Am I just not understanding the combat?

[LightBringer]

First time playing the game, or really any true JRPG for that manner. Ran into the first fighting sequence, it was nothing really. But upon fighting the first shadow character (you know the one if youre reading likely) I just got completely smeared. Playing on normal mode. They teach you to use weak spots to gain an additional action, and I did exactly that for almost all of my turns. Yet still I got completely demolished. The whole time aswell, I keep hearing Teddy explain how I need to predict the opponents next move. Is there just something im not understanding? I swear the enemies have the same idle animations while waiting for you to pick your turn. Can you really determine anything coming next from them? Really, im just trying to be able to progress onwards. Any help is appreciated.

[Vidange Sale]

You want to use the enemy weakness and force them all on the ground. Don't focus on one shadow at a time, try to clean up the board in one round.

[mnm42905]

The game is trying to teach you pattern recognition. Shadow Yosuke always uses Wind of Oblivion after he guards. What the game is trying to tell you, is that if you block the incoming Wind of Oblivion you wont be downed, and Shadow Yosuke will not get a One More. Other than that, make sure to hit him with Zio when it is safe and heal when needed and you should win the fight no problem.

[LightBringer]

Originally posted by Vidange Sale:

You want to use the enemy weakness and force them all on the ground. Don't focus on one shadow at a time, try to clean up the board in one round.

It was the first Shadow character and they were alone. I hit weakness blows on every turn.

[Insto]

In this game the animations don't really tell you what the enemy is about to do. But in this fight when ever the boss guards you should guard to because if not you'll take a lot of damage. A pretty good strategy for this fight is to knock it down with zio to get an extra turn and then just attack with your weapon to save on sp. If you ever need to heal just use a medicine instead of attacking when the boss is knocked down. That should be able to get you through the fight and I hope it helped.

[Arktem]

I'm assuming you mean Shadow Yosuke by saying first shadow character. When it comes down to it, you are indeed doing the right thing by attacking the weak spots for shadows to down them for an extra turn or, once you get 2+ party members, an all out attack. However, you need to also consider guarding if you happen to see a shadow use a buff skill, as that's an indication the next move will probably hurt quite a bit.

If you're curious, here's a GameFAQ guide for P4G that you can use for general help regarding combat, social links, etc.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/vita/641695-persona-4-golden/faqs/65652

[LightBringer]

Hearing that its more pattern focused will definitely help me watch out for later fights ingame. Thank you for the tips and for not shaming me on failing the second fight twice in a row. Yall are goods.

[rad_knight]

if you mean the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXvMcLrLSY (you'll never unsee it) then i'm pretty sure you need to gaurd when teddy says to predict it's next move.
most of the other bosses in the game past the second dungeon don't have weaknesses though, so make sure that's not all of what you're relying on (chie and skull shirt guy are the best physical hitters so keep one of them at all times, but just one. yukiko is the best hearer so try to always use her. and the other party member is up to you)
just remember that if one of your party members can hit an enemies weakness not to do it yourself to save SP and you should be able to get through the game just fine after the second boss

[Artur]

Don't feel too bad and keep at it.
Despite knowing more about the series I got a game over in the fight as well thanks to his unpredictably high damage-output after his charge-up.
It's all about knowing when to guard, attack, use skills/items or go directly for the enemys weakness.
Next time you'll always do better.

[WabbitRanger]

Honestly the beginning is the hardest parts of these games once you have your selection of personamons for elements, buffs, and healing you'll be fine in basic combat. Bosses will just follow an attack loop or just random bs sometimes rng has to be on your side sadly. Just be happy it isn't an mainline smt lol