By Eu
So finally, after what felt like years, I’ve finished P3P. Yay!
In P3P, you can choose to be a guy or a girl. The latter is a PSP exclusive and if you want to have a different “POV”. I don’t have much idea about this game so I start off with the male MC.
First things first. I can’t assure you that there won’t be any spoiler in this post. This is a Recents post so expect lots. You might have sense it in your gut already though lol. Just thought I should warn you again. 🙂
I named my character Sasazaki Takuma lol. Sasazaki from Sasazaki Mami of SCANDAL band while Takuma is a random name I chose haha. Anyway, Takuma transferred to Gekkoukan High School in Iwatodai. He arrives late at night and upon stepping out of the train station, he notices coffins all over the town. When he reaches his new dorm, he is welcomed by a boy who made him sign up a contract (sounds fishy lol). After their meeting, Yukari comes to meet Takuma to welcome him, apparently not aware of the other boy. Takuma goes to school and meets Yukari again and another classmate named Junpei. Other students living in the dorm are his seniors at school, the Student Council President Mitsuru and Boxing Club Ace Akihiko. All seems to go well until one night, Takuma is awoken by a panicking Yukari telling him to go with her. They find out that Akihiko encounters a large Shadow — black, slimy-looking thing — and is now heading towards the dorm. It is powerful that they cannot do a thing about it. Yukari drags Takuma to the rooftop. Meanwhile, the head of the dorm, Mitsuru and Akihiko are all in the Command Room instructing the two on how to fend off the shadow (why don’t they go up there? :O I think it is mentioned in the game but I forgot ;w;). Yukari brings out a gun-like thing called Evoker to summon her Persona. However, she can’t bring herself to shoot herself (in the head no less, I’ll freak out too if it was me.) and the Evoker slips from her grip until it slides towards… Takuma. He is able to use it properly despite being his first time seeing those things (he’s rather calm actually). The fight has taken a toll on his body though and is unconscious for weeks. So much for a warm welcome.
Part of P3P experience is that you get to be a normal high school student at daytime and then grind in Tartarus at midnight. I used guides to help me get through P3P. This one is a social links guide where it guides you with the non-Tartarus part of the game so no tips about fighting Shadows etc. Using this is optional of course but since I often find myself at a loss on what to do during freetime, I opt to use a guide. This helps me have a schedule and not just run around the town cluelessly. I also wanted to max all the Social Links in a single playthrough. Not really needed but well OC tendencies~. This guide is very strict but it could also get vague at times so be warned. I had to improvise and searched through every forums. Also with this guide I tackle one block of Tartarus in one sitting — definitely not for anyone who likes to pace themselves in dungeon crawling.
Social links are the so-called relationships your MC forms throughout the game. The level of your S.Links corresponds to the bonuses you get when you fuse Persona of that Arcana. Once you maxed out a particular link, you will be able to fuse the highest ranking Persona. The perks of maxing out all links is that you’d get a bonus from Igor that allows you to create Orpheus Telos.
Since I have a male MC, I get to build my harem. You can have romantic relationship with all the girls. This might irk other people. What irks me the most though is that why do the girls find him attractive? I mean, yes, he’s like their beacon of hope and pillar of strength but he is basically just a yes man. MC doesn’t have a personality. He is like a fleeting existence in the game and gives answers on what the other person would like to hear.
This one is the guide I used while in the Tartarus. There are tips on how to beat bosses so you could face the battle prepared. There are six blocks in Tartarus and 2 special doors. Since I grind a lot, I have no more energy left for Margaret’s doors. I love Monad though. It’s probably my favorite block in the entire Tartarus! You get to fight high level bosses. So if you fight alone (which I often do when leveling my MC) you’d get a 10k++ exp. Woot! You’ll reach level 99 in no time. 😀
Other than all of the skills, links, and other shizz that you have to increase/complete, you also have to do Elizabeth’s requests as the rewards are quite helpful sometimes. The requests that I really hate though (the ones that totally sap my energy and patience) are the ones that has to do with the golden shadows and rare items. I’m not able to do the request for finding a rare item in Monad and fighting the Ultimate Opponent. I’m just exhausted at this point.
Going back to S.Links, I love the idea of creating and strengthening bonds with other people. I’m a little sad whenever I max a link since that means that character is going away (most of the time). It’s very much like in real life where you meets friends and even if you are away from each other, you know on the other side of the world they are there with the memories you both treasure. (I’m getting sentimental here haha) I just love the impact it makes. Even with the theme of death oozing in every aspect of the game, it only makes me hopeful. Death is inevitable but it doesn’t mean that you have to limit your world. Because the MC and other characters acknowledge and accept death, they are able to live their lives to the fullest. They appreciate things and people they love more. This is I think the stark contrast of the Good and Bad ending. In the Bad ending, the world does not end right away but everyone forgets what happens before that, their friendships and all. They become strangers to each other with no recollection of what happened to them. Then Yukari said this:
They are living in the now but in reality they aren’t. They don’t appreciate life and goes on with it with no direction at all.
Having said that, I just wish that the choices you make in the entire game adds up so that you can go to a certain ending and not just decide between two choices.
I’m pretty neutral about this game in general. Yes I love the theme and some points but it can get repetitive and tiring. The grinding is exhausting (though it must have been me). I get goosebumps when the girls go >///< around the MC like wth haha (I’m looking at you Mitsuru). BUT this is not a reason to stop me from playing female MC (too bad no reverse harem www) and succeeding Persona games.
the grinding was tiring for me too >.< it's boring waiting for the team to lvl up, rescuing people in each playthrough is a pain…If you start a new game plus, you lose al lot of your items (skill cards, medicine, etc.), but you can keep your weapons/armor/rings. Ah, how I should have used those skill cards I lost/made weapons OTL
I found out that since I’ve maxed out my level, I could level up my teammates one by one. But that also means I have to repeat the process 7 times… ; A ;
Ikr T_T I’ve re-started the game as fem!MC then I look at my inventory and see my skill cards gone NOOOOOOOOOOOO. I shouldn’t have held myself back before from using those skill cards orz.
Yeah, I was so mad, like at least say what I’m going to lose/not carry over before you tell people to save the game -_- I maxed out feMC, so I’m just kinda waiting for teammates to lvl up, until I used those other doors, the challenge one on the left and the one with the ultimate opponent on the right in order to beat those shadows.
Were you able to beat both doors? I’m not too enthusiastic to go through Margaret’s doors. lol
No, I did some of the challenges OTL I just crawl around looking for shadows to kill to lvl the party up…That ultimate opponent is crazy hard, 9,999 damage in 1 turn from her, that’s too unfair >.<!
I started a 2nd game as another FeMC for more social links + demons; I don't have all of the characters yet, I'll wait until all of their personas evolve/start the grinding then…
Doing Margaret’s quests seem tedious >_<. I heard it has its own pre-set personas and members assigned to you.
For Elizabeth, I think she has some sort of pattern that you have watch out for? Kinda like Nyx though 10x stronger than last boss. lol
The pre-set personas and members makes it hard…sigh…
Yeah.
I’m less enthusiastic to beat it now… Is there any reward or something though once you beat them?
For rebeating the bosses you get some jewels (opal, etc.), and a skill card. You can keep beating them for jewels, but the reward/jewel numbers decrease the more you beat them….
For the doors with preset personas I only beat luck somehow (I was literally just pressing random buttons…o_o ). I can’t remember what the reward was, maybe a skill card?
I just beat the magic door. You get 0 exp, just a skill card (I got mind charge). Using Raphael to reflect the magic attacks because they use hama attacks makes it easy to kill them.
I played this game last year. I love Persona games and I liked this one a lot
Very interesting playing with a girl too |o|
You should try 😉
I’ve become interested to other Persona games because of this. I’ve started playing as fem!MC. Definitely loving it! 😀 (though I’m not sure I’m ready to invest a couple more hours for this game yet lol)
The first one I played was P3 PS2 version, then came P4, which is awesome and soooo funny, you’ll love it. Also for PS2.
You should try 😀
But it’s so much fun to play with MaleMC XD
Hopefully I would be able to buy PSV this summer so I could play P4. The theme looks so much different from P3P. Super lively! XD
And it is xD super lively!! Very very funny
Looooooved Persona 3 Portable. I’ve played a a couple of the SMT games in the past for the DS and for the PS1 etc. and I seriously adored them. I think Devil Survivor was my first one on the DS and then I started playing as many as I could get my paws on hahaha~ P3P is probably one of my favorites. The battle system is nicer imo in P3P cus I think it was the same one they used from P4 so yeah 😛 playing the female MC is cute too EXCEPT THE ENDING THO OF PERSONA 3 LIKE WHY IT RIPS MY HEART OUT SOBBING ;_____; ARRHGHGHGHGH LOL like when some of them make promises to enjoy like holidays in the future or whatever… it’s like no… you aren’t gonna… LIKE NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! wwww I feel very strongly about this game if you haven’t noticed. xD
And yeah the grinding in Tartaros can def get tiring haha I used a guide that made me do all the tartaros grinding in one night cus the other nights were for raising stats and the days were for maxing out social links omfG it was like 10 or 20 floors of continuous grinding… it was pretty painful not gonna lie lmao.
P3P made me interested with Persona games (and SMT games in general xD). I can’t wait to play P4! Hopefully P5 will be ported to Vita because the new protagonist is hnnggh ahaha!
OMG I feel you. It’s so bittersweet. I cried during the end of the male MC and I think I’ll do the same with fem!MC esp now that I’m loving her character more. XD
lmao I did the same thing and ended up as tired as my team. XD It was worth it seeing how you’ve maxed everything though. ww
I’ve recently found out that there’s Persona 2 for PSP. Have you played it yet?
omG IKR I saw the posts on P5 and I was like WHEN DID THIS BECOME A SOLID THING??? I was sooo excited omg but yeah the protag for P5 is SERIOUSLY hnngng dsakl;fjdka; ;v;
UGH YES ;_____; the ending made me cry too I was like WHY WHY WOULD U DO THIS TO ME and yet I keep coming back for more. LOL
Yeah haha it was nice seeing my stats maxed out and my social links maxed out. It made those personas nice and strong too x) so it was worth it but yeah sometimes after grind sessions I’d have to stop so I could recuperate as well xD
Yeah so there’s two Persona 3 games, Eternal Punishment and Innocent Sin. I’d play Innocent Sin first and then Eternal Punishment which takes place afterwards www I played them a while ago though so I don’t really recall what happens…. I do recall liking it though ^3^ so def recommend playing them! www now that I think about it I might go back and play them again ;D
It hurts so bad that we keep coming back for more. WHY ARE WE DOING THIS TO OURSELVES LMAO.
Yeah, that’s why it took me 8 months to finish the game. XD I was so sad to see all my skill cards gone though after the new game plus. T__T
Ahh I see. Wow two games. I wonder how long it would take me to finish playing them. lol
LOL has rejet trained us to act like this now??? Do-M to the max amirite wait what LMAOOO //shot
Yeah it’s kind of sad starting to see a new game and not having all the stuff from the previous run… ;___;
And www take your time~ They’re for enjoyment, no need to rush!! ;v; I think I might go through and replay them now too wwww
After I get through re:birso though. Argghhh lol I’m so slow!! >_<
The do-M training is starting to pay off! o/ /kicked
Right wwww. I’ll just crawl and savor the games~~ lololol.
Good luck on re:birth! ^_^
LOL thanks!!! enjoy your games~~ hohoho :3