, i finally managed to defeat them. i consider myself done for good with anything related to battles in that game.

If your where playing the Psp version originally. Those bosses became easier in 2.5. Surge moves with their invincibility frames are overpowered.

Edited by Jingle Jangle
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On the subject of KH, I pre-ordered 3 like, 5 years ago when it was first put up for pre-order, and even back then, it got hit with a pretty big discount.

I do not like Kingdom Hearts, and I haven't been excited for KH3 in at least 7 or 8 years, so this should be pretty interesting.

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35 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

If your where playing the Psp version originally. Those bosses became easier in 2.5. Surge moves with their invincibility frames are overpowered.

yeah, i know they've been nerfed for good after the Final Mix version came out.

i guess i played the hardest version of the game, althou some things were really a joke if you were using the right commands.

like casting Mines + Tornado when fighting Vanitas, wich basicly died in 4 spells. so much of a challenge indeed.

or spamming the default dodge moves with Ven/Aqua against the Unknown for infinite Invincibility frames plus Surges.

if you also removed all the other commands from the secondary action bar, kept only the default ones, and removed also all the support skills, the difficulty turned from "impossible" to "walk in the park".

Quote

On the subject of KH, I pre-ordered 3 like, 5 years ago when it was first put up for pre-order, and even back then, it got hit with a pretty big discount.

I do not like Kingdom Hearts, and I haven't been excited for KH3 in at least 7 or 8 years, so this should be pretty interesting.

to be honest, the story has become quite a mess after KH2.

i appreciated the way Nomura delivered each game while trying a different approach to the gameplay, but the story became way too complex along with interpretations of certain concepts going too poetic in some cases.

i'm not a big fan of KH either, and i couldn't care less about anything related to the Disney worlds, but i'll buy KH3 anyway just for the sake of knowing how the main story ends after 15 years from its debut on PS2.

Edited by Fenreir
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Kingdom Hearts 3? I think I'll wait for the Final Mix version and save some money.

jk. Not at there being a KH3FM, that's happening, but at not getting the game. 

On 1/2/2019 at 7:56 AM, Slumber said:

I'm fairly sure we'll get more Akechi, given how his story seems truncated and how popular he is.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I've felt that him dying was a pretty rushed conclusion to his story. Him joining the party for real to finish off Shido's case and help out with the final dungeon would be a bit better, and then both him and the protagonist go to prison for the epilogue. Obviously, he spends his time, the protagonist gets released.

 

Yeah I feel pretty confident in predicting this as well. And that certain story conditions will need to be met in order to avoid the original's turn of events regarding this character.

Yeesh, I often hear it said that JRPGs are immune from this plague of games being released unfinished, but that doesn't seem to take into account this sort of re-release culture. I hope I'm wrong on both counts, but neither Kingdom Hearts nor Persona's histories should give anybody hope that a new entry will release in a final state. Just that said updates will take several years longer, and usually come on a different system in order to ward off suggestions that consumers pay a reduced price to upgrade to the final version.

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