Hey guys,

I am 10 hours in and just done the first dungeon. I am loving the game so far but wanted to see if it is possible that I skip the side stuff and then get stuck at the end of the game. I am only playing on the easiest setting but all I have done is study in my spare time, not got a job, not really done much confidant stuff etc.

Can I get stuck later on in the game with maybe playing the game wrong as such with not doing all the side stuff etc.

Thanks

Phil

You won't get stuck, you could finish the game without doing the side stuff but some of it will end up being more difficult.

The way it works is like this.

Social links (confidant) will unlock new combat/dungeon abilities for your allies. Stuff like being able to save you from getting 1 shot, being able to slap people out of status effects, being able to use powerful follow up attacks. For non-party members there are other benefits, like cheaper items or special abilities to use outside of combat.

Besides that, they affect how powerful your persona fusions will be. If you go to make a Chariot based persona and you have level 10 in that social link, it'll get a huge amount of XP right off the bat. You can equip any persona you can create, even if it's level goes beyond your own.

Social stats (Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Kindness, and Charm) are used to gate social links. For example, some social links will get gated behind you having a specific level of Kindness. Others will require you to have high Guts. Likewise some jobs will require you to have a specific level before you can get them and some will pay you better based on your social skill.

Some jobs are required to get specific social links.

A big part of the Persona games is the side stuff, the social links in particular. You should really try and do at least some of them or you're going to miss out on a lot of what the game has to offer.

Do confidant stuff when you can but 10 hours in is really nothing. They keep tutorializing a good 25 hrs into the game. I played it on normal and did fine without engaging in some crazy fusions or whatnot. Only guide I used was an answer key for confidant stuff. On the easiest difficulty I’ve read that you can basically go through the game on autopilot - it’s meant to serve as a story mode of sorts.

So enjoy it. Persona 5 is a super long ride but I had a ton of fun with it. In fact the game is so long that I went into some weird withdrawal when it was over and began a NG+ run right away. I think I completed the first 2 dungeons before I finally got that game out of my system.

Thanks guys, it isn't that I didn't plan to do the side stuff but given how 10 hours in it felt like I hasn't found time to do much I was checking I had not ruined myself! Loving it so far and plan to play around with the social stats stuff, knowledge seems obvious and easy to improve, I assume things like guts and kindness are just coming up from conversations and answers in social situations etc?

Amazing game and the first 10 hours has flown by. I love the story and the style so far which is why I am on easy to just soak that up and feel like a boss in battles hopefully to get that sense of achievement! Being a working adult means I can't grind the hours like I used to.

You'll find side activities, dvds to watch or books to read for all the different stats.

What exactly do you mean when you say "side stuff?" If you mean the side quest type thing like Mementos/requests, then you can freely skip all of that with no concern at all. However, if you mean like the things you do on days you aren't in dungeons, primarily confidants, I don't know that I would even consider that side content. Dungeons are only half the core experience, the other half is spending your time doing activities after school.

If you're asking if it's okay to basically go home to bed every day and skip to the next story beat/dungeon, I would absolutely say no. That is half the game and absolutely a core part of the experience, not side content.

Side stuff was probably the wrong phrase to use, but yes the confidant, job, study stuff is what I am refering to. Certainly didn't finish class and then go home but didn't necessarily know where to start so all I have done is go to the library to study and study at Leblanc. Again only just finished the first dungeon no more than a couple of weeks in game terms but some of the other bits seemed a little overwhelming potentially for a first time player of the series.

Hopefully that ezplains my thoughts a bit more, I looked at a non spoiler guide quickly for day to day choices and didn't even know there was a job system in game until I read that and also they were talking about people I had barely spoken too, if at all! Meant I was thinking oh my god, have I messed up already!

Thanks

I wouldn't worry about missing out on confidants from a gameplay progression perspective. There are certainly benefits to min/maxing your time and getting as much of that content completed as possible, but it's far from essential.

My best advice would be to prioritize hanging out with your party members, at least one should be available most days. Aside from the rank up benefits for party members being more significant than the other potential confidants in the game, they are also the most developed characters in the game. You're going to be seeing them a lot during the story, and the confidant storylines provide further character development for them.

If you're mostly interested in the characters and the story and aren't too concerned with mastering the gameplay and going for full completion, this will provide the best experience.

The biggest godsend of the easiest difficulty is the money bonus, with probably the exp bonus behind that. Honestly even the "pretty much can't lose" battle mode really isn't as good as the first two advantages despite being totally unfair.

Since your have these on your side there's really no reason to not rush dungeon to leave you plenty of time to do confidants and level up your social stats.

Spend that money to buy books to help boost stats, visit the diner to boost stats, every Sunday visit the juice store in the subway station and buy the stat boosting drink. The drink only rotates to something else next Sunday if you buy it, so you should almost always buy it every Sunday. They aren't cheap, but that's why the money bonus is the most useful thing in the easiest difficulty!

School library also let you check out one book at a time for free, again stats.

Rule of thumb, hang out with people when possible, especially teammates. If not, push social stats. Rainy days usually mean bonus stats growth at different places (diner, bathhouse), so take that into consideration. Might worth saving beforehand however...

One of the more annoying thing about confidants is that some confidants need certain rank of social stats to unlock or to proceed further, so you want it all eventually. It is a problem of prioritization, a guide would help. At about the end of the first dungeon I think you want to have moderate Guts (related confidant: Death), and a little bit of Kindness (related confidant: Lover) as a starter. Start building Knowledge. Charm should be something you pick up "on the way" early on, check the bathhouse. Proficiency is weird, when you craft thief tools you have a chance of crafting an extra set which is nice on its own, but more importantly you get a bonus point to proficiency. You can technically cheese the game by saving and reloading until you get the bonus.

When hanging out with confidants you typically want to have a matching persona, two exceptions: Sun and Moon. That could potentially governs what persona you keep on you which could affect battles, or you can dismiss and summon from the compendium. Again money!

Part time jobs aren't really worth the money, especially on the easiest difficulty, but they are require for some confidants to unlock and some side quests to proceed.

Eventually you will catch wind of the Fortune confidant. It is a very useful confidant that is worth your time.

@soimadeanaccount: I played on normal and I still managed to managed almost my entire party without ever using the special fortune confidant abilities. I feel like I should have been using her more but there were simply more interesting people to hang out with. Of course the ability to not have to go to sleep after dungeons you get from the other person IS pretty vital.

The stat gating is the biggest hurdle though and it can get annoying when you suddenly need to invest all your free time in grinding a single stat in order to progress a link, which means you’re not spending time with your other links. The later game social links that give bonuses to stats are a great equalizer in this and I feel like everyone from your main party should have given you stat boosts as well.