[Persona-sama]

Are you uou're using buffs/debuffs? Well, I see you mentioned evade so I assume so. Hmm, are you also defending? Sometimes there's some key signals that they present to warn you. Also for Kanji's boss fight, it helps to eliminate the little buffing guy on the left first before taking on the other 2.

Also, if you feel like you might get killed, just set your MC to defend while your grunt guys do the work. Though I guess that doesn't help if you don't know if you're going to be critically hit.

Also that random wiping out from enemy encounters is pretty painful. Later on, once you level up your party's s-links high enough, your partners will take hits for you that would normally kill you, which makes up for that.
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[Toptube]

[Mikey]

The strategy for that fight, I found, was to constantly cast the debuff spell on the main guy, so they would all waste turns rebuffing him, and just keep pounding away at the big guy until he goes down.

[Toptube]

[Mikey]

I don't remember because it was a long time ago but I could have sworn I managed to lock the AI into a pattern of completely ineffectual mutual buffing - like they never managed to do much else for the most part, and the fight was a breeze as a result.

[Ronnoc]

I am like 99% sure he telegraphs the high-damage attack differently than his other attacks.

[idle]

I'm a bit disturbed by your constant usage of the word "random", Toptube.

Buffs/debuffs will show under the opponent's name when your cursor is over them, so the trick is to cast Tarunda (lowers attack strength) on Shadow Kanji (or just have your party defend) when there's an up-pointing arrow next to his ATK stat. If there are two upwards arrows that means he's gonna hit REALLY hard so you'll definitely want to either cast Tarunda or Dekaja on him immediately, as defending might not be enough to keep you alive. Double arrows almost always means he's about to do his strongest physical attacks, too.

Other than that it seems like you've got the right idea. Just remember buffs/debuffs are more important in SMT/Persona than your typical JRPGs.

[Toptube]

guys I basically constantly kept him debuffed.

I don't have Tarunda or something similar, so I can't further lower his attack strength from default.


I'm pretty sure he doesn't telegraph the super damage version any differently and despite keeping him debuffed it would still waste the HP from at least two characters.



also just a generaly question, poison and silence seem to never work on bosses. is this true for the entire game or do I have to wait until later when I get advanced versions of these things?

[Persona-sama]

I don't think you can status effect bosses and you don't really get any advanced version of the spells, as far as I remember. The only difference is versions that target all enemies versus just one, or things like "all sleeping characters will die" spells.
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[Rud31]

[idle]

Yeah, what Rude said. Fuse yourself some sweet-ass new Personas.

If there aren't any with Tarunda available (although there should be) you could always try for one with strike resistance just to ensure the main character's survival.

[Toptube]

[Kabbage]

[8128]

I don't think Margaret's requests are very difficult at all once you figure out a few basic things.
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[Kabbage]

It's more the tedium of hunting down or dropping phat stax on the necessary persona. I really would not say anything in this game is difficult exactly.

[Persona-sama]

If you really want to do it with minimal effort, just look up an FAQ devoted just to Margaret quests.

It's worth it in the end if only to get the max Empress boosts for fusing.
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[negativedge]

[Ronnoc]

I put this in my PS3 for the first time in maybe a month or so. I was all up doing stuff, and I ran across some enemies who reflected all elemental attacks. They took physical damage, but not very much, so I was all up like 'I bet the intsakill light spell will be all over these guys!' so the next time I met them I discovered that they reflect instakill light spells and I lost two hours of progress.

[Persona-sama]

That's what you get for grinding while it's raining.

I didn't know about the super hard versions of enemies on rainy days until after I was already 3/4th through the game. I just thought, "man how weird that there's sometimes really tough/elemental resistant on everything enemies!"
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[TXTSWORD]

[Ronnoc]

[TXTSWORD]

[Rud31]

Man Teddy's JP VA is AWFUL.
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

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[Kabbage]

IT IS (as) COMPLETE (as it's gonna get)

[Rud31]

Guys I don't like SRPGs which Devil Survivor apparently is but a local Gamestop has it for 20 bucks new WHAT DO I DO?
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[Persona-sama]

It's pretty good. I don't like SRPGs either but it's only SRPG-like in regards to it playing on an isometric field. All the actual battles are the SMT battle system so it's speedy and good.
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[Kabbage]

Uhg, alright, I just got Naoto and dear lord is this game's combat getting tedious. Hit em with everything till you find a weakness, flip them over, and pile on. Every battle.

For as simple as the combat system is, boss fights go on about four times longer than they should. Combat is like this constant punishment.

I DUNNO FOLKS I THINK I'M GONNA BAIL ON THIS ONE
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[HarveyQ]

http://www.p4a.jp/

yeah
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ghosts appear and fade away

[TXTSWORD]

[glossolalia]

i think i already watched the anime of this that i wanted to watch by playing the game.

kinda curious how they handle the protagonist's non-personality though.

[Kabbage]

I mean basically it is playing the game without having to play the damn game. Right now I can definitely understand the appeal of this.
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[idle]

[Kabbage]

Are you seriously asking me that? It's not possible to play the game any other way, at least not effectively. From the first dungeon to the end of the game, you flip them over and beat them up. Sometimes you get lucky and you can just light or dark them to death, but that costs so much dang SP that it's not really a relief.

I haven't found an instance yet where using physical attacks were more effective than magic. With the exception of the cop bear enemies that're immune to everything but phys, it's really not a useful option.

Am I the only one who got sick of this?
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[Ronnoc]

I'm a dungeon behind you, but I'm getting a little grumpy with the game myself. My character's spell costs seem to have grown faster than their SP capacity. I even had to drop out of the dungeon to go sell stuff because I ran out of money to re-fill everyone's SP gauges! It's making the game very sloggy.

[idle]

[glossolalia]

unless you do a ton of the fox stuff to get him down to a reasonable price your daily dungeon progress will always be constrained by SP levels, that's really how the game's designed. if you don't want to do that just pretend he doesn't exist and call it a day when your SP gets low, otherwise he's a terrible waste of money. also you might be getting to the point where you can get equipment or "moves" that are really attributes that cut down on SP consumption per move or automatically recover it. i didn't really edit this post that much i just clicked the button too many times >_>

[idle]

[BotageL]

[Kabbage]

It's a bit too much of a chance in the mid-to-late game, though. If I let them get an attack off, more often than not it'll be an area elemental attack, which usually one person is weak to, giving the enemy a second free attack and really does a number on the team. I was hoping Kanji would be better at this, and he is, but the only decent weapon I got for him right now is the spiked shield, whose accuracy is punishingly terrible.

Wish the special melee attacks, like Chie's super kick, came in more frequently to be honest. They're fun to watch and quirky and they get you out of the battle with style.
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[Toptube]

SP replenishing items are not scarce/are relatively inexpensive if you know where to look!


its been awhile so I'm no longer clear on this:


The s-link for the fox becomes available at a certain point. I recall having to choose the shrine or some other place-----is this correct? and if so, does that mean there is a whole other S-link/area that you miss out on depending on which you pick?

[Ronnoc]