FL Plays the Persona Series

[Wolf Kanno]

I still only have one Persona for everyone. That's normal, right for this point in teh game?

You mean one persona each period or just have everyone using one persona? If it's the former, you should be be using the Velvet room to trade in Tarot Cards to purchase new Personas because the starters will become pretty obsolete after awhile.

So there aren't multiple endings in this game?

Yes, P2 is the only entry to not have multiple endings unless you count the fact it's technically two games. So yeah, you can't alter the games ending but it's possible to alter elements of the world and story with the Rumor system but don't expect any sever switches in the story.

I know one of the later Persona games has multiple endings. Some Let's Players I watch once talk about it. LP'er 1 asked his buddy if he got the real final boss and dungeon. LPer 2 said he fought a giant eye guy. That wasn't the REAL ending. To get said ending you gotta go meet your buddies and say something specific.

Sounds like a load of crap, by the way.

As Fynn noted, that's P4 which actually has three endings in the normal version and it gained another for the Golden release. While I get the whole "don't stop until you get the truth" element they were going for, I can't help but feel like the true ending path just feels a bit forced and more like ending fatigue to me. The fact it kind of borrows some thematic elements from the better P3 True ending kind of made it feel a bit unoriginal to me as well so it never set well for me personally. It doesn't help that the Normal ending felt more like the real climax of the story since it dealt with the main antagonist for the story whereas the True Ending feels more like the Persona version of Zemus/Cloud of Darkness.

[Fynn]

Ah yes. The P4 ending and The Answer are two elements of the Persona series that Wolf and I will likely never see eye to eye on

[Formalhaut]

I actually like how P4olden handles the endgame content. Disagreements about Marie aside, it works for me.

[Forsaken Lover]

So I destroyed the second boss pretty easily. I don't think he was supposed to be too hard. I was lucky, Maya had just enough HP to survive but his attacks nearly killed her all the time. Maybe I need to get better at elemental protection? Is figuring out what element your Persona is strong or weak to important?

But the plot is moving along at last. You know there's progress when people show up and say a bunch of things that don't make sense. Maiyan Oracle? King Leo? Queen Scorpio? And Maya knows the King and Yukino knows Sorpio. Well, Scorpio is Anna but I don't think any of this has been explained, right? I know that if you do Family Talk with Maya to one of the enemies she mentions her dad so maybe Leo killed him?

Point is, I'm supposed to have no clue what's going on right now, correct?

Sorry, this is really slow going. I actually did all this a week or two ago now and I intended to do more but there's so much frickin' happening in the world. I want to pick up the game again but now I have no idea what to do.

Does anyone else know what my next move is? As I said, I just beat the Class President boss or whatever he was and then the Masquerade people showed up and I don't recall if the game gave me directions on where to go next.

[Wolf Kanno]

When in doubt about what to do next in Persona 2 (both of them) it's best to check back with any of the rumormongers you've met like the ones in Peace Diner and Honmaru Park. They will usually tell you rumors you can use at the detective agency to unlock the next story sections.

[Forsaken Lover]

So I have tried to be as fair as possible. I recognize that I've been really distracted by other things and not giving the game the attention it deserves. Even still, I was really attracted to the "style" of it because I've never played another JRPG quite like it.

But man, Persona 2: Innocent Sin is smurfing boring, Nothing happens in this game, The Masquerade shows up! Yay, mysterious villains! What could their connection to our heroes be? What is Anna/Queen Scorpio's relationship with Yukino and who is King Leo and why does Maya seem to know him? Also The Joker is still out there being enigmatic.

So finally it looked like there was a plot...and then it's time for Lisa to be in a teen idol group. First arc villain was the school principal, second was a class president and now a music promoter. Oh but don't fear, every awful dungeon rewards you with wacky hijinks. (seriously, I just went through two dungeons for this dumb trout. About to head to this concert place) I can deal with awful dungeons if something cool comes out of it. Like, Babel Tower is literal torture but at least it ends with Shevat and Shevat is cool and a nice change in the story.

It feels like this game is 99% padding. I've been dragging my feet I admit because of the aforementioned distractions but I think at this point I've played a decent amount of the game and am free to judge it.

I'm not quitting or anything, I just haven't bought any other Persona games yet because this was a test case. And right now, it's failing miserably. I really hope none of the other games are so gratingly....uh...I dunno what to call it. Uneventful and uninteresting I guess.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I've just recently tried to dive into the first game on PSP and personally, while it's interesting enough I can say that I'm a much bigger fan of P3 and P4. They're what really got me into the series. The early games don't have the social sim elements that really make the series interesting for me. I find the Persona fusion system becomes much more cool when it's combined with developing Social Links.
My advice would be to not give up on the series if P2 isn't grabbing you. I'd recommend giving P3 Portable a try or something, that's the first one I played and I got into it right away.

[Wolf Kanno]

Technically, you're not as far into P2 as you think you are, but if it isn't grabbing you, then there really isn't much to say really. This entry may not be your deal, and Persona (MegaTen in general) is more dungeon crawler than most JRPGs are, so if you're hating the dungeons, you may just want to stop because they are not going to get better for you, especially if the plot isn't doing anything for you to keep moving forward.

If you want to finish it, then go for it, but I would say it may be best to not force yourself to keep lunging through something you are not really enjoying. I had a similar issue with Valkyria Chronicles, just couldn't get into it, and I feel the harder I kept pushing myself to move forward in hopes of finding something to like, the more I began it dislike it.

[Fynn]

Oh yeah. The dungeons certainly don't let up. Enjoy the variety you have in P2 - in P3 it's all one long-ass dungeon that takes the entire game to beat

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Oh yeah. The dungeons certainly don't let up. Enjoy the variety you have in P2 - in P3 it's all one long-ass dungeon that takes the entire game to beat

True, but the game lets you choose when to make progress with the dungeon and when to focus on Social links or other stuff. I like the dynamic (especially in P3P, as you don't have to worry about fatigue in Tartarus) of just going there when you want to (compared to P4, where you have to get each dungeon done in a set time because of the weather and usually you want to get it done in one go/quickly to have as much time as possible for Social Links).

There's a lot more you can do in P3 and P4 other than just dungeon crawling, is what I'm trying to say. If you're not a huge dungeon fan, the setting, social sim elements and story are great in both games and more than make up for the dungeons (and personally I think Tartarus in P3 is quite fun).

[Fynn]

I enjoy Tartarus, personally, but I also really like dungeon crawling. I know people (I.e. my wife) who hated it and were incredibly fatigued by it by the endgame. For something that is supposed to be half of your enjoyable experience, having it be so tedious is a huge letdown to many who just came here for the story and social links.

[krissy]

Not to steal thread, but what's the best I've to start with. I have p3 on psn

[Del Murder]

I also just started P4G. Tartarus annoyed me with its repetition in P3P, is it the same thing in P4?

[Fynn]

Similar, but much less tedious. Dungeons are much more varied, shorter, and less randomly-generated

[Formalhaut]

Similar, but much less tedious. Dungeons are much more varied, shorter, and less randomly-generated

Yeah, my experience with the T.V world is much more preferable than Tartarus. Restoring your HP and SP is tougher however, at least until you gain the powers of the Fox, and even then, it can be expensive at first. Who is the fox? Well, you'll find out.