So a couple weeks ago when talking to one of my AIM buddies, I had a brilliant idea for spicing up Persona 3/4 playthroughs. The Failure Run.

In it, one must:
1)Keep all social stats as low as possible. Having them go up for any reason outside of game-enforced stat increases(such as in P3's forced week or so of studying) or participating in certain social links(P4's strength, sun, temperence, devil) is forbbiden. No karaoke or rainy day beef bowl challenges!
2)Bomb every test. This should be simple enough given your utter lack of a knowledge stat, but making sure to answer the questions wrong is also vital. 2+2=6. Remember that.
3)Piss off your s-links as much as possible. This is the really fun part, since you get to pick all the options that are ever so tempting(it's all your fault, Maiko. Hm, sorry b-ball buddies but I'm gonna be an ass and leave(yes I know that particular choice doesn't count for anything anyway since it's the first rank)) but you don't dare pick because you're an OCD bastard. I might...actually see a reversed s-link. It's a once in a lifetime chance. *sniff*
4)Get the bad ending. Mmm, no overly long but not actually difficult final boss. Note that intentionally failing deadline events before the "real" ending choices doesn't count(so no forgetting to rescue someone from the TV/dying against a full moon shadow).



*disclaimer:everything from this point forward will make little sense if you've never played P3, aside from the parts where I whine about how it's so much worse than P4*

So I started a new game of P3(not NG+ - that would involve me having maxed social stats, and that's a no-no!) under the name Him Him(the Answer makes sense now!) and it's been fun so far. Being dense/a jerk is loads of fun, and it's refreshing not having to have a different mask(or should I say...persona? Ohoho.) you have to project to every idiot, pedo, reverse-pedo, and asshole you meet. The only downside so far is that P3 leveling(and moving around the overworld and opening the menu and) seems UNGODLY slow after playing P4(what the hell I'm getting like 2 xp from most fights already come what are level 3 shadows doing higher than the fifth floor or so). Also, WHERE IS MY COMPENDIUM? I want to fuse things but I don't want to get rid of Orpheus(and thus Cadenza) until I can resummon the bastard.
I also made the jump from normal difficulty to expert, and haven't seen much difference yet...aside from the fact that Tartarus is abominable for grinding (2-8 XP per fight? What the hell is that?), and some of the Tartarus bosses are actually hard-ish(although they'd be easier if shuffle time gave me anything resembling a decent variety of personas and if I didn't have to fight 85 shadows to gain a level, but I guess part of it is that I'm not used to bosses having actual weaknesses aga...er, back when they had weaknesses. Also, having three physical attack types is weird and annoying and who thought that was a good idea).

ps: Good lord, P3's party members really DID all have the personalities of rocks. Anime cliche rocks. Other than Junpei, he's cool. Also Yukari's voice is 900% more annoying than I remember it being. Also the plot thus far as been "uh, well, there's this DARK HOUR and SHADOWS and you have a PERSONA so fight them." I forgot how phoned in P3's plot is until the last month or two of the game.



Happenings so far:
Kenji is boring. His s-link is boring. I want to insult him for being a reverse pedo, but the dialogue choices aren't there.
Old people are meh. I feel kinda bad that being rude to them in this link is really just tormenting old people with a dead son, but the failure run must march on.
Akihiko has the personality of a rock but I'll be glad when he joins so I'll have a USEFUL party member. Someday I may even be able to kick Yukari off, and I won't miss her for a second.
Sleeping in class is fun!
Died against one of the tartarus bosses but apparently it's weak to strike. Horray for random weaknesses to one of the arbitrary physical catagories! Did people actually complain when P4 simplified this? It actually made sense for once! (the downside is not kickin' rad axe/hammer weapons, but oh well)
I neeeeed my square button navigation feature. Aaaaaaagh. The dorm is so big for no reason! The school is huge for no reason! EVERYTHING HAS SO MUCH WASTED SPACE AND I CAN'T JUST TELEPORT TO THE SECTIONS I NEED TO GO TO! Also, I swear they put your homeroom as far away from the school's exit as possible on purpose.
Blue is a dull theme color.
Tartarus is so. incredibly. boring. If I didn't play my own music while I was in there I'd have "summoned my persona" already.
Speaking of summoning, man the guns lose all impact when you see them used for every. fucking. attack.
Funny how P3 was so awesome at the time but now I can only see how much it sucks compared to P4. Boring party members(aside from Junpei and Shinjiro), clumsy navigation system, terrible dungeon...really, the only part that was BETTER was the ending scenario, but it was so smushed in at the last second that it doesn't really help the plot's cause very much. Then again, P4 slammed you with all the OH THIS IS THE *REAL* FINAL ENEMY stuff at the last minute as well(although it had an actual running plot before then)...P5 had better not do that again, or heads at Atlus will be a-rollin.

Stay tuned for more interesting updates once I reach the part of the game where all the s-links open up, and I get a goddamn compendium and start fusing things(even though the compendium is more expensive in hard mode, but you pretty much have a swimming pool's worth of money after a month or two of in-game time in P3). Even though this blog is probably going to mostly be me rambling about how being a jerk to s-links is fun/why P3 is clunky compared to P4/why I hate the "your party members are controlled by the AI!" gimmick/how tartarus was the worst idea for a dungeon ever.

Maybe I should have done a failure run of P4 instead....naaaah.