Hey guys, I am playing through FES right now, and so far I like it a lot. Loving the characters in it, and the soundtrack is amazing! However, it seems that I am not leveling up at all... Five and a half Hours in I am only at like level 7-8, and each fight only grants about 4-8 exp per fight. I was just curious as to whether or not the low amounts of EXP per fight will stay like this, or does level really even matter? I just feel the beginning is starting out slower than, say, 4, which I played before. Your all's comments on the pacing of the game is highly appreciated. Thanks!

You'll pick up the levels eventually. You're gonna need them, too, because while they don't do much for your stats, they're imperative to fusing better Personae that will dictate your stats.

For some reason, the PS2 versions of Persona 3 have an stupid low leveling rate at first. Once you've progressed a bit deeper, the monsters start to give more EXP per fight. Fighting the really strong monsters (the ones that flash red), if you can handle them, is also a good way to get a large chunk of EXP at once.

Yeah, but it's faster to get going then 4.

@lurchengamer:

Well you should not grind in this game at least until you are head to head with a boss you cant beat and even then bringing in a different persona usually do the trick.

@pollysmps: Yeah... I'm replaying P4G after pouring 81 hrs. into it. Once the game finally gets to about Golden Week, it finally starts getting good. I would probably NOT replay these games for gameplay alone, the characters make me come back :)

Oh so you mean it's a JRPG?

Thinking about going through FES again on Hard since i've been playing jack shit for months now.

Want to play through Persona 4 Golden like you are but $250 for 1 game (The rest of the VITA games are dog shit compared to P4).

Yeah it starts out really slow. It didn't pick up for me until around the third(?) full moon I think it was. Once it gets going it really becomes something awesome though. Especially the end parts of the game. If you want to level faster, but are out leveling the things around you focus on only the red shadows. They're the equivalent of the shadows on the next bump up in enemy level, and if you kill them plus get an exp boost from the shuffle you can do quite well for yourself. Otherwise regular shadows tend to give shit for exp after a certain point in grinding.

@bigjeffrey: If it isn't obvious, I'm new to JRPGS big time, Golden was my first ever. I am starting to love the genre now however. And yes, I feel that the PS Vita should be renamed to be the Persona 4 Golden Player, because every other game is very shitty :(.

P3:FES relies on those cards a lot (experience, health, item) that you get after battles. Always opt for the green experience cards, and you'll be leveling like a mofo.

But yes, it's pretty slow. That's why JRPGs should be called PRPGs, as in Podcast RPGs, because that's what they're for - to grind while listening to backlog Bombcasts.

Yeah kinda figured, i can't remember which game it was but it took 13 hours for the game to get going.

I think I watched like, most of that King of the Hill show on Netflix while leveling in Persona 3. That Tartarus music is great but you can only listen to it for so lo- BABYBABYBABYBABY

Hell no, that music will be engraved in my brain for life. I still listen to P3FES music, it's actually scary how much i have listened to it.

That must have been confusing. I'm not even sure what "I tell you what" translates into in Japanese.