I already have a FreMCBoot card. It was so easy to make.
Still kinda cool.
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I think itās the first time I hear about this game lol
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Yeah I donāt see this ever replacing Free McBoot, but its a great development.
Yeah once you got Free McBoot you are set, but if you donāt have someone make one for you or donāt have another exploit or physical mod (modchip or flip-top with Swap Magic Discs) its kinda hard to make a Free McBoot Memory card from nothing. You can probability incorporate this with in the disc to make future Free McBoot installations. The theory is people are hoping they can also exploit other DVD based consoles like the PSX the DVR device with a built in PS2, or the OG Xbox.
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Itās actually super easy. All you need to buy is a memory card if you dont have one and. PS3 Memory Card adaptor and those are super cheap. You can make your own FreeMCBoot card for like 15 bucks.
I highly recommend it to anyone with a PS2.
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Yall taking me back with that, I used to use Magic Swap religiously to play burned PS2 games.
Me and my boys were heavy into fighting games then, when the Jap version of NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and KoFXI dropped, it was MAD hype over MY house
I could never find the ISO of that Takara, Konami Smash-like game tho, I really wanted to try that. So we just stuck with Battle Stadium DON (yes, I know I got taste cancer sometimes lol)
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i have a mod chipped ps2 but i opt to use pcx2 more often these days i still need to upgrade to the newest version that came out not too long ago.
I still use my swap magic discs didnāt know you could do it from the PS3, may have to invest since Iām pretty sure I have a clean memory card somewhere.
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I still have my swap magic laying around. Donāt know why I still have it as I havenāt had a PS2 in over a decade.
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Not from the PS3. You use a PS2 to PS3 Memory Card converter (cuz launch PS3s had BC) to plug your memory card into your computer. Then you move all the FreeMCBoot stuff to the memory card. The converter tricks the computer into thinking itās a flash drive. You can back up your PS2 saves to PC this way as well. You want one of these.
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At this point in time why would you go through that when you can just play ps2 games on PC? All the games seem to work. At least they did last time I played and Iād assume its gotten better by now.
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My PC isnāt nice enough for that?
I also just like playing on real hardware. The game runs right.
Not that i donāt emulate, I certainly do, just nothing that new currently and when the option is available I do prefer to use real hardware. I mostly emulate on my portables like my psp or vita.
Sure, your pc is nice enough for that.
Itās really not. Iāve tried. It runs the game choppy.
Same. REAL HARDWARE & SOFTWARE. I still think PS2 games look pretty good on an SDTV, even today.
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They look great on SDTVs due to the way the PS2 renders images. It can take a higher resolution. Sadly this neat trick makes it hall trying to make them look good on hdtvs. Combing artifacts out the asshole yo lol.
My Framemeister does itās best. OSSC might do better. I donāt remember.
Okay, big P5R Write-Up time that Iāll keep to spoiler tabs. A note for anyone who dares to read this mess, itās mainly going to discuss the changes from P5 to P5R so if you havenāt played either or just arenāt interestedā¦yeah. Anyway, here we go. Obviously, massive spoilers ahead.
Summary
Okayā¦where to startā¦I guess weāll go with the actual gameplay in Palaces. Iāll also save the Third Semester for last.
Gameplay:
- The changes made to Baton Pass are EXTREMELY welcomed. One of my biggest gripes in the original P5 was that you could not Baton Pass with any party member you didnāt advance the Confidant of a couple of times. This was a big problem for some members, namely Yusuke and Haru, as you donāt get access to their Confidant until AFTER the Palace you obtain them in. This made them in my Vanilla P5 runthrough my least played party members by far. Here, everyone has Baton Pass unlocked automatically which then shows how stupid strong Haru is. Also Baton Pass got an extra bonus where if you go through the whole Party, the last Pass makes any move you do free of cost. It doesnāt come up all that often (generally there arenāt enough enemies to make use of it) but it comes in clutch during a couple of Boss Fights and doesnāt feel as āfreeā as a lot of other bonuses in the game as it requires very careful management and planning.
- Showtimes Iāmā¦less fond of. The fun of the animations wears off after the first or second time you view them and after that point theyāre just single-target big damage moves that trigger at complete random. Itās one of the things that makes the game significantly easier as it severely outpaces the damage output youād have normally and can turn a fight completely around.
- Guns reloading after every fight instead of being limited to the amount of bullets you bring into the Palace makes them not worthlessā¦though they arenāt that useful the second you obtain Haru and Down Shots are limited by Palace Infiltration. So Guns maintain some semblance of usability throughout the game rather than being made moot really quickly in the original.
- The Grappling Hook and Will Seeds areā¦interesting. They give you more reason to actually explore a Palace, and giving some SP Restoration can be huge in order to continue progression (except for the 3rd Will Seed as youāll often burn way more SP fighting off the Shadow protecting it) and give great accessories for getting all three. But thereās a couple of Palaces where they donāt flow really well with the design (notably those are the ones I didnāt complete them in).
- Mementosā¦oh Mementos. Good news is that you can get more useful items within it and with the Stamp System, you can outright double your XP gain making it an actually useful area for grinding compared to before. Bad news, it requires you to explore more of Mementos which hasnāt been made any less of a slog. If you hated Mementos before, it wonāt endear itself to you any more now but at least you get rewarded for dealing with it more.
- Palace Alarm systemā¦I didnāt like. It once again makes the game painfully easier by granting a fused Persona significantly more XP and (usually) better skills. On top of that, the fucking sound you have to deal with in the Velvet Room when itās going off is so goddamn annoying I had to mute my TV every time. Unlike the other things Iāve mentioned above so far that can be considered Quality of Life changes that just happened to make the game easier, this just seemed to be something made specifically to ease the game up even more.
- The Palace bosses all had shakeups, some more interesting than othersā¦but many made fights easier. Kamoshidaās ultimate move turns into using a cognition of Shiho and Mishima, which makes it much easier to stop. Not much of a change but it was the first real boss. Madarameās turns into these clones after you stop his paintings. Once again tests your knowledge of weaknesses and the Baton Pass system and if youāre inefficient you will run out of gas. Iād argue this one was a good change overall even if the fight was made easier as it better tests your game knowledge. Kaneshiro just flips how the fight works around, nothing too major and pretty disappointing honestly (makes sense as heās still the most forgettable villain). Okumura is the one boss that actually gets more difficult as you have to defeat his waves in two turns, otherwise they just get reset. Between that, him casting a Defense Buff on one Robot and also casting Famine means way more often than not in later waves, one Robot will barely live and you have to redo the wave. Youāll often either lose because you run out of gas, or because the Time Limit expires. Youāll be forced to experiment a lot in that fight and itās still incredibly frustrating. Shido, while a better emotional payoff, also gets easier as he forces a 1v1 at the tail end of his fight but his pattern gets much more predictable and less vicious. With the right Personas or items you can avoid taking a single point of damage. Overallā¦the tweaks were cute, but only a couple Iād consider an outright improvement.
Non-Palace related stuffs:
- Thankā¦fuckingā¦Christ that they gave us free reign of Leblanc after infiltrations. We all know the memes, āYou should get some rest tonightā that made progression on stats and Confidants murder. Having shit to do inside Leblanc is huge until you max Kawakami. Sheās still a necessity if you want to complete your nighttime Confidants with any sort of speed, but at least having the ability to buff Social Stats and make tools after an Infiltration is major.
- Darts was annoying. And you have to play them in order to buff everyoneās Baton Pass. Not necessary at all, but still annoying if you want to optimize your gameplay.
- Most Confidants got a lot more useful by getting access to their better abilities earlier.
- As I mentioned the last time I discussed this, why the fuck did we not get better Cutscene Skips? It just makes a replay annoying at best even if you do love the story.
Story/Additions/Third Semester:
- Iāll start with Kasā¦I mean Sumire. Iām mixed on her addition. Prior to the Third Semester I just wasnāt a fan at all. She is blatantly shoehorned into the game and has absolutely no interaction with basically anyone outside of Joker and Morgana (outside of one interaction with Futaba). She felt completely divorced from everything and I was ready to write her off completely, especially how they handled her Awakening and usage in the Sae Heist. However once the Third Semester hit off she grew very well with the reveal of her being Sumire. I wish we got this development over the course of the entire game rather than having to slam it in the span of one month. I think she wouldāve been a fine addition to the cast had that been allowed but otherwiseā¦mixed.
- Akechiā¦hoo boy. First off, having to do an optional Confidant for him was kind of irksome as his availability was limited, you still needed to get him to Rank 8 by a certain timeframe (which involves you 1v1ing him) andā¦well if you played P5 before you know heās the psychopathic traitor so thereās not much joy in palling around with him. In fact it actually gets easier when he outright admits he hates you. Then the Third Semster happens, and we get to run around with the ātrueā Akechi who makes no bones about being a prick and outright sadist in combat. Still, I donāt think enough time was spent being pissed off at him basically murdering a whole bunch of people and trying to murder you. While the circumstances did necessitate his involvement, youād think more time would be spent on that fact. This makes the whole āgame trying to guilt you into potentially saving Akechiā thing fall flat. Heās still ādisappearedā in the real world (though with the right options itās implied in a post-credits scene that he survived after all) and the game tries to make you feel bad about it butā¦again, heās the cause of untold amounts of death and never once expressed much guilt or remorse for it. Him helping to undo Marukiās world was more of a matter of personal pride than an actual desire to do good, even if itās a sacrifice. Still it was nice to actively see Akechi act as if he normally would.
- Marukiā¦like Sumire, didnāt give much of a crap about him prior to the Third Semester. His role as the Palace Ruler though I admit was fantastic. First off I like that his very existence actively defied Morganaās explanation in Futabaās Palace that one cannot both have a Persona and a Palace (Marukiās rebellious spirit against the world trying to prevent him from saving his love would awaken his Persona, but his distorted desires as to how that should be accomplished would create a Palace. There definitely isnāt a contradiction). I also like that he showed how the path to hell can be paved with good intentions. Him wanting to Lotus-Eater Machine the entire world comes from a good place but we see various hints on how him doing so would cause more harm than good. His story comes from a good place, and I like him, his Palace (another banger theme) and even his boss fight which once again demands you have absolute mastery over Baton Pass lest you do zero damage. My only gripe with him overall is that he basically gets to walk clean after the game. No comeuppance for essentially warping the entire world into his image. I mean obviously you canāt put him into prison since his crimes were all supernatural rather than simply aided by it, but I feel he needed at least a little more penance.
- The Third Semester in general I feel didnāt take full advantage of the concept. Instead of the entire squad coming to IMMEDIATE grips over the situation of what Maruki did I wouldāve loved to see them having to personally confront each of their desires. Like I could see how Ryuji and Morgana could easily overcome their hidden desires, but Makoto and especially Futaba shouldāve taken a lot longer to come around considering their loved ones outright are brought back to life.
- Lastly, as I brought up before, the canonicity of the game is really tenable. Since everything is effectively reset to how things were prior to Maruki fucking everything up, that means almost zero changes due to P5Rās existence. Sumireās life is changed for the better (but the car accident that took Kasumiās life isnāt mentioned in the original P5 so who knows if Kasumi would still be alive there), and the group starts taking bigger strides towards the future (Ryuji and Ann moving in order to further potential careers, Haru and Makoto getting ready to go off to college and Futaba entering High School even without completing her Confidant) but nothing gamechanging really. If you donāt care about Maruki and Sumire then effectively P5R changes nothing about the world other than hinting more directly about Akechiās survival.
Okay, that was a whole lot of mess and nothing. The game is fantastic and if you haventā played P5 I still highly suggest you check out P5R. But I just wanted an outlet to vent.
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Ill read this novel when i grt home. Thanks for the write up bro.
Lol. NOBODY likes Mementos 
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I actually do like Memetos, quite a bit in fact.
With that said in happy the āRandomly generated dungeon with a repeating assets themeā has been turned into Memetos instead of being the main dungeons.
Mementos is Tarterus but upside down. No one can tell me they love P3 and hate Mementos in the same breath lol.
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The main issue is that Mementos is just generally boring both visually and gameplay wise. Like to me it visually represents what many outsiders to JRPGās consider āgrindingā to be. Just aimlessly going through hallways to fight enemies or recover items.
I didnāt address it in the ānovelā but they did at least try to mitigate that a bit in Royal. Different floors now have somewhat different aesthetics and different music, and the Third Semester Mementos hits a LOT different. Still not my favorite thing, but it at least tried to make things mildly better on that front.
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