![\"Shadow](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/p4g_mitsuo.jpg\" "\\"Shadow")
<\/a>So I’ve been playing Persona 4 Portable (P4G) this week, and am in the Void Quest dungeon. Up to this point, the game hasn’t been all that difficult, and actually, most mob battles are too easy since you can gain advantage every time and Rise will tell you the weaknesses of most enemies. As a result, they rarely get a chance to take their turn.<\/p>\nBut this guy, Shadow Mitsuo, is a different story. The difficulty spike almost seems like a mistake. I’ve now been wiped out by him 5 times using different party setups, and each of those battles has lasted approximately 30-60 minutes. Looking online yields a couple suggestions: Grind more or fuse the Black Frost Persona. Well, grinding’s out since it’s terrible here. Battles aren’t fast and painless like they are in Bravely Default or Dragon Quest. As for fusing Black Frost, I don’t have the money to buy back the 5 Personas required for this, so that brings me back to grinding, or getting lucky with Shuffle Time. Talk about a lose-lose situation.<\/p>\n
I don’t mind difficult games, and in fact, some of the hardest games I’ve ever played rank among my favorites. I did everything in Super Meat Boy, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Rayman Origins, Super Hexagon, and others. The thing is, a game needs to be fun. This? It makes me want to throw my Vita out the window.<\/p>\n
Being close to 40 hours in, do I put in the work to get my party battle-ready, or just start over on Very Easy to focus on the more personal simulation aspects of the game?<\/p>\n A tough decision draws near. Command?<\/p>\n Warning: Mild spoilers ahead. So I’ve been playing Persona 4 Portable (P4G) this week, and am in the Void Quest dungeon. Up to this point, the game hasn’t been all that difficult, and actually, most mob battles are too easy since you can gain advantage every time and Rise will tell you the weaknesses of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53],"tags":[14,3,24,22,21,23,15,20,25,8,16],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-progress-reports-vita","tag-gaming","tag-general-2","tag-p3p","tag-p4g","tag-persona","tag-persona-3-portable","tag-persona-4-golden","tag-progress-report","tag-psp","tag-turning-40","tag-vita"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4yrob-1r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=56","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":0},"title":"Progress Report: Persona 4 Golden","author":"Mike","date":"April 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I loved Persona 3 Portable (P3P) on the PSP. It was my first Persona game, and its great mix of dungeon crawling and traditional Japanese simulation gameplay was a breath of fresh air. I also really enjoyed the exceptional art style and music, making me an instant fan of Shigenori\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress Reports: Vita"","block_context":{"text":"Progress Reports: Vita","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=53"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/soejima-211x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":271,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=271","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":1},"title":"Testing the Vita Portable Charger","author":"Mike","date":"April 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be out of town tomorrow with a lot of time to kill, so it will be a great opportunity to test out the Vita Portable Charger while I continue playing through Persona 4 Golden. It claims to provide 4-7 additional hours of gaming time, so in theory, it should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hardware: Vita"","block_context":{"text":"Hardware: Vita","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=73"},"img":{"alt_text":"20140427_vita_charger","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140427_vita_charger-300x214.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=308","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":2},"title":"Progress Report: Persona 4 Golden and Social Links","author":"Mike","date":"April 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever since starting over on Very Easy, I've been flying through this game. I'm about 45 hours in, and it feels like I'm already heading into its final act. The funny thing is, I really do prefer playing it this way, even though it doesn't provide much of a challenge.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress Reports: Vita"","block_context":{"text":"Progress Reports: Vita","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=53"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-26-083426-300x170.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":229,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=229","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":3},"title":"Enjoying Japan in Persona 4 Golden","author":"Mike","date":"April 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"While dungeon crawling is an essential part of P4G, the things I've liked the most have been the events and activities that happen outside the TV World in its small, fictional town of Inaba. My ancestors are from Japan, but the last generation of my family who lived there was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress Reports: Vita"","block_context":{"text":"Progress Reports: Vita","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=53"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-25-001156.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-25-001156.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-25-001156.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-25-001156.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":389,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=389","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":4},"title":"Final Thoughts & Review: Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita)","author":"Mike","date":"May 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long road, or rather, a long school year. I began my journey in P4G back in December of 2013. Over 4 months later, I've finally completed it, achieving its true, best ending. I've written quite a bit about this game already (those entries can be found here),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews: Vita"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews: Vita","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=93"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-05-03-002538.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-05-03-002538.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-05-03-002538.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-05-03-002538.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":121,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=121","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":5},"title":"Persona 4 Golden on Very Easy","author":"Mike","date":"April 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a general rule that I will always play a game on its default difficulty first (if a choice is offered). It's been my experience that when games are designed and tested, Normal is the one that's been tweaked, balanced, and played the most. In today's terms, Normal usually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress Reports: Vita"","block_context":{"text":"Progress Reports: Vita","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=53"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-19-144222.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-19-144222.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-19-144222.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-19-144222.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>As the great Bill Cosby once said about getting older, “After a while, you learn what you want to burn your energy on.” That’s so true when it comes to games. If it ceases being fun, you either have to find a way to make it enjoyable again or move on. The thing is, I’m not ready to leave. I really like the game’s story, characters, world, and music, and want to see it through to its end.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"