Endurance Run: Persona 4 - Part 123

 I remembered watching through the second time that the amount of criticism Vinny had for Naoto was just ridiculous and borderline petty.
 
He complains about her taking too much damage in this episode, even though they didn't have her equipped with even reasonably updated armor (when they finally did properly equip her, her old armor was nearly half as effective as the Chie armor they put on her, so no shit she was taking so much damage).
 
He complained in one of the episodes about her MP consumption, but the first time he complained about her MP use a couple videos ago, Naoto actually had more as a share of her MP than everyone aside from Charlie. Her total amount of MP also nearly rivals that of Yukiko.
 
In the process of also complaining about her MP consumption, Vinny continuously casts ridiculously expensive spells like Megidola (not mind charging them even though that is the perfect spell to Mind Charge even though Jeff actually mocked the idea twice) instead of focusing on her physical spells. In fact, in the first video they used Naoto, Vinny whined throughout the entire video about her MP but I don't think he used her physical spell (Deathbound) more than once.

He also complains about her damage, even though he wastes MP on crap damage spells, like Garuda's Garudyne that never breaks double digits. In the first video they used Naoto and complained about her damage, they almost immediately cast Black Frost's Maragion which did about half as much damage as Naoto's Megidola!

It just irritated me watching through these a second time how forced and unfounded all the criticism of Naoto was when all the things they were complaining about were their own damn fault. Especially since Chie at this point in the game sucked, still using Mabufu. Chie was far worse than Naoto until she finally got God's Hand which was basically just before the end of the game. Especially since they were talking so much about how Naoto was useless in a boss fight. What was Chie contributing up to this point? Power Charged Heat Waves. Come on.

/sigh

Yeah, watching it through the first time they suck at a lot of things. Although they use more actual strategy than I ever did, mostly because they need to. lol
 
For me, with boss battles it's Yosuke and Teddie all the way, with either Yukiko or Kanji as my 3rd member. Depends on whether I want to use Kanji or the MC for matarukaja, because one of them plus Yosuke's masakukaja and Teddie with marakukaja means a 100% buffed party almost all the time. I barely get touched and the boss gets wrecked.
 
But it's usually Yukiko, those 3 have the best magic and with boost and amp they're dealing +75% magic damage. So that's even more boss wreckage. And with the right party order the first 3 buff and then Yukiko gets first crack at attacking.
 
But the Heaven dungeon and the plethora of light/dark weak enemies is perfect for Naoto, even the boss since mind charge/megidola does pretty decent damage.

Something I noticed this time around: the Homunculus REALLY only should work for the main character. It's completely wasted on one of your party members who you can resurrect. 
And Megidola...uuugh, the spell that is waaaay more effective every single time an enemy uses it, thus tricking you over and over into thinking it's any good.

Little did they know, Masukujaka would be the only attack that could kill the final boss...

Something changed inside of Vinny. He has now mastered the Player Advantage mechanics =)

@Marokai: Naoto is better for dungeon crawling encounters, but she's pretty lousy for boss fights. I found her useful when I switched around my party regularly and used everyone, but as far as a full time party member I would definitely go with Chie over Naoto. (Even though I did make her a full time party member during one of my playthroughs.)

... I don't trust this guy's face for a second.

http://www.giantbomb.com/endurance-run-persona-4-part-124/17-1146/

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/endurance-run-persona-4-part-124/2300-1146/

Watching these again, and I forgot how ANGRY people get at the way they play. I mean, they beat it, didn't they? And they enjoyed it, too. They were in no way "playing it wrong" when they were generally successful and also having a good time.

Also, I really don't get the joke about posting the next episode's link.

@generic_username: It's the internet, it's going to bitch. Assuming anything less is foolish. And the link posting is for ease of use, people who are watching them in a row can just click the link instead of going back to the video listing and finding the next episode. The website doesn't provide proper series management, so it's up to the community to do so.

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/endurance-run-persona-4-part-124/2300-1146/

@minalear: Ah, I see. I have avoided this problem by downloading every single episode individually and then meticulously changing the name of every single episode so that they can play in order on my computer. Not everyone is as crazy as I am, though.

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/endurance-run-persona-4-part-124/2300-1146/

I know it's waaaaaay too late to matter, but Rangda's not a dude, she's a chick.

Yeah, I was surprised too… I only found out in the Soul Hackers remake when I had to sweet talk her in order to get her into my party.

I've been playing along in Persona 4 Golden--while having these episodes on again!--after having played P4 two years ago (and watched the Endurance Run a year before that), and holy shit that midboss.

Matarukaja + Masukukaja + Power Charge + God's Hand = that motherfucker was dead in one turn.

Chie is the best.

Next episode, part 124!