How Hard is Hard Mode

[Lythrilux™]

What does it change compared to normal? I've played half of the Switch version on normal and I'm thinking about doing the new route on Hard

[xxVoicELeSSxx]

I think hard is the way to go if you like the game somewhat challenging.
The first few hours can be a bit frustrating because you die fast but that changes with a few lvl ups.

Hard mode feels more like a choose your own difficulty setting.

It has a good balance but if it's too hard for you, you can grind somewhat (which really isn't necessary) or use the lvl up items you find everywhere in the world ^^

This boosts your strength by a lot

You can also switch from hard mode to normal mode but not from normal mode to hard mode.

So I would say, just give it a try but keep at it for at least a few levels :p

[bboykin87]

I think it gives a good challenge and like was already said you can change it from hard to normal if you find it too difficult for you.

There are soo many resources and tools to accomplish the mission I feel like this game would be a cakewalk on normal.

I would suggest at least giving hard mode a shot worst case you dont like it, you can change it to normal.

[Bufekni]

Hard mode is pretty cool,a good challenge. At least for me all the bosses have been at least 1 or more levels above me, but are beatable with a good strategy (or farming a bit). If you find it too hard you can always switch back to normal too.

[Part-Time Prick]

Originally posted by Bufekni:

Hard mode is pretty cool,a good challenge. At least for me all the bosses have been at least 1 or more levels above me, but are beatable with a good strategy (or farming a bit). If you find it too hard you can always switch back to normal too. :SMT5V_Mothman:

To add onto that with the addition of the virtual trainer there's ready sources of large exp bumps available.

[Zen]

On the megamitensei fandom wiki there's a section for SMTV that lists what hard mode changes. ATLUS is lazy when it comes to difficulty so all you get are things like you do 30% less damage and take 30% more damage.

[Kuruk]

its just the usual things of boosting damage numbers and reducing player damage and similar stuff iirc. But so far im finding hard mode to be a nice difficulty until i reached the first boss, despite only being 1 level below it was like an unbeatable wall despite me doing literally all the side quests and having 2 strong personas that can hit their weakness plus the MC. havent gotten to the 2nd boss yet so idk if i will have a similar experience but the game opened up a decent bit and so far ive done the same thing of doing all the side quests and exploring everything to the best of my ability, I think im gonna end up 1 level below the bosses level again as im level 21 and i know the boss is level 22, just not sure if progressing will instantly go to the boss or theres still normal enemies and stuff to fight on the way to the boss where im at. If it ends up being a trainwreck like the first boss and the 3rd ends up the same way im gonna drop down to normal even t hough its gonna be too easy. doesnt really feel that rewarding having the overall normal enemy combat be hard but fair and at most having to redo a fight once due to bad luck or just me being an idiot and making a mistake feels nice, but then doing all the side quests available and grabbing everything i can (afaik) and only having a 1 level difference at the boss fight and its just an rng wall of double digit attempts is the complete opposite

[BiskutMentega]

Hard makes common enemy on the map hit stupidly hard that you will want to avoid encounter with them unless you need to clear sidequests or by accident. This will deter you from grinding and makes you use your brain more when facing a boss because grinding regular enemies is just not worth the time. (grinding mitama is still an option).

[nathan24]

Hard is the way to go and it feels just right my man, go for it no worries.

[Stop Slaying Rats in RPGs]

In hard mode you have to quickly adapt to alternate team set ups.
The game is well balanced enough that if you see someone out of nowhere who suspiciously looks like they're gonna be casting Mudo or the light alternative then use Dark/Light Dampeners.

It feels rewarding to overcome each encounter especially at the lowest possible level to.

I've already completed the Switch version over 2 years ago and feels great coming back to it tho I forgot how some encounters worked.

They've made the game slightly slightly easier with some tweaks and additions but have some changes to throw you off.

However in Hard mode there are times you do have to deal with the unfair challenge because RNGesus got angry and started kicking all his toys out of the pram and the player is the one to suffer lol.

I recommend sticking through with it on hard mode at least for one playthrough if you're a completionist then do the other paths on normal mode like I always do when recompleting smt games on other platforms after my first hard run.

Normal mode is still a fine enough playthrough if you don't want to deal with the unfair BS and yeah I understand that it can be annoying especially when time is limited with work and other real life things going on.

Just please avoid the easy mode.

[Kuruk]

Originally posted by Kuruk:

its just the usual things of boosting damage numbers and reducing player damage and similar stuff iirc. But so far im finding hard mode to be a nice difficulty until i reached the first boss, despite only being 1 level below it was like an unbeatable wall despite me doing literally all the side quests and having 2 strong personas that can hit their weakness plus the MC. havent gotten to the 2nd boss yet so idk if i will have a similar experience but the game opened up a decent bit and so far ive done the same thing of doing all the side quests and exploring everything to the best of my ability, I think im gonna end up 1 level below the bosses level again as im level 21 and i know the boss is level 22, just not sure if progressing will instantly go to the boss or theres still normal enemies and stuff to fight on the way to the boss where im at. If it ends up being a trainwreck like the first boss and the 3rd ends up the same way im gonna drop down to normal even t hough its gonna be too easy. doesnt really feel that rewarding having the overall normal enemy combat be hard but fair and at most having to redo a fight once due to bad luck or just me being an idiot and making a mistake feels nice, but then doing all the side quests available and grabbing everything i can (afaik) and only having a 1 level difference at the boss fight and its just an rng wall of double digit attempts is the complete opposite

after beating the 2nd boss on my 2nd try, they were infinitely easier than the 1st boss. So id say assuming the game doesnt have that many walls like the 1st boss was, hard is difficult but still feels fair 90% of the time. the other 10% is when decides to repeatedly stomp you out with no way of you defending yourself and knowing its an instant game over. as long as you save often it shouldnt be a huge problem though. took me some time to get used to saving all the time since thats not something you can do in persona games. so at the start i lost 30+ minutes to a few deaths and forgetting to save on the go rather than at leylines but now im just cruising through at a somewhat slow but consistent pace

[Johnathon Fortnite]

Originally posted by Kuruk:

Originally posted by Kuruk:

its just the usual things of boosting damage numbers and reducing player damage and similar stuff iirc. But so far im finding hard mode to be a nice difficulty until i reached the first boss, despite only being 1 level below it was like an unbeatable wall despite me doing literally all the side quests and having 2 strong personas that can hit their weakness plus the MC. havent gotten to the 2nd boss yet so idk if i will have a similar experience but the game opened up a decent bit and so far ive done the same thing of doing all the side quests and exploring everything to the best of my ability, I think im gonna end up 1 level below the bosses level again as im level 21 and i know the boss is level 22, just not sure if progressing will instantly go to the boss or theres still normal enemies and stuff to fight on the way to the boss where im at. If it ends up being a trainwreck like the first boss and the 3rd ends up the same way im gonna drop down to normal even t hough its gonna be too easy. doesnt really feel that rewarding having the overall normal enemy combat be hard but fair and at most having to redo a fight once due to bad luck or just me being an idiot and making a mistake feels nice, but then doing all the side quests available and grabbing everything i can (afaik) and only having a 1 level difference at the boss fight and its just an rng wall of double digit attempts is the complete opposite

after beating the 2nd boss on my 2nd try, they were infinitely easier than the 1st boss. So id say assuming the game doesnt have that many walls like the 1st boss was, hard is difficult but still feels fair 90% of the time. the other 10% is when decides to repeatedly stomp you out with no way of you defending yourself and knowing its an instant game over. as long as you save often it shouldnt be a huge problem though. took me some time to get used to saving all the time since thats not something you can do in persona games. so at the start i lost 30+ minutes to a few deaths and forgetting to save on the go rather than at leylines but now im just cruising through at a somewhat slow but consistent pace

save wherever was a huge boon lmao

[Its Almost Harvesting Season]

Originally posted by Kuruk:

Originally posted by Kuruk:

its just the usual things of boosting damage numbers and reducing player damage and similar stuff iirc. But so far im finding hard mode to be a nice difficulty until i reached the first boss, despite only being 1 level below it was like an unbeatable wall despite me doing literally all the side quests and having 2 strong personas that can hit their weakness plus the MC. havent gotten to the 2nd boss yet so idk if i will have a similar experience but the game opened up a decent bit and so far ive done the same thing of doing all the side quests and exploring everything to the best of my ability, I think im gonna end up 1 level below the bosses level again as im level 21 and i know the boss is level 22, just not sure if progressing will instantly go to the boss or theres still normal enemies and stuff to fight on the way to the boss where im at. If it ends up being a trainwreck like the first boss and the 3rd ends up the same way im gonna drop down to normal even t hough its gonna be too easy. doesnt really feel that rewarding having the overall normal enemy combat be hard but fair and at most having to redo a fight once due to bad luck or just me being an idiot and making a mistake feels nice, but then doing all the side quests available and grabbing everything i can (afaik) and only having a 1 level difference at the boss fight and its just an rng wall of double digit attempts is the complete opposite

after beating the 2nd boss on my 2nd try, they were infinitely easier than the 1st boss. So id say assuming the game doesnt have that many walls like the 1st boss was, hard is difficult but still feels fair 90% of the time. the other 10% is when decides to repeatedly stomp you out with no way of you defending yourself and knowing its an instant game over. as long as you save often it shouldnt be a huge problem though. took me some time to get used to saving all the time since thats not something you can do in persona games. so at the start i lost 30+ minutes to a few deaths and forgetting to save on the go rather than at leylines but now im just cruising through at a somewhat slow but consistent pace

Just wondering if this is your first time playing and if you had any extra info before approaching Hydra?

When I played this on Switch he was pretty tough on Hard. Meanwhile I steamrolled him pretty easily this time by just using Mermaid and saving dampeners for when his magatsuhi charged. I did get lucky with Frenzy not quite killing my party, but hey, that's SMT.

I remember not really engaging with the essences originally, although I think the original version had some select essences which were one-time obtainable. Either way, keep at it. I think Hard in this game is just more brutal than demanding.

[thefollowingcharacters]

Hard mode is the difficulty of a classic RPG. You'll want to be at the appropriate level for bosses, be smart in your ability usage, and generally know how to play RPGs. Normal is if you just pump strength or magic, use whoever want, and coast without thinking.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Zen:

On the megamitensei fandom wiki there's a section for SMTV that lists what hard mode changes. ATLUS is lazy when it comes to difficulty so all you get are things like you do 30% less damage and take 30% more damage.

lazy or not it feels properly balanced. like #13 said it feels like a proper classic RPG, you need to strategize and nothing ever really feels truly unfair. prepping for every fight is a blast, although it could maybe be argued that you'll be forced to like setup your party order in a way to maximize press turns like slots !/3 being advantageous for 2/4 to do whatever they want whereas in normal you'd have more flexibility with team since it's so much easier.

Originally posted by Its Almost Harvesting Season:

Originally posted by Kuruk:

after beating the 2nd boss on my 2nd try, they were infinitely easier than the 1st boss. So id say assuming the game doesnt have that many walls like the 1st boss was, hard is difficult but still feels fair 90% of the time. the other 10% is when decides to repeatedly stomp you out with no way of you defending yourself and knowing its an instant game over. as long as you save often it shouldnt be a huge problem though. took me some time to get used to saving all the time since thats not something you can do in persona games. so at the start i lost 30+ minutes to a few deaths and forgetting to save on the go rather than at leylines but now im just cruising through at a somewhat slow but consistent pace

Just wondering if this is your first time playing and if you had any extra info before approaching Hydra?

When I played this on Switch he was pretty tough on Hard. Meanwhile I steamrolled him pretty easily this time by just using Mermaid and saving dampeners for when his magatsuhi charged. I did get lucky with Frenzy not quite killing my party, but hey, that's SMT.

I remember not really engaging with the essences originally, although I think the original version had some select essences which were one-time obtainable. Either way, keep at it. I think Hard in this game is just more brutal than demanding.

heck, I took it a step further and predicted the fire breaths with fire dampener as well and also had 1 phys dampener ready for the final step as well. pretty much protected whole party the entire way through, but still took a couple of tries because i had to relearn the attack order, which is pretty static.

[Kuruk]

Originally posted by Its Almost Harvesting Season:

Originally posted by Kuruk:

after beating the 2nd boss on my 2nd try, they were infinitely easier than the 1st boss. So id say assuming the game doesnt have that many walls like the 1st boss was, hard is difficult but still feels fair 90% of the time. the other 10% is when decides to repeatedly stomp you out with no way of you defending yourself and knowing its an instant game over. as long as you save often it shouldnt be a huge problem though. took me some time to get used to saving all the time since thats not something you can do in persona games. so at the start i lost 30+ minutes to a few deaths and forgetting to save on the go rather than at leylines but now im just cruising through at a somewhat slow but consistent pace

Just wondering if this is your first time playing and if you had any extra info before approaching Hydra?

When I played this on Switch he was pretty tough on Hard. Meanwhile I steamrolled him pretty easily this time by just using Mermaid and saving dampeners for when his magatsuhi charged. I did get lucky with Frenzy not quite killing my party, but hey, that's SMT.

I remember not really engaging with the essences originally, although I think the original version had some select essences which were one-time obtainable. Either way, keep at it. I think Hard in this game is just more brutal than demanding.

first time playing, ive played persona 1, 3, 4, 5, and some of the spinoffs but only ever beat 4/5 and the spinoffs. My only knowledge of smt is that its much harder, not afraid to beat your ass and just kill you whenever from all the "thanks smt 3 nocturne" videos lol. otherwise ive watched challenge runs like nahobino only, demifiend only, pixie only, etc, etc. and the focus of those videos tend to only be like the actually difficult bosses that crop up later on.

i had mermaid and asparas from the quest but between random crits and him using fire breath randomly it made it hard to balance needing to heal them constantly or needing to cure multiple characters of poison since demons cant use items. eventually rng got me through with the boss not using fore breath more than once and when it did use toxic spray only 1 person got poisoned at a time. i think my 2nd attempt i got it down to 10% hp. I think the most difficult part beyond the weakness and poison is just that reviving a demon doesnt automatically put them in your party so it tends to get me killed trying to revive and then bring the demon back into the party