I grabbed FES off Amazon yesterday, not sure why. I am right now working through my first game (9/10) and while I like it, I don’t think I want to play through again, especially with the difficulty changes in the new version. They just sound tedious to me.
Of course I might change my mind later, and I don’t feel like paying out the arse for FES later. Damn you ATLUS!
What “play through again” are you referring to? I mean, given that you are playing the new version of the original story (which is, to my understanding, broader and easier but should in no way add more boredom to the equation). Are you referring to a new game + after the first playthrough (which is possible, but very unlikely for most people imo)? Are you referring to the bonus chapters added especially for the FES edition, set after the end of the original story?
I don’t have FES yet, it’s in transit. I did buy Persona 3 when it first came out, played up till the charm miniboss, then took a long ass break. I just picked it up again and have been playing through it when I decided to pickup FES too.
As I said above, not sure why I did so, other than the slim chance I might want to play it again. I don’t think I am going to load up my current save in the new version even if it is possible, I like exploiting the crap out of the no tired before full moon bit.
So there is a slim, tiny, miniscule chance I might eventually load up FES with the new game+ option if I ever beat the original P3. I never have done that in any game (I might have done so with FFXII if it had the option stateside).
I just started FES. It actually looks harder than the original at first glance. You can no longer get free academics at the shrine almost every day without spending time, nor can you get a free fortune that almost always gives you money, so it actually seems harder to get those stats now.
There are more things to do in town, and it may be that (with the hint book) you can develop a pattern that works better than the original game, but at first glance, it’s actually a little more difficult to do the school-area activities because almost everything uses up a time slot.
I see a few more quests from Elizabeth, at least one type requires you to be in just the right place at the right time to fulfill the quest. There may (possibly) be more opportunity for money and/or items through these quests and other new town features, but I haven’t seen them as yet, though as I said I just started the game again from scratch, not having a previous non-FES save to import.
Hmm. Sounds like a case for playing through the FES-less game once and doing New Game + FES so that you already have maxed stats. (If you have the original, like I do.)
Well, just a suggestion, then. You don’t have to finish the original for your save to be useful…all of the grindy stuff will translate nicely and probably make the FES playthrough really streamlined. You pretty much just have to focus on the S links, which I understand are more open ended now.
Of course, my copy is still in the mail, but that’s what I’m planning on doing (I quit right near the end because I grew frustrated at being unable to complete some really great links in the amount of time I had left, and the rumors around FES suggested that would be the best way to do things “right”).
At least, I hope that’s an accurate interpretation of that save load function.
So this arrived today. I’m looking forward to playing it tonight. With GTA coming out on Tuesday, I have to ask: is there a way I could finish Persona 3 this weekend? If I tried to speed my way through it? And is that the best way to play?
To provide some background context, I sped through Final Fantasy X and loved it. Because I fled from most random fights, the boss fights were extra tough because I wasn’t as high level as most people, and I loved the main storyline too. So even though I’ve played FFX through two other times, doing all the side quests, getting all the uber-weapons, finding all the extra aeons, it was never as fun as the speed play-through because the boss fights weren’t as fun.
Is Persona 3 more like that? Or is it more like FFXII which was impossible to speed play-through because the game was so freaking tedious and MMO-like with its combat and hundreds and hundreds of enemies you have to fight all the time, and the boss fights are tough, and yet not really fun in any way?
I don’t think that’s a very good idea… unless you have about 140 hours to spare and don’t mind going through 70 hours of content you’ve already played. I’d say just start a brand new game in FES normal mode.
Well, the game discourages grinding in normal mode by increasing the Reward:Risk ratio for experience to an unusual degree. You’ll do far better doing a couple of fights on the new floors and running away from the rest than you will by grinding on stuff you’ve already unlocked. I expect that on easy the risk is lowered enough (by giving you continues, especially) that you could blow through the dungeons (which you can already do to a reasonable degree on normal, given the above and the fact that encounters are avoidable and efficient when they happen). And the harder enemies would probably still do a number on you if you don’t fight them intelligently, so it’s not like the game would be very boring (but I can’t vouch for that…I’ve never heard of anyone playing on less than normal).
However, the dungeon and fighting portion is only part of the game. The social/plot part would be difficult to speed through, imo, unless you’d already played the game once or stick religiously through a walkthrough.
I’d say you’d be far better served by experimenting with it over the weekend, shelving it for GTA, and then you’ll probably find yourself coming back to it. Even a partial playthrough has more to offer than most JRPGs have in their entirety.
I was going to do New Game + (in theory) anyway for the bonus dungeon and so on at the end. Doing it in FES would at least mean a bunch of differences and new content, while sidestepping the balancing urge they apparently had so that I could still abuse the shrine for Academics and money and that sort of thing. And giving me Hard mode, should I feel that brave.
In practice, I’ll probably be lucky to make it to the end of the main game, but I am nothing if not ambitious.
Is there going to be a hint book for P3:FES? My understanding was that Doublejump would not be doing a guide for the expansion - or does it make sense to print out the guide from gamefaqs?
Some notes on the bonus post-endgame content (“The Answer”):
I got past the first boss… not sure it’s really worth the slog if it starts getting insanely SMT:Nocturne-style difficult.
Thanks Lizard King. I kind of followed your advice and only played for a little while yesterday. I’m about 2.5 hours into the game. I finally got to the first gameplay portion and then called it a night. I did start on Normal difficulty though. Something about my psychological makeup that just won’t let me select “Easy” difficulty. Especially when I tried and they warned me that I wouldn’t be able to change it without starting over.
So far the game is … far more trippy than anything I was expecting. And the voice acting is astoundingly good. Especially by Yakuri (I think that’s her name, the brunette girl in light pink). Some of her dialog is cringe-worthy when I read the text (because I can’t help but read ahead of the voices), but then when the voice-actress says those same lines, they don’t come across as cheesy. I do believe that’s the first time I’ve come across that in a game. Where the voice actress is so good, she can even make badly written dialog sound natural.
Re: Yukari ,in the art book provided in the original Persona 3 editon the director said that they wrote her lines to be the most realistic and that alot of people were annoyed with her dialogue .
Lum, without spoiling it was the first boss easy or hard for you? That part about not having the compendium to back you up is unsettling to me. It feels like a poor way to make the game harder.
It was moderately difficult because I didn’t try to save any mana so my main character ran out 2/3 of the way through the fight. Luckily I had two healers in the party.
Why do I keep hearing about no compendium? I just booted it up, and it tells me it’s translating all of my personas from my old save to the new compendium (eg without levels and stuff I fused into them). The manual for FES goes over the compendium as usual (it will probably unlock at about the same time, no?).
Glad you like it. You’ve got some more prize winners coming up later in the plot. Me, I’m excited now about starting over.
Dear qt3 diary: I failed to finish P3. I’m standing in the corner balancing the FES case on my head right now.
I’m at Jan 6 now, and I’ve gone as high up as I can go. Should I just coast to the end, ignore Monad, and just beat the game & start FES? I’m at lvl 75, and my compendium is around 81%. Is there any point of going to Monad if this is the first game? (as in, not New Game+)
The “no compendium” bit is only for “The Answer”, the second scenario following the plot of the main game. The compendium is still there in the main game.
I quit a bit later in January after some 92 hours (by my save’s measure, that is). And restarting in FES with that save (meaning my stats maxed out and all of the basic forms of personas that I had unlocked are in my compendium) seems to be more than enough of an advantage, especially now that the s links have less of “point cost” per conversation choice to improve that person’s opinion (or so the game faqs say).
I have to say restarting after playing a bunch of other rpgs in between really drives home how much better this game is than most.
Oh. I see. Thanks. Yeah I guess between that and the save points only before bosses (as opposed to warp points with healing) it sounds like a different kind of experience.
110+ hours on the fecking save and I finally beat the original game.
So if somewhere down the road I want to play it again with my new copy of FES that just arrived I get personas, stats, but not levels using the original game’s final save. But if I had beaten the game with FES and restarted I get to keep my levels? That sucks if true, and makes little sense.
Overall the game was awesome, though trying to defeat the final boss at lvl 73 is an extended exercise in frustration. Especially when Yukaria gets charmed and complete heals the final form after an hour of widdling it down to ~5% health. Oh the expletives that flew out of my mouth…