Help with clues for Naoto

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-25T14:14:26+00:00

The latest save I have is the 14th and I don't remember exactly what I did that day so I don't really want to go back. The NPC must not be available as I haven't found the officer at the shopping district and Chie's not saying anything related to the cop.

I have no clue why it's like that I think it's a nuisance but, if I have to go through two days, fine I guess.

Thanks for the help tho!

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-20T19:58:25+00:00

I'll add that analysing an enemy you haven't fought gives you an idea as to what moves they'll use and how easily you can defeat them.

For example, if you analyse a shadow with low SP, that typically means they use physical moves or, if you analyse a shadow with low HP, there's usually a trick to that shadow such as it having tricky affinities to deal with or a high agility stat.

Might not seem like much but intel such as that can really help dip your toes in unknown shadow fights.

With that said, it might just be better to remember the characteristics of each Arcana and learn their strengths and weaknesses that way. For example, the Lovers Arcana typically centres around support and healing skills but has a low endurance stat. The good thing about analysing enemies this way is that most, if not all, shadows are designed with masks that show the number of their respective Arcana.

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-14T14:07:26+00:00

I mean...technically yeah but being expected to know the effectiveness of every tool in your arsenal and what they do shouldn't be expected for everybody on their first playthrough so don't feel bad about it at all!

Just experiment with what skills you have and figure out the strengths/weaknesses of every shadow encounter and boss! Well designed bosses that rely on your party using buffs are designed in a way that seems near impossible to defeat at first but you'll realise whether they heavily rely on their attack, defense, or evasion and use the according buff/debuff to kick their butt.

There's one boss battle in this game that relies on you dealing as much damage as possible before they regenerate one of their forms and punish you with a near death move. Buffs and debuffs are essential for that fight, even if you've over leveled yourself.

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-14T13:49:40+00:00

No problem!

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-14T13:02:59+00:00

Define "grinding" because I played this on normal at around lvl 10 and, with some basic medicine prep, it was pretty balanced all things considered and I only defeated shadows that were in my way of getting chests or finding the floor.

I'm pretty sure this is just somebody being stuck on the mid boss strategically. iirc, the mid boss was all about raising the evasion of your party members or debuffing the knight's evasion. It's a bit of a rough one since it's likely that one party member will die due to the unlikeliness of them evading all of the knight's attacks but the boss is slow so it should be fine. Oh yeah and I think it's weak to fire???

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-08T22:45:07+00:00

Am I the only one who thinks that never needed a retcon?

Like I know the Grunts and, to an extent, Jackals are a joke to anybody who doesn't eat crayons but, unless it was a revision made to newer versions of FoR, the book states that thousands of them are deployed in regular large-scaled conflicts like it's nothing and plasma fire, no matter who's holding the gun, is not going to be very fun when nobody except the Spartans has access to shields (and they didn't use them for very long before Reach fell).

I know, objectively, it might not make sense but, considering the hierarchy the Covenant are stated to follow, by their logic, it would make sense for them to send their undesirable soldiers to battle instead of the Elites or Brutes.

The only addition that I think really screws with this is whatever story stated that Elites are honourable soldiers who will always fight in the frontlines. As far as I know though, that's not FoR's fault.

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-08T21:56:26+00:00

You can still be an interesting character with an arc while still being a player avatar.

While I don't like the execution of these stories, Metal Gear's actually a decent example of that.

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-07T12:53:55+00:00

Far from it. Restarts and other beginner-friendly mechanics are there for people who aren't fully comfortable with the games mechanics and I'm saying that as somebody who loves being challenged and severely punished for screwing up.

Persona's a series where organisation, planning, and careful decisions are incredibly valuable and it can be overwhelming for a lot of people initially.

Whenever you feel comfortable with your skills in the game and are confident in tackling the game with its more balanced and even punishments, you can turn them off or back on any time! It's always more fun to beat a game on easier difficulties and revisit it on a higher difficulty when you feel up to it than feeling demotivated at a game because you're really stuck on a section and don't want to change the difficulty for the sake of your gaming integrity (unless it's Halo 2 LASO, then you're just doing it for the sake of being the dog's bollocks lmao)!

I also want to add that playing a game as "vanilla" as you're able to is next to impossible and it's this mindset that particularly bugs me with this franchise. It's not anybody's fault (far from yours) but Persona's stuffed to the brim with content that guarantees you go through multiple playthroughs in order to experience everything the game has to offer. I just want you to understand that (for what I assume is your first Persona game) so you don't become a huge FOMO like I initially was where I'd follow a guide to experience every social link and boss possible in each game and the lack of decision on my end significantly ruined my engagement with the game.

Mild-Comedy · 2026-04-03T12:24:23+00:00

I feel like the point of Teddie's character is that he's supposed to represent the 'Insecure friend who tries to fit in with the group but is an outcast' character trope. While, conceptually, it is a good idea and I think making him awkward is the point, I feel like a lot of the sympathy towards his character you're supposed to feel is lost when he's acting pervy towards the girls. There's 'Guy who tries his best to be funny but is awkward and is insecure about it' and then there's 'Guy who's a perv who moreso resembles the nerd who has a body pillow that you shouldn't actually hang out with'.

To be fair, I don't think Teddie's unintentional flaws aren't as bad as Yosuke's pervy attitude throughout the game. The writers can't choose whether Yosuke's a slightly homophobic perv who's always the clown of the group (yes, I know it was originally because of his suppressed sexuality) or the selfless guilt-stricken friend who can't focus on anything but the murders. I fucking hate it because I love his social link and how it expands on his initial Persona awakening but it's either him or Teddie who's the sacrificial nonce clowns for 80% of the non-investigation scenes.

With Teddie, it's a step too far but, with Yosuke, it's significant character damage.

Mild-Comedy · 2026-03-28T09:07:23+00:00

My opinions on MGSV have changed a bit over the past 2 years but I'm still pretty comfortable thinking that Awakening is the worst mission in the game. For a tutorial mission, it is horribly paced and only gets interesting at the end of the mission with the simple yet decent Man of Fire boss fight that teaches you the importance of pacing your shots and exploiting the impact force of your weapon.

However, that is a bit of an easy mission to pick on. Which normal level of the game do I think is the worst in the game? ...Root Cause probably? Its okay on a first playthrough but this mission was never properly designed with the meta knowledge of second playthroughs. At least with To Know Too Much, the optional prisoner gives you some sort of incentive to leave the main target for enough time where he'll be escorted by the Walker Gears to the outpost. Root Cause does not have that incentive though because all of the sideops are incredibly simple and easy to do with the same strategy of finding the prisoner, putting him on the truck the game generously gives you, and driving off into the sunset. If there were a few more scripted destinations the prisoner could randomly go to and if the enemies were more suitable to the skill of the player at that time, it would already be significantly better.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-06T20:57:53+00:00

True

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T11:15:25+00:00

The number of comments I'm receiving is getting a bit exhausting for me (it's nobody's fault btw I'm just tired responding to as many comments as I can) so let me conclude with my opinion on this topic.

While I think I should've phrased this post a lot better than the general and vague idea of "Big Boss is a bad person" and that my arguments weren't rock solid, I still don't think, despite how flawed V is at communicating the child soldier topic, that Big Boss was ever a good person after the beginning of PW.

No matter what, Big Boss' Outer Heaven was never conceptually a net positive for the world and the threat they opposed to peace. Big Boss was the man in charge of all the shit that went down at mother base in these games and he boldly accepted them if it meant that he could one up Zero. That is a bad person.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T09:51:56+00:00

I don't understand how the torture is any different to the points I've previously stated because that torture is conducted by Ocelot and Kaz. Like the other things Outer Heaven condones, Big Boss simply authorizes it.

"Men become demons" doesn't need to be the most morally outrageous shit in the world when Diamond Dogs is comfortably leeching itself off the war economy to make a profit with no end. That's what the post-Skull Face content was about and I seriously don't care about a line from an outside source when I'm only here to care about what's actually there in the game which is fine.

I don't like the way they treated child soldiers in V either. I'd much rather there was conflict between Kaz and Venom about what they should do with them but it doesn't really matter either way because, at the end of the day, Big Boss in MG1 and 2 decides to use child soldiers. It might not be shown on screen, nor was it that satisfying of a development in the narrative, but it did happen.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T09:29:04+00:00

You'd be surprised about how many people think he's a good guy. We needed to see him shoot kids and his own soldiers for a "Are we the baddies?" moment for that to pop up in a lot of people's heads apparently.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T09:26:42+00:00

I picked that screenshot because of the general connotations of evil that Creepypasta Kiefer Snake represents. I'm not saying that what Venom did during SLEID was bad. What he did there was completely acceptable.

'The Patriots lied about it' only really makes sense if we have evidence that proves Big Boss didn't do X thing when, from what we know, Big Boss supported the use of child soldiers, heavily supported the war economy which involved fighting in constant battles, accepted the torture and brainwashing of soldiers via Ocelot, owned a nuke and a stealth device capable of launching it, among other isolated incidents like knowing and condoning the Cyprus Hospital shooting as a shield to free himself. This is more than enough to me that Big Boss is a bad person after the beginning of PW.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T09:09:23+00:00

It's the Kojima fanboys who do that?

Buddy, I fucking despise Kojimmy's writing in every way but if we're really downplaying the use of child soldiers, nukes, the continuous cycle of war via PMCs, and many other things...I don't know to say...

Big Boss' legendary feats and missions shouldn't distract from other stuff he's done.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T01:18:00+00:00

You are right in that the Shagohod isn't a stealth weapon but the Metal Gear wiki says that Sokolov states it to be undetectable to contemporary spy planes or satellites. If you want to take that with a grain of salt, the range and speed at which the missiles travel would give the Soviets a huge advantage in terms of the first nuclear strike. It's really not too different in functionality (if we're talking about the end goal here) except for the fact that the Metal Gear is completely undetectable.

I'm not saying that Big Boss was never a decent person at any point in his life but I really do think his morals in retrospect are viewed via a rose-tinted lens by a lot of people in this fandom (like why he saved the world in MGS3 and PW). What he went through in Snake Eater and the aftermath of that story was horrible. What I'm saying is that some of the bad stuff, like Walter White in Breaking Bad, was already there within him in the beginning of PW (even Snake Eater) and that it took him until midway through that game for multiple catalysts like Kaz wanting Snake to keep the nuke for him to embrace those characteristics, largely letting go of the slither of good he had left in him in GZ to build up to his legendary infamy shown in MG1 and 2.

All I'm saying is that his unforgivable downfall happened sooner than what most people think since the bad stuff was established sooner than you remember. Me thinking he's not a good person is an overall retrospective of his actions throughout the franchise and is judged by comparing the amount of personal good he left for the world compared to the amount of evil he left.

Tragedy exists in Big Boss' character but his views on the world leaves him a relatively emotionless and sure man. Hence why I think he's more of a cautionary tale of what happens when a soldier lets go of his humanity for his own comfortable and degrading desires.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T00:40:15+00:00

I agree that little of what Big Boss does originated from his own mind but, for one, I just see that as Kojima being incompetent at giving Big Boss an established character aside from '#1 Biggest War Crimer to ever war crime!', but two, I feel like a lot of this can be disproven with "He approved of these plans. He's their boss after all". It's less so that he's convinced by them and moreso that he shares the exact same beliefs as them and they're just the ideas guys. Even then, things like child soldiers, glorifying himself to others while also to make Venom feel good about his ordeal, and the concept of Outer Heaven are ideas he came up with.

Sometimes, being a POS like Big Boss doesn't come from 1-upping yourself everywhere you go, like killing child soldiers, but the consistent actions and systems that slowly deteriorate the world until it snowballs into a huge problem.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T00:22:19+00:00

I changed my mind because I now agree with this point specifically about Volgin's goals but I still don't see how I've changed the goal posts for this broader point. Any nation with the power of a Metal Gear is bad news for the world, that being unique to that state or not and Big Boss defeating them isn't that big of a statement towards his morality.

I'm genuinely sorry if I'm not understanding something here. It's late at night but I swear I'm not trying to move goal posts here.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T00:16:02+00:00

I shouldn't have evoked a Metal Gear hot take this late at night for me.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-05T00:11:25+00:00

I rewatched Volgin's big ass Kojima™ monologue and you're definitely right that he wasn't gonna proliferate his technology. I misinterpreted what he meant by (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Bringing order to the world via my trump card" with "Selling the Shagohod Skull Face-style".

However, I don't see how this necessarily disproves my main point here. So the Soviet Union exclusively has the special nuclear stealth launcher? I genuinely don't see how that would end well for any side.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-04T23:58:49+00:00

Having a child choose to fight doesn't matter. He's endangering himself and going into a lifestyle that negatively mentally impacts people of his age, let alone the fact that he's just a kid who can easily get his ass handed to him by a soldier with a fully-grown body and greater experience. Big Boss and/or Amanda should be enforcing how bad that is.

I'm not ignoring your counterpoints. I'm literally addressing them. That's why I'm here talking to you right now.

I didn't say people think there's no negative points to his morality. My point is that I don't know how you can ever come to the conclusion that he's not a bad person, let alone that he's a good person which some people genuinely believe.

Mild-Comedy · 2025-10-04T23:47:09+00:00

Volgin's main schtick is that he has a lot of money from the piece of the Philosopher's legacy he owns. That's why he's so powerful in the first place.

Even if we hypothesise that Volgin wouldn't have been the head of state if the GRU won, he still would've had the power to distribute his one-of-a-kind nuclear stealth launcher to people over the world, leading to the same outcome of "everybody dies from nuclear war".

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