so the answer to the answer is no, then answering the answer will not answer anything you wanted to answer by the answer. is that your answer to the answer? answer
Avalanche Reviews It is the SMT of Persona that we were missing, except that is the problem: Most of SMTs Difficulty comes from tedium, not really challenge.
Avoiding spoilers, I normally hate when things happen to main characters like the end of P3. It really worked in this case though. A lot of the point of the epilogue of "the journey" was to show how rich his life was by enriching those of others. Even though he was young, it wasn't tragic because most of us never do as much, even if we live 70-80 years. Seems like "the answer" missed the point of this. Main game ending suggests that the answer is to find your own answer.
The answer to The Answer is my same answer to a lot of jRPGs where the final boss is stupidly difficult, or for jRPGs that require you to mindlessly grind after a certain point. Basically, play until I stop enjoying the game, then watch the ending in youtube. Same with games where the 'perfect ending' involve doing long boring things (like, again, grinding). I go for the 'normal ending' and watch the 'perfect ending' in youtube.
I really enjoyed playing Persona 3 FES, both The Journey and The Answer. I do think part of why I had a better time with it than most was that I played on emulator, so gameplay wasn’t an issue thanks to Save States and Speeding Up :D I really enjoyed the story though, the conflict had got me hooked.
Took your advice, man. Finished P3P and watched the ‘all cutscenes’ cut of The Answer and I got everything in 3 hours. Definitely wasn’t going back into another Tartarus... you’re kind of like the MC in a way, you suffered so that we may thrive... thank you, sir. Lol
@@lemonov3031 It really depends on if you like to have Persona 4 (Golden) mechanics in it as well. Examples are the controllable teammates (there's a P3FES mod to fix that), skill cards (makes the game way easier than it should), and the knockdown mechanic (you don't lose your turn when you come back up and dizziness applies if hit multiple times). I do agree that FES is the better option unless you're a huge fan of the FEMC and don't care about the lack of cutscenes and control in areas outside of Tartarus (storybook-like). Also I don't like how they decided to please the P4 fans with the knockdown and skill card mechanics that were not needed. It just doesn't feel the same and lacks uniqueness from that. It's your opinion on if you like Portable over FES, but I'm just not one of those. Honestly I did like the Answer (story, not the grinding), though Yukari got a bad reputation from it, and made Junpei smart. P.S. Junpei is best boi (excluding Minato Arisato/Makoto Yuki) bc he's DA MAN.
Lemonov oh whoops my bad. But at least those Portable fans can see something. Portable may be the so-called better experience, but it loses the charm in FES and is too similar to 4.
@@NoJ0hnz Yes, cut content combined with content copied and pasted from P4 makes it overall have way less value than FES had. And not only that, the female route is so painfully mediocre that I can't even say that it's worth playing through in it's entirety.
Calling the main character "him" is actually a major indication about how all the characters are feeling in the game. It implies they are too depressed about the ending of Persona 3 to say his name out loud because its too painful to think about. The idea that the main character doesn't have a concrete certain name feels like a coincidence to me. I do hope that Persona 5 has the main character talking and having his own personality since I'm tired of these blank slate main characters. Final Fantasy can pull it off just fine so why doesn't Persona try it out?
@@candybunny2462 That's because the Answer was originally released on a separate disc and was unable to read P3's save data. This means that whatever name they will end up using will be different from the one the player chose in his P3 walkthrough. That's why they avoided referring to Makoto (canon name btw) by name.
I'm fixing to play P3 after I finish 4 Golden (Started with 5 but working my way backwards to experience Persona's past) and while the fate of the MC was spoiled for me by a friend of mine I still think the journey is going to be worth it as I've heard the story is among the best in the series.
Yeah I do understand why people don't like the Answer I even quit playing the Answer, but I was bored and played it all the way to the end and I liked the Answer. I loved how the dungeon theme changed between each door so much that I didn't even ask Fuuka to change it to Maya's Theme like I did in Tartarus. [SPOILERS BELOW] I just loved and hated the fight between your party members. Hated because after a while the bosses and the fight between "His" (Minato) shadow were easy to beat compared to fighting your party members which were hard probably because of that huge difficulty spike out of nowhere with their lvls pumped up by huge amount, but damn I loved the song that plays while fighting them. And hell the final boss was easy compared to fighting your party members......
I finished the Answer about a month ago and honestly I found it was pretty fun. If anything, the increase in difficult was a plus. In the base game, I grinded so much (what else do you do at night?) that I was curb-stomping everything by the time I was at the Lovers and Heirophant boss. It only got hard again when I made it to Monad. The final boss was barely even a threat and I finished each phase in about three turns or less. With the Answer, it was like the entire thing was Monad (at least the red and boss shadows). I had to actually come up with strategies on how to knock down shadows that cover each other's weaknesses. It was like solving a puzzle. It felt great to finally find a strategy take down a group of 3 hanged men that were immune to magic and physical attacks and could easily wipe out my entire party in 2 lucky shots. It sucked at first (mostly because of the brain-dead A.I.), but now they're just another source of xp. Even the last boss was actually intimidating. My mind charged Thunder Reign that normally does massive damage just tickled Erebus. Then I found out that you can just have Beelzebub spam makarakarn (with spell master) or use mirrors and Erebus will kill itself for you. The Answer is really hard, and it can SEEM like its just rng. But there are definitely things you can do differently to stack the odds in your favor. Discovering those strategies is the fun of it.
Imo the answer ruins what made the Persona 3 ending great. The whole game is about accepting death, knowing eventually you will die and accepting others deaths. For example the words Memento mori appear often in the original Persona 3 opening. Memento Mori means Something along the lines of "You are only mortal" And "Remember you will die". In the ending Minato is dying in Aigis's lap and she tells him to close his eyes... But in the answer they make it seem like Aigis didn't know he was dying, when she obviously did when telling him to close his eyes. It the shows her crying but also smiling of Minato's dead body. Why would she be crying if she thought he was sleeping? Also she smiles to show that as much as she is sad that he is dead she accepts his death and will remember the times they had together and will find her own way to "live". When we see them again in Persona 3 The Answer they are all bitchy and sad because of Minato's death which shows they really didn't learn anything, when the Persona 3 ending was supposed to show accepting death. I might be wrong, maybe the game isn't really about accepting death, this is just what I felt.
It's absolutely worth it, but you will need patience and the willingness to dungeon-grind you way to better equipment, special costumes and Personas (since there is no Persona Compendium this time around).
Well, i have already finished the game (more than 3,4 times). And i still gonna say, The Answer is worth playing. Basically, i really need to understand the ending of The Journey.
i played it on Hard Mode and defeated each boss too. best J-RPG of all the times hands down. for those who are looking for something hard and fun. with a lot of depth as well. so rewarding
In my opinion, the answer made the great story, that persona 3 had and the even better ending actually worse. There are multiple reasons the game ended as it did. And the harbinger wasnt the cause in the end??? No, ill handle the answer as fanfiction that depened the characters a bit more and had its bright moments. I watched it on youtube by the way, because dungeon crwaling isnt my thing. Tried to keep this spoiler free somehow^^
"I wonder if superderek finished the answer yet.. omfg uploaded 8 minutes ago!" its like christmas edit: just finished your review. I agree 110% with your conclusion. I started into the answer and before even getting very far I had given in and just watched the cutscenes via youtube as so many suggested. It's weird to say it but I honestly feel that persona 3's dungeon crawling was the weakest part of the game, it was the events around it that made it enjoyable, and broke up the grind. The answer makes every aspect that was weak about the journey front most. Without getting into spoilers I also can't help but feel the writing was very fan fiction esque and the relationships that get built up throughout the journey are tossed aside for a certain few "boss fights" for padding. That said I still think fes is the best way to enjoy the journey half of the game. The cutscenes while poorly animated makes the story far more clear and being able to explore the world in a 3d space while slower also adds to the atmosphere of the game (one of its strongest elements). Persona3Portable really is more fun after you have already played the game once and want another playthrough. I wish there was a version that replaced the answer with the FemaleMC and kept the style of fes. Fantastic Review as always! I appreciate the amount of work that you put into these videos. I recently started persona 4 golden and I am having fun with it, hopefully I have enough time to finish the game before you do. I also want to highly suggest checking out the mainline series of shin megami tensei they are fantastic, as long as you aren't expecting persona :) they may have similar elements but the games are so different it becomes obvious why people who started with the mainline games might be sour towards persona. Much love~
Thanks Bliced! Oh, I wish I could review P4G soon, but the only way to capture footage would be with a PStv, and I don't even own a copy of the game yet. So I'll probably be taking a short break from Persona while I free up some funds to acquire the game and console. Also, I have been building up my SMT game selection for when I do decide to jump into mainline SMT. So far I've got Devil Summoner, Digital Devil Saga I and Nocturne. But my next review is actually going to be a Sega Genesis title. :)
It'll be nice to get a little break from SMT games. Currently playing through Nocturne and even just watching other people grind through endless dungeons gives me nightmares x.x
SuperDerek RPG Reviews you definitely earned a well deserved break from the dungeon crawl lol :) I look forward to your future content! also this gives me time to beat the game and form my own opinion before you influence me lol
I can't say I hated it; but honestly you would only play this once, and only if you really loved the Answer. My first Persona game so I did. It's an absolute grindfest and you basically start off as a weakling which is annoying when you ended the Answer as an almost demi-god with high level party members, massive amounts of items and great equipment (where the fuck did it all go???). Harder especially starting off, however the experiences smoothens out as you reach the climax. However, honestly, it's fandom that would make anyone really want to play it. And... well the characters and how things develop near the end really made it worth it for me.
From what I remember the combat was still pretty good. I probably was quite frustrated with it at times though. Its been while so I cant remember too well. The game felt less rich without the social/ world aspect of the main game. Granted, them being trapped and unable to move on is also a thematic thing, so it at least works on that level. The story is pretty sparse for most of it, feeling padded and pretty uneventful. I found myself pushing through it just to finally get some development. However, I really enjoyed the story when i finally kicked in at the end. The internal conflicts that the group faces, the depiction of their grief, the explanation of their current situation and the circumstances around the protagonist's death, and the resolution of it all worked quite well. Id say give it a shot and if you cant really stand it, just watch the cutscenes online. Personally, I'm glad I did it once, but its not something I feel particularly inclined to revisit.
I found Persona 3 had large chunks of calendar just filled with nothing. So many more opportunities for additional scenes of our heroes or the villains who I felt were only there to suit what was needed at the time and didn't really have time to develop. The Answer is just a concise version of the main story imo. Fight through the Abyss of Time (Tartarus) and get more story. While the social links and other events are what make any core Persona game good I found Persona 3 lacked a lot of it, maybe it's because I played 3 after playing 4 Golden and 5 but I was underwhelmed most of the time and having NOTHING to do at night once you max your stats given there are just 2 night social links really killed it for me. That and the social links mostly sucked. NO social links involving male teammates which I found stupid, the whole "reverse" bullshit and the dating links are fine and all but there's only a handful of dating events in the whole game and compared to 4 Golden and 5 they're too short and boring. Mitsuru had a nice social link but that was about it as far as dating goes. Akinari and Maiko get nods as well. That's not to say The Answer is good, it's ok, but Persona 3 FES on the whole was just ok so in my eyes its par for the course instead of a stark contrast to the main campaign.
I came from playing all the ps2 and ds era megaten* games and I found the gameplay of the answer to be very fun. A lot of people complain about the grind of the answer but I didn't have to go through any dungeon more than once(except once to switch teammates for a boss). I think it's worth it if you can handle the extra difficulty. *except for persona games(this is my first persona)
I just finished the Answer and honestly, what I liked the most was how the characters break apart and come back together. Yukari as Bitchy McBitch the 1st was particularly nice because I wanted to slap her as much as I understood her pain and attitude. But the endless grinding, terrible "difficulty upgrade" that makes an already bad gameplay worse, the lack of compendium, the game expecting you to do nothing but dungeon crawl and level up for days... Yeah, I wouldn't blame anyone if they didn't want to do the Answer. It's not really worth playing even for the story bits, but since I'm a rabid fanboy, I sort of ended up doing it even though I thought all the ills of the world about it. P3 will forever hold a special place in my heart that P4 can't even compare to. I'm always a little sad when I finish it, and now that I've completed the Answer despite your advice, I'm really at the end of the line. So...Persona 5 hype? Doubt it'll have P3's qualities, but as long as it's not scooby-doo redux, I'm hype.
He was right though...I'll admit that I liked the side characters, music, and the fact that social links were a whole lot more interesting in P4...But as far as the story goes...I remember beating P3 and jumping right on P4, and I remember saying a few hours in "this is some scooby doo sh!t." And it didn't help that I knew who the killer was at the 11 hour mark... I like both games, but the story of P3 was just grade A...I think a B would be pushing it for P4's story.
For me it was just a difference of mindset. Enemies with Dodge skills meant that I had to gauge if it was worth the risk of using the weakness instead of a weaker attack but with higher chance of hitting. I couldn't rely on overpowering my enemies with personas leveled with social links anymore. I actually had to think. I actually had to make use of the personas in ways that I never really thought about in the Journey. There's nothing wrong with not liking the Answer. The characters acting the way they do actually make some sort of sense. And the ending could only make sense if they did act the way they act. Though probably not necessarily to that extent. The answer tests not just the limits of your patience but how willing are you to adapt to the situation at hand? How aware are you of the tools at your disposal? I would also attribute my ability to finish The Answer to my love-hate relationship with Etrian Odyssey which I eventually finished after 6 years of false starts.
One of the biggest problems was the enemy dodges,when it comes to games like persona every teams turn is vital especially enemy who can attack the whole team,people also need to understand is that's its random so some people might experience way more enemy dodges in a battle more then other and that can be very annoying.
Persona-lly, I really enjoyed the tactics type of combat way more than in portable. I should probably note that i beat the journey in p3p. so grinding my way through the answer was pretty enjoyable for me. it felt like there weren't enough cutscenes, but when there were, it was pretty nice. the characters are struggling accepting the journey still, so of course they would be acting different than usual. If you enjoy grinding with the Persona 3 combat system, you'll probably enjoy this. some of the bosses are dumb with their moves though. stupid dodge ice abilities.
I just finished playing P3 for the 3rd time (played P3 vanilla P3 FES and now P3P) and i can`t wait to put my P3 FES into my PS2 DVD drive and play the answer again. Maybe it`s because the P3 characters are my favourite JRPG chracters (even above P4), but if one liked the game and its cast/story there is no reason to not play this addon if you have P3FES. Yes it`s a pure dungeon crawling experience with cutscenes in between, but the fast paced battle system makes the grind fun and you have always incentive to see how the story continues. People always make the answer sound worse than it is. I for myself enjoyed the answer much more than Persona 1.
Literally just reached the end of the second chunk, contemplated whether I wanted to do another 25 or so hours of that for loosely scattered story, and thank god for this guy for making the decision for me
I just want to point out. That there's some pretty cool thing that the answer explains. He used his life's esence to save the world. But, he saved some to fulfill his promisse with his friends. That's so ;w;
You know, I was just thinking whether or not I should play the answer, I've played and beaten Persona 3 Portable twice and loved the game, sure character interactions were a little stale without the world moving but I still became attached to, well, most of the party members (for some reason I never got that attached to Ken). Though I do own Persona 3 FES and sampled the original game through it, and immediately appreciated P3P all the more. While character interactions are a little stale in FES combat and exploration of Tartarus is done so much better in P3P. Control over party members, being able to heal in Tartarus, the additional save point in the school, skill cards, and the change I love the most, party members will not randomly become tired while exploring Tartarus. Good lord that was off putting, especially since I played P3P first. I grew accustom to working my way up the tower till I either had enough or found I lacked the proper resources to continue, towards the end of the game I could climb 20+ floors with little issue (especially with a near maxed stat Thanatos that knew Megidolaon, Mamudoon, Mahamaon and Mediarahan), while in FES I'd be lucky to scale 5 floors without Junpei and Yukari getting tired. If it occurs less frequently as the game goes on please correct me, but in the early stages it really hurts level grinding which is a must in this game. I just realized that I've only called character interactions stale and that really isn't how I feel. Sure they are less charming in P3P compared to FES, but that's due to hardware limitations. The emotion is not any weaker, the voice acting is still great and the music can be so awe inspiring at times, with tracks like "Living with Determination" being hauntingly beautiful and very impactful with the darker and more serene scenes. I still love the cast of P3 and I loved getting to know these characters through the narrative and I only wish the male protagonist could have had social links with the male party members as I felt I got to learn more and become closer to the females because of the links.
I dunno. I hated the grinding of the answer and the bosses were frustratingly difficult, with RNG stranglehold, but I felt that it she'd some good light on what happened in P3, and I love both parts of the game.
I just watched all the cutscenes on youtube 🤷🏻 however i did like the ending to the journey as well as everything that happened in the answer. Its all very dynamic and not just in a typical generic way.it really gets you in to it.
is it worth playing? it's definitely undoubtedly worth it. I much prefer the answer to the main P3 because the story is great. I love Yukari in the answer so much. her pure heart is really impressive.
Thank you for this video. I finished The Journy a while ago and I kept wondering whether or not I should play The Answer. Now I know. I'm gonna watch some video's and save myself the tediousness. So thanks a lot for helping me decide!
I just discovered the xenosaga series on ps2 (yea I know very late to the party) and have been completely blown away by it. If you have never played it before Derek, put it on your wish list because it has everything you could hope for in a JRPG. A fantastic futuristic story in an anime style, likeable characters and dislikable bad guys, just the right amount of cutscenes, a great soundtrack and challenging battles. After playing the first one, I went out and bought the other two.
I personally hated this sequel. It destroys what I liked about the first one & the difficulty spikes in this are ridiculous. I’ve never had such uneven difficulty & combat in my life. No compendium either & no way to earn free items by completing quests. It’s your subpar dungeon crawling JRPG but the problem is it shouldn’t have felt like that. Imo when it comes to worst games I’ve played myself (not including online reviews) this is up there.
I actually came across this by accident while trying to Google up if they had made a DLC release of The Answer. Actually stopping to think about it seems pretty obvious they wouldn't since it's a PSP port for Vita rather than an actual Vita game. I just picked up P3P, P4G, and PQ last month, and am now planning to grab the others as well. I've been playing SMT for a long time, but I never seemed to get the chance to play one of the Persona games. Didn't take much to get me hooked though. Bonus points for them being on Vita/3DS now, I tend to play a lot more when I can whip out a handheld in my free time than when I have to sit down and actually budget time to play. Of course that also leads to "Just a few minutes" before bed and not realizing how long I've been playing until the battery light starts flashing.
I didn't really find it difficult. I just found it to be tedious like you said. You had to grind to reach a high enough level to advance. I find Persona 2 to be much more difficult than this. Specifically Eternal Punishment. I beat the answer in about 3 days of gaming. It wasn't horrible by any stretch of the imagination IMO. But like most follow ups, it just wasn't The Journey. Still, The Answer left me feeling hopeful for the people who survived the events
Yeahh... I never finished P3 due to the tedium of combat. I finished P4 through sheer force of will, since I liked the mystery and the characters enough that I wanted to see it through. I plan on finishing P3 on day for the same reason, but a game that's nothing but the combat side of Persona? Noooohohooo thank you.
Nice review. I watched a cutscene compilation as well -- my first playthrough involved well over 120 hours of dicking around and building custom personas, so the thought of making the game even more grindy just wasn't gonna happen. The cutscenes at least contained some additional interesting tidbits about each character's background though.
HUGE P3 SPOILER : You know, the very existence of this extended content is kind of a bummer. I haven't played it, just read a recap, but you know i kinda like the ambiguity of the ending of P3 ( it depresses me but i can accept it ). Having this post story content to "explain " everything kinda breaks the intensity and the "open to interpretation" nature of this ending. It doesn't seem uninteresting ( adding the theme of coping with death after the end of p3 makes sense ), but it's definitely not necessary to make the story of Persona 3 whole.
Yeah. I wasn't a terribly big fan of The Answer either, which is why, despite the technical limitations brought on by it, I like to think of P3P as the definitive version as opposed to P3FES. While I do miss the ability to freely travel about the world, and the fact that all cutscenes were either altered or cut to save space due to the limitations of the UMD, the addition of Direct Command for your party was invaluable. Plus, I feel like playing the game from the female perspective does more for the story than The Answer actually did. Go figure.
I'll prob play The Answer after going through the back catalog of other persona games that I haven't played. If I somehow manage to catch up and am in a state where I've played everything else and am waiting for a new release, then I'll load up The Answer. Thanks for a wonderful review.
I'm not sure how to react to the difficulty. i for one loved the fact that I couldn't just use a "Ma" Spell on a group of enemies and finish them off with a all out attack. there was more of a strategy to try to pick off an enemy one at a time which did drag it out but eh. On the other hand the bosses having a dodge to their weakness did piss me off because it's pretty much RNG from there so youll only get by if you're lucky
Is The Answer worth playing? Good question. And I completely understand your "Answer" to the Answer. I agree about the difficulty of the extra story. So... much... dodging... And I really missed having the "life sim" aspect of the game. Even despite all that, the completionist in me wouldn't let me just leave it at the end of the Journey. :P Great review, Derek!
Thanks RPGtourguide! Yeah, I realize that my answer this time around is a bit controversial. Sure, some people might get some enjoyment out of it but I just don't think the average player is up to the challenge presented. But I could be wrong! :)
Actually, I liked the answer. The RNG bull crap was something I was used to by the time I got around to it, just due to the fact I have play A LOT of Shin Megami Tensei titles(A game franchise that is highly notorious for having so much random bull crap that it developed the highest level of RNG screw overs, aptly known as SMT Bull Crap) before hand and knew what I was getting myself into before I even touched a persona game... then was underwhelmed by how much easier the persona games were comparatively to every other SMT games so I was happy to see the RNG back actually. the abyss of time is tartarus still though, but I liked getting that added information to the characters and their backstories. Speaking of characters, the people I just could not stand in The Answer had glaring changes from their personalities in The Journey and it agitated me so much, but I found it more frustrating that it was 30-40 hours of non-stop dungeon crawling with very short respites. those are my only complaints though.
I really dont get how people found the ANswer so difficult,its really not that big of a deal. Once you get out of very very early game you should be able to get through the game pretty freely by just doing some smart fusions. Dont think this is subjective in any way shape or form.
I just finished it on emulator and save state was my friend so don't take this as a serious review. I think the story is very good, the thing that I disliked from The Journey was the lack of information about some of the characters like Junpei and Akihiko, so the memories you see on The Answer are good enough. The bad thing is that Koromaru is just a dog and you see nothing about him. Overall the difficulty is pretty high, the worst part for me was actually to play it. If it was some kind of visual novel it would be much better. Besides that I recommend it, good story,great music ( as always ), good moments and the message that the devs left in the end was very good!
The episode I was waiting for. I guess this is secretly "the answer" (heh) I was looking for. I only moderately liked Persona 3, but I was still much invested in its cast and world, so the few loose ends always made me curious. I'll take Derek up on his advice and just read a summary or watch some clips to wrap things up.
I was thinking about whether or not playing The Answer, and welp, I guess I'm going to try to play it because of all the non-animated cutscenes, but still ending watching all of the story here on RUclips...
It's worth it for the combat if you enjoy the extra difficulty. I went from playing all the other ps2/ds era megaten games to this so the difficulty wasn't a problem for me. There's also a lot of complaints about having to grin in game around on the internet but I rarely needed to repeat a dungeon more than once(only one instance to swap team)
okay. ive decided to just watch the cutscenes on youtube rather than playing myself..i quit playing after the boss on the 3rd door. its not worth getting so frustrated over cheap things that can happen..
They're just my personal list of 7 common flaws that have the ability to kill the fun of any RPG. I'm planning on doing a video covering them at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it just yet. :)
Persona 3: The Answer also frustrated me to no end. I wanted to see how the story continued but I felt like the game didn't want me to see it. I feel like you're one of the few people who'd get me saying that The Answer was far more frustrating than Breath of Fire (V): Dragon Quarter. At least when I overcame an obstacle in that game I felt I earned it through sheer skill. In the Answer it just felt like I was lucky flipping a coin. If only that game added a skill/item that nullified/reduced the dodge magic skill of your foes for a limited time then the battles would just be tedious rather than luck based. Still good coverage of the expansion. A lesser reviewer would have taken a less measured approach to their feelings about it.
The Answer is worth playing if you enjoyed fighting in Tartarus in Persona 3. I was always slightly disappointed when my team members would become tired and I would have to leave Tartarus. I enjoyed the grind. The Answer wasn't great, but I thought it was enjoyable enough to finish. However, if you didn't like fighting in Tartarus, then this game is not a good choice.
I think its worth it, its double the length it should be and has too much grind to it. But its an epilogue which i felt the small scatters of stoey through out it worth playing once and i didnt reqlly feel like it ruined their characters at all.
I agree with you. I'll just watch it on RUclips. It seems like instead of legitimate difficulty, the game just gets cheap and frustrating. I'll pass on "The Answer". Thanks.
Just play p3p, manually control your characters and never ever think about the answer. Hell, the direct continuation in plot (Arena and Ultimax) work perfectly fine without it.
he is right how the character act in the answer I mean after fighting the incarnation of makato where everyone had different views on where to go with time travel thing I kinda ended hating it how everyone became kinda selfish even though it felt like everyone got over there issues to go back and forget them I am not saying they weren't greaving but still kinda felt like huge step back IMO. I have finished the main story in P3P and feel if the Answer had those mechanics I would risk the grinding but I chose not feeling I would pull my hair out if the AI refused to heal u
I completely understand the complaints about the gameplay. Thankfully emulation cheats helped me through it. But I disagree about the story and think it strengthens them and actually makes them my favorite party in the series. In short, either play it yourself or watch it on RUclips. Make your own opinion of what you see
Needs more Golden Hand Rage..... I loved this game, it just made me super angry sometimes due to its unforgivingness, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Honest answer? Couple reasons. First, everyone in the Persona series is a picture of youth and health, except for a couple of gag characters here or there. The reason for the character in the first place was to thematically match the character designs. It was supposed to be a fun lighthearted homage to the game. Second? Who wants to draw themselves realistically? I've got a weight problem and have since my mid 20s. I'd rather draw myself as I was rather than as I am.
@@SuperDerek I meant no offence ,but you just don't feel like yourself, looking like that. I mean it's just not that light-hearted nice dude anymore, but rather some skinny and lanky freak, who's anyone, but SuperDerek! Edit: Also you look a lot healthier as you are than your sprite counterpart
"affect your choice between FES or Portable" what about the original version!? yeah it's slightly rarer then FES but other then the answer and the new op there is no difference between FES and the original (to my knowledge, I own all 3 versions but haven't beaten FES yet, correct me if I'm wrong)
I may not remember this correctly anymore, but I think FES also added some combination of new social links, slightly changed time schedule to accommodate those social links, an extra bonus dungeon during the end-game and a few new Personas.
What made it worse is the absence of the Compendium. If you had to let go of a Persona (and it will happen), you can't get it back the way it was. You have to earn it again. Meaning, you have to start from scratch everytime, which is extremely tiresome/tedious. Maybe "The Answer" was made for the most hardcore of P3 fans.
King Emu Mc used his soul to become a seal that prevents Erebus from coming into contact with Nyx. His physical body lived long enough to fulfill his promise with the rest of his teammates to meet up on graduation a month later.
![Pier Solar Review! [Genesis] The Game Collection](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MtlrJHTFi5k/mqdefault.jpg)
![Pier Solar Review! [Genesis] The Game Collection](/img/tr.png)
Heh, you play as Aigis, who cares if it's hard.
Nova yeah!!!! 😍😍😍😍😉
You can play as Aigis in P3P 😉
That's a jest reason.
Would rather having my main back
@@xornedge8204 Effing word its not the same without a silent protagonist
so the answer to the answer is no, then answering the answer will not answer anything you wanted to answer by the answer. is that your answer to the answer?
answer
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SuperDerek RPGs 420
210x2
(105 + 105) x 2
A very Japanese type of addition. Those dudes love unrelenting and unfair rpgs.
Avalanche Reviews It is the SMT of Persona that we were missing, except that is the problem: Most of SMTs Difficulty comes from tedium, not really challenge.
+TylerTheDragon I don't think you've been playing smt right if it's too tedious.
@@Vecha302 all of them.
@RUBY DA CHERRY have you played Nocturne on hard?
@@NaschAzure playing a game on hard is... hard? Woah
Avoiding spoilers, I normally hate when things happen to main characters like the end of P3. It really worked in this case though. A lot of the point of the epilogue of "the journey" was to show how rich his life was by enriching those of others. Even though he was young, it wasn't tragic because most of us never do as much, even if we live 70-80 years. Seems like "the answer" missed the point of this. Main game ending suggests that the answer is to find your own answer.
Regarding the _"him"_ comment;
I'm surprised it wouldn't just use the name you used in the base story. It's on the same disc after all.
From what I heard, the answer was originally seperated from the journey in Japan but later combine them in the international release.
Or at least at the beginning allow you to choose the name of your deceased protagonist.
The answer to The Answer is my same answer to a lot of jRPGs where the final boss is stupidly difficult, or for jRPGs that require you to mindlessly grind after a certain point. Basically, play until I stop enjoying the game, then watch the ending in youtube. Same with games where the 'perfect ending' involve doing long boring things (like, again, grinding). I go for the 'normal ending' and watch the 'perfect ending' in youtube.
I really enjoyed playing Persona 3 FES, both The Journey and The Answer.
I do think part of why I had a better time with it than most was that I played on emulator, so gameplay wasn’t an issue thanks to Save States and Speeding Up :D
I really enjoyed the story though, the conflict had got me hooked.
I didn't mind the he syndrome cause the main character was suppose to be you the player not Minato. But awesome review I totally agree with you.
The Answer wasn't worth it. I just finished it and nope.
Toti
Sour Cat Hey m8
Took your advice, man. Finished P3P and watched the ‘all cutscenes’ cut of The Answer and I got everything in 3 hours. Definitely wasn’t going back into another Tartarus... you’re kind of like the MC in a way, you suffered so that we may thrive... thank you, sir. Lol
P3P is the worst way to play P3. Congrats, I guess.
@@lemonov3031 It really depends on if you like to have Persona 4 (Golden) mechanics in it as well. Examples are the controllable teammates (there's a P3FES mod to fix that), skill cards (makes the game way easier than it should), and the knockdown mechanic (you don't lose your turn when you come back up and dizziness applies if hit multiple times).
I do agree that FES is the better option unless you're a huge fan of the FEMC and don't care about the lack of cutscenes and control in areas outside of Tartarus (storybook-like). Also I don't like how they decided to please the P4 fans with the knockdown and skill card mechanics that were not needed. It just doesn't feel the same and lacks uniqueness from that.
It's your opinion on if you like Portable over FES, but I'm just not one of those. Honestly I did like the Answer (story, not the grinding), though Yukari got a bad reputation from it, and made Junpei smart.
P.S. Junpei is best boi (excluding Minato Arisato/Makoto Yuki) bc he's DA MAN.
@@NoJ0hnz Who you are replaying to, dude? I was the one who said that FES is da best.
Lemonov oh whoops my bad. But at least those Portable fans can see something. Portable may be the so-called better experience, but it loses the charm in FES and is too similar to 4.
@@NoJ0hnz Yes, cut content combined with content copied and pasted from P4 makes it overall have way less value than FES had.
And not only that, the female route is so painfully mediocre that I can't even say that it's worth playing through in it's entirety.
Calling the main character "him" is actually a major indication about how all the characters are feeling in the game. It implies they are too depressed about the ending of Persona 3 to say his name out loud because its too painful to think about.
The idea that the main character doesn't have a concrete certain name feels like a coincidence to me. I do hope that Persona 5 has the main character talking and having his own personality since I'm tired of these blank slate main characters. Final Fantasy can pull it off just fine so why doesn't Persona try it out?
Nope, Derek's right. Atlus was just lazy with the Protagonist's name
@@candybunny2462 his canon name is makoto yuki
@@candybunny2462 That's because the Answer was originally released on a separate disc and was unable to read P3's save data. This means that whatever name they will end up using will be different from the one the player chose in his P3 walkthrough.
That's why they avoided referring to Makoto (canon name btw) by name.
In Final Fantasy X you can change Tidus name and because of this, it was really annoying that they never call your name.
Well, this didn't age well.
I'm fixing to play P3 after I finish 4 Golden (Started with 5 but working my way backwards to experience Persona's past) and while the fate of the MC was spoiled for me by a friend of mine I still think the journey is going to be worth it as I've heard the story is among the best in the series.
Your comment is my experience exactly.
Yeah I do understand why people don't like the Answer I even quit playing the Answer, but I was bored and played it all the way to the end and I liked the Answer. I loved how the dungeon theme changed between each door so much that I didn't even ask Fuuka to change it to Maya's Theme like I did in Tartarus. [SPOILERS BELOW]
I just loved and hated the fight between your party members. Hated because after a while the bosses and the fight between "His" (Minato) shadow were easy to beat compared to fighting your party members which were hard probably because of that huge difficulty spike out of nowhere with their lvls pumped up by huge amount, but damn I loved the song that plays while fighting them. And hell the final boss was easy compared to fighting your party members......
I finished the Answer about a month ago and honestly I found it was pretty fun. If anything, the increase in difficult was a plus. In the base game, I grinded so much (what else do you do at night?) that I was curb-stomping everything by the time I was at the Lovers and Heirophant boss. It only got hard again when I made it to Monad. The final boss was barely even a threat and I finished each phase in about three turns or less.
With the Answer, it was like the entire thing was Monad (at least the red and boss shadows). I had to actually come up with strategies on how to knock down shadows that cover each other's weaknesses. It was like solving a puzzle. It felt great to finally find a strategy take down a group of 3 hanged men that were immune to magic and physical attacks and could easily wipe out my entire party in 2 lucky shots. It sucked at first (mostly because of the brain-dead A.I.), but now they're just another source of xp.
Even the last boss was actually intimidating. My mind charged Thunder Reign that normally does massive damage just tickled Erebus. Then I found out that you can just have Beelzebub spam makarakarn (with spell master) or use mirrors and Erebus will kill itself for you.
The Answer is really hard, and it can SEEM like its just rng. But there are definitely things you can do differently to stack the odds in your favor. Discovering those strategies is the fun of it.
Imo the answer ruins what made the Persona 3 ending great. The whole game is about accepting death, knowing eventually you will die and accepting others deaths. For example the words Memento mori appear often in the original Persona 3 opening. Memento Mori means Something along the lines of "You are only mortal" And "Remember you will die". In the ending Minato is dying in Aigis's lap and she tells him to close his eyes... But in the answer they make it seem like Aigis didn't know he was dying, when she obviously did when telling him to close his eyes. It the shows her crying but also smiling of Minato's dead body. Why would she be crying if she thought he was sleeping? Also she smiles to show that as much as she is sad that he is dead she accepts his death and will remember the times they had together and will find her own way to "live". When we see them again in Persona 3 The Answer they are all bitchy and sad because of Minato's death which shows they really didn't learn anything, when the Persona 3 ending was supposed to show accepting death.
I might be wrong, maybe the game isn't really about accepting death, this is just what I felt.
It's absolutely worth it, but you will need patience and the willingness to dungeon-grind you way to better equipment, special costumes and Personas (since there is no Persona Compendium this time around).
Well, i have already finished the game (more than 3,4 times). And i still gonna say, The Answer is worth playing. Basically, i really need to understand the ending of The Journey.
i played it on Hard Mode and defeated each boss too. best J-RPG of all the times hands down. for those who are looking for something hard and fun. with a lot of depth as well. so rewarding
In my opinion, the answer made the great story, that persona 3 had and the even better ending actually worse. There are multiple reasons the game ended as it did. And the harbinger wasnt the cause in the end??? No, ill handle the answer as fanfiction that depened the characters a bit more and had its bright moments. I watched it on youtube by the way, because dungeon crwaling isnt my thing. Tried to keep this spoiler free somehow^^
That's your opinion
bestpsychosean hasnolastname Yeah. But what is your point?
I dont get it. Thats exactly what i wrote.
"I wonder if superderek finished the answer yet.. omfg uploaded 8 minutes ago!"
its like christmas
edit: just finished your review. I agree 110% with your conclusion. I started into the answer and before even getting very far I had given in and just watched the cutscenes via youtube as so many suggested. It's weird to say it but I honestly feel that persona 3's dungeon crawling was the weakest part of the game, it was the events around it that made it enjoyable, and broke up the grind. The answer makes every aspect that was weak about the journey front most.
Without getting into spoilers I also can't help but feel the writing was very fan fiction esque and the relationships that get built up throughout the journey are tossed aside for a certain few "boss fights" for padding.
That said I still think fes is the best way to enjoy the journey half of the game. The cutscenes while poorly animated makes the story far more clear and being able to explore the world in a 3d space while slower also adds to the atmosphere of the game (one of its strongest elements). Persona3Portable really is more fun after you have already played the game once and want another playthrough. I wish there was a version that replaced the answer with the FemaleMC and kept the style of fes.
Fantastic Review as always! I appreciate the amount of work that you put into these videos. I recently started persona 4 golden and I am having fun with it, hopefully I have enough time to finish the game before you do. I also want to highly suggest checking out the mainline series of shin megami tensei they are fantastic, as long as you aren't expecting persona :) they may have similar elements but the games are so different it becomes obvious why people who started with the mainline games might be sour towards persona.
Much love~
Thanks Bliced! Oh, I wish I could review P4G soon, but the only way to capture footage would be with a PStv, and I don't even own a copy of the game yet. So I'll probably be taking a short break from Persona while I free up some funds to acquire the game and console.
Also, I have been building up my SMT game selection for when I do decide to jump into mainline SMT. So far I've got Devil Summoner, Digital Devil Saga I and Nocturne. But my next review is actually going to be a Sega Genesis title. :)
It'll be nice to get a little break from SMT games. Currently playing through Nocturne and even just watching other people grind through endless dungeons gives me nightmares x.x
SuperDerek RPG Reviews you definitely earned a well deserved break from the dungeon crawl lol :) I look forward to your future content!
also this gives me time to beat the game and form my own opinion before you influence me lol
I can't say I hated it; but honestly you would only play this once, and only if you really loved the Answer. My first Persona game so I did. It's an absolute grindfest and you basically start off as a weakling which is annoying when you ended the Answer as an almost demi-god with high level party members, massive amounts of items and great equipment (where the fuck did it all go???). Harder especially starting off, however the experiences smoothens out as you reach the climax. However, honestly, it's fandom that would make anyone really want to play it. And... well the characters and how things develop near the end really made it worth it for me.
It's been six months since I finished playing the game
I still haven't gotten over the ending
From what I remember the combat was still pretty good. I probably was quite frustrated with it at times though. Its been while so I cant remember too well. The game felt less rich without the social/ world aspect of the main game. Granted, them being trapped and unable to move on is also a thematic thing, so it at least works on that level.
The story is pretty sparse for most of it, feeling padded and pretty uneventful. I found myself pushing through it just to finally get some development. However, I really enjoyed the story when i finally kicked in at the end. The internal conflicts that the group faces, the depiction of their grief, the explanation of their current situation and the circumstances around the protagonist's death, and the resolution of it all worked quite well.
Id say give it a shot and if you cant really stand it, just watch the cutscenes online. Personally, I'm glad I did it once, but its not something I feel particularly inclined to revisit.
I found Persona 3 had large chunks of calendar just filled with nothing. So many more opportunities for additional scenes of our heroes or the villains who I felt were only there to suit what was needed at the time and didn't really have time to develop. The Answer is just a concise version of the main story imo. Fight through the Abyss of Time (Tartarus) and get more story.
While the social links and other events are what make any core Persona game good I found Persona 3 lacked a lot of it, maybe it's because I played 3 after playing 4 Golden and 5 but I was underwhelmed most of the time and having NOTHING to do at night once you max your stats given there are just 2 night social links really killed it for me. That and the social links mostly sucked. NO social links involving male teammates which I found stupid, the whole "reverse" bullshit and the dating links are fine and all but there's only a handful of dating events in the whole game and compared to 4 Golden and 5 they're too short and boring. Mitsuru had a nice social link but that was about it as far as dating goes. Akinari and Maiko get nods as well.
That's not to say The Answer is good, it's ok, but Persona 3 FES on the whole was just ok so in my eyes its par for the course instead of a stark contrast to the main campaign.
The Answer is just like that extra-hard bonus dungeon you unlock after you finish a game. The difference is that it has a story.
I came from playing all the ps2 and ds era megaten* games and I found the gameplay of the answer to be very fun. A lot of people complain about the grind of the answer but I didn't have to go through any dungeon more than once(except once to switch teammates for a boss). I think it's worth it if you can handle the extra difficulty.
*except for persona games(this is my first persona)
I just finished the Answer and honestly, what I liked the most was how the characters break apart and come back together. Yukari as Bitchy McBitch the 1st was particularly nice because I wanted to slap her as much as I understood her pain and attitude.
But the endless grinding, terrible "difficulty upgrade" that makes an already bad gameplay worse, the lack of compendium, the game expecting you to do nothing but dungeon crawl and level up for days...
Yeah, I wouldn't blame anyone if they didn't want to do the Answer. It's not really worth playing even for the story bits, but since I'm a rabid fanboy, I sort of ended up doing it even though I thought all the ills of the world about it.
P3 will forever hold a special place in my heart that P4 can't even compare to. I'm always a little sad when I finish it, and now that I've completed the Answer despite your advice, I'm really at the end of the line.
So...Persona 5 hype? Doubt it'll have P3's qualities, but as long as it's not scooby-doo redux, I'm hype.
I like the answer, is more like the first smt games, the story is awesome. And i wanted to slap Yukari as well. xp
Lol so much P4 hate. I like P3 as much as the next guy, more than P4 in fact. But not by much, they are both amazing games.
He was right though...I'll admit that I liked the side characters, music, and the fact that social links were a whole lot more interesting in P4...But as far as the story goes...I remember beating P3 and jumping right on P4, and I remember saying a few hours in "this is some scooby doo sh!t." And it didn't help that I knew who the killer was at the 11 hour mark... I like both games, but the story of P3 was just grade A...I think a B would be pushing it for P4's story.
the answer was friendship all the time but persona 3 was subtle while the answer was anything but subtle
For me it was just a difference of mindset. Enemies with Dodge skills meant that I had to gauge if it was worth the risk of using the weakness instead of a weaker attack but with higher chance of hitting. I couldn't rely on overpowering my enemies with personas leveled with social links anymore. I actually had to think. I actually had to make use of the personas in ways that I never really thought about in the Journey.
There's nothing wrong with not liking the Answer. The characters acting the way they do actually make some sort of sense. And the ending could only make sense if they did act the way they act. Though probably not necessarily to that extent.
The answer tests not just the limits of your patience but how willing are you to adapt to the situation at hand? How aware are you of the tools at your disposal? I would also attribute my ability to finish The Answer to my love-hate relationship with Etrian Odyssey which I eventually finished after 6 years of false starts.
One of the biggest problems was the enemy dodges,when it comes to games like persona every teams turn is vital especially enemy who can attack the whole team,people also need to understand is that's its random so some people might experience way more enemy dodges in a battle more then other and that can be very annoying.
Persona-lly, I really enjoyed the tactics type of combat way more than in portable. I should probably note that i beat the journey in p3p. so grinding my way through the answer was pretty enjoyable for me. it felt like there weren't enough cutscenes, but when there were, it was pretty nice. the characters are struggling accepting the journey still, so of course they would be acting different than usual. If you enjoy grinding with the Persona 3 combat system, you'll probably enjoy this. some of the bosses are dumb with their moves though. stupid dodge ice abilities.
I feel like I'm one of the very few people who actually loved The Answer :/
Same here. I also really don't find it as hard as people make it out to be. I just finished a playthrough of it and died literally 3 times total.
I just finished playing P3 for the 3rd time (played P3 vanilla P3 FES and now P3P) and i can`t wait to put my P3 FES into my PS2 DVD drive and play the answer again. Maybe it`s because the P3 characters are my favourite JRPG chracters (even above P4), but if one liked the game and its cast/story there is no reason to not play this addon if you have P3FES. Yes it`s a pure dungeon crawling experience with cutscenes in between, but the fast paced battle system makes the grind fun and you have always incentive to see how the story continues. People always make the answer sound worse than it is. I for myself enjoyed the answer much more than Persona 1.
Literally just reached the end of the second chunk, contemplated whether I wanted to do another 25 or so hours of that for loosely scattered story, and thank god for this guy for making the decision for me
I just want to point out. That there's some pretty cool thing that the answer explains.
He used his life's esence to save the world.
But, he saved some to fulfill his promisse with his friends. That's so ;w;
im actually playing p3p for the first time right now. thanks for the honesty man and not crapping out by saying "its up to you" props man.
You know, I was just thinking whether or not I should play the answer, I've played and beaten Persona 3 Portable twice and loved the game, sure character interactions were a little stale without the world moving but I still became attached to, well, most of the party members (for some reason I never got that attached to Ken). Though I do own Persona 3 FES and sampled the original game through it, and immediately appreciated P3P all the more.
While character interactions are a little stale in FES combat and exploration of Tartarus is done so much better in P3P. Control over party members, being able to heal in Tartarus, the additional save point in the school, skill cards, and the change I love the most, party members will not randomly become tired while exploring Tartarus. Good lord that was off putting, especially since I played P3P first. I grew accustom to working my way up the tower till I either had enough or found I lacked the proper resources to continue, towards the end of the game I could climb 20+ floors with little issue (especially with a near maxed stat Thanatos that knew Megidolaon, Mamudoon, Mahamaon and Mediarahan), while in FES I'd be lucky to scale 5 floors without Junpei and Yukari getting tired. If it occurs less frequently as the game goes on please correct me, but in the early stages it really hurts level grinding which is a must in this game.
I just realized that I've only called character interactions stale and that really isn't how I feel. Sure they are less charming in P3P compared to FES, but that's due to hardware limitations. The emotion is not any weaker, the voice acting is still great and the music can be so awe inspiring at times, with tracks like "Living with Determination" being hauntingly beautiful and very impactful with the darker and more serene scenes. I still love the cast of P3 and I loved getting to know these characters through the narrative and I only wish the male protagonist could have had social links with the male party members as I felt I got to learn more and become closer to the females because of the links.
I dunno. I hated the grinding of the answer and the bosses were frustratingly difficult, with RNG stranglehold, but I felt that it she'd some good light on what happened in P3, and I love both parts of the game.
I just watched all the cutscenes on youtube 🤷🏻 however i did like the ending to the journey as well as everything that happened in the answer. Its all very dynamic and not just in a typical generic way.it really gets you in to it.
is it worth playing? it's definitely undoubtedly worth it.
I much prefer the answer to the main P3 because the story is great.
I love Yukari in the answer so much. her pure heart is really impressive.
I wish this video would have been up last year before I got FES off the PSN store. P3P for the win.
Thank you for this video. I finished The Journy a while ago and I kept wondering whether or not I should play The Answer. Now I know. I'm gonna watch some video's and save myself the tediousness. So thanks a lot for helping me decide!
I just discovered the xenosaga series on ps2 (yea I know very late to the party) and have been completely blown away by it. If you have never played it before Derek, put it on your wish list because it has everything you could hope for in a JRPG. A fantastic futuristic story in an anime style, likeable characters and dislikable bad guys, just the right amount of cutscenes, a great soundtrack and challenging battles. After playing the first one, I went out and bought the other two.
I personally hated this sequel. It destroys what I liked about the first one & the difficulty spikes in this are ridiculous. I’ve never had such uneven difficulty & combat in my life. No compendium either & no way to earn free items by completing quests. It’s your subpar dungeon crawling JRPG but the problem is it shouldn’t have felt like that. Imo when it comes to worst games I’ve played myself (not including online reviews) this is up there.
also don't forget how ken was like a fucking punching bag for the other robot chick for no reason
Yet another outstanding review, man. I love your channel.
I also gave up on the answer. I grinded enough in the journey
I actually came across this by accident while trying to Google up if they had made a DLC release of The Answer.
Actually stopping to think about it seems pretty obvious they wouldn't since it's a PSP port for Vita rather than an actual Vita game.
I just picked up P3P, P4G, and PQ last month, and am now planning to grab the others as well. I've been playing SMT for a long time, but I never seemed to get the chance to play one of the Persona games.
Didn't take much to get me hooked though.
Bonus points for them being on Vita/3DS now, I tend to play a lot more when I can whip out a handheld in my free time than when I have to sit down and actually budget time to play.
Of course that also leads to "Just a few minutes" before bed and not realizing how long I've been playing until the battery light starts flashing.
I didn't really find it difficult. I just found it to be tedious like you said. You had to grind to reach a high enough level to advance. I find Persona 2 to be much more difficult than this. Specifically Eternal Punishment. I beat the answer in about 3 days of gaming. It wasn't horrible by any stretch of the imagination IMO. But like most follow ups, it just wasn't The Journey. Still, The Answer left me feeling hopeful for the people who survived the events
Yeahh... I never finished P3 due to the tedium of combat. I finished P4 through sheer force of will, since I liked the mystery and the characters enough that I wanted to see it through. I plan on finishing P3 on day for the same reason, but a game that's nothing but the combat side of Persona? Noooohohooo thank you.
I'll stick to my fun persona 3 portable emulated on pc where I can control the party and not have overly depressing ending.
If only there was a "best of both worlds" option.
@@SuperDerek there is on pcsx2 u can play fes with a control party members patch
Dude it has the same ending as the original p3 i just finished it not long ago and i am currently playing the female route hope it's less depressing
Nice review. I watched a cutscene compilation as well -- my first playthrough involved well over 120 hours of dicking around and building custom personas, so the thought of making the game even more grindy just wasn't gonna happen. The cutscenes at least contained some additional interesting tidbits about each character's background though.
Thanks! exactly the video i was looking for
HUGE P3 SPOILER :
You know, the very existence of this extended content is kind of a bummer.
I haven't played it, just read a recap, but you know i kinda like the ambiguity of the ending of P3 ( it depresses me but i can accept it ). Having this post story content to "explain " everything kinda breaks the intensity and the "open to interpretation" nature of this ending. It doesn't seem uninteresting ( adding the theme of coping with death after the end of p3 makes sense ), but it's definitely not necessary to make the story of Persona 3 whole.
Yeah. I wasn't a terribly big fan of The Answer either, which is why, despite the technical limitations brought on by it, I like to think of P3P as the definitive version as opposed to P3FES.
While I do miss the ability to freely travel about the world, and the fact that all cutscenes were either altered or cut to save space due to the limitations of the UMD, the addition of Direct Command for your party was invaluable. Plus, I feel like playing the game from the female perspective does more for the story than The Answer actually did. Go figure.
I gave this video a like even though I strongly disagree with all your main points. You articulated them well.
I'll prob play The Answer after going through the back catalog of other persona games that I haven't played. If I somehow manage to catch up and am in a state where I've played everything else and am waiting for a new release, then I'll load up The Answer.
Thanks for a wonderful review.
I'm not sure how to react to the difficulty.
i for one loved the fact that I couldn't just use a "Ma" Spell on a group of enemies and finish them off with a all out attack. there was more of a strategy to try to pick off an enemy one at a time which did drag it out but eh.
On the other hand the bosses having a dodge to their weakness did piss me off because it's pretty much RNG from there so youll only get by if you're lucky
The hard is you can't choose difficulty
If it can with either easy, medium or hard, then it would be okay
Is The Answer worth playing? Good question. And I completely understand your "Answer" to the Answer. I agree about the difficulty of the extra story. So... much... dodging... And I really missed having the "life sim" aspect of the game. Even despite all that, the completionist in me wouldn't let me just leave it at the end of the Journey. :P Great review, Derek!
Thanks RPGtourguide! Yeah, I realize that my answer this time around is a bit controversial. Sure, some people might get some enjoyment out of it but I just don't think the average player is up to the challenge presented. But I could be wrong! :)
I played p3p and actually thought he went to sleep (I did suspect he died but Aigis said she would protect him).
persona 3 portable is your interpretation of what happened. So you are not wrong. That's why I sorta like playing the portable version lol.
Actually, I liked the answer. The RNG bull crap was something I was used to by the time I got around to it, just due to the fact I have play A LOT of Shin Megami Tensei titles(A game franchise that is highly notorious for having so much random bull crap that it developed the highest level of RNG screw overs, aptly known as SMT Bull Crap) before hand and knew what I was getting myself into before I even touched a persona game... then was underwhelmed by how much easier the persona games were comparatively to every other SMT games so I was happy to see the RNG back actually. the abyss of time is tartarus still though, but I liked getting that added information to the characters and their backstories. Speaking of characters, the people I just could not stand in The Answer had glaring changes from their personalities in The Journey and it agitated me so much, but I found it more frustrating that it was 30-40 hours of non-stop dungeon crawling with very short respites. those are my only complaints though.
I really dont get how people found the ANswer so difficult,its really not that big of a deal. Once you get out of very very early game you should be able to get through the game pretty freely by just doing some smart fusions. Dont think this is subjective in any way shape or form.
I just finished it on emulator and save state was my friend so don't take this as a serious review. I think the story is very good, the thing that I disliked from The Journey was the lack of information about some of the characters like Junpei and Akihiko, so the memories you see on The Answer are good enough. The bad thing is that Koromaru is just a dog and you see nothing about him. Overall the difficulty is pretty high, the worst part for me was actually to play it. If it was some kind of visual novel it would be much better. Besides that I recommend it, good story,great music ( as always ), good moments and the message that the devs left in the end was very good!
The episode I was waiting for. I guess this is secretly "the answer" (heh) I was looking for. I only moderately liked Persona 3, but I was still much invested in its cast and world, so the few loose ends always made me curious. I'll take Derek up on his advice and just read a summary or watch some clips to wrap things up.
I was thinking about whether or not playing The Answer, and welp, I guess I'm going to try to play it because of all the non-animated cutscenes, but still ending watching all of the story here on RUclips...
Oh .. You aren't voldemort? Darn it... I though I was watching SuperVoldemort RPGs
And so, the persona journey ends for now. Sorry to see that the conclusion was a downer, but this was a good video!
It's worth it for the combat if you enjoy the extra difficulty. I went from playing all the other ps2/ds era megaten games to this so the difficulty wasn't a problem for me. There's also a lot of complaints about having to grin in game around on the internet but I rarely needed to repeat a dungeon more than once(only one instance to swap team)
okay. ive decided to just watch the cutscenes on youtube rather than playing myself..i quit playing after the boss on the 3rd door. its not worth getting so frustrated over cheap things that can happen..
I will say this. The answer is definitely way better with controllable party members. It made my replay of it alot better.
just hearing brand new days at the end makes the answer worth it.
This was a perfect review 👌 guess you could say I got my answer!
What are the 7 deadly sins of jrpgs?
They're just my personal list of 7 common flaws that have the ability to kill the fun of any RPG. I'm planning on doing a video covering them at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it just yet. :)
Least it's got a sick battle theme
Persona 3: The Answer also frustrated me to no end. I wanted to see how the story continued but I felt like the game didn't want me to see it.
I feel like you're one of the few people who'd get me saying that The Answer was far more frustrating than Breath of Fire (V): Dragon Quarter. At least when I overcame an obstacle in that game I felt I earned it through sheer skill. In the Answer it just felt like I was lucky flipping a coin. If only that game added a skill/item that nullified/reduced the dodge magic skill of your foes for a limited time then the battles would just be tedious rather than luck based.
Still good coverage of the expansion. A lesser reviewer would have taken a less measured approach to their feelings about it.
The Answer is worth playing if you enjoyed fighting in Tartarus in Persona 3. I was always slightly disappointed when my team members would become tired and I would have to leave Tartarus. I enjoyed the grind. The Answer wasn't great, but I thought it was enjoyable enough to finish. However, if you didn't like fighting in Tartarus, then this game is not a good choice.
I think its worth it, its double the length it should be and has too much grind to it. But its an epilogue which i felt the small scatters of stoey through out it worth playing once and i didnt reqlly feel like it ruined their characters at all.
I agree with you. I'll just watch it on RUclips. It seems like instead of legitimate difficulty, the game just gets cheap and frustrating. I'll pass on "The Answer". Thanks.
Kinda dissapointed that they never made a fifth (maybe sixth) movie that covers the events of The Answer.
Nice informative video. Thanks for making it.
That intro had me subscribe lmao
As a Persona 2 fan who thinks that’s the best persona this is my kinda game
Just play p3p, manually control your characters and never ever think about the answer. Hell, the direct continuation in plot (Arena and Ultimax) work perfectly fine without it.
I'm working my way through the smt back log. I'd love to see a nocturne review, but any smt would be awesome
he is right how the character act in the answer I mean after fighting the incarnation of makato where everyone had different views on where to go with time travel thing I kinda ended hating it how everyone became kinda selfish even though it felt like everyone got over there issues to go back and forget them I am not saying they weren't greaving but still kinda felt like huge step back IMO. I have finished the main story in P3P and feel if the Answer had those mechanics I would risk the grinding but I chose not feeling I would pull my hair out if the AI refused to heal u
I completely understand the complaints about the gameplay. Thankfully emulation cheats helped me through it. But I disagree about the story and think it strengthens them and actually makes them my favorite party in the series. In short, either play it yourself or watch it on RUclips. Make your own opinion of what you see
Needs more Golden Hand Rage..... I loved this game, it just made me super angry sometimes due to its unforgivingness, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Derek, why your Sprite is so skinny in comparison to the 3d model?
Honest answer? Couple reasons. First, everyone in the Persona series is a picture of youth and health, except for a couple of gag characters here or there. The reason for the character in the first place was to thematically match the character designs. It was supposed to be a fun lighthearted homage to the game. Second? Who wants to draw themselves realistically? I've got a weight problem and have since my mid 20s. I'd rather draw myself as I was rather than as I am.
@@SuperDerek I meant no offence ,but you just don't feel like yourself, looking like that. I mean it's just not that light-hearted nice dude anymore, but rather some skinny and lanky freak, who's anyone, but SuperDerek!
Edit: Also you look a lot healthier as you are than your sprite counterpart
I wish p3p wasnt a slideshow because the changes in combat made it much more manageable and I dont really care for the answer
I loved P3, but I could not get far in the answer do to frustrating bosses and I stopped playing.
Wow, no social links? Didn't know that. That was the worst part of P3 for me. Maybe I'll give it a shot then.
so, WHAT was the ANSWER?
Death
The only problem i have with The Answer (and the journey) is the stupid AI, but overall is awesome.
What's the ending theme on this video?
I enjoy the answer but only fir its aspect of dungeon crawling ... but i understand the turn off of this added piece
imo if they just rebalanced the difficulty a little, "the answer" would be okay.
cuz man, this was even more tedious than some SMT games...
"affect your choice between FES or Portable" what about the original version!? yeah it's slightly rarer then FES but other then the answer and the new op there is no difference between FES and the original (to my knowledge, I own all 3 versions but haven't beaten FES yet, correct me if I'm wrong)
I may not remember this correctly anymore, but I think FES also added some combination of new social links, slightly changed time schedule to accommodate those social links, an extra bonus dungeon during the end-game and a few new Personas.
well I knew about the new Persona, but new social links huh?, also that extra dungeon, is it monad?
or his now official name, Makoto
What made it worse is the absence of the Compendium. If you had to let go of a Persona (and it will happen), you can't get it back the way it was. You have to earn it again. Meaning, you have to start from scratch everytime, which is extremely tiresome/tedious. Maybe "The Answer" was made for the most hardcore of P3 fans.
I still don’t get it. How does Makoto die?
King Emu Mc used his soul to become a seal that prevents Erebus from coming into contact with Nyx. His physical body lived long enough to fulfill his promise with the rest of his teammates to meet up on graduation a month later.