So, I clearly need to strengthen my party in order to beat these bosses. Normally, that would mean leveling up in a dungeon, and maybe buying some equipment.
But as all of my characters are exhausted from the excessive leveling up I've already done, and there's only one day left before the full moon when the bosses show up, leveling up is a ridiculously difficult task. We can barely survive against the normal enemies that give us less than 1/20 of one level worth of XP.
And as for buying equipment, there's no access to the shops between where I've saved and the boss. All of the treasure I'm finding in Tartaros is money, which is useless to me.
Awesome! Just wasted another hour trying to beat the bosses, dying 25% of the way through the Hanged Man battle. Strongly considering giving up on this game again.
Leveled up a little more, to 44. I thought my guys would have infinite stamina the night before a full moon, but both Aigis and Mitsuru became exhausted. I took that as a sign to try fighting Strega again.
Hitting the Muscle Drinkos pretty hard, and used up one of my three Somas. I think between Persona 2 and 3, I've had fewer than 10 Somas. I do love how the item names, spell names, and other details have been consistent throughout the series. I do miss the Satomi Tadashi drugstore, though.
Aaagh, had Jin down to one or two more hits, but then they killed me. This boss fight is starting to give me a Persona 2 type feeling of seeming probably winnable, but devastatingly cruel. This is the most Persona-2-like part of the game so far, really, in that I'm finally fighting an actual important, story-related boss battle, and it is trouncing me.
Next couple of tries didn't go so well, either. This game is cruel! It's remarkable how often I seem to be almost winning on the first try of a boss battle, then fail so many times in a row.
…And I finally beat them! The boss battle that made me give up on this game 70 days ago is over! I hope I don't have to go through anything like that again.
…
There is another boss battle after it. With no save point. ;____;
…
Yep, I spent 75 minutes fighting it, brought it to about 20% health, and then died.
Trying to regularly record my progress with games, hopefully to get some conversations going with my game-enjoying friends. Even if it's just through disjointed, badly-written megatweets like this.
For some reason, I felt like picking up Persona 3 again, even though I'd sworn off it when it started requiring me to grind. The recommended level for beating Strega is 53, and I'm 40. Stayed up until 3 AM getting to level 42. It's going to be a long grind.
Finally got Dominion, the Justice persona I've been wanting for a while. Had to level up to 42 to get him. Justice personas are dear to my heart, because Chihiro was my first and favorite level-10 commu. Dominion leveled up to 45 with the bonus XP for having a complete Justice commu. Also fused a Taraka (Hermit) and a Clotho (Fate).
Actually kinda enjoying the grind this time around. But the fluffiness of the storyline, and its disconnectedness with the rest of the game, have me longing for Persona 2's engrossing story.
I do keep getting knocked out by the terrifyingly brilliant monster design in these games, though. The monks with pages (of what I presume is scripture) rapidly spinning around them in a cube pattern are nightmarishly unique.
Jules and Ann just started Persona 3 a few days ago, and they've already passed the beach trip, a part of the game that took me four months to reach. I suppose playing in Japanese slows me down, but man, that is kinda depressing for me. But happy for them!
