So I'm 30 hours into the game, definitely loving it. It is SO awesome that you don't get tired from going into the dungeon. That was the single aspect of Persona 3:FES that made it unplayable for me. I love being able to do countless dungeon runs to fill out my equipment list/maximize the use of my time.
The character development is very strong. Kanji makes my party every time.. that probably has to do with the fact that his weapons are pieces of furniture.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to finish this game though.. Rev Anthony made some good points on podtoid regarding how difficult it is to deal with the fact that the game is very long, and extremely formulaic in nature. For the most part I agree, Luckily I have a week break from work, so I have quite a bit of free time to finish the game.. but there is something about sitting down for ten hour blocks to finish the game that start to make it feel like a chore. Don't get me wrong, the story is great, the gameplay is challenging and compelling, the game looks/sounds amazing overall... its just.. FUCK 80 hours is a lot of fucking time!! I'm pretty sure I have gained ten pounds from playing this game all day long for three days in a row.
I'll keep updating my progress on this excellent Atlus title! Wish me luck!
I totally agree Zock. I was already thinking about my second playthrough when it hit me how much time that would take. That's probably going to over 130 hours combined. I mean I totally want to play the game, I really like it. But shit. That's a ridiculous amount of time.
The Double-Jump guide is fantastic... if anyone is a fan of extremely amazing guides that make the game more fun to play, I would say to pick it up fo-sho.
I finished it once. Took like... 50 hours? I can't remember..
Then my ps2 died. Or i killed it...?
Isn't that awesome? It could've died just before the ending sending me into madness. But it held! haha.
Use that week! Unless you want a perfect game, just going once trough the story is enough. Know this, there are 3 endings. Check a faq or something, because getting the bad ending is....well, bad.
Anyway, good luck.
The game takes less time to beat on replays since you know what to do and where to go, and you're probably going to die less if at all.
And 80 hours isn't that long. I mean, it's like buying and beating 10 generic FPS games, but you get it all in one amazing package and save all that money! Plus, RPG's nowadays can take upwards of 120 hours to beat.
Also Kanji is the worst character statistically speaking. Just be aware of that.
This game was shorter for me than The Journey in Persona 3 FES (I beat Persona 4 in about 58 hours). I did less in this game, granted, but there was still a 15 hour difference for me. It just depends on what you want to do in the game that'll make it longer or shorter. I plan on going through a second time and really spending a ton of time doing everything.
It's an amazing one, but now I'm really excited to see what Persona 5 will look like on a current-gen system(s).
So what if its 80 hours, once you finish it, you would feel so good about it, besides its better to finish one really long great game, than to finish 3 or 4 shitty games. YKNOW?
That much playtime for $40 is just insane, most $60 games these days cant even compare to the value (I like stretching out my games play time for many months since Im poor).
Technically, there are five endings. Three of them are variants on the bad ending, but it's interesting to see the different reactions based on what happens to trigger the bad ending in each case. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil anything.
Personally, I think Kanji is anything but a weak link. I don't have an opinion of Yosuke or the last party member (to save spoilers), since I didn't bother to max their links and make them worthwhile, but Kanji stayed in my party straight through to the end of the game. Even when he encountered bosses where he was of little use (either because they were strong against physical or zio- spells didn't work), I'd still use him as an item function. He was my economical way of healing and still having a free person (read as: Yukiko) to spell an enemy sometimes.
By and large, I think P4 is about on par with P3. Atlus fixed up a lot of the grief that did come with P3 and also balanced things out a lot more (no more ridiculous amounts of yen or annihilating combos via personas) and made enemies much easier, which is probably a sigh of relief to hear for anyone who is still running through P3 and thinking about picking up P4. Frankly, I still like the story in P3 better (at least for The Journey...I could live without The Answer).
But I definitely like the characters more in this game. They seem a lot more realistic to me, I guess...although Yosuke seems awfully similar to Junpei...
And Zockroach...save your chest keys. You'll miss them when they're gone at the end of the game and you can't open the more valuable chests anymore. Good luck, have fun.
You know what I do, I play in short sittings. No more than two hours or so, and then if I tire of dungeon crawling or whatever I put it down for a few days. I'm trying not to plow through this one like I did with P3. Also, I would never play one of these games again without the strategy guide right next to me from the title screen. Not to cheat, but to help with making sure your social links can be maxed by the end of the game. Realizing I missed so many opportunities in P3 eventually frustrated me to the point where after 80 hours, I put it back down and haven't picked it back up since. At any rate, I feel this one is going to be worth it to finish. Good luck! :)
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about me
My name is Zack. I bartend, play music, and fix instruments for a living. Video games (rpg's, action/adventure mainly) have always been my main passion. I spend a lot of time on the road so handheld gaming occupies most of my downtime. Documenting my gaming experiences has always been on my list of things to get started, so here I am Destructoid!
Currently playing: Etrian Odyssey, Persona 3:FES, Tekken: Dark Ressurection.
Favorites: Earthbound, Dragon Quest/Warrior, Secret of Mana, anything Atlus... lots of Square/Enix and NIS too.. oh and I love Working Designs (RIP)
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
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this game has consumed most of my spare time, and i am so loving it
I totally agree Zock. I was already thinking about my second playthrough when it hit me how much time that would take. That's probably going to over 130 hours combined. I mean I totally want to play the game, I really like it. But shit. That's a ridiculous amount of time.
im going to have to steal a ps2 just to play this
nobody hates it.
The Double-Jump guide is fantastic... if anyone is a fan of extremely amazing guides that make the game more fun to play, I would say to pick it up fo-sho.
I finished it once. Took like... 50 hours? I can't remember..
Then my ps2 died. Or i killed it...?
Isn't that awesome? It could've died just before the ending sending me into madness. But it held! haha.
Use that week! Unless you want a perfect game, just going once trough the story is enough. Know this, there are 3 endings. Check a faq or something, because getting the bad ending is....well, bad.
Anyway, good luck.
The game takes less time to beat on replays since you know what to do and where to go, and you're probably going to die less if at all.
And 80 hours isn't that long. I mean, it's like buying and beating 10 generic FPS games, but you get it all in one amazing package and save all that money! Plus, RPG's nowadays can take upwards of 120 hours to beat.
Also Kanji is the worst character statistically speaking. Just be aware of that.
This game was shorter for me than The Journey in Persona 3 FES (I beat Persona 4 in about 58 hours). I did less in this game, granted, but there was still a 15 hour difference for me. It just depends on what you want to do in the game that'll make it longer or shorter. I plan on going through a second time and really spending a ton of time doing everything.
It's an amazing one, but now I'm really excited to see what Persona 5 will look like on a current-gen system(s).
So what if its 80 hours, once you finish it, you would feel so good about it, besides its better to finish one really long great game, than to finish 3 or 4 shitty games. YKNOW?
That much playtime for $40 is just insane, most $60 games these days cant even compare to the value (I like stretching out my games play time for many months since Im poor).
heh, I'm like this with P3. It's already been 60 hours and I've only just beaten the 5th full moon boss >.<
You know what, you guys are right.. kind of silly to complain about something that totally kicks dicks.
@Gen Eric, he may be weak, but something about Kanji hitting someone with a table/chair/ect. is very gratifying.
Word!
Hey Zock where did you buy the Double Jump guide? I was going to order it but it would be easier if I could just pick it up.
Technically, there are five endings. Three of them are variants on the bad ending, but it's interesting to see the different reactions based on what happens to trigger the bad ending in each case. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil anything.
Personally, I think Kanji is anything but a weak link. I don't have an opinion of Yosuke or the last party member (to save spoilers), since I didn't bother to max their links and make them worthwhile, but Kanji stayed in my party straight through to the end of the game. Even when he encountered bosses where he was of little use (either because they were strong against physical or zio- spells didn't work), I'd still use him as an item function. He was my economical way of healing and still having a free person (read as: Yukiko) to spell an enemy sometimes.
By and large, I think P4 is about on par with P3. Atlus fixed up a lot of the grief that did come with P3 and also balanced things out a lot more (no more ridiculous amounts of yen or annihilating combos via personas) and made enemies much easier, which is probably a sigh of relief to hear for anyone who is still running through P3 and thinking about picking up P4. Frankly, I still like the story in P3 better (at least for The Journey...I could live without The Answer).
But I definitely like the characters more in this game. They seem a lot more realistic to me, I guess...although Yosuke seems awfully similar to Junpei...
And Zockroach...save your chest keys. You'll miss them when they're gone at the end of the game and you can't open the more valuable chests anymore. Good luck, have fun.
You know what I do, I play in short sittings. No more than two hours or so, and then if I tire of dungeon crawling or whatever I put it down for a few days. I'm trying not to plow through this one like I did with P3. Also, I would never play one of these games again without the strategy guide right next to me from the title screen. Not to cheat, but to help with making sure your social links can be maxed by the end of the game. Realizing I missed so many opportunities in P3 eventually frustrated me to the point where after 80 hours, I put it back down and haven't picked it back up since. At any rate, I feel this one is going to be worth it to finish. Good luck! :)