After years of Sony exclusivity, Atlus has announced that Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal will finally be ported to Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Steam. These cross-platform releases are incredibly exciting for fans of JRPGs in general, allowing plenty of fans to access three amazing games. The ports are bound to bring in new fans, many of whom may initially struggle with Persona‘s unique gameplay mechanics.
The Persona series has its own set of rules that set it apart from other JRPGs. While they certainly are approachable for new players, there are some things newcomers should know before delving into the Persona games.
Spend Each Day Wisely
The Persona games use a time management system where players live out each day. After school ends, players can decide how the protagonist spends the day, whether that means building stats, leveling Social Links, or exploring the other world. Each Persona game has two slots of free time in the day: After School and Evening. As a rule of thumb, players should never go to sleep early, unless the plot demands it. This time should be used wisely, for there’s always a social stat to build or a confidant to talk to.
Maximize Each Day Spent in the Other World
Whether the other world is Tartarus, the Midnight Channel, or the Metaverse, having good time and resource management is a must to make the in-game deadlines while remaining adequately leveled. When players make the decision to spend the afternoon in the other world, they should use all SP available to them before returning home. This ensures that the player gets the most leveling they can get out of one trip.
Similarly, players shouldn’t waste SP during a battle. Magic attacks are powerful, but they drain SP reserves quickly. Unless the enemy is immune to physical attacks, the party should be using the Attack button or skills that use HP as much as possible. Getting through as much of a dungeon as possible (or finishing it in one day) will allow players to spend as much time as possible completing other activities.
Stay On Top of Social Links
The Persona series’ use of Social Links sets it apart from other RPGs. Whereas other games make character interactions part of the main story, Persona games give players the chance to get their party members and other characters during their free time.
Aside from enjoying each unique companion’s story arc, the biggest advantage to leveling Social Links is the Persona fusion bonuses. Each Social Link is associated with an arcana, and the higher the arcana’s level, the greater the bonus when fusing corresponding Personas in the Velvet Room. These bonuses can create Personas three to 10 levels higher than the allowed level, which is always the current player level.
Fuse Personas Instead of Trying to Level Up Each One
One of the biggest mistakes that players initially make is leveling up each of the eight Personas in their possession rather than fusing them to instantly create stronger ones. It’s not efficient to level up each Persona because the player will not use all Personas equally. Some have more useful skills than others, and only the currently equipped Persona will get all the experience points earned from battle. Players should take advantage of the Velvet Room and fuse personas to diversify and strengthen their team.
The Save System
The Persona series uses a manual save system. With no auto-save feature, players must actively be sure to keep the protagonist alive during combat. Failing to get the advantage before an encounter can mean the difference between living to fight another battle and losing hours of experience points. When exploring dungeons, players should save whenever possible, especially when they’ve gained levels of experience points or defeated a difficult mini-boss. The method for doing so (and availability of save points) varied between different titles, so be sure to figure this out before taking on any major challenges.
Players should also take advantage of the multiple save slots and create new saves after major story points or before triggering the next one. This will give the player a chance to backtrack in case they fail to meet a deadline or find themselves under-leveled for a boss and need to spend time grinding. Persona games are also quite long and have multiple endings, so having multiple save files can allow players to see everything without having to replay the entire game.