Board 8 > Persona 5 Strikers Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hell yeah Okinawa is great.

And yes, it definitely crashes more than I'd like. Didn't lose much progress on any of them, but it was highly annoying. Probably like 8-10 crashes by the time I finished? None in the last few hours of the game, thankfully.
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Trying to max out bond for the achievement is hell.

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Yeah it's a bad idea.
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Anagaram posted...

Trying to max out bond for the achievement is hell.

It seems like the only way to do it reasonably is to play through Merciless, then when you hit the endgame there, you go back and farm whichever dire shadow you have the easiest time with (Probably Sendai/Kyoto/Abyss, with the Ice Weakness + ability to spam technical phys/gun hits, or Okinawa/Osaka with Elec Weakness instead of ice? Or request Metatron is maybe just as good if you're willing to sit through the final boss fight again), and even then it's still probably gonna be a big grind at the end

Reg posted...

and even then it's still probably gonna be a big grind at the end

I lied, it's not.

I didn't do any particular grinding or farming beyond clearing all requests as they came available (both first play and merciless NG+), killing all dire shadows (Killed Sendai 3x in NG+, all others once each in first play and NG+) and got it off the Mini-boss Legion near the end of the Osaka jail. No special grinding required, and if I hadn't killed the Sendai dire shadow more than once I almost certainly would've hit max bond off the jail's boss.

About how long is this game? HLTB says 34 main and 45 with extras, but not sure what extras are in this case.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

About how long is this game? HLTB says 34 main and 45 with extras, but not sure what extras are in this case.

Probably just side quests and the post game boss rematches

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There's not a ton of optional content. I had 43 hours and did the sidequests and main story. None of the super bosses or achievement hunting really.
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I finished my playthrough doing every side-quest as it came and my final play time was almost exactly 35 hours. So the other 10 hours is probably Persona farming and super bosses.

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An hour and a half in.

Wtf is going on with this audio balancing?

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Hmm, not sure if I really had problems, though I listened to the JP voices. You can turn down the SFX volume separately if that's what's bothering you.
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UshiromiyaEva posted...

About how long is this game? HLTB says 34 main and 45 with extras, but not sure what extras are in this case.

My final time for plat trophy was right around 60 hours. I don't think less than that is realistic unless you're going with "this is theoretically the fastest possible way to do it, but you'll be bored out of your skull doing so"

I think my first playthrough (All sidequests and such) was probably in the 40-45h range though, so that sounds right.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

About how long is this game? HLTB says 34 main and 45 with extras, but not sure what extras are in this case.

Took me like 42 hours to finish, 60 hours to get all the achievements.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Hmm, not sure if I really had problems, though I listened to the JP voices. You can turn down the SFX volume separately if that's what's bothering you.

It's the English dub, yeah. Ryuji and Yusuke are very low compared to the rest, whereas Makoto's lines are one step higher than everyone else. Ryuji even has parts where his mumbling lines are impossible to hear. I messed with the music and SFX volume a bit, but that doesn't fix the inherent uneven sound mixing for the cast amongst themselves unfortunately.

Product of recording in COVID? Or is this just a bad mix job?

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Futaba's lines are also lower.

Uhhhh is Tae really not in this game?

...figured that would be a fan fave.

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RikkuAlmighty posted...

It's the English dub, yeah. Ryuji and Yusuke are very low compared to the rest, whereas Makoto's lines are one step higher than everyone else. Ryuji even has parts where his mumbling lines are impossible to hear. I messed with the music and SFX volume a bit, but that doesn't fix the inherent uneven sound mixing for the cast amongst themselves unfortunately.

Product of recording in COVID? Or is this just a bad mix job?

I would assume it's a COVID issue since none of the other Persona games had any problems with the english dub. But honestly the balancing issues don't occur too often in my experience, I do remember noticing it a lot towards the start of the game but I'm nearing the end and I don't recall it happening in awhile. Or maybe I just got used to it and stopped noticing lol, but it definitely stopped bugging me after the beginning

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Probably a COVID thing, yeah. JP voices are definitely the way to go if you want the best experience.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Futaba's lines are also lower.

Uhhhh is Tae really not in this game?

...figured that would be a fan fave.

None of the confidants are in this other than Sojiro and a brief scene with one other.
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Persona 5 did have a couple mixing issues. Did no one encounter the thing where random victory quotes would be super loud for no reason?

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I spent probably close to 200 hours between base and royal and I have no clue what you're talking about

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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Persona 5 did have a couple mixing issues. Did no one encounter the thing where random victory quotes would be super loud for no reason?

I don't remember this

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Don't remember that but I haven't played it since 2017.

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You know, I tried to look it up but couldn't find anything on it either. I know it happened to me and my partner both playing on the same console. Yusuke in particular liked to YELL. I guess it was a pretty rare audio bug.

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I'm a bit confused about the structure here. Should I really just be leaving the dungeon to restore health and SP, and just going right back in? If so, why not just make it so health and SP are recovered at checkpoints, and having to go back is just optional for the shop and such? It's not a huge deal on PS5, but know switch load times are major booty, so....

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I'm a bit confused about the structure here. Should I really just be leaving the dungeon to restore health and SP, and just going right back in? If so, why not just make it so health and SP are recovered at checkpoints, and having to go back is just optional for the shop and such? It's not a huge deal on PS5, but know switch load times are major booty, so....

This was very confusing to me as well and yes there's no penalty for entering/exiting a dungeon so just feel free to abuse that mechanic at every checkpoint.

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Yeah they do specify that there's no penalty, which is why the checkpoint not just recovering you automatically is even more confusing.

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Well there are a few points eventually where you're blocked from leaving the jail at checkpoints so it makes sense in those cases. But they could have just also blocked the ability to heal at the checkpoint if that was an option so IDK.

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The only thing to note about leaving/reentering a jail is that it does cause defeated mobs to respawn.

But even then, they really could've implemented healing as an option on the checkpoints (Same as leaving already is) and just had that trigger the respawns instead. A definite miss on the designer's part here.

The presentation is excellent but there's some gameplay jank where it's obvious that Omega Force made this. Movement being a little jank is probably the most obvious.

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middle of the first dungeon.

i can't tell if battles are too easy or too hard. i just take a ton of damage without realizing it, or the battle is suddenly over

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The difficulty curve on the first dungeon is absolutely wild like that. The boss especially is just weirdly way more difficult than it should be even though random mobs are completely non-threatening most of the time. After that it evens out.

Pretty on-brand for a Persona game tbqh.

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Yeah I remember running into the first slime boss mob and getting absolutely wrecked. Then I changed my party to take advantage of the slime's weakness and the fight was over in like 20 seconds.

The combat starts feeling pretty natural after the first dungeon and you learn the moves that will do elemental damage without spending SP.

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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

The difficulty curve on the first dungeon is absolutely wild like that. The boss especially is just weirdly way more difficult than it should be even though random mobs are completely non-threatening most of the time. After that it evens out.

Pretty on-brand for a Persona game tbqh.

The problem is actually that they open up everything immediately, so people are going to naturally want to try for combos. Really the first dungeon you should just focus on not getting hit, recognizing telegraphed attacks, and abusing weaknesses.

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colliding posted...

The problem is actually that they open up everything immediately, so people are going to naturally want to try for combos. Really the first dungeon you should just focus on not getting hit, recognizing telegraphed attacks, and abusing weaknesses.

Yeah this is a problem too. How are you supposed to actually learn the combat system when Ambush -> AOA instantly ends most non-boss encounters? And then the numerical scaling is legit off so when you do hit a (mini)boss it gets rough.

It really does smooth out immensely after the first dungeon, though. If I have any recommendations before then it's to upgrade the shop to level 2 with Bond points and start hoarding revival pills.

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Honestly, the two biggest thing that this game never teaches you about the battle system:

• Ailments/Technical Damage is P5R-levels of broken, as opposed to being the afterthought they were in the original P5
• Instakill skills work on everything less than Dire Shadows/Request Shadows/Wardens/Monarchs. This includes the various mini-bosses that are just bigger versions of normal enemies, as long as they don't null Bless/Curse

It's not directly related but I just watched the Persona 5 Girlfriend review and it's pretty entertaining. But the reason I'm bringing it up now is the last few minutes. Start at 7 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVaAu_9U21Y

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Starting to think the people writing these Persona spinoffs have gotten into the habit of giving a different character in the games the same name as the Protagonist in the manga versions of them out of spite.

Maybe if the manga writers weren't way better at naming your main characters then whatever garbage you come up with I wouldn't keep defaulting to it!

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I love Sophie

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shes pretty adorable

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Sophie or nanako?

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Maybe if Nanako got as much screentime as Sophie...
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On the way to Okinawa.

The story and character stuff in this game is really good so far, especially these recent bits post 3rd jail.

I guess I'm just a little shocked because basically every Persona spinoffs story and characterization has been so horrendous, though I guess P4 got the worst of it.

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Yeah the extra story stuff in Strikers is really good, which gives me hope that they might do a second season of the P5 anime (except good and fun this time).

Haru, Yusuke, and Ryuji all shine and the new characters are actually good too. The villains are kind of whatever, but they're not bad.

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They need to stop making Persona animes because they don't understand why the original P4 anime was great.

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Ryuji's glowup is insane. Like, it's totally wild how good he is here. They're having tons of fun with Yusuke and leaning into his and Futaba's bromance. Haru is getting fleshed out a ton after she got shafted in P5 proper. Ann is...fine, I mean it's not like she was lacking in P5, just a little one note for me. Mona is in the same boat.

The only one who might be suffering a liiiiiiiittle bit from Persona "meatification" as I call it is Makoto, as they've been leaning onto her fear of the paranormal a whole lot, but it's not nearly as egregious as what happened to the P4 cast and especially Chie. Probably just fresh in my mind since they went so hardcore with it in the 4th section.

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Makoto feels like the writers just dropped her for the most part because she was already the most popular character and didn't need more help. Honestly I respect that in theory because they did such a good job with the characters who got shafted in the original (besides Ann who is still mostly just there for fanservice unfortunately).

I think they went too far overboard though because they kind of made her into kind of a buzzkill and while I do remember her being "the responsible one" in P5 it wasn't nearly this bad. So either she got the shaft or my tastes just changed in the past few years.

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I think the game handles Makoto well. Spoilers: her interactions with Akane are in character and gives her a chance to be the "big sister" to someone else for once in her life. I wouldn't call her a buzzkill so much as the "straight man" in comedy terms

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The spoiler'd part above is why I can't really put too much on the game for straight up recreating the leg grabbing scene with how much it's hammering in that character trait of hers, because she's really fantastic when the game needs her to be. They don't NOT know what they're doing like with supplemental and additional P4 stuff, they just don't feel the need to do a ton in some situations which is not necessarily wrong.

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Although I do need to know who on the Persona team won't let this awful mixed bathing incident trope go because it's just getting pathetic at this point.

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its an anime staple you cant get rid of it

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Question:

WTF does it mean when my party members start whining about being low on stamina?

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