Topic: Persona 4 Golden

@booshy89 Just think of it as 8 shorter games

@themcnoisy

There's a great remix in Persona Dancing All Night. If you enjoy the characters and you like rhythm action games it's mostly great. Teddie's 'jazz' songs are bobbins, but other than that it's a winner.
How are you liking the original soundtrack?

@booshy89 Good choice Robo.

@CountFunkula78 The only problem is its £40. I am big on game music though so will give it a lookup if I'm still enjoying the game this time next week!

@KratosMD @Feena @Dichotomy @CountFunkula78 @Sanquine @johncalmc @DerMeister @kyleforrester87 @Rudy_Manchego

I can see why P4G is held in such a high regard. I'm on April 25th and am already making some huge choices. I hope you don't mind me asking you all some questions;

Who am I best Social Linking with in the early game?

What's the best attribute to concentrate on? I have boosted intelligence a touch. I've read the study book over 3 evenings so maybe that?

With Personas not much has happened, but its already musing about combining them and what not. Which Persona should I want or level on my first playthrough?

Some kid keeps wanting fizzy drinks and steak skewers - should I give him them? I've done it the last 2 days and he gives me bugs.

What about jobs? I picked day care attendant and envelope maker. Should I do this?

And the most important question of all;

What carries over on ng+?

@themcnoisy Kratos covered most things, but I'll add a couple of observations to help, the first one is because I do it too - don't worry too much about how you play, just do what you think is right and have fun, you'll progress to an ending no matter how you advance. I'll still give a few insights though to help.

SLinks to get might be best to get first from whoever you are going to take along in your party, having a high link with them will give you extra benefits in combat. Non-combat related SLinks tend to give you a stat increase and maybe some money, so can be useful to help increase a stat to the next level. Generally though it isn't overly important who you spend your time with and it's better to use them to advance the character's story. I can't really go much further on this topic without wandering into the realm of spoilers.

In my first playthrough I went with knowledge, but by the end I'd capped it and was getting wasted points in it from things like answering questions in class. I'd just try to take a balanced approach to your stats as much as possible, then, when tasks requiring a certain stat turn up that you want to do, it shouldn't take long to raise any given stat to fulfil the entry point to do a task requiring that stat.

You will generally want a good mix of Personas, as you get new ones replace lower level ones of the same type. As KratosMD said, having a Persona related to a person's SLink will give a boost in interactions with them. As an aside, make sure to register your personas in the velvet room as they get new levels and stats, it costs nothing, but is a big thing that carries to ng+. Also remember to have as many of the elements covered as you can by your party, in my current playthrough I'm not using Chie so having one that can attack with ice is essential, for instance.

For the kid with bugs, it isn't essential, but it can be used to open up something else. I think that is spoilery enough though. If you want to know ask, it isn't a story spoiler.

Take all the jobs you can, things like envelopes and origami are good to boost a stat in a pinch, jobs you travel to tend to open up SLink possibilities. There are also some books that will get you more stats out of things like envelope making that may be worth your time.

In ng+ you keep your stats, registered personas and skill cards, money, outfits (not equipment, although I think equipment you've unlocked remains unlocked and purchasable) and playtime. Notably you don't keep your level or SLinks iir correctly.

One other piece of advice, if you decide to spend a day training in the other world then it will take up both the after school/morning slot and the evening slot. However, if you know you are going to watch the midnight channel that day you automatically lose the evening slot no matter what you do making these the best days to train as it maximises your time.

@KratosMD I know you get a few stat increases from it even if you fail to finish it (and once you can finish it it becomes pretty pointless anyway as you've pretty much maxed out your stats at this point), but, being honest, I didn't even realise those stats were random each time you ate it. Generally I only go to Aiya's if nothing else appeals to me, even on a rainy day, I'd prefer to spend time on a social link generally if I can. My advice about balanced stats was more a case of just let them develop naturally than one of ignore a stat if it gets too far ahead, for instance it is natural to feel you want to study on the run up to a test so that is fine, but afterwards you may want to develop social links, but feel you should make sure you are ready for the next test - in this case it is fine to do what you want with social links and ignore study for a while. It is effectively that if you play the game to just play the game and not min/max you'll probably end up balancing your stats without even thinking about it.

@themcnoisy One other thing I thought of, if you register a persona, then get rid of that persona through either getting a new one and needing the space or a fusion, but later reacquire the persona again through adventuring then be careful, the game will offer you the chance to register the base persona and overwrite the one that may be much higher level you had originally.

@KratosMD There is always something to do so it's never really that big an issue when you're told you need to have a higher level in a stat. NG+ solves any issues with that anyway.

@Dichotomy @KratosMD cheers team, your obviously passionate about this game! Great stuff. Take it you both have Persona 5 on preorder?

@themcnoisy Nah, I don't preorder stuff as a general rule, but it does come out just before my birthday so it may well be a birthday gift from my girlfriend. Given it's been out in Japan for a bit I have less worries of this being released in an unfinished state though so they'll likely get the full cost of the release window for this one.

@themcnoisy Have you unlocked the social link with the fox at the shrine? That is quite a beneficial one to focus on as it will aid you in the TV world. One of the new social links is quite important as it leads to a lot of extra content that extends the story past the original game.

I love this game. I haven't played it in a few years but would like to try and platinum it sometime in the future. I could have maxed all the social links on my first play through if I hadn't made one silly mistake. :-/ I've preordered the special edition of 5. I don't normally get special editions but for this will make an exception!

@mookysam just earlier tonight! I'm now in may the 6th (that's a rough guess), it feels like Im juggling a hundred balls and half of them are about to be dropped. It was manageable in my head mid April now I haven't got a clue! So many options are launched at the end of April Im perplexed as to who I should let down for social time. It would be bliss if I could invite someone around for social time whilst building envelopes and eating shrivelled pickles. But that's not an option

@themcnoisy It is quite overwhelming for a while. When I first played the PS2 version I used a notepad to help me keep track of everything - days you can spend time with people and so on so I could manage my time more efficiently. I found that levelling up skills was good to enable main character to take on jobs and past that point I only did things to improve skills like envelopes/origami or reading or going to the restaurant when there wasn't really anything else to do. Social Links were generally my priority so I could fuse new persona and I tended to leave the TV worlding to the last possible minute to maximise my time for other activities. I just remembered I focused more on NPC school friends social links early on because you can't progress them in the summer holiday, although party members have their own benefits so I guess it is a trade off.

@KratosMD I doubt I'll take it out but it might come in handy to keep stuff in.

@mookysam @kratosmd @dichotomy I've dipped into a guide online when trying the mid term tests. The first 2 questions were copies of other questions id answered, the others were curve balls! But anyway looking at the guide briefly I can see what you all mean now!

Obviously dependant on how I find the remainder of the game (loving it so far) I think you are meant to play it at least twice as during ng+ other options become available. As most games I dont look at the trophies or guides seriously until I'm 8-9 hours in and invested as it does ruin the experience sometimes, but I think looking back my rash decision making will cost me in the long run, I've missed loads of quests somehow!

@themcnoisy As I alluded to before, I'd be careful about what you read in case you spoil it for yourself. Your first playthrough is better if you just do whatever you think is right and embrace what happens, mistakes and all, since you only ever get one first time through. That is my advice anyway

So I'm finally upto the 29th of October after 40 hours with the game. Pretty amazing to be honest, the relationships really pick up a few months in and I've maxed 5 social links so far and only my diligence stat is below max. Some of the stories take an unexpected twist so that's great too.

The dungeons are too boring as I've already pointed out, but that's really my only gripe. The fighting is functional and once Rise gets in the squad at least you can see points of interest on the map, so it does get better!

Thanks for the advice on the thread, everyone should play this game if they own a Vita. Its great.

@themcnoisy Glad you're still playing, did you pick up Black Frost? Also, in case you didn't notice, the last person you picked up has no weaknesses iir so can be useful to put in your party even though you are quite deep into the game.

Rise is really useful and, eventually, will be able to restore health and mana after a battle as well as sometimes buffing/curing you during battle so it can be a really useful relationship to spend time on.

@themcnoisy I'm 1 month behind you haha! 19th of September, currently in the Secret Laboratory dungeon. I agree with the dungeons, but I really liked Shin's retro dungeon. I finished Persona 3 last month and I actually preferred climbing 1 massive tower (250+ floors) over the random dungeons.

I'm going to kick things into gear, because I want to finish P4G by the time P5 comes out.

@Dichotomy no I can't fusion black forest as I'm missing a couple of Persona

Margaret's social link is still sat at level 1. As well which hasn't helped.

@Fight_Teza_Fight you will probably overtake me this weekend, I'm in work until Tuesday. The mine craft dungeon was different thats for sure.

@themcnoisy Probably should have been something I mentioned earlier that if you see a persona with 'New' on it in the cards you should add it to your other Persona even if it means getting rid of one. Once they're added in like that they will automatically be added to your compendium where you can buy them for fusions when needed.

With Margaret you can usually buy/fuse the required Persona and the buy a skill card to complete her requests if the fusion didn't deal with it, although they do get harder later.

I got the Playstation Network birthday email the other day and was surprised to find that Persona 4 is my most played Playstation game

@Dichotomy That's understandable the games great! I really should have played this 3 years ago when I got the Vita. My current playthrough will be my only one, with P5 around the corner I will probably smash that a couple of times. But hey its not over yet and will try to fill up my pitiful Persona log (36%) and hopefully build the social links with Kanji and the nurse before the end of November (currently on the 3rd) the pageant contest was funny too!