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Persona 3 Reloadis a massive game. Much like many of its beloved sequels, this remake is designed to be played for dozens of hours before reaching the end. You will make friends for life, conquer Tartarus, and live the envious life of a Japanese teenager with dead parents.
While it bears a number of similar mechanics to other games of the Shin Megami Tensei ilk, it is still a daunting RPG with so many moving parts, most of which won’t surface until hours into the adventure. To help get you acquainted, here are seven essential tips for tackling it head-on.
Take Your Time
As you’ve seen countless times on the loading screens of Persona 5,it’s essential to take all the time you needin Persona 3 Reload. While each day only allows you to perform a limited number of actions before retiring to bed and moving onto the next, there is seldom anything rushing you to make that decision.
Whether it’s the weekend or the evening of a school day,spend some precious minutes considering all of your optionsor perusing around town to look for characters who want to hang out or have social links to commit yourself to.
Persona 3 Reload is also pretty good at telling you whether something you do will advance time in the day. There’s nothing worse than praying at a shrine in the morning, and suddenly you’re forced to go to bed. You have things to do!
While we recommend relaxing when it comes to meandering through each day, it’s also very important to manage your time efficiently too. Balance hanging out with friends to improve a social link with studying for exams or working at the local coffee shop to upgrade Charm and Courage.
Thankfully,popping to shops like the Police Station or Pharmacy doesn’t chip into the allocated time,so there’s never any pressure when stocking up for Tartarus Runs.
Reload is best enjoyed going with the flow though, instead of trying to maximize your run to ensure it’s as efficient as possible. You’re an emo teenager, you aren’t meant to care all that much.
Check Your Text Messages On Your Mobile Phone
Persona 3 Reload takes place in 2009, so nobody is carrying around fancy smartphones just yet. However, that doesn’t mean our favourite shadow hunters aren’t texting up a storm.
You canaccess your text messages with a press of the Square/X button, providing you with a list of different conversations andcontextual alerts normally linked to social links, part-time work, or offers at stores and other businesses.
Unfortunately, the detailed conversations seen in Persona 5 and Royal aren’t present, but your phone still serves a practical purpose. It is a one-stop shop for everything you need to know on any given date, includingfriends or social links that are free to spend timewith you, and whether you are ready to update their social links with a new rank.
If not, you can ignore the invite in favor of someone who will level up - just make up the difference at the Shrine or at a later date.
The best part about using this feature is how it asks if you want to instantly travel to the character or location mentioned in the text, saving you precious seconds fiddling with the map or trying to find the right location on foot.
Don’t Put Off Exploring Tartarus Before It’s Too Late
Things are less strict in Persona 3 Reload, meaningyou won’t be forced back to the main menuafter dying to a boss or not paying enough attention to the passage of time.
But this doesn’t mean you can get away with ignoring the exploration of Tartarus -you will normally need to climb a selection of floors before coming across a natural obstacle,when Mitsuru will inform you it is impossible to progress until more time has passed.
Get back to school and wait for the creepy boy to show up in your bedroom, and you’ll be thrust off to a unique dungeon with different puzzles and boss encounters than Tartarus, which you must best to unlock new floors and keep moving forward.
Make a habit of jumping into Tartarus foran extended run every couple of days.Five floors or so a nightis a good cadence to strike, guaranteeing meaningful progress in the story and plenty of experience points and loot.
There is nothing worse than being forced to tackle the big boss of the current act without the required level or resources, all but guaranteeing it’ll wipe the floor with you.
Atlus has made the game more forgivingin general, but that doesn’t mean you can be complacent! Keep on top of things while trying to take your time.
Get To Know Your Party Members In And Out Of Battle
The opening hours of Persona 3 Reload are relatively light on party members. Junpei and Yukari are the only fellow Persona users to join you for the first few layers of Tartarus, with Akihiko and Mitsuru following shortly afterward.
Despite comrades being in short supply, it will be well worthgetting to know their strengths and weaknessesright away.
Yukari’s Io Persona begins with spells like Garu, Dia, and Patra, while her bow and arrow is capable of dealing atrio of hitsbefore leaving the enemy in a vulnerablecritical state. She is alsoweak to electricity attacksbutresistant to wind.
It’s worth taking into account the selected weaknesses and strengths of each character and outfitting them accordingly, especially with accessories that emphasize certain buffs.
Junpeiis aheavy hitterto match his brash personality and isresistant against Agi (fire), and is unlikely to suffer from burn status effects. However, this means he is highlysensitive to Bufu (ice)and is prone to being frozen on the spot for turns at a time.
As forthe protagonist, he’s weak to whatever the opposite element is to the Persona he’s currently using, meaning you should be switching Personas on the fly during battle if you’re dealing with specific enemies.
Explore Every Part Of Every Floor In Tartarus
Tartarus is stillrepetitivein Persona 3 Reload, and sometimes you’ll be desperate to sprint through each and every floor just to advance the story before your team runs out of HP or SP.
Don’t do that, though. While the floors of Tartarus do get a bit samey before long, moving on as soon as you find the stairs may lock you out of findingtreasure chests, sellable resources,and the bountifulexperience pointsfrom fighting the Shadows along the way.
As soon as you’vefully explored the entire floor, you’ll hear a message from your navigational teammate back at the entrance telling you that it’s time to move on.
When this happens, you can open the mini-map andfast-travel to the next floor immediatelyto save yourself the trek back.
Stay Well-Equipped At The Police Station And Pharmacy
Between Tartarus runs and bulking up your Social Links in and outside of school, make sure you are makingregular visits to the Police Station and Aohige Pharmacy in Paulownia Mallto pick up consumable items and new equipment.
Officer Kurosawa has asale at the Police Station every Mondayto provide discounts on weapons, armor, and accessories, while thesale at Aohige Pharmacy is every Saturdayfor the same discount on revival items and more.
Once you’ve shopped at these stores for the first time, the owners willtext you on sale daysto remind you of the discount.
Unlike the other shops around Port Island,using the Pharmacy or Police Stationdoes notconsume your time slot- you’re free to shop at your leisure without time passing in-game.
Stay On Top Of Social Links (Or Risk Growing Apart)
Persona 3 Reload is a huge game with several characters, so naturally, you are going to end up with a few favourites.Keeping up with their social links is all well and good, but be careful you don’t neglect others in the process.
Failing to keep up with relationships will make certainfriends feel neglected, whileclubs and societies might move on without youif attendance falls below a specific threshold.
To ensure you gain as many relationship points as possible for each hangout,bring a Persona that matches that social link’s arcanato earn bonus points for all your dialogue choices.
Not only will your social links improve as you spend time together, butthe higher your social link rank, the more of a power boost new Personas of that arcana receive upon fusion.
Next:Persona 3 Portable Was The First Step On My Trans Journey
