Is difficulty brainless like Royal?

[Silva]

I'm not even asking if Reload is easy because I know, from various sources, that it surely is. I know this isn't Nocturne. Rather, my question is:

A) Is Reload brainless-easy like P5 Royal, where we got a bazillion tricks (eg: showtime) that the AI / enemies clearly weren't rebalanced around, and so the game goes on autopilot as soon as we're out of the first palace?

or..

B) Is Reload more like vanilla P5 where it's overall on the easy side but still challenging in some stretches, and can kill you if you're not paying attention, so you still have to strategize and mind your fusions?

Thanks in advance.



P.S: and please, no "game has X superpower but you can ignore it if you want". I'm asking about the game design here. If I'm paying, I expect devs to do their homework and have all it's elements balanced in regard to each other, and not expect the player to self-impose artificial handicaps to find the fun. Thanks.

[Cerber]

Honestly as a mostly new guy to the Persona series I'd say it's defo on the easier side? I never really worry about what fusions i'm doing while obviously keeping the powers that seem rather useful or "Basekit" effective.

The difficulty itself is fairly balanced in terms of damage, i'm playing on "Normal" difficulty. Sometimes there is stretches of enemies that are hard which kinda saps the fun out of the game since it feels like a grind fest but most of the time you can regulate the fun by either running around those enemies or just doing the easier fights.

I wouldn't say it's ever truly challenging i guess. If you heal frequently, use some items here and there it's a legit cakewalk if you pay attention. Now i can't speak but i assume Merciless is built for you if you care about all of those things you mentioned. But i'm going to safely assume that if Normal seems like a grindfest to me, Merciless would have absolutely destroyed the fun out of this game for me.

[Silva]

Originally posted by Cerber:

Honestly as a mostly new guy to the Persona series I'd say it's defo on the easier side? I never really worry about what fusions i'm doing while obviously keeping the powers that seem rather useful or "Basekit" effective.

The difficulty itself is fairly balanced in terms of damage, i'm playing on "Normal" difficulty. Sometimes there is stretches of enemies that are hard which kinda saps the fun out of the game since it feels like a grind fest but most of the time you can regulate the fun by either running around those enemies or just doing the easier fights.

I wouldn't say it's ever truly challenging i guess. If you heal frequently, use some items here and there it's a legit cakewalk if you pay attention. Now i can't speak but i assume Merciless is built for you if you care about all of those things you mentioned. But i'm going to safely assume that if Normal seems like a grindfest to me, Merciless would have absolutely destroyed the fun out of this game for me.

It's a little hard to judge your impressions since you're a novice to the series, but if you're finding some rough spots on normal and feel like you'd be destroyed on merciless, then Reload doesn't seems to be brainless like Royal.

Thanks for your input.

Edit: btw, humble advice. If after Reload you decide to try Persona 5, and you value some degree of challange in your gaming, ignore Royal and go with vanilla P5. Otherwise, if the appeal of these games for you is the storytelling and chill moments, go with Royal.

[Faiyez]

Unlike most people calling this game easy, I judge difficulty based on how much I get game overs.

This game was smooth sailing until I died to dark instakill and twice more to light instakill (I wasn't sure if I had an immune person or it was just resistant until I equipped. The symbols weren't clear to me on their own.

Yesterday one of the satyr bosses single shot Minato despite being near full health and probably buffed.

[Silva]

Originally posted by Faiyez:

Unlike most people calling this game easy, I judge difficulty based on how much I get game overs.

This game was smooth sailing until I died to dark instakill and twice more to light instakill (I wasn't sure if I had an immune person or it was just resistant until I tried. The symbols weren't clear to me on their own.

Yesterday one of the satyr bosses single shot Minato despite being near full health.

That's good to hear. Thanks!

[Arisato]

If you compare to the same difficulty of both game. Normal-normal, hard-hard. I would say this game is still harder than P5R BUT compare to the OG or FES than the game is easier, a lot easier.

[bulldog0890]

is p5R easier than normal p5? I found p5 on hard to be one of the most satisfying jrpg difficulties i've played. as in, required me to think about what i was doing, but never forced me to waste ages grinding. though i was less knowledgeable about persona/smt quirks and gimmicks then, so who knows how i'd feel about it now

[ZDM]

In terms of just battles, it can get difficult if you’re playing on merciless. Schedule is somewhat tight if you’re trying to get everything in one playthrough.

[Silva]

Originally posted by Arisato:

If you compare to the same difficulty of both game. Normal-normal, hard-hard. I would say this game is still harder than P5R BUT compare to the OG or FES than the game is easier, a lot easier.

Thanks.

Originally posted by bulldog0890:

is p5R easier than normal p5? I found p5 on hard to be one of the most satisfying jrpg difficulties i've played. as in, required me to think about what i was doing, but never forced me to waste ages grinding. though i was less knowledgeable about persona/smt quirks and gimmicks then, so who knows how i'd feel about it now

I agree that base P5 is in a good spot difficulty-wise. I also finished it on Hard and had a great time.

Sadly, Royal is nothing like that. I actually dropped it halfway through when I realized I was just reading a visual novel at that point and not really playing a game. And that's on the same Hard setting.

Originally posted by ZDM:

In terms of just battles, it can get difficult if you’re playing on merciless. Schedule is somewhat tight if you’re trying to get everything in one playthrough.

Thanks. Good to know S-links are hard to 100% on a single playthrough. I appreciate that.

[Haruspex]

They made it completely easy. Persona 3 went from being the hardest modern persona game(portable included) out of the three into the easiest. That's how bad they fumbled the difficulty that you have to put it on Merciless to have some problem. And yes it still has the same problem of shadows having zero tools to go against Shift and theurgys. While I never played Royal but bosses flat out get deleted in a single turn in this game lol

[Haruspex]

Only time I died in this game is just spamming physical attacks until I eventually encountered a mob that could reflect and blew up on my face and one shotted my self. Only the secret boss here has some challenge.

[Silva]

Originally posted by Jester:

They made it completely easy. Persona 3 went from being the hardest modern persona game(portable included) out of the three into the easiest. That's how bad they fumbled the difficulty that you have to put it on Merciless to have some problem. And yes it still has the same problem of shadows having zero tools to go against Shift and theurgys. While I never played Royal but bosses flat out get deleted in a single turn in this game lol

Originally posted by Jester:

Only time I died in this game is just spamming physical attacks until I eventually encountered a mob that could reflect and blew up on my face and one shotted my self. Only the secret boss here has some challenge.

Woah, didn't expected it to be that easy. Thanks.

Did you play base P5? Would you say it's on par with that or easier still?

[Yürei]

Originally posted by Silva:

Originally posted by Jester:

They made it completely easy. Persona 3 went from being the hardest modern persona game(portable included) out of the three into the easiest. That's how bad they fumbled the difficulty that you have to put it on Merciless to have some problem. And yes it still has the same problem of shadows having zero tools to go against Shift and theurgys. While I never played Royal but bosses flat out get deleted in a single turn in this game lol

Originally posted by Jester:

Only time I died in this game is just spamming physical attacks until I eventually encountered a mob that could reflect and blew up on my face and one shotted my self. Only the secret boss here has some challenge.

Woah, didn't expected it to be that easy. Thanks.

Did you play base P5? Would you say it's on par with that or easier still?

If you have prior experience with Persona games, I would say start on hard for a somewhat relaxing time or merciless for "I have to think somewhat" time. Its not an easy time like merciless P5R, but more close to the original P5. You'll have a bit of a rough time at the beginning to mid game on Merciless. After that tho, it just gets easier from there as long as you know what you're doing.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Silva:

Originally posted by Jester:

They made it completely easy. Persona 3 went from being the hardest modern persona game(portable included) out of the three into the easiest. That's how bad they fumbled the difficulty that you have to put it on Merciless to have some problem. And yes it still has the same problem of shadows having zero tools to go against Shift and theurgys. While I never played Royal but bosses flat out get deleted in a single turn in this game lol

Originally posted by Jester:

Only time I died in this game is just spamming physical attacks until I eventually encountered a mob that could reflect and blew up on my face and one shotted my self. Only the secret boss here has some challenge.

Woah, didn't expected it to be that easy. Thanks.

Did you play base P5? Would you say it's on par with that or easier still?

Much easier. Think of Reload as the Royal of Persona 3. With the original having better difficulty.

[Yürei]

Originally posted by Jester:

Originally posted by Silva:

Woah, didn't expected it to be that easy. Thanks.

Did you play base P5? Would you say it's on par with that or easier still?

Much easier. Think of Reload as the Royal of Persona 3. With the original having better difficulty.

A lot of the difficulty from the original was the bad ai. Don't get me wrong tho. We have a lot more tools that naturally make it easier in P3R.

[Endora]

I only had problems with the Love Shadow at Merciless, because all my party got charmed at the same time even with a resistant-persona on MC. Had to grind 500 k to buy the club's acessory. The rest wasn't a cakewalk, but with strategy it's fun. If you ever play it, I recomend to start at Merciless right from the start.