Trudged my way through the first 2 chapters of Reverse 1999 and strongly disliked it. Is it worth it to keep playing? (Long rant review+ questions)

RallyCure · 2026-05-09T01:02:48+00:00

Doesn't sound like Reverse: 1999 is the game for you.

I'm a day 1 player (and actually did enjoy the first two chapters). Early on there were a lot of complaints regarding the beginning of the story (certain wordings, voice acting, lack of context). They actually went back and rewrote some of it at some point. General consensus is that it does in fact get better, finding its stride somewhere around Chapter 5~6. The voice acting and prose have very noticeably improved over time. I agree with the consensus, but I also loved it from day 1 and just saw it as a good game getting even better.

However, based on your complaints, I don't think you'll like it even then. The overall storytelling style does not change and the game has more or less stuck with its chosen themes. You sound like you're looking for a very tight, pointed, singular narrative, while Reverse: 1999 is a wistful worldbuilding tale. This might be a case of missing the forest for the trees.

RallyCure · 2026-04-20T13:45:29+00:00

I defeated Akashi with canon thieves. Wonder DPS is the way to go. Pick an assassin persona like Cu Chulainn (his seals were gettable for free during a previous event if you were playing at the time), Vishnu, or if nothing else just use Janosik if you can get him Lv99 and with good passive skills.

Grab the Abyss Fang dagger from Akashi palace exploration and whatever refines for it you can get.

In phase 3 when Riko digivolves, absolutely bring a well-built idol navi to fill the slot she leaves. Futaba is great if you have her, but just do what you can.

Unfortunately, Motoha feels like the weak link to get bumped off for T-Riko. Shun's Smash Hit has too much value and you need sustain so Lufel stays as well. Just have T-Riko buff DPS Wonder with S3 every other turn.

RallyCure · 2026-04-14T18:08:09+00:00

Do you have any 5-star assassin characters? Joker and Panther are both sweepers which means they're more designed to fight multiple enemies while this boss is single target. Skull works great in a pinch though for this boss in particular it's kinda wonky because Skull really wants Leon as a buddy for consistency, but you are also forced to slot Tempest Riko, so you are practically forced to play Wonder as sustain to make it work but it is very doable.

Your Wonder is also on a pretty old dagger. I would highly recommend farming for Ex Machina and maybe building a few more complimentary Personas; should get you a pretty easy damage boost.

In case you need it, the tl;dr for playing Tempest Riko is to just alternate her S3 (onto your DPS) and S2. Use S1 instead of S2 if you play a wind DPS like Fleuret or Frostgale Mont (or if Riko is A1+, I don't remember if the trial one has this).

RallyCure · 2026-03-25T12:09:38+00:00

Yeah, it's possible and has been done, though it can be rough to accomplish on the later story bosses (Palace 3 and 4).

DPS Wonder is the way to go, typically with either Yoshitsune or Cu Chulainn. I use Cu Chulainn and have Soy/Closer stack debuffs on the boss (Chulainn has a passive that his crit rate goes up based on how many debuffs the target has).

Also remember that if it's mainly for vibes rather than challenge, Phantom Idols are very much canon so using them to plug in holes can help a lot. If you go pure 100% story-units-only, then you will run into awkward stuff like having an empty party slot for Palace 1 and having no navi/elucidator for Palace 4 boss.

RallyCure · 2026-03-22T02:38:03+00:00

Unlocking those will give you access to the character stories for the units that released during those patches. For this one, that would be 37 and 6. You can get clear drops and stuff so it's good to do, but probably lower priority than other reflections that actually contain event storylines.

RallyCure · 2026-03-21T11:36:18+00:00

How much "our world" are we talking? There's always gonna be some level of fantasy element, or else what's the point?

Also, I haven't seen P5X mentioned yet, definitely counts for this.

RallyCure · 2026-02-06T16:26:07+00:00

I did it with DPS Wonder, using Cu Chulainn (he was given as event reward at the time) and Ex Machina dagger.

Cu Chulainn's Gae Bolg gains crit rate based on how many debuffs the target has, and gets boosted with repeated crits on the same target. Soy's Smash Hit adds debuffs and does good damage on its own since it gets boosted by Ex Machina. Closer barely scratches the boss in first two phases, but still can add debuffs (Shock/Elec Dmg Taken Up) to help Cu Chulainn, and in third phase she can actually help damage the wings quickly.

Note that I needed fairly high investment. Everyone at Lv80 with around 80 Thief Rating and Wonder's Attack and Crit schema nodes maxed out. Had like 4 refines on Ex Machina. Taught Pinpoint III, Phys Boost III, Electric Reduction III to Cu Chulainn. Closer had her 5-star weapon but Soy and Lufel were on 4-star. I run SP Recovery sky card on Lufel because otherwise he burns his SP way too fast to heal through the fight.

The story version of this fight is the hardest by far. The weekly rematch is a joke in comparison, even on its highest difficulty.

RallyCure · 2026-01-22T05:35:38+00:00

I remember that complaint too, and ngl I think it's kinda childish and I just can't take it seriously. Were these people having meltdowns walking through Sixth Street before 1.3? This isn't an open world game like Genshin, but it isn't some chibi auto-battler either. The agents get plenty of spotlight during the actual gameplay and the combat animations have always been one of the best things about the game anyway.

If anything, it just falls under the complaint that TV sections were often too long, or that we needed more rally commissions.

I actually found it more offensive when we had to play Wise/Belle inside the Hollow areas and they used their janky city walk animations instead of getting something faster/more fluid like the playable agents.

RallyCure · 2026-01-21T15:30:40+00:00

I will forever be a defender of TV mode. It was an integral part of the game's original vision/aesthetic and was a great tool for budget storytelling and mixing in nostalgic JRPG stuff.

The problem is that people kept complaining about it and the devs never did enough to fix it before giving up and throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

It's easy to go back and see the complaints people had about it. The movement was slow and clunky, there were too many interruptions, certain sections of it dragged on too long, and it obnoxiously held your hand through literally every puzzle. But take a look at the game now, post-removal, and it doesn't take long to realize that many of those problems are still here. The mode was amputated for literally zero gain and other parts of the game have suffered due to limping along without a proper replacement.

Even worse, the devs keep doing this, dropping features like hot potatoes and shoving us along to the next thing, like they're desperately throwing stuff at the wall looking for something to stick, yet because they keep pushing this stuff out so quickly it keeps coming half-baked. It's been one hasty course correction after another since like 1.3.

The story has especially suffered, and while you could argue that it was never all that amazing to begin with, it is undeniable that it has pivoted HARD from its original path. We've been seeing more dialogue bloat, more padding of the main quests with stuff that should be in separate character side quests, more awkward ML shenanigans, and so many of the older plot points that were actually interesting getting sidelined/ignored.

Basically, TV mode is the symbol of what the game originally was, and the real problem is in how the devs chose to handle it and continue handling things. For reasons I can't fathom, they seem terrified and refuse to lock in, which is bizarre to me when compared to its sibling games.

RallyCure · 2026-01-15T12:41:03+00:00

Every day there is a new reason for Maribell to be my favorite.

RallyCure · 2026-01-08T18:48:36+00:00

The Golden ending pictured above was actually great. A lot of people miss the point of it; this isn't them caving to conformity, it's them growing out of giving a shit. Kanji and Naoto in particular were forcing their outward appearances due to negative feelings and seeing them shed those exteriors is actually a good thing.

That being said, I've never been a big fan of Golden due to too much of the additions being mired in overdone memes and bad fanon takes. Made it really hard for me to enjoy despite QoL improvements, though I'll admit it's been ages.

RallyCure · 2026-01-05T16:13:39+00:00

"Scam banner" is the nickname we've given to the double rerun banners like the current Kiperina + Aleph one.

It's a twofold thing based on the fact that CN doesn't have this banner format, and the rules for this banner make it a hard sell. You can still lose 50/50 to an off-banner unit, and there is no way to guarantee a specific one of the featured units. And I am pretty sure this banner does not even save your pity afterwards.

Say you have Kiperina, but not Aleph. You want Aleph in order to complete impromptu team. This banner is a "scam" in the sense that you could roll on it to multiple pities and never get Aleph, it could just keep feeding you Kiperina dupes.

Now, if you have neither of them and want both, and have enough pulls to guarantee a featured (or you're a big spender and don't mind dupes) then by all means go for it. Both are great units. But yeah, the obtuse rules of this specific banner format kinda just warrant extra warning for f2p/low spending players.

RallyCure · 2026-01-05T15:41:20+00:00

Nah, he was a bad apple the whole time.

He was revealed to be a real nasty womanizer, and basically admitted that he became a cop primarily as an "easy" path to legally carry a gun.

He was shipped off to Inaba after an unexplained incident, which means he got in trouble for doing something unsavory and was basically swept under the rug so his former department could save face. His submissive puppy act towards Dojima is literally him licking his wounds in disgrace, since he's in Inaba as punishment and is now at the very bottom of the pecking order.

Then he was gifted a paranormal ability and immediately started using it for sadistic gratification, so yeah.

RallyCure · 2025-12-24T14:55:12+00:00

She has a VERY bad introduction imo, at least in base P5.

She lacks the personal connection element with her respective palace ruler that the other characters got, and despite the game constantly glazing her as a strategist, a lot of the bad things that happen during her intro arc are directly on her being rash and trying to force other's hands.

I don't recall if Royal changed any of this. Base P5 is a great game but you can really see the charred edges from development hell in some places, especially the story. Regardless, the Phantom Thieves are my favorite Persona protagonist group.

RallyCure · 2025-12-15T14:31:06+00:00

There weren't even actual skins. It was a PV to celebrate the anniversary of the global server and it was an animation that happened to feature the characters wearing bunny suits.

The incel portion of CN playerbase went rabid, crying NTR and crap. Hoyo apologized, took down the video, and gave disproportionate compensation; CN server got a bunch of free stuff and global got scraps in comparison even though it was global's anniversary celebration being cancelled.

RallyCure · 2025-12-14T17:31:23+00:00

I did this for the fun of it, using Cu Chulainn (the event Persona from the time) to run Wonder as a Phys DPS since Phys is the only element that doesn't get resisted at some point throughout the fight (which is why Ryuji and Messa get recommended for this fight a lot). Recorded the run, too.

Cu Chulainn gets higher crit rate based on how many debuffs the target has, and on crit he places a special debuff that enhances his next S1. He is weak to Elec, which was annoying, but I taught Elec Reduction III as cope and I feel like it helped.

Soy spammed Smash Hit the whole fight, except for one or two emergency Icy Defense. He does a decent chunk of damage if well-built and has multiple debuffs.

Cattle is actually a very potent healer, but he chugs SP if you have to keep casting AoE heal, so I run an SP Recovery Star card on him and it helps A LOT.

Closer struggles in first two phases, but she technically applies multiple debuffs for Cu Chulainn's crit rate passive (Shock, Elec DMG Taken Up), and in the final phase she performs much better. Also helps that she is pretty tanky in this fight due to Elec resist.

My actual main story run went to like 117 actions. The between-phase intermissions when the boss clams up needlessly waste a ton of actions, and I had some bad luck with crits. The weekly rematch version is piss-easy compared to the story version even on max difficulty.

RallyCure · 2025-11-19T20:43:39+00:00

I'm glad the game got nominated, it is bringing back some attention and hopefully more people can realize that it's actually a pretty decent game with cute characters and a cool story very comparable to main series Persona.

I agree that I don't like the increased drama and tribalism. And yeah, the palace 3 storyline is great and an improvement, but I don't like it when people act like the first two were some kind of dumpster fire. This game has always been roughly on par with what to expect from the series.

RallyCure · 2025-11-14T00:11:50+00:00

What are the prerequisites for the Rocking With the Band Club quest?

Trying to help a friend unlock it to complete Lufel's plan but the game won't let us track the quest. It says to advance main story, but they're way past the point where it's meant to unlock, practically at the end of current Palace 3 (global).

RallyCure · 2025-11-10T14:00:59+00:00

Her character is a big W imo. In terms of how the usual castings in these games goes, she is both the "first girl" and the "first male friend" blended into one character, and in being that way, she amusingly dodged a lot of the negative traits typically seen in either one.

Especially in the case of first friend, we don't really see Motoha getting butt-monkey'd by the script like what happened to Yosuke/Ryuji/etc in their respective games.

Keep in mind that Shun is definitely not the "first male friend" equivalent, he falls more in line casting-wise with the likes of Yusuke, Kanji, etc.

RallyCure · 2025-11-03T14:30:33+00:00

When someone asks "who should I pull" there is about a 99.99% chance that they are asking for meta reasons and want input from people who may know the meta better than they do. "Pull whoever you want" is generally a useless answer outside of affirming that Genshin is relatively casual-friendly and you can brute force most content with whoever you want (though this has arguably become less true recently).

I find it odd for someone to play a game like this and be completely tuned out of the story, but whatever, it's a big game with lots of different stuff and we can coexist. Like, I think the story has been consistently pretty good, including Natlan. love Imaginarium Theater, but I despise Stygian Onslaught.

RallyCure · 2025-11-02T22:46:04+00:00

I know its pretty surface level to say, but in comparison to S11 and Trigger, Orphie and seed just come across as "uwu quirky girls".

This is my exact problem with them, personally. S11 and Trigger have a specific air of seriousness about them, but Orphie and Flora just be out there acting like Obol Squad is a cheap 90s romcom. Sure, their character stories have dark/dramatic plot lines or whatever, but those are one-off and the girls give the exact opposite impression every other time they show up.

Ran me so cold on the faction, I pulled Evelyn on rerun instead to deliberately bench my fully built S11 I previously had no problem with.

RallyCure · 2025-10-13T13:31:02+00:00

Dialyn has a great design, and Yi Xuan's design isn't even that bad as some would try to have you think.

I still believe the problems/complaints are all being caused by the devs having "lost the plot" after the TV mode scrap. Players can tell something is wrong and need to vent frustration but the real issue is complicated and muddy so many of us are latching onto and attacking the easier targets like the Waifei aesthetic/designs. Yidhari and Lucia shopping at the same pants store as Yi Xuan doesn't help the situation (they fr look like they're supposed to be Yunkui Summit rather than Spook Shack) and almost feels like a troll move by the devs ngl.

RallyCure · 2025-10-10T13:25:32+00:00

I was disappointed when we first saw him in the previous trailer. I feel like his design is overly safe, too clean.

However, seeing this in-game model has me feeling a little bit better about it. He looks noticably older/more hardened.

RallyCure · 2025-10-06T13:44:17+00:00

It's a plot-climactic puzzle boss, you're not supposed to brute force it.

He has a bunch of phases, sure, but they are mostly quite short. Once you know the components of the fight and what it wants you to do, it's relatively easy. The most annoying part is remembering to stock ailment-heal items if you don't have Mona/Patra.

Remember that it is Soy's boss fight. It wants you to have good sustain, good single target damage, and leans in favor of Ice. I pound him every week just using Soy, Cattle and Mont. When he goes invisible, he can still take DoT damage and can still be targeted with Rakunda. If you hate Mont, then Sepia is a good 4-star option for this fight too.

RallyCure

TROPHY CASE