Is Normal Hard, and Easy Normal?

[Plaguelight]

Feels like the difficulty is all sorts of outta whack. Enemies take no damage outside of spamming SP attacks, and if you try to get in any combos, you're gonna get hit with something, be it Paralysis, Sleep, Freeze, etc.

On bosses, it's even worse, as you're doing chip damage without wasting SP. Is there some sort of trick to all this nonsense or is it literally just rotate through your party, spamming SP attacks, until the boss goes down? Hell, I fear what Alice might be like if this is the prelude to that and beyond...

[BUBBERDUCKY]

Are you playing on normal?

[Plaguelight]

Originally posted by BUBBERDUCKY:

Are you playing on normal?

Yes.

[nihao hanbaobao]

I beat Shadow Alice on Hard last night and ngl, it was a slug fest.

I had to chip her health using persona attacks and that's what I usually do anyways, just spam weaknesses and all out attacks. It doesn't have to use SP.

[BUBBERDUCKY]

I'm playing on normal and it's not hard just make sure you are switching up teammates and using every mechanic. But it does take longer than others because the bosses have higher health (obviously). But to me the game isn't that hard but it's different for all people. But I could try to give you more advice if you need it.

[Plaguelight]

I've tried several teammates, but it gets rather troublesome trying to memorize all their different attack patterns and speeds. Like Sophia's Yo-Yo gives her more range than say Ryuji or Morgana, so the timing messes me up when swapping back around. And SP items are still non-existent since you can only get 4 of those "5 SP" drinks from the vending machines.

At the moment, I'm stuck on the damned Lock Monster or whatever its called, and it feels worse than getting a root canal without numbing (which I have experienced already). Is it literally just "git gud" or stop trying, or does it get better beyond this first area?

[StephanFS]

Originally posted by Plaguelight:

I've tried several teammates, but it gets rather troublesome trying to memorize all their different attack patterns and speeds. Like Sophia's Yo-Yo gives her more range than say Ryuji or Morgana, so the timing messes me up when swapping back around. And SP items are still non-existent since you can only get 4 of those "5 SP" drinks from the vending machines.

At the moment, I'm stuck on the damned Lock Monster or whatever its called, and it feels worse than getting a root canal without numbing (which I have experienced already). Is it literally just "git gud" or stop trying, or does it get better beyond this first area?

Unlock and level up the Bondmaker, the Medic Bond and the Oracle Recovery skills, as they will help you early on. Alice's Jail is notorious for being as hard as Kamoshida's Palace.

But other than that, I agree. I just finished the second Jail after 10 minutes chipping the Jail's main boss' health like nothing. This game really feels unbalanced, as if Koei Tecmo skipped playtest before releasing it. Not to mention how brutally hard the Lock Keepers are.

[moike]

They really should've made SP recoverable by hitting enemies, this SP management is stupid nonsense and has no place in a fast-paced action game like this.

[Plaguelight]

Been trying to get Bond up, but it's not an easy process, even with Bondmaker lvl 2... Honestly, I don't think I'll be making it past this Lock Keeper or whatever its called without a miracle happening, or wasting every item I have. If they want you to be a certain level for this madness, they should have the decency to WARN YOU ahead of time!

I don't think SP should be so easily returned, but my god, requiring it for every Persona that appears on the field, and even more for the bosses... That is just unreasonable. Like asking you to cut a finger off for every mistake you make.

[Irrapture]

I beat shadow alice on Normal and decided to switch to Easy. Which is funny because I've completed Royal on the hardest difficulty, but I'm just not good at this one at all despite loving action-heavy series like Kingdom Hearts and Devil May Cry

[Plaguelight]

Originally posted by Irrapture:

I beat shadow alice on Normal and decided to switch to Easy. Which is funny because I've completed Royal on the hardest difficulty, but I'm just not good at this one at all despite loving action-heavy series like Kingdom Hearts and Devil May Cry

This game makes games like that, Hyrule Warriors, Darkstalkers, etc, seem like a breeze! The amount of dodging and micro-managing here is unreal.

[henrylok617]

The first dungeon's boss was unreasonably hard on Hard mode and I had to change it to Normal; I could have won if I fused and got a better persona that exploited her weakness but I didn't want to grind. The second dungeon was actually much more doable, almost too easy compared to the first dungeon on Hard mode. Game gets a lot easier once you learn the mechanics and exploit weaknesses. For example a three hit combo followed by a special attack will use that Persona's elemental skill at no SP cost. You just have to find an opening to attack and dodge when needed.

[Geist]

First dungeon is always hard to manage in Persona. Will take several trips. Eventually it is not that difficult because of your bonds. And some characters have ways of getting SP back from enemies. And don't forget that you can target weakness with your normal combo strings which get stronger as you progress. Mainly bust out the command menu skills to counter the enemy spells if you can catch it in time. Some enemies are also weak to guns. Once their shield is down go all in.

I have been playing on hard the whole time. Getting one shot by Silky was an eye opener. Have to adjust your tactics and not play this like the usual Musou game. Even revisiting the first palace Alice can still kill me if I get sloppy.

[Eyune]

Originally posted by Plaguelight:

Originally posted by Irrapture:

I beat shadow alice on Normal and decided to switch to Easy. Which is funny because I've completed Royal on the hardest difficulty, but I'm just not good at this one at all despite loving action-heavy series like Kingdom Hearts and Devil May Cry

This game makes games like that, Hyrule Warriors, Darkstalkers, etc, seem like a breeze! The amount of dodging and micro-managing here is unreal.

I agree its the hardest musuo to date when set on normal (apart from maybe Strikeforce on the PSP). But a few tips ive accumulated in my playthrough and im almost finished.

-You can leave a jail and comeback through with full SP at no penalty.
-The character who has the most story in that jail is the strongest so use them or have persona similar to them on Joker I.E the first jail anne will the main focus interacting with the boss so the boss will be weak to fire. next is yusuke and the main boss weak to ice (OK no more mini spoilers you get the idea.)
-Spam combos XXXY or XXXXY to hit the bosses weakness. (test out these combos when you make a persona.)
-The enemy bosses broadcast their attacks on the middle of the screen if you see something like "Maragydine" you know four heat seeking comets are coming down and you have to dodge four times consecutively before resuming attack. once you learn the 3-4 attack patterns you basically win.
-Time stops when your holding the summon persona button + Press start to use items in battle.

Thats all i got for now but good luck with your playthrough.

[Plaguelight]

If Ann had even an ounce of power in her soul, I would gladly use her, but it's beyond pitiful compared with anyone else. Even using the combo-string into a free Agi cast, it still does NOTHING to this damn Lock Creature on Normal. I'd rather use basic attacks on anyone else over her, at this point.

Spamming combos only works when you don't get interrupted, and I manage to get interrupted whenever I make most of said attempts, so I can't rely on that, for the time being. Dodging in and out doesn't feel as good as it should, and the Lock On doesn't ACTUALLY lock to the enemy, so it's not intuitive at all.

Broadcasting? Not on my version, at least. I either stare at them and watch to see what they're doing, if camera is being nice, or I just get smashed into the ground. My god, if they actually had an alert or something, that would have saved me SO MANY times before now.

Time stops, certainly, but that doesn't do much when I need damage done. SP is too few and far between to make any "strategic use" of said resource, and I can hit the damn thing with all the weakness spells I got, still not going down before I run out of gas. Personas might as well be a single-use rocket launcher BEAN BAG right now.

And yes, I know about leaving and coming back in. Too bad there's not a button for leaving whenever you want, or grinding might actually be NICE. Finding checkpoints isn't always so easily done.

[Irrapture]

Yeah checkpoints really should have a button that restores your HP/SP. I mean they literally let you leave and come back for it, so why not add in a button to do it instantly so you can save a minute of your time?