How come this trial-and-error combat is considered okay? This is my first game in the series...

How come this trial-and-error combat is considered okay? This is my first game in the series, which I bought reluctantly on the continued suggestions from this board and my own curiosity, has it always been this shit? I'm in the Kamoshida dungeon still, and just got to the tower section before this happened.

>encounter new enemy
>don't know its weakness or what types of attacks it has
>uses elemental attack joker is weak to
>i wasn't at full health, so i die and lose an hour of progress
>this is how the entire game is set up thus far

Why isn't there an ability I can use to analyze an enemy and know its abilities and elemental affinities? Seems that's something the combat is missing and could dearly use. It's just frustrating being punished from a gameplay perspective for not knowing something I had no way of knowing or predicting in the first place. It seems like a cheap ploy to elongate my play time, which I dislike.

It's a real shame, I've been digging the atmosphere of the game up to now, but I just had to quit after that. Probably won't go back to it for a couple days until I'm cooled off, unfair and unfun shit like this in games just annoys me.

>I wasn't at full health
So in other words there was some way to prevent it by being better prepared.

>Why isn't there an ability I can use to analyze an enemy and know its abilities and elemental affinities?

Because you haven't gotten far enough in the game to get that yet. They assume you don't need it for the beginning because you shouldn't.

user I played it on merciless where crits and weaknesses do tripple the damage to you. I rarely felt I died to somethign I couldn't have prevented. In general SMT and Persona are about preparation. If you have every damage type, full health and start a fight with an ambush there is almost no way you should die against regular enemies. Also don't act as if you don't have control of your defense. Walk around with a Persona with a lot of resistances and few weaknesses or one with high END and Luc.

nice blog

because there is nothing wrong with dying
>Why isn't there an ability I can use to analyze an enemy and know its abilities and elemental affinities?
you get it later
t

That's why you always heal to full OP, and there is a thing called Lucky Punch with a high critical rate, criting an enemy has the same effect has weakness so you can get a hold up.
Oh and if you think that's unfair or something wait until you get to enemies with no weaknesses.

Dont like it don't play it.

Fuck off.

>I'm bad at the game, so the combat is shit

>In general SMT and Persona are about preparation
But couldn't you also say it's about resource management? At least, that's how it seems thus far; balancing health and SP in the dungeon, and items, money, and crafting materials outside the dungeon seems like a core premise, so being completely "prepared" seems like it goes against this. I'm not disagreeing with you entirely, I just think it's a little irritating when most JRPGs I've played before are set up such that actual skill determines whether or not you make it out of a fight, not whether or not you guaranteed you were at maximum health at all times.

>Because you haven't gotten far enough in the game to get that yet (also )
Am I alone in thinking such an ability being available sooner would be better? I'm not a toddler, I can handle having a few different mechanics thrown at me at once.

If you have no real contribution to the thread, you can get out. Doesn't help the quality of the board at all.

>What do you mean I have to learn things in a game?
>Why am I able to lose? this is bullshit

If only there was a way to protect your weakness while you find out what kind of attacks it has. Oh wait...

>playing a glorified vn
>expecting a good rpg
Fucking retard

I thought the game got easier when I captured *blocks your path*: The Persona

Welcome to press turn, another reason Nocturne ruined the series that fags on Sup Forums will shill until their deaths. If you don't find it enjoyable or bearable now brace yourself, because the gameplay never evolves past this point.

You're one dedicated cookie.

I beat the game on hard my first time and Ive never played an SMT game before
what the fuck is wrong with you and why are you here

>uses the same image as someone else
>when it's literally one of the first google image results for "persona 5"

>being this bad
back to shitrim, normie

Maybe you shouldn't play so recklessly lol.

Kind of weird how they're all shiting on the game

I did the same. How fucking bad do you have to be to struggle this much with the game? Are you at least playing on hard, OP?

>Nocturne ruined the series
Oh yeah spamming Bufu and Zio to lock enemies down until they die was some top notch gameplay.

Go to bed, grandpa.

you-you just dont get it

WAIFUS

You've played Pokemon before, right? Same shit. Meet a new demon, throw shit at it to see what it is weak to, note what it throws at you, wash, rinse, repeat.

Also, if you're going through an area where you don't know what types of enemies are wandering around, why aren't you healing up after each fight? This game, and the SMT franchise in general, will fuck you if you leave yourself open.

Can Makoto even compete?

>But couldn't you also say it's about resource management?
It's about both dude but it is really heavily reliant on being prepared for anything including getting hit by a crit out of nowhere.

> I just think it's a little irritating when most JRPGs I've played before are set up such that actual skill determines whether or not you make it out of a fight

No they really aren't unless they are action rpgs. Pretty much every RPG ever relies on strategy and preparation. SMT games also remedy something that is really stupid about other RPGs, random encounters are almost pointless. You think it's skill dude but the reality is JRPGs are super easy and often boil down to hit bad guy, heal if low and anything out side of bosses is rarely a threat. SMT games make random encounters dangerous. Sounds like you went in not knowing this, underestimated basic enemies, didn't save frequently and are now whining online about it rather than recognizing your mistake, learning from it and having fun with a great RPG.

But yes dude you should be at max health at all times. It's funny, you ask for the game to demand skill but when it depends something as simple as keep your HP full you can't do it while also exploring and fighting. Really user, what kind of "skill" are you looking for then?

> I'm not a toddler,
Yet you can't beat the first dungeon without dying and view dying as some great sin. Like do you really believe you should NEVER die? Because that's a pretty childish notion to me. You expect to be that good at a game you've never played? Sounds like a toddler to me. I don't care if you've played JRPGs and neither does Atlus. Their games are not typical RPGs so continue with this hubris and all that will happen is you will have a lot of trouble getting better at game you'd probably like if you just gave it chance and tried to understand how to play it better.

by fucking old men

No.

You're ignoring all of the other gameplay mechanics.

No. OP should try a real Persona game.

>nocturne ruined the series meme

Kek

If you hate how Persona 5's combat system is, DO NOT play the others.
Persona 4 had like two save points in a given dungeon. The bottom and the top.

I have lost literally 4 hours of time to dying because an enemy had higher speed, moved first, and Mudoon'd the main character.
Shit like this happened so many times I think I wasted a total of 25+ hours in P4.

Easily.

>real Persona game.
what? SMT?

>i wasn't at full health
retard

>Why isn't there an ability I can use to analyze an enemy and know its abilities and elemental affinities?
Usually you can tell from reading what elemental skills they use (an ability given by Makoto) and some common trends like winged flying enemies almost always being weak to gun.

>don't know its weakness

A decent portion of the enemies has blatant visual tells, besides physical attacks are always a safe option if you aren't sure

>You're ignoring all of the other gameplay mechanics.
You can't complain about depth then say "Just don't use those skills". You don't need any other mechanics user and really what mechanics are you even talking about that were dropped? Rows?

>real Persona game
>no dating
Try again. They better add it to SMT V too.

No.

Nice bait buddy. The only thing P1 has going for it is the great atmosphere, PS1 OST and best personae design overall

>Because you haven't gotten far enough in the game to get that yet.

What ability is this? I want to scan for weaknesses. I'm 80 hours in, just got Haru

That has be an edit. I don't remember her ass being that god damn nice

I agree that it's pretty bullshit how an enemy with unknown weaknesses can be dangerous as hell, while an enemy with known weaknesses is usually a cakewalk, but you should've been at full health, always, considering the amount of damage two attacks on Joker can do if the enemy happens to focus him and have the right element.

even if her ass was nice her personality is garbage

What other gameplay mechanics? Oh, you mean status bullets that completely shut down encounters. You're right, my bad.

>struggling at persona

literally an hero

I'm pretty sure that in Persona 4 you could use the item (which could be bought for cheap IIRC) or skill that lets you teleport out of the dungeon, save, and then jump straight back to the floor you were on.

Not a meme if it's true.

No, Persona 1 and IS.

How about actual resource, aka Magnenite management. Demons being weaker overall also made it more challenging. Also actual dungeons.

Not bait, P1 is the only great game in the series.

agi and bufu
zio and garu
eiha and kouha
psi and frei

Usually when an enemy uses only one of these elements, the opposite side is what he's weak to. If it uses multiple elements then you need to experiment a bit but you shouldn't ever try to leave yourself too vulnerable to the point that you can be taken out in a move or two.

> The only thing P1 has going for it is the great atmosphere, PS1 OST and best personae design overall
and a good story? P3 basically ripped off it's Snow Queen Quest route and didn't even manage to be particularly better story-wise

>and IS.
??

do you mean IF...?

That ass doesn't make up for her robotic personality.

Her hair is also really fucking ugly.

To be fair OP.

If youre really perceptive and can into logic, you can sometimes guess what the weakness is.

You eventually are able to look at their abilities and so its safe to assume that their weakness is the opposite element of their ability,Although they will throw a curveball and this lighting motherfucker is weak to nuke damage or some shit

So its really your best judgement until you get the analyze ability.

And here we have it in all his contrarian glory, the P1/2fag that can't accept that his games are dated trash

>literally crying because you lost
Haven't even played the game but that entire greentext parts sounds like EO.

but thats the only thing i like about her

I just realized I think I may have been mixing it up with makotos ability that allows you to see repel, drain and null.

I don't think there is one now that I think about it. I think I never had an issue because I fused so many Persona. If you have fused them then you can see them.

Innocent Sin, you knave.

>Dear diary, Makoto-chan here!
>Have you been behaving yourself diary? I sure have, even Nee-chan says so!
>I know I say this a lot, but you'll never guess what happened now!
>Nee-chan found out I had a boyfriend (you didn't tell her, did you? Just kidding, I know you wouldn't do that, I love you diary), and said she wanted to meet him right away!
>At first I was worried, because sometimes Nee-chan can be mean, but it turns out she really likes Joker!
>Nee-chan even said it would be okay for him to come over to play at our house from now on!
>The other day Joker came over to play, and Nee-chan said she wanted to join in too! I was so happy!
>She even said we would play hide-and-seek, and she hasn't played that with me in years! (probably because I'm such a good hider)
>Since I'm such a good hider, Nee-chan said Joker and her would both look for me while I got to hide (which is the best part of course!)
>I picked such a good spot that I think Nee-chan was trying to scare me out of it; she kept on making these moaning noises like a ghost, but kind of high-pitched, so it wasn't really scary.
>She also must have split up from Joker to search for me, because she kept yelling out "I'm coming, I'm coming", and she said it an awful lot.
>After a few hours of hiding (and a few Sonic comic books later), Nee-chan and Joker finally found me under my bed!
>They obviously looked really hard, because they looked all sweaty and out of breath, and Nee-chan was really red in the face, but she wasn't mad at all!
>We all had such a fun time, Nee-chan and Joker said we could play like this all the time, and I could always be the hider if I wanted!
>I have such a good boyfriend and sister, my life is just perfect!
>That's all for today diary, I'll tell you all about the next game we play! I love you!

And with better characters. P1 characters only come into their own in P2

Innocent Sin. All memes aside it is a decent game, but for every step forward I felt it took a step back.

Whatever friendo, have fun with your boring games.

Different tastes, I guess.

>and a good story?
The story in P1 is so fucking barebones, i don't even know how anyone can defend it

sorry. i'm not interested in shit

Damn. No worries but I was hoping. Seemed like an ability that Futaba would get or something.

>have fun with your boring games.
Well isn't this ironic?

>how to tell someone hasn't played P1: the post

>Dear diary, Makoto-chan here!
>Things are still going great with my boyfriend and sister; Joker comes over all the time after school, and we're always playing hide-and-seek (with me being the best hider I can be!)
>One time, I even hid under Nee-chan's bed, and they couldn't even find me even though they were in the same room!
>I don't know if they really know how to play though, because they seemed to just be throwing clothes on the floor and stayed on the bed looking for me, and Nee-chan kept shouting again (but she kept saying how good it felt, so they must be playing right, right?)
>Joker told me he wants to play some different kind of games with me soon, adult kind of games (probably because of how grown up I am now!)
>He says these are the kinds of games that Nee-chan can't know about though, because these are special boyfriend and girlfriend games!
>I'm not exactly sure what these games are gonna be about, but one time when I was playing Sonic at Joker's house, some boys I knew came over (Ryuji and Mishima), and Joker was talking to them about money (saying how much something was gonna cost)
>Ryuji and Mishima seemed surprised, but Joker insisted it was gonna be worth it for something he called "virgin pussy".
>They left, but promised Joker they'd get the money for it in a week, and when I asked Joker about it he said they would be playing a game with me soon too.
>But how can they play the boyfriend girlfriend game? Only Joker is my boyfriend!
>Oh well, Joker says it will be a lot of fun, so I'm sure it will be! I can't wait!
>But don't worry diary, I'll tell you all about it!
>I love you I love you diary!

Was there ever a way to actually fully analyze an enemy in this one? Rise could do it randomly and Fukka could do it after a few turns if you instructed her, but I don't remember getting a skill like that from confidants in P5.

IS gameplay is trash though. Shit's like Nier but the gamelay's even more of a chore

Ann is cute

wait till you get later on in the game

>joker goes rage mode after wage war is casted
>attacks rangda and repel insta kills me

>This is my first game in the series

Stopped reading there. If you played the other games or weren't stupid and followed Pokemon rules you would have a much easier time.

>Blue enemy
>Isn't ice affinity
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

sucks to suck, huh normie

sounds like you shoulda healed n saved, but it's ok video games get a lil easier after your first one

I'm not having too much trouble at hard, but to be fair RNG does make up a large part of the combat, especially with the "Protag death = game over"-mechanic. Sometimes the enemies don't touch him, and sometimes they focus him and if you approach an unknown encounter where ambush isn't an option you could very well get killed instantly with some bad luck. There's also crits, misses, chance to survive fatal attack with 1 hp, chance to reflect damage, chance to resist/inflict status ailments etc. It's a simple system that feels nice so I don't mind it, but there's definitely a lot of luck involved

>How about actual resource, aka Magnenite management.
Never once did I ever have to care about MAG. If you end fights with negotiation frequently it's not even an issue. Having an unnecessary secondary resource like that added literally nothing to the game. I wouldn't even give a shit about alignment because I always had such a high surplus.

>Demons being weaker overall
That's not a mechanic and highly subjective. As we have already been over, nothing is hard in those games if you spam bufu and zio for ailments.

>Also actual dungeons.
No argument there dude although to pretend there aren't dungeons is stupid. There are, they just aren't as big and well designed. I do wish they were better though.

So let's look at what this conversion started about. You shit on press turn and then had it pointed out to you that the old game shad even worse combat that boiled down to spam ailments, specifically the OP bufu and zio. You said that that was ignoring "other mechanics" than proceeded to not talk about any battle mechanics. So in other words you can't defend the battle system in the old games and press turn is in fact a lot better. SMT 1 and 2 having better dungeons has nothing to do with that.

>Dear diary, Makoto here
>I don't want to sound like a baby, but I don't really like the grown-up game Joker wants to play.
>The worst part is Joker didn't play with me at all.
>I went to the cafe to play this new game, and I was so excited! But when I got there, Ryuji and Mishima were there too, and they gave Joker a lot of money (more than I've ever had with my allowance, and least a million times that much!)
>After Joker counted out all the money, he said my part in the game was to do whatever the boys wanted! No matter what, I had to obey them.
>I asked if it was like "Simon says", and Joker said sort of, but a more grown up version.
>After that Joker left saying he was going to go spend the night with the teacher (part of the game maybe?), and so the boys took me upstairs.
>We all sat down on the bed together, with the boys on either side (really close to me, which kind of made me uncomfortable).
>They kept asking me weird questions, things like if I touch myself or what my sizes were. I didn't really know what they meant, but I didn't want to lose the game, so I asked they could teach me the rules.
>I don't think I was supposed to say that though, because it really got worse from there.
>They started taking my clothes off and trying to lick me and put their hands on me, and I told them I didn't really like it.
>I really think I wasn't supposed to say that, because it really got worse from there.
>After a few minutes, we were all naked and they kept grabbing me and putting their fingers in my no-no spot. I told them my daddy said I was never supposed to let boys touch me there until I was married, but then Ryuji just kept laughing, saying "your dad's dead, your dad's dead."
>It really got worse from there, because when I tried to cover my ears, they opened up my legs and...
>Diary, I really didn't like the grown-up game, even it it means I'm still a kid.

you are right

>first time playing any SMT game
>"why did the game punish me hard for not saving often and keeping people's health up??"

Literally everyone has this happen to them on their first SMT because you don't expect the cannon fodder to be able to kill you that easily. Now you know better.

Delete this immediately

>because there is nothing wrong with dying

Except losing an hour of time. I'm not saying go full casual mode but a full hour is pretty bullshit. Also don't bring up the fact that old games you could lose 5+ hours because that was bullshit too.

I find that Kamoshida's dungeon is the hardest one, as you have no attacks that can kill all the foes at the same time, you're constantly wasting SP because of this and you have barely any items to get your SP back.

It gets a lot easier after Kamoshida, at least in my opinion.

>Dear diary, I just want it to stop.
>I don't know what I did wrong; usually when Nee-chan hit me it was because I dropped something or spilled something, but these boys I don't even know keep touching me and hurting me.
>Joker sais this was what adults do and what adults played, so I told him I didn't want to play the grown-up game anymore.
>I guess it was bad of me to say that, because then Joker hit me just like Nee-chan does when she gets mad.
>Joker said I was useless and Nee-chan thought so too, and the only way I could help the Phantom Thieves was to play this game so he could make money.
>I told him I would play it, just so he would stop hitting me, but now these boys are hurting me worse than Joker did.
>At first they only put their thingies inside my no-no spot, but now they put their things inside my bottom and mouth too. It really hurts...
>It started with just a couple a night, but now it seems like Joker has boys coming to play with me all night, dozens of them. Some of them don't even go to our school!
>I can't stay awake in class anymore because I'm up all night playing the game, but if I don't do a good job Joker will get mad and hit me.
>I thought about telling Nee-chan, but then I remembered how much she likes Joker and how she gets made and hits me too, so I don't know who to talk to!
>I just want it all to end...

>P.S. I haven't played Sonic in weeks...

She can't.

>married, but then Ryuji just kept laughing, saying "your dad's dead, your dad's dead."

Sorry. i cant

The point wasn't that MT and SMT are good games, it's that Press Turn isn't an improvement. Spamming elements is the exact same thing as Spamming buffs in Nocturne or abusing physical skills in IV. Dungeons are a part of battle mechanics, I don't see a reason to seperate them.

Yeah once you get used to it's fairly more tolerable and fun
Except IV:A's triple horde encounters, especially early game

OP

BTFO
T
F
O

>Dear diary, Mokoto-chan here.
>I think I really messed up, but I'm not sure how I did it.
>Every night before we play the game, Joker gives me this weird blue vitamin, saying it would help me win.
>I thought that I could get out of the game if I lost, so I stopped taking the vitamin, and soon after my belly started hurting a lot, and I didn't get any no-no blood like I usually do in the month.
>Joker said it was because I was a careless whore and got pregnant (which would mean I would become a mommy, right?)
>Instead of playing the game one night, he took me to his doctor friend, Takemi.
>I couldn't hear exactly what she said to Joker, but she did say something like "Because it's you, I'll do it for a discount".
>Afterwards they took me into a room and sat me in a weird chair, and the lady doctor did something to my no-no spot (and it still hurts to sit now!)
>When I was sleeping in the recovery room, I heard Joker talk with the doctor saying he was going to lose money on this now, but the doctor said she had some friends who would be willing to pay more than high school boys for a chance to play with me.
>I don't really know what happened, but when Joker took me home, he seemed really happy that night!
>Maybe I wouldn't have to play the grown-up game any more!
>I just have to keep doing my best and I'm sure my boyfriend Joker will be happy with me, and then maybe we can get married!

>P.S. I wonder if I would have made a good mommy?

You don't know until you fight 'em. Be careful when you're fighting a new enemy, it's just part of the game. Just think of it as like Pokemon. I mean assuming you play Pokemon blind like me.

git gud persona baby

The one true trial-and-error moment I encountered in the game was my first encounter with one of those green penis demons, that spam Maragidyne on your party. I had Yusuke in my party who is weak to fire so everyone got hit twice and were wiped out. Pretty terrible seeing as there was no way to predict that was going to happen.

>Why isn't there an ability I can use to analyze an enemy and know its abilities and elemental affinities? Seems that's something the combat is missing and could dearly use
Fun fact: In prior games in the series you could highlight enemies and tell your navigator person to scan them for weaknesses. A turn or two later you would get a result assuming there was one. Not sure why they took it out in P5 in favor of having to unlock it

Navigator only joins around mid-game though

I honestly don't even know what to say to this it's so stupid.

>P.S. I haven't played Sonic in weeks...

Why's this still the saddest thing out of this greentext to me

i do wonder why

>i wasn't at full health, so i die and lose an hour of progress
>in a game where safe rooms are given to you in droves after the first palace