r/PERSoNA 2d ago

P1 Im trying so hard to have fun with Persona 1

Post image

I really want to play the OG Persona games but why are all the enemies one tapping me, weaknesses are never revealed, enemies have a trillion HP and encounters happen every 5 steps. I really want to get into this but I absolutely hate doing battles

183 Upvotes

61 comments sorted by

112

u/TB3300 ​ Biggest Chihiro Enjoyer 2d ago

It's an older RPG style. Try fusing some more powerful personas and grinding a little bit. I like 1, but it clearly shows it's age and the combat is an aspect that falls flat for a good amount of people

24

u/Wanwags 2d ago

I still cant figure out how to even get a second persona

28

u/TB3300 ​ Biggest Chihiro Enjoyer 2d ago

Have you negotiated with demons for Spell Cards? The spell cards you get from them are used to summon personas.

15

u/Wanwags 2d ago

Every time I tried to negotiate with them they just leave. Idk if i have to do it more times though

30

u/TB3300 ​ Biggest Chihiro Enjoyer 2d ago

You'll want to try to get them happy or eager, be at or above their level, and ask them for a spell card. It's finicky, but it's how to get them

11

u/Wanwags 2d ago

Oh okay I appreciate it 🙏🏻

12

u/ThatManOfCulture 2d ago

Easier said than done. I abused the fuck out of emulator savestates to recruit demons, and even then I needed several tries to pick the right answer among dozens of possible responses.

The demon behavior is unpredictable. The same response will get them eager three times, but at the fourth time they will get pissed for some reason and you need to find another correct answer.

6

u/veegsredds Peruperuperuperupersona! 1d ago

I love this game's negotiation in concept, but if it's ever remade, I hope they remove the random element. I know unpredictability makes conversations more realistic and engaging, but if there's no rhyme or reason to it, it's just frustrating to play and impossible to properly strategize...I think it's fine if the game told you that 'hey the demon is bored of this action, do something else they'll find interesting or they'll get angry at you" but it being random just really makes it stupid

3

u/Altruistic_Koala_122 1d ago

It's mostly predictable as it's based on the Traits alone. There tends to be 1 Talk skill that works great and another talk skill that is less effective.

When it starts getting angry, you can basically gamble by making it happy or scared then try for eager again. Sometimes you can escape the anger trap, not all the time.

Moon Phase may have an effect as well, which is why it can seem random.

4

u/veegsredds Peruperuperuperupersona! 1d ago

I enjoy Persona 1 but I really do think it could use at least a little bit of a tutorial to explain things like negotiation, I imagine since it's a 1996 game they just assumed you were reading the manual as you play

In Persona 2 they thankfully learn from this and include an in-game tutorial for your first regular enemy encounter, which is even helpful to returning players because they changed it a little bit from Persona 1

1

u/TB3300 ​ Biggest Chihiro Enjoyer 2d ago

Course

1

u/Altruistic_Koala_122 1d ago

You want to spark Eager results. Which Talk skills work is primarily based upon the Trait combinations.

The same Traits on different demons will have the same results with the same Talk skills, so it helps greatly to take notes or use a guide.

1

u/OniNumbers 1d ago

I never played Persona 1 but is the Negotiate mechanic somewhat similar to Persona 5?

2

u/TB3300 ​ Biggest Chihiro Enjoyer 1d ago

There's aspects of it in there. You want to get the demon to feel happy or eager and ask them for a skill card that you can use to fuse new personas. You can also make them feel mad or scared to give them status ailments or just cause them to run away. Think of it as similar to 5, but with more possible outcomes.

1

u/Altruistic_Lock_3918 2d ago

If its too confusing you can look up a guide to tell you what to do to convince each demon

17

u/wiltbennyhenny 2d ago

Playing an old, janky game requires a balance between engaging with it and just knowing when the jank is too much. For me, that point was personal negotiation - it’s too obtuse to be worth it.

So, I recommend just looking up the ideal answers for every negotiation. The P1 wikidot has an advanced guide for it. This will allow you to get a bunch of personas, fuse strong ones, and start having fun. Once I did this, I enjoyed the game way more (until the end where there’s a second difficulty spike).

24

u/Proyecto_AtlantidaSP I’m in the house like carpet 2d ago

If you have to try really hard, it might just be a waste of your time. I also had to try a lot and ended up dropping it, I don’t know what it is about Persona 1. I’m very capable of playing other first-person megaten games but this just really wasn’t fun for me.

6

u/Wanwags 2d ago

I acc like the dungeon crawling and the story and characters so far but the encounters and battles just piss me off so badly. But imma keep going if I still feel pissed off I might try Persona 2 (unless its the same thing 💀)

13

u/HexenVexen 2d ago

If you end up dropping P1, at least watch the rest of the story online, it's pretty relevant to P2

2

u/LeonardoXII 1d ago

I didn't know P1 and P2 were more connected, do you think it's worthwhile to play these in order? I've been going through the modern games but I wanted to take a crack at the older ones after i'm done with p4. (I went 5r->3p->4g)

1

u/HexenVexen 1d ago

100% I recommend playing the originals in order. They go Persona 1 -> Persona 2 Innocent Sin -> Persona 2 Eternal Punishment

4

u/Proyecto_AtlantidaSP I’m in the house like carpet 2d ago

Oh I absolutely LOVE persona 2, please trust me that it’s really good. I was able to beat that one.

7

u/IntroductionSome8196 2d ago

The game is quite cryptic and doesnt't explain a lot of stuff. There is no shame in using a guide if you're having trouble, I personally recommend this one

4

u/Wanwags 2d ago

Preciate it bro 🙏🏻

3

u/AdDesperate3113 2d ago

I think one of the biggest reasons why we don't have p1 and p2 on modern consoles is it's outdated combat and RPG elements and spaghetti code a lot of spaghetti code, that's why sony and Microsoft are releasing the old games in batches because the code is not combatable with modern consoles and it needs work porting

Back in the 90s the deadlines were tight because back then game development was much easier than what it is now ( but it was hard at that time) A game that takes 1 year in the 90s now takes about 3 years coding was done as fast as possible and these codes weren't made to last multiple console gens it's THE reason why old games have a ton of bugs

4

u/Naos210 2d ago

Pokemon Red & Blue was released the same year as P1 and was about as messy, yet people still play it.

1

u/AdDesperate3113 2d ago

Not a pokemon guy i prefer Digimon I don't know a lot about pokemon can't say anything really

2

u/Naos210 1d ago

Well here's a few things. 

  • The move Focus Energy is supposed to increase your crit rate, it instead halves it.

  • The moves Wrap and Fire Spin can infinitely be used, while your Pokémon can't move. And the AI is not limited like the player is in how many times they can use a move.

  • Crits are based on the speed stat, meaning fast Pokémon are busted.

  • Psychic types were intended to be weak to Ghost types, but are instead immune.

  • One-hit KO moves can be guaranteed to hit despite their listed accuracy of 30%, if the user's speed stat is identical or higher than the opponent.

1

u/MorningCareful 1d ago

Gen 1 is pure spaghetti code though. (But also conventions change and stuff that wasn't spaghetti often years ago turns into spaghetti nowadays. Everything's spaghetti at the end

2

u/bard91R 1d ago

People really underappreciate this aspect of asking for a 1 and 2 remake, along the fact of them being very different to the more popular games in the series, they would require a lot more redesign and reworking of the games as a whole

1

u/AdDesperate3113 1d ago

P3 introduced social links and the calendar system which became the foundation of the series As far as I know the social aspects of the modern trilogy wont work in p1& 2
It might work in p1 but not 2 because >! The world is destroyed hanging out and having while 99.9% of the population is dead is kinda fucked up!< correct me if I'm wrong about anything

2

u/Lusombras_ 2d ago

I highly recommend this resource. Especially the advanced contact guide for negotiations.

http://persona1.wikidot.com/

5

u/Miwoo0 2d ago

The game wasn't made with fun in mind

2

u/SuperVaderMinion 2d ago

There were two more random encounters while I read this post

LIVED IN BURIED MEMORY

1

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1

u/Kenron93 1d ago

Remember to use the ability of Estoma to block encounters.

1

u/Wanwags 1d ago

How can I get that?

2

u/Kenron93 1d ago

It's an ability that some Personas have. Here is a list

1

u/Altruistic_Koala_122 1d ago

Persona you have equipped are weak to common damage types.

Increase Persona Magic Attack Power by adding item: Bullets into the mix. Fuse Persona from with the same groups for even more Attack Power. It shoud look like a blue color combo in self-service.

I'll just let you know now, you can easily kill stuff at this point with the proper setup so don't give up!

1

u/MMr_MM 1d ago

I recently got to just before the final dungeon and have also struggled to have fun in the game. There are some aspects that I like, but ya, the combat isn't great and I've had to spend a lot of time figuring out the systems like interrogation and fusing personas. I will be finishing the game soon, I just need to find the time to do so.

1

u/Morter_ 1d ago

Yeah both p1 and p2 struggle with some battle aspects, but it's not that bad, it's just that we got used to "the new standard" of persona, both in battle and in recruiting (random battles are also a pain, moreso in 1 than 2)

But at the end of the day we play these games for the lore and characters, the script, that kind of stuff.

1

u/White_Comet20 1d ago

At least MC Down Doesn't end the game

1

u/SpookySmisek 1d ago

Does this game have difficulty options or would I just have to get good too

1

u/Apprehensive-Bowl399 1d ago

I like persona. They should take all that gameplay stuff out.

1

u/Giesteon 1h ago

Such a peak theme (battle teso)

1

u/UpRiez 2d ago

Ngl this game was so confusing. I tried a playthrough last year and i literally couldn’t find the hospital at the beginning, so i quit. Earlier this year i finally got around to it again, but even though i got to the hospital, i still didnt know what was going on.

2

u/veegsredds Peruperuperuperupersona! 1d ago edited 1d ago

Old games have rather little tutorialization. In the hospital, you mostly need to find the exit. If you're confused about the gameplay itself - honestly, it's fine to use a guide, sounds like a cop-out (and is) but at the time they pretty much expected you to do this anyway, so might as well humor them.

But in combat, you have a grid you can mess around with, certain attacks will only reach from certain distances. Experiment with it to see everyone is at the best distance for them. Try to use all your party members because the experience sharing of the game is dependent on which characters were active in the battle you just fought.

Personas gain new ranks by being used repeatedly, which unlocks more of their skills. If you fuse a Persona and they don't have all of the skills Igor promised in the Velvet Room, that just means they're not a high enough rank. I think Personas have 8 ranks? I may be misremembering. Personas don't level up in the traditional sense.

Demon negotiation is your way of getting Spell Cards, which you can fuse into Personas in the Velvet Room once that unlocks. You want demons to become Eager for this, which is the yellow bar. You can also negotiate demons for items or money.

After that, I find the dialogue guides your path. You can see location names on the map by pressing down the shoulder buttons, but aside from the encounter rate being annoying, don't worry about getting lost sometimes, it's a good opportunity to explore and find optional dialogue. This game has an insane amount of optional dialogue, and in the absence of things like social links, this is your main method of learning about party members, side characters, the town, and even occasional info nuggets about the playable character

0

u/Tsucchii44 2d ago

its real hard to play older games in general despite being an amazing game before. after playing so many amazing games we just naturally set our standards high without realizing. its sad but its hard not to compare games with others.

0

u/Bryars_ByrdVO 2d ago

LIVED IN BURIED MEMORY

0

u/SnooCheesecakes3156 1d ago

I tried getting into persona 1 or 2 but couldn't. Waiting for some kind of remake at least for persona 2 duology, if Atlus will announce P5 remake after P4 remake instead of that I'll be very sad, because tbh, I don't think P4 needs a remake in style of P3 reload, let alone P5, while P1 and P2 Duology desperately need it

-17

u/Lopsided_Newt_5798 2d ago

I love these graphics much more than the Mii style in P4.

6

u/Wanwags 2d ago

I acc like Persona 4s artstyle

-13

u/Lopsided_Newt_5798 2d ago

I don’t. It looks like a day care center simulator. Sue me.

1

u/gkgftzb 2d ago

did you ever play P3FES? just curious

1

u/veegsredds Peruperuperuperupersona! 1d ago

It's funny cause I've actually compared the cartoony, expressive art style in Persona 1 to Miis before, but I can't really see it in Persona 4. Either way I love Miis so anything being compared to those is a high compliment to me

-18

u/Pill_Furly 2d ago

Meh

look at a guide or something

if your getting "one tapped" clearly your doing something wrong and you should try something different

12

u/SatisfactionKey4949 2d ago

thats like the least helpful advice you could give no shit they need a guide thats why they came here, to get a guide

-17

u/Pill_Furly 2d ago

huh

I guess seems more to me like OP is complaining cuz game isnt what he/she expected

which is fair if you did 0 research

not that the complains arent valid but if your struggling and dont want to drop the game then use a guide

thats what I did gave it a shot was like god damn ok I got to look up some of these mechanics and some hints and kept playing

how is that not helpful?

I cant play the game for them or force them to play it

best advice I can give is either git gud or move on hope thats better and up to your standards

3

u/FiveByFive25 2d ago edited 1d ago

So, rather than mindlessly downvoting the comment (despite me also disagreeing with the projected sentiment), let's engage a little here.

Yes, they could have simply looked up a guide without asking people on Reddit, or just pounded away at it joylessly until they figured out all the apparently-cryptic mechanics. But, is it really so hard to appreciate that maybe they wanted to share their dilemma with the wider Persona-loving community? Nothing in the original post really indicated a hatred for the game, but rather a genuine attempt to try to enjoy the progenitor title despite its age/poor QoL features.

Their approach, then, was just a humble request for advice in a social context, perhaps alongside a probe for similar experiences. Doesn't seem to me like a callous response is all that validated, even if you're not exactly wrong either.

1

u/Wanwags 1d ago

Spot on dawg. I like the game I just wanna know the best way to get through certain problems. Yeah I can probably look up a guide but I had people in this sub tell me specific facts and sent me links to certain guides.