I've been making some choices kinda willy nilly, not really having a grasp on what the best decisions are for how I want to play it, and having a frustrating time with it at this point. I have a lot of questions.

1) Is this game timed? Does the calendar end? How worried should I be about wasting time, not spending enough nights leveling characters and personas in the TV, or not being prepared for bosses?

2) Ranking up Arcanas has been almost entirely for the sake of whatever activity or person I'm engaging with (for example, I go to band rehearsals because I feel sorry for Ayane and want to help her, not because I'm planning on fusing some sweet Sun persona). I have no clue what personas I'm going to be finding or getting the opportunity to fuse. Should I just focus on one or two arcana and go out of my way to stick with those personas? Will I still have access to all the elemental skills that way?

3) I don't think I ever totally understood when is a good night to go into the TV and when isn't. Can someone explain this please?

Those are the big ones really, but I'd love any other tips for playing this game "well" that you guys have. Thanks!

@trancequina:

1) Game takes place over the course of a year. Only be worried if there are consecutive days of rain because someone will die, game will make it pretty clear early on. You shouldn't need to grind much (also depends on difficulty) but if you are fighting every shadow possible, by the time you get to the bosses you should be fine.

2) Do what you want on the first play through. Level the S Links that you find the most interesting or the party members you use the most and just enjoy it. You will be using all types of personas and it is very difficult to specialize in one arcana of personas. You are Zero, you have access to all spells and all attacks, just makes sure you party is balanced, example if you party is fire (agi), ice (bufu), and wind (garu), make sure you are packing a electric (zio).

3) Go into the TV when it is raining, that is when there are less S Links available. I believe shadows are also weaker but I never really noticed.

I'm not gonna be any help here but I'm about 17 hours into this game, I played the PS2 version when the Endurance Run was on and I just got a Vita so it's time for playthrough 2. I love this version of the game so far, one of my favorite games of all time, improved with more content. Though I do wonder when I get to use scooters, and how I get new clothes

@venatio: Happens around June and once you get the scooters you can buy new clothes. You also earn clothes by doing quests and other times they will just be given to you.

Rainy days are the best days to go into the TV, but it doesn't make a huge difference when you go. "Whenever you feel like it" is just fine. If you see 2-3 rainy days in a row coming up, that's a good time to finish the dungeon if you haven't already. You should have plenty of time, even if you've spent the past few weeks just eating beef bowls and using the capsule machine.

Definitely don't worry about what personas you'll get out of what S-links! Just hang out with the people you wanna hang out with. You'll get by.

In general, don't stress too much. There's no need to start over. The game isn't as unforgiving as it might seem.

@spunkyhepanda: This makes me feel better.

*SPOILER*

I'm currently struggling with Kanji's boss, and I feel like it's about to be too late to save him. My party is getting beaten to hell and it's really frustrating that only one character can heal everyone right now and only my character can use items. The friendly A.I. is also not helping at the moment. Maybe I just need to look into skill cards more or something.

*SPOILER END*

So why exactly is rain the best time to go into the TV? Do I have enough time to level each persona until I get each of their skills before fusing them, or is that even worth doing?

My advice is to take the dungeons on the first available day. If you invest in physical you don't need to waste as much SP and you can get through with enough left for a boss fight. if you completely explore each floor and fight every enemy as you go up, and do the same for each optional boss then you should always be at the right level. I have played through maybe 3 or 4 times with this method and run in to no problems. It does mean you'll spend a huge chunk of time in dungeons and have to spend the whole game with your primary party but I didn't have a problem with that.

Follow a guide if you want perfect S-Links but if you do the dungeons in one day you have the luxury of messing around and doing whatever you feel like.

@trancequina: Don't restart. It is very hard to fuck it up bad enough to need such drastic action, the game gives a lot leeway to play around and try things.

If you hit square in the dungeon, you can choose AI behavior and let yourself take full control of the party. That way everyone can use items.

EDIT: What the hell, half my post got eaten... Either way, don't level up personas so far unless you see a useful skill on the "next up" box that you want in fusing. It is very time consuming and tedious to level persona. You are definitely better off sticking with 1-3 for any given dungeon/situation and just replacing them when they fall out of usefulness, or get a better alternative for the same purpose.

Go into the dungeon whenever you don't feel like there is much to do outside, you should only need a couple of days to get strong enough for any boss. 2 or 3 every dungeon maybe.

You've missed out on something incredibly crucial. If you talk to... Teddy? When you're running around the dungeon, if you press Square I believe, you'll call on Teddy and he'll give you the option to change your party members' tactics. You can set them to manual control this way. I can't imagine how you've made it this far with AI party members. o_O

Rainy days have special rainy day monsters that have a low chance of dropping rare crafting materials. Also enemies will be a little stronger and give a little more XP.

You should almost never be leveling Persona for their skills unless you are going for a specific rare skill, like a Sarasvati for Invigorate 2 early on. Persona level significantly slower than the MC so you'll be better served by fusing higher level Persona and getting new skills that way.

Something I find very useful is to spend as much time in a single visit to the dungeon as possible. Once you have Fox in your team. Use him to replenish sp and go explore again. Keep in mind every time you leave a dungeon another day passes on the calendar. By using the fox to replenish your party it is possible on at least a couple dungeons to actually beat the boss in a single "day" of exploring.

First trip you get maybe to 5th floor, bounce to the entrance, heal from fox and go back, that way if you can beat the boss in one calendar day, you can maximize the time you have for gaining social links which make creating future personas more powerful, which better prepares you for future explorations.

For me as far as social links just go with the people who seem interesting and try to get max s link with as many as possible. Good stories and very useful for making persona

Once you're pass the first dungeon, it's entirely possible to do the dungeon in one day, which is what I recommend. This is a weird game where the first dungeon is by far the hardest because you lack a a fourth party member, you don't have the fox there to get SP for you, and you can't afford to buy Persona from the Compendium quite yet since you don't have enough money.

While I agree with the general consensus in this thread to do whatever Social Links you want at your own pace, I have one exception: Do the Fox's Social Link whenever you can (generally on a rainy day, since you can visit him then, and most of the other S. links will be unavailable). At Rank 1, it costs 60 yen to restore 1 SP, which is quite pricey, but each rank up deducts 5 yen off the price, until Rank 10, where it's only 15 yen per 1 SP, which is a fantastic bargain.

Also, whenever you hang out with your friends, make sure you have the Persona that correlates to their S. Link, that way it levels up much quicker and you can spend your time doing other things.