Persona 3 Portable, MaleMC Route

The last time I played Persona 3 Portable (last year, playing as female MC), I mentioned that I was planning to replay the game as Male MC in the future. I didn't have the chance to do so, until about a few months ago when I leave my ps3 behind to work, leaving my PSP as my sole entertainer (unless you count DotA in my laptop). The reason I wanted to replay the game a second time is exactly as I previously mentioned: Getting 100% persona compendium, max all Social Links that I failed to finish the last time I played FES on PS2, and the ultimate challenge, beat the secret bosses (Margaret and Elizabeth) on Maniac (I only did half of the Vision Quests during my FemMC play).

Also, when I first began my 2nd playthrough, I planned to use a different party than what I used for FemMC (Yukari, Akihiko and Mitsuru), but as it turned out, I ended up sticking with the same 3 people in my party. And the reason is mostly based on my assesment on each character's ability to dungeon crawl and boss battle. Only on certain bosses (especially Margaret) I changed my party members..

• Yukari - She's simply the better Healer in the game (not counting MC), and she can provide good wind elemental support if needed. Ken is another alternative healer, but his combat prowess isn't that great (Samsara is miles better than his single target Hamaon, although I favor Alice's DieForMe more), and I personally had issue with this kid (especially because of his SL with FemMC).

• Mitsuru - I was planning to switch her for Aigis later, but in the end, I still kept her to the end. She's not a great physical dealer, but she's one of the best magically. Ice boost+Amp+Magic Charge+Bufudyne pretty much become my 2nd major offensive damage against many bosses.

• Akihiko - He's my mainstay early in the game because many monsters/bosses are weak to his Zio, and later in the game, because of his debuff skill, which I always use against bosses.

• Aigis - I planned to use her instead of Mitsuru, but IMO her physical skills weren't that great until much later in the game, and she didn't have elemental spells to exploit enemies's weakness (which is why Mitsuru is better). She's a great buffer, but those skills (the multi-target ma- buffs type) also come late in the game. So in the end, she's out of my party for almost the entire game, except against Margaret.

• Junpei - Probably the best physical attacker in the game, nice buffer (Rakukaja) with an elemental attack (Agi) for weakness exploit. But again, he only shines when he learnt Vorpal Blade (level 74), and only on certain date (for his "great" condition). One of the people I actually don't mind switching in and out while dungeon crawling, but ultimately didn't use him much. Nevertheless, he contributed A LOT in my fight against Margaret. On a side note, Spring of Life is kinda a waste of skill slot.
  

• Koromaru - No comment, I haven't use him at all Persona 3. No reason really though. Blanca was my main party back then in Shadow Hearts Covenant (until Anastacia joined the party), but I didn't really feel doing the same thing for Koro.

• Ken - I hate this boy, nuff said.

• Shinjiro - well, do I need to tell why?

Social Links

Part of the reason why I wanted to replay MaleMC route is because I wanted to max all SL, which as mentioned before, I failed to complete during my P3 Ps2 run. That run was totally messed up, I remembered failing to complete Mitsuru's SL, getting reversed on Kanji's Magician and Chihiro's Justice, as well as not completing many others (such as Moon, Star and Fortune)...total chaos ==

So just like my FemMC run, in the end I managed to max all SL in my MaleMC playthrough, and I didn't think I missed much from my unfinished PS2 run. Gourmet King Nozomi's Moon and Doctor-wannabe Keisuke's Fortune SL were downright boring, Rival athlete Mamoru's Star is okay at best, Kanji's Magician SL was kinda refreshing (though Junpei's Magician for FemMC was way better), Aigis's Aeon was also boring although it didn't change much from the FemaleMC (or vice versa), but most importantly, as awkward the SL were developed (from learning to act like commoners to lover), I really like Mitsuru's SL, probably my favorite Social Link on MaleMC play, with Yukari's Lovers came close in 2nd. Anyway, apparently the script from P3FES were ported straight into P3P without any change, because in P3P, the game still stated that the girls might get upset if we two (or three, or more)-timing when in fact we can form as many lovers as we want without hurting other SL.

My three main Persona in P3P MaleMC: Super Alice for sweeping the Tartarus w/ Morning Star, Siegfried for physicals, Orpheus Telos for Liz and Marg.

Maniac, Monad and Vision Quest...the unfinished business

Maniac mode isn't as hard as I thought after all. I was expecting something gruesomely challenging like Star Ocean 4's Chaos mode, but what I experienced from Maniac mode is that enemies hit you harder, and (probably) the most important thing that affect your Maniac play, the MASSIVE increase in Persona compendium cost. Even a low level persona like Apsaras and Angel can cost a lot more than you earn during your exploration in the first block of Tartarus. This essentially means before we exit Tartarus, we need to carefully prepare our persona library for the upcoming few weeks, rather than relying on compendium. I even thought that I might not be able to get 100% compendium due to the ridiculous price of the high level persona (some would cost more than a million yen), but luckily higher floors loots and battle coins gave a lot of money that in the end, I can even resummon a level 97 Messiah (which cost near 2 million) over and over again to get his heart item. Oh, and I got an Omnipotent Orb in my second try. Lucky bastard : )

100% compendium \o/ Apparently the compendium data is still carried over even in Maniac, hence the Orpheus I got from my FemMC run count as the remaining 1% (we only get 99% persona completion in each play)

And finally, the last challenges that P3P offered, the Monad and Vision Quest, aka beating Elizabeth and Margaret. Needless to say, I managed to beat them thanks to the very detailed and specific pattern that the boss use. For Margaret, it's all about dealing enough damage during her first physical phase (and I got Junpei in great condition on Jan 28th to help with Vorpal Blade), and past that phase, it's all easy. Elizabeth (or Theo) is slightly more difficult, but beating her is more about luck than skills, especially when we're nearing her ~10,000+ hp threshold. I personally had a more difficult time with Elizabeth because in many of my attempts, she would always seem to crit me to death at least once. Only then I found the answer to this problem - Enduring Soul... -__-
With Elizabeth beaten, I got my 2nd Omnipotent Orb, but do I really need it? Nyx is no longer a challenge by this point, and playing a New Game+ on other than Maniac mode with all these goodies carried over will totally kill the fun, considering I'm at level 99, and therefore making any battle in Tartarus meaningless.

So, will I ever returned to P3P? Likely not, but who knows. But I gotta say P3P was pretty enjoyable, even though it didn't have The Answer.