P3 Reload: Ok... We need to talk about this awful Party AI

[fabs]

First of all, I don't feel the need to justify why I prefer to play with party AI on. That is the way I originally finished Persona 3 and how I mostly chose to play Persona 4 and Persona 5.

Other people like to control their party members? Great. For immersion purposes, I like the original vision of teamwork, enjoying the erratic nature of combat, a well placed spell to the rescue, random combo attacks etc...

The problem is Persona 3 Reload from what I have seen as of 40 hours of playtime, completely and utterly fails when it comes to this.

-Junpei won't use fire attacks when it's clearly the critical weakness of enemies, opting to use physical attacks instead...

But fine, one offs can happen. However:

-Shift: Party members cannot use shift or rather, will not use shift in battle. Why? This was possible in Persona 5 when the AI would somehow make a decision based on equipped Personas, adding a great flow of battle. This is unacceptable.

-Theurgy: Love this added component of battle, a nice added alternative of the combo attacks from Persona 4 and Persona 5... Fatal flaw? The party AI will rarely if ever use it when available. I have seen it used, however it's very rare. Currently I have a party where all 4 members have maxed the theurgy bar but just will not use it, even if they've run out of SP.... What is the point of this?

Basically if you play with party AI on, you are forced to switch to manual control to force them to use it. A big step down from Persona 4 and 5 when these attacks would happen randomly.

If these features have been built in, then the AI should be designed to use them properly.

Sorry, this is not good enough and is probably what has taken away the most otherwise from my enjoyment of this game.

[Haseo8]

I initially was gonna play using AI party memmbers as well. The simple fact that they will not shift on their own made me switch back to direct control...

[Hymnos]

You want to play like in the Original P3 then don't expect much lmao, Geez I hope they include Fu uka random skill buff which can teamwipe the entire party, it will be hilarious for sure and everyone will be scared to activate her theurgy skill

[ffrasisti [ARG]]

I dont think anyone has used the Party AI system since FES. I do agree it has onyl ever gotten worse since FES... because nobody uses it anymore. I thought the Tactics system wasnt anywhere as bad on FES as people claimed, but I only played on Normal.
But I never touched it again on Portable and onwards, so it probably has gotten crappier as the games went on.

[ffrasisti [ARG]]

Originally posted by Haseo8:

I initially was gonna play using AI party memmbers as well. The simple fact that they will not shift on their own made me switch back to direct control...

Do they Baton Pass in P5? I never used tactics AI but now Im curious

[Desticler]

Originally posted by ffrasisti ARG:

Originally posted by Haseo8:

I initially was gonna play using AI party memmbers as well. The simple fact that they will not shift on their own made me switch back to direct control...

Do they Baton Pass in P5? I never used tactics AI but now Im curious

Yeah, they do. P5 actually has really good tactics AI, not as good as FES but definitely second best.

[Amaterasu]

They wanted it to be "realistic". It's a bunch of random kids fighting shadows. Of course they're not going to be strategic or smart.

[nephalim]

If you want the original play the original

[fabs]

Originally posted by nephalim:

If you want the original play the original

Sounds a bit like, if you don't like the country you live in, get out. No right to criticise and say how you would like things to be improved.

[Xenomus]

If you're willing to try using mods, someone took a stab at making the AI play better.
https://gamebanana.com/mods/496363

[Eisen]

Originally posted by nephalim:

If you want the original play the original

to be fair, the way OP is playing is actually much closer to the original P3.

AI controlled party: Check
No shifting: Check
No Theurgy: Almost Check

[Vakula]

You say you enjoy the erratic nature of combat with AI, but then expect them to act perfectly. You are contradicting yourself.

[nephalim]

Originally posted by fabs:

Originally posted by nephalim:

If you want the original play the original

Sounds a bit like, if you don't like the country you live in, get out. No right to criticise and say how you would like things to be improved.

You can criticize this port all you'd like I have tons of criticism for it as well, my point is that this game is so similar to the original if you want the original battle system there isn't much point in playing the remake.

[fabs]

Originally posted by Xenomus:

If you're willing to try using mods, someone took a stab at making the AI play better.
https://gamebanana.com/mods/496363

MATE. Thank you very much!! Glad others have tried to patch this.

[fabs]

Originally posted by Xenomus:

If you're willing to try using mods, someone took a stab at making the AI play better.
https://gamebanana.com/mods/496363

I installed the mod and applied it. It makes a huge difference.

Thanks to this great mod, party members will start to use Shift, both to the MC and among each other. The only issue I still have is that they arent using their theurgy skills however I will need to test it further to see whether this may be temporary thing in my savegame.

[Multihog]

Originally posted by sungoddess14:

They wanted it to be "realistic". It's a bunch of random kids fighting shadows. Of course they're not going to be strategic or smart.

That's a bullsh!t justification no doubt, and I would bet good money it's something you just came up with and not the devs.