Persona 4: It's bear-y good!

[Kim]

So, I'm on my way to fight Izanami. I haven't actually gone into the dungeon yet. Is there a way to recover SP for this dungeon? Also, any other tips for this last dungeon?

So, I'm prepared to say that the best thing about the whole damn game is Teddie, his character and backstory. He is the awesome.

EDIT: Also also, do social links carry over in New Game Plus?

I don't have very many Social Links maxed out, only half of them, but can anyone tell me what some of the best Personas to have at this part of the game are. I'm leaning a little towards switching from Black Frost to focusing on Loki, but I'm not sure.

[EVILNess]

No they don't, but you get to keep anything in your persona compendium, even the ultimate Personas. You do get to keep your social stats though so it is much faster to raise your social links.

As for tips here is a basic one for SP recovery, buy the TaP and Dr. Salt from the vending machines in the shopping district. The TaP restores 10 sp and the Dr. Salt restores 5 sp. That doesn't sound like a lot, but take into account that you can get 5 of each every few days, and you can have a stockpile of them in the time lull before and after a dungeon. Trust me, they help. Also you can equip a Persona with Cool Breeze (Pazuzu a Devil Persona has this) or Invigorate, and put Taoist Badges on your party members (10 Silver Fox Fur Dropped by Divine Mother on Yomotsu Hirasaka) to keep your SP up as you go along. I would say use Victory Cry, but Getting Lucifer to level 99 seems kinda overkill.

[Kim]

So I just beat it, and it definitely ranks as one of my favorite RPG's of all time. A few things bothered me, but it still ranks up there pretty high, and the ending was a good way to end the game, even if I did save the day with the power of friendship.

What I like...

Combat has some depth to it. You've got your buffs and debuffs, as well as items to remove buffs from enemies and debuffs from your party.

There are a variety of interesting status effects, and having your character blocking will actually prevent them if you know an enemy is going to cast one. (ie: the last boss)

The weakness/strength/nullify/repel/absorb thing they've got going on for the varying elements is wonderful. Use an enemies weakness, or get a critical hit, and it knocks them down. Do it when they're knocked down, and it can prevent them from acting for a turn. Knock all your enemies down and you can do an all out attack that usually kicks ass. The enemies you're fighting will generally cause you to vary your tactics greatly because of these things, when in most games I've played most fights work the same, with the exception of boss fights

Speaking of boss fights, they are appropriately epic. Each dungeon has a boss, and every boss is unique and designed with symbolism in mind, maybe a bit overhanded symbolism, but symbolism just the same. The fact that they become personas afterward is also kinda nifty, giving a more tangible reward for beating them than here's a nice weapon, or here's a plot McGuffin. It's a plot McGuffin you can beat people up with.

Social links... Who would think that by combining dating sim elements with a turn based RPG, you'd get a great way to break up the time so the whole game isn't grinding. This time around, social links with your teammates are vital, with benefits such as them taking mortal blows for your character, curing status effects, or surviving mortal blows.

Music... Most of it is pretty good, though I'm more fond of some songs than others, but overall the soundtrack is a great listen, and certainly worth checking out.


What I don't like:

Persona Fusion because I'm terrible at picking good ones. Not really a problem with the game so much as myself.

The end boss that wouldn't end. By that I mean the game's whole making you think that this is the last boss, except it isn't, several times to the point I got a little annoyed. I will, however, forgive it, as it actually ties in to some of the themes and the villains motives so yeah.

[Red Fighter 1073]

Yeah I agree, combat is great in this game and I think it's a lot better this time around than in P3 because that game was way too much about exploiting enemy weaknesses, and it's basically the same case with P4, but I feel much more of a need to use buffs and debuffs this time around because most enemies don't readily have a weakness so beating them requires a much better strategy besides exploit weakness/all-out attack x10.

I love the music too. The main battle theme is meh to me, but I love the main dungeon boss theme, and I love the cloudy day theme too. Sucks that they change that cloudy day theme in December (I guess with good reason, but I hated the new cloudy theme).