After so many years, Persona 3 Portable has finally made its way into modern-gen platforms after its initial announcement. Despite it being a 2009-old game, P3P is a bona fide classic that could be said to be the founding father of all social elements in modern Persona games.
Whether you have played Persona 5 or 4 first, Persona 3 is its own game with its own merits. Thematically, it is arguably the strongest and the closest to the original Shin Megami Tensei franchise. So, if you’ve enjoyed P4 and P5, there’s are really good chance you’ll enjoy P3P as well.
One thing though, P3P is a much older game and a lot of quality-of-life content you experience in the latter titles is not present here. This makes P3P a relatively harder game and even if this isn’t your first Persona rodeo, you might struggle a little.
Not to worry though, we’re here with you! Today, we’ll be sharing some beginner tips and tricks to bring with you to Tatsumi Port Island!
Monitor the Status of Your Party Members
The fatigue system is way more punishing here than P4 and P5. This is because, whenever you are exploring Tartarus, the longer you spend there, the more tired you and your members become. Once they are Tired or even worse, Sick, they are basically fodder for Shadows.
Be sure to keep an eye out for this in the Menu screen and if your core members are not in perfect shape, it’s much better to skip Tartarus for the night. Sick and Tired members tend to miss their attacks more often and will are also very susceptible to Critical attacks. Both of which can be fatal very quickly.
Fortunately, there is also a silver lining to this. Aside from being Tired and Sick, your team members and yourself can have the Great status condition. This is the opposite of Tired and Sick where you get to land Critical hits easily and dodge enemy attacks more frequently. Although rare, take this opportunity to climb up Tartarus and challenge the floor bosses in this condition.
Elizabeth’s Sidequests Are Worth the Effort
After some time, you will be able to accept quest requests from Elizabeth in the Velvet Room. Some of these sidequests are really easy to do and for their rewards, it will be totally worth your time. For instance, quests, where all you need to do is escort Elizabeth around, are a must-do. This is because they don’t take up your in-game time and the juicy rewards to summon unique Personas are hard to pass up.
Sidequests that require you to bring certain items to Elizabeth aren’t so difficult as well. Completing these quests will usually give you special weapons and armour that have special aesthetics and stats. Again, this doesn’t eat up your in-game time so there is almost no downside to this.
A thing to note is that some of Elizabeth’s sidequests have deadlines. This means if you missed the date to complete the quest, they will expire. Be meticulous about this and pay attention to the dates to make sure to not miss out on some easy rewards!
Beware of the Full Moon
If you pay attention, you’ll notice the different phases of the moon on the right of your screen. This indicates when a major boss battle is going to happen. During the Full Moon, the story will move to its next plot point and that usually comes with a difficult fight.
For the first 2 Full Moons, you might not need to prepare as much as the boss fights are rather straightforward. After those 2 bosses, the upcoming Full Moon battles can be pretty challenging. As such, use the moon phases as an indicator of when your big fight would be and gauge whether you and your party are strong enough or not.
That said, this is not to say that you should break your bones, grinding levels in Tartarus. The best indicator of you being ready before the Full Moon battle is managing to reach the blocked barricade of Tartarus. If you can do so, you are more than ready to take on the Full Moon shadow.
Always Have A Healer in Your Party
It is fun to have a full offensive team, but they won’t do you good if they don’t even survive the 5th turn in battle. Always bring a healer in your party and if you are a beginner, bring one that can cast Media-based spells.
Party members that are perfect for this role are Yukari and Ken where their Personas will learn the all-useful Mediarahan in the latter stages of the game. Why we are stressing healing in this game is because once you—the main character—falls in battle, it’s Game Over. Hence, whenever you see your health is below 50%, be sure to order your healers to heal you immediately.
Heart Items Are Pretty Broken
Heart Items are pieces of equipment that are infused inside specific Personas. Once they hit a certain level, they will yield the said equipment and some of them are pretty busted. The Heart Items that are very good are the kinds that nullify your team member’s weaknesses. Commonly, characters have only one weakness and if you remove that, your character can almost never be knocked down!
Here are some of the recommended Heart Items:
– Divine Pillar (Alilat): You take 50% damage only from Magical and Physical attacks. Great for the main character if they are using a Persona that naturally has no weaknesses.
– Ring of Darkness (Thanatos): Nullify Darkness. Great for Ken Amada.
– Blazing Flame (Surt): Nullify Fire. Great for Mitsuru Kirijo.
– Storm Ring (Jatayu): Nullify Wind. Great for Junpei Iori.
– Frozen Stone (Gabriel): Nullify Ice. Great for Akihiko Sanada.
– Radiant Halo (Melchizidek): Nullify Light. Great for Koromaru.
– Lightning Gloves (Thor): Nullify Electric. Great for Aigis.
Slap them onto the right characters and you’ll see that many common Shadows, and even sometimes bosses wouldn’t be able to take you down easily.
There you have it! That marks the end of our Persona 3 Portable beginner’s guide and if you wish to purchase the game, be sure to do so with our Xbox Gift Card here!
