Persona 3 update.

[aruru]

FINALLY had some time to play Persona 3 for a bit today. Made it to the 14th floor of Tartarus before my whole party got tired and had to go back. Dammit, I can barely explore around the floors before my guys get exhausted - guess I need to focus more on finding the stairs first. Pooh. :P

Got SUPER-lucky at drawing fortunes at the shrine one day (forget which) - I got a fortune that not only gave me 10,000 yen, but also boosted my status to Great AND gave me a Lucky Charm! Awesome! :D

Joined Student Council as per Mitsuru's request. Also hung out with Kenji when he called me up (Social Link level is still at 2 with him, though... I think), met the old couple from the bookstore and got their Social Link, played the MMORPG and got that Social Link (was very amused by the Innocent Sin references, even though I've never played that game and only "got" the title and character names bit), practiced with Kazushi twice (his Social Link's at 3 now, w00t), and started putting the mack on Yuko (team captain) and got her Social Link. Dude, I am SO making the hero a pimp. Possibly more pimptastic than Ocarina of Time-version Link! XD (Though Link gets serious points for being pimp even as a ten-year-old. XD)

Anyway, after all that, I made it to May 1st (SOOOOO lagging behind y'all, I'm telling ya. ;_;), and met Shinjiro (Akihiko's friend) for the first time. He seems... interesting. Wonder why he looks so pissed off in his portrait... hmm, I think I'll refer to him as "Sour-Look Boy" from now on! >D

Had to quit for dinner after that, though. So no, not that much progress. :(

Am considering returning to Tartarus and take on the 14th floor boss that day in my next play, though the hero is stuck with the Tired status (Junpei and Yukari are fine, though). Good idea? Bad idea? :O We shall see some other time, I guess!

Comments

[shinkuu.livejournal.com]

Some people like to push through "Tired" status, though I never did like doing that. I guess it may not be so bad, if you're only doing a boss battle? I kinda forget all the disadvantages that come with being Tired, so I dunno...

As for Social Links... I didn't figure this out until way late in the game, but if there's a particular link you're interested in, just keep plugging away at it even if it seems like you're not making any progress. I thought I had to give them time, and I tried balancing too many at once... When really, any sort of positive (or at least, not negative) interaction with them will lead you towards increasing their Link level, and seeing more of their story!

Shinjiro... Heh, yeah, he's a sourpuss all the time. I think he gets interesting, though!

[aruru.livejournal.com]

I don't know what Sick status does, but I did notice that Tired status made my physical attacks weaker (don't recall seeing if it was the same for magical attacks), and Yukari explicitly told me at one point (I forget if it was in those random conversations you can have with the party at the dorms or if it was actually an event conversation...) that you also heal for less amount if you're worn out, which yeah, that's bad. :\

What I'm thinking is to try beating that boss and get to the stairs as fast as possible, then avoid as many fights as I can until I reach the barrier. Good idea, bad one? :\

I'm trying to keep Social Links sorta balanced for now. Since there's not that many (yet) to keep track of, it's not that bad. I get a feeling that I might need to consider making a schedule eventually to keep track of them all, though. *LOL* XD

And yay! that Shinjiro gets interesting. I hope all the characters do, really, as thus far I like them all. :D

[shinkuu.livejournal.com]

Ah yeah, I had to go look it up in the manual! And yeah, that sounds right... It says if you're Tired, your offense and defense take a dive (it seems in this game, offense affects both your physical AND magical offense, and likewise for defense), and not only that, but if you get knocked Down, you take longer to get up. Getting knocked Down is already bad enough, losing a turn or two... taking longer can be deadly (it actually DID kill me once...).

As for being Sick, the manual says you also take a hit to your critical/evasion rate, as well as being more susceptible to ailments! Also, the in-game conversations said that, if you're sick, you can actually pass it on to other team members after a battle... I think you get Sick if you're just Tired and don't do anything to improve your condition, but I've also seen of of my allies randomly get Sick once! I just didn't make her part of my party when I went to Tartarus, though, and after a few days she recovered...

As for the Tartarus exploration strategy... Some people will tell you to explore each floor thoroughly as you please, but personally, I have to agree with your idea of getting to the stairs as quickly as possible and avoiding fights along the way. I mean, early in the game, the boss floors (and thus, two-way warp points) are relatively close together, but you also get Tired a lot more quickly.

My philosophy was, if I didn't make it to a two-way warp, my exploration progress was essentially lost as I'd have to retread old floors again the next time. So I always rushed to ascend as quickly as possible, then went back to lower floors if I needed to level or wanted to explore for money and goodies. Plus! If you're at a high enough level, monsters will actually flee from you (you'll see a "distressed" icon above them, and they'll squeal and dart away if they see you). So, re-visiting old floors after you've made it to higher ones is really not so bad as you can explore almost entirely at your leisure.

And yeah, I really like the characters so far! Especially some of the Social Links. It's hard to pick out ones I really didn't like...

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Okay, I'll try my hand at the boss and the "mad-dash" strategy. I have several saves, so it'll be fine - worst that can happen is that I'll get my butt kicked and have to try the whole thing again at another date. :\

I already encountered one enemy that I could cause distress on! It was the Cowardly Mayas I randomly found on one of the higher floors. Don't know why they were there, as they usually hang out on lower floors than that, but hey, easy exp, hee. XD

Hope I can play some more soon! :D

[shinkuu.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Another thing I found was that, if I DIDN'T do the mad dash, and just explored around, I ended up finding some cool stuff and getting some good experience. But the more I got, the more paranoid I was that I wouldn't be able to find the stairs or exit when I really needed to. It's especially scary when you get a Shuffle and accidentally get a card with Death on it!!

I found that, with the later floors, there was almost no alternative to the mad dash... Because I used up so much SP, just for the fights I couldn't escape from while searching for the stairs. I try not to chance it with fights, and always try to get the Player Advantage or just avoid the fight completely. Sometimes all the enemy needs is one lucky turn to wipe you out!

But yeah! Glad to see you're getting to play more!

[tuxedoian.livejournal.com]

Small piece of advice here, for the 14th floor boss. Make sure you've fused some of your Personas (can't remember which offhand) and have the Ars Arcanum Persona before going into the fight. The boss completely resists physical attacks, and can take out a party member with one special attack. You'll need to be at least level 6 before you can fuse Ars, and his Social Link is the sports team, so good that you've been working on that one.

Good luck. First time I fought the boss, he wiped the floor with me. Need to go do some more training and get him back for that.

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Hee hee, I think you mean Ara Mitama? Ars Arcanum was a move Sora had in the original Kingdom Hearts. /nerdiness XD

Anyway, yeah, I am indeed at level 6 from all the fighting around, and I just noticed that the Persona in question was a Chariot Arcana, which meant that it got a two-level EXP boost. Awesome!

Thanks for the advice! :)

Also, as an aside, how did you find my journal? I'm curious, as I don't usually get that many new responses (Or are you an old responder that hadn't replied to me in a while?). I'm always happy to hear from new (or "resurrected") people, though! ^_^

[tuxedoian.livejournal.com]

Bah, you're right. See, this is why I like sleeping, because it makes my memory go non-wonky. x.x

As for how I found you, I've had you on my friends list for a long long time. I forget how it was we first met. Might have been a forum somewhere, been too long. As for why I haven't responded, well... I generally don't have a whole lot to say? But given as I'm playing the game myself (with a bit of help from the strategy guide, which is a godsend), I figured I'd offer a bit of advice. Good luck on the boss. You'll need it. I'm starting my game over to do things a bit different, as I went into the battle again and got creamed.

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Haha, don't worry, that kind of thing happens to me all the time too! XD

Ah, I see. I thought your name looked kinda familiar - I've probably noticed it on my FList before (but since I check it so infrequently, I must've brainfarted and forgot... ^^;;). And don't worry about not answering frequently - I tend to go for long stretches of time not-replying to other people's posts (due to generally not having much to say either), then suddenly go on a reply-frenzy, so I know what that's like.

Anyway, nice to re-meet you! :D