I went to Tartarus on January first, and I’m still there. I reached the top, then took a shot at the reaper but got destroyed after using the magic reflect ability, then looked up what level people think you should be at to beat it and saw something about getting an item at the trade shop for 10 rubies and 99 malachite that beats it instantly. I have 20 rubies but about 85 malachite, so I spent a little time rerunning the lower levels hoping for drops but didn’t get any. I do have a quest still open for one of the weapons that gives 15 malachite as its reward, but I’ve been trying to get that weapon for several in-game months and the RNG just doesn’t want me to have it.
Eventually I gave up on that stuff (should have done so immediately because it’s not enjoyable) and took another shot at the reaper. I was only able to do about 50 point of damage per attack, seemingly no matter what attack I used, so I just stuck with regular attacks, having Akihiko cycle through attack/defence/accuracy debuffs, the MC buffing attack or using mediarahan when necessary, and Yukari healing when only one character was hurt. It took ages but I steadily got it down. Very nearly fell apart towards the end when I ran out of homonculi and my party members started dying en masse, but I managed to keep them up long enough to get it very low on HP before reaching a point where my whole party was dead except the MC, who luckily got a crit, was able to make the reaper dizzy, landed a couple more attacks before the buff/debuffs wore off, survived an elemental attack with about a hundred HP left, I could see the reaper only had a sliver of health left so I did a regular attack, dealt 45 damage, and finished it off.
Now I have access to monad, where almost every fight is impossible. I should really get back to daytime. And restock on homonculi.
We are fast approaching the end days, who else is still doing this? I’ve gotten looser and looser with my one-day-at-a-timeiness but I’m still doing it somewhat. January first in-game lasted me until about the twelfth in real life as I went all the way up Tartarus and the did some grinding in Monad. I try not to grind, but I found going into monad, barely surviving one encounter, getting the level ten experience boost leading to 30,000 EXP and two level-ups, then retreating and saving to be pretty satisfying, even as many early encounters ended in party wipe and the returns diminished as I started doing better. I took it to level 90 so I could fuse Messiah, who doesn’t actually look all that useful (probably could be made better with extensive planning in which personae get fused to make the ingredients, but nuts to that). So I’m pretty sure I’ll have the endgame in the bag.
A few nights ago I went to Tartarus to find the last couple of kidnap victims and stumbled across a nihil weapon, which reminded me of the existence of the option to fuse personae to weapons. I went to the shop and noticed that a couple of personae would give the same weapon result no matter what type of nihil or void weapon they were fused to, and it would have like 450 attack and +10 to all stats. So I looked it up because I’m not gonna go back and forwards to the velvet room summoning different personae to figure out which ones will give the weapons for the characters I want to use. Turns out it takes two days to make each weapon, so I’m glad I started doing it while I still have time (not that I expect to need super weapons anyway).
I am still hanging in there! As the number of remaining days starts to dwindle it is becoming clear that I will miss out on some social links, it bothers me but I think it will be good for me to accept it and realise how little it really matters after the fact if I don’t 100% a game!
I went into it completely blind and that wasn’t a great fit for me, I don’t like to learn partway through that I had some opportunity to do x or y that was poorly telegraphed and now just lost forever. The next time I play a Persona game I will probably consult external resources just to learn what things are available when, but still sort of plot my own course through it. That’s what I did through the back part of this game and had a much better time.
I am currently on January 1st I think, probably got a decent chunk of Tartarus crawling left in the game - I would like to time it so that I get to January 31st on January 31st so I’m hoping to catch up over the next week or so.
I’m currently mostly caught up, maybe behind by a day or two. I realized that these games are perhaps not well-suited to the “one day at a time” playstyle because the lengths of days can vary pretty wildly depending on if one goes to Tartarus or not. It’s easy for me to carve out 5 minutes for a single day, but it’s a bigger ask when a dive into Tartarus can take several hours, which I simply don’t have most days of the week.
I’m kind of left with a big question on when to actually finish the game since (spoiler for the last dates on the calendar) the actual last day in-game is 3 March but the last significant date is the end of January. I’m not sure when I should finish it.
Still, I have enjoyed my time with P3 much more than I expected, considering my failed P4 and P5 playthroughs, and it makes me hopeful that if I try to play those two again, I’ll have a better time. There’s lots of little things in P3 I don’t like much, but the feeling of playing the game, uncovering the narrative, getting to know the party members…it was very satisfying.
Well, I’m caught up! In fact, I’ve broken the system just a little and gone a few days ahead. I decided it was most important to me that I finish on January 31, so I’ve gotten to that point as I don’t have much free time this week.
It’s an interesting feeling to be so close to the end. It feels kinda important? My in game clock is 120 hours which is a lot but nothing new to me, but the manner I’ve played this game has made it feel much bigger than that.
I feel like I am well equipped for the endgame, I got everyone geared up and most of my party are around level 90. I’ve fused every Persona available to me. In the end I maxed all but 2 social links (Yukari and Mitsuru).
I’ve been enjoying the growing sense of bleakness and despair building throughout the month of January (and in the game), and there are a couple of new songs introduced that I really dig - especially the dorm music.
I also don’t really know what’s going to happen in the end, I hear a lot of people like the ending to this one and I have managed to remain spoiler-free for nearly 20 years. Exciting!
I’m a day or two behind at present, about 105 hours on the clock, also around level 90, I’ve made ultimate weapons for the characters I intend to use (Yukari, Junpei, Akihiko - I wanted healing, coverage of different elements, no crossover weaknesses, and no marin karin), I think the endgame should be a breeze. Social link wise, I have Aigis, Yukari, Junpei, and Akihiko all at level nine, and I think four days left to me. Not sure if they’re all ready to rank up but I’m hoping to max them all. Also have Mitsuru and the student council guy each at about rank 7, I’ve given up on them.
Congratulations to everyone who stuck with it till the end!
I dropped off back in August or September, and have come to realize two things:
I can’t play Persona games like this. The problem is less that certain days takes take several hours, but more that the lack of continuity between short days allows me to forget all the short-term plans I’ve made to do this social link on Wednesday, this stat-boosting activity on Thursday, etc. I can’t imagine playing a game this long in a month or less but neither can I manage stretching it this thin. I could pick it up right now and play the remaining 60 hours, but would need to play that stretch more or less continuously.
Same deal for me. I’m in the first week of November after what felt like a multi-hour stretch of plot revelations. I planned ahead enough to know to open time for myself ahead of the full moon at least.
I still believe the idea of “play a little Persona every day” is a great one. But ever since May or June I’ve been thinking that, were I to do this again, I would line up my play with the days of the week instead of calendar dates. It was true for some long stretches that weekends ended up being longer days than many weeknights.
The biggest obstacle I ended up facing pretty consistently was needing to roll into Tartarus specifically to make money. I burned a lot of cash in the Velvet Room to summon specific Persona, either for elemental protection or to or have on hand for a Social Link. I frequently found myself diving into the Dark Hour specifically to plunder it for jewels, geegaws, and doodads.
I’m gonna blaze through what I’ve got left to finish. Thankfully still managing to play spoiler free, but I’m definitely ready to wrap this up and move on.
Yes!! I was especially feeling this whenever I found myself rolling back on my notes and thinking stuff like “huh been a while since I made coffee with Ken”, “teatime with Mitsuru, it’s been weeks” etc etc. Playing the game in this way made P3R such a presence in my life, in a way that’s usually reserved for daily games without a clear end - stuff like Animal Crossing, or logging time in MMOs.
I was hoping to max out four social links in the last four days. Started well with Aigis, then I had a non-productive hangout with each of the other three. Sigh. I could reload my save and probably hang out with one of them twice but I’m gonna let it go. I’m sure they’ll each resolve their issues on their own.
The bosses were super easy, I was clearly overlevelled. Too much grinding!
I liked a lot about the game, and I’m glad I took part in this bizarre experiment. The ending was done well, especially the nice little moments with all your social links, good mix of melancholy, feelgood moments and laughs. This is my first “real” Persona game - I played the first one but that’s much more like a traditional RPG. I’ll probably have more to say about the game, both positive and negative but just chiming in for now to say I made it on January 31st and I’ll let my thoughts percolate a bit more.
I also finished up last night, bosses were much easier than the first time I played the game, when I think I finished off the final boss by having my last standing character with very little HP left reflect an elemental attack at it. This time I was way over levelled. I’d forgotten most of the ending, so it was a pleasant surprise to have a couple of days to wander around talking to my social links again.
I considered saving after the boss and putting off the ending for a month to stick with the calendar, but I think I’m ready to be done. Persona 4 starts in April, but I’m not currently planning to do this again with it.
I was all up to date at the start of the year, but hit a busy period with work/life and fell shamefully far behind on game progress and even shamefully-er behind on writing up my thoughts. That said, I finished up halfway through February and had a blast playing.
I have to say, coming down those stairs from my room for the last time, with everything so desaturated and nobody around felt all too melancholy.
…
I killed Ryoji.
The game made it abundantly clear that it did not want me to kill Ryoji, but bloodlust got the better of me. In the aftermath, the game becomes a bit dreamlike. Almost as though the apocalypse has already happened without anyone noticing.
I wasn’t quite ready for the game to be finished however, so I rewound and spared Ryoji. Now the story continues, but the world is drained of colour and the soundtrack is all chopped and screwed. Almost as though the apocalypse has already happened without anyone noticing.
I enjoyed wandering around post-nyx-battle chatting with all of my maxed out social links while no time passes. Almost as though the apocalypse has already happened without anyone noticing.
I’m pretty sure at least one apocalypse has happened anyway. What if it was right at the beginning?
Somewhere along the way I also re-watched Neon Genesis Evangelion and the plot bears more than a passing resemblance. A bunch of orphaned teenagers who need to save the world from a monster of the week (month?) while the true nature of said monsters gradually unfolds as a larger conspiracy starts to reveal itself. Ryoji/Kaworu harbinger of death. Unusual personal music player.
