Modder confirms Futaba's accessory slot does absolutely nothing

[u/olliedathird]

EDIT: I followed up with DeathChaos and they confirm that the both the Expedite Ring (+50% XP) and Team Glasses (+15% XP) work on Futaba, but the rest, including the SEES armband do not. I apologize for any further complications I may have caused in the community.

(NEW THREAD)

Everything below this line is outdated information.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

For years, its been debated whether or not if changing anything in Futaba's equipment menu has any affect on gameplay, and well known SMT and Persona modder DeathChaos puts all conflicting info about which accessory to give Futaba to rest, by revealing that she doesn't benefit from any accessory or armor.

So...

- Her outfit change can only be seen in safe areas and non animated cutscenes

- Armor does nothing

- No accessories do anything

[u/ApprehensiveDuck8718]

Knowing that changing the amour and charm does absolutely nothing I wonder why the devs even allow the player to do this.

[u/ScotTheDuck → u/ApprehensiveDuck8718]

The same reason she has HP and SP. It’s to give the game something to fall back on if you hack her into your party without crashing.

[u/DrarenThiralas → u/ScotTheDuck]

Why would the devs care if the game crashes when you hack it? If you hack the game and it crashes, that's on you, no?

[u/AnotherStatsGuy → u/DrarenThiralas]

It’s probably a precautionary thing. Futaba not having HP or SP might screw with the rest of the code.

[u/dumdub → u/AnotherStatsGuy]

It takes extra programming work to remove these things from her. If all cars in a game have four wheels, it takes extra work to add two wheeled motor bikes. Sometimes it's just easier to put two tiny "toy wheels" inside the body of the motorbike somewhere nobody can see them.

[u/TheWellKnownLegend → u/dumdub]

The real hack is to put both front wheels and both rear wheels in exactly the same spot, overlapping. so you don't have to change the turning logic.

[u/Pedro_henzel → u/dumdub]

You know. This is something that makes game dev somewhat funny.

Patchwork everywhere

[u/Darkiceflame → u/Pedro_henzel]

"If it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid."

[u/oatmeal-ml-goatmeal → u/Darkiceflame]

-Thor, probably

[u/Baconator-X → u/DrarenThiralas]

Cause that is considered good coding practice. Having a flexible system is one of the things to achieve.

[u/Kentaiga → u/ScotTheDuck]

Probably not true. She is a party member, so she inherits all the same code that every party member does. You can equip armor and accessories because every party member can do that, and they didn’t bother to override the parent code with something in the child in this instance. They probably did not even think about modding, this is just the result of code inheritance.

[u/Cronogunpla → u/Kentaiga]

This is the actual answer. It's also possible that it was disabled later on when a feature didn't work out, some thing like a stats check for when you use a specific ability.

[u/h8mx → u/ApprehensiveDuck8718]

Immersion.

[u/HungryMudkips → u/ApprehensiveDuck8718]

it could just be a scrapped feature, like they might have intended her to actually be playable at some point in development and just gave up halfway.

[u/EtherealShady → u/HungryMudkips]

I doubt it, considering the same thing exists for Fuuka in Persona 3 Reload

I think it's most likely just a placeholder

[u/E17Omm → u/EtherealShady]

Could be either or. Akechi and Kasumi both have mouse forms despite never being accessible in a Palace with a mouse debuff.

[u/majker1337 → u/E17Omm]

Palace with a mouse debuff

IIRC there's an enemy who can do that. I think that was Mot?

[u/PixelHaunt → u/majker1337]

Only the Mot miniboss in Futabas palace can use the move

[u/Dankmagic51 → u/ApprehensiveDuck8718]

Probably the only way the code would allow you to change her outfit

[u/CelestikaLily]

My weakness is I still equip Futaba's accessory slot with her own Ring of Wrath..... listen she earned that boost fair and square, might as well get a sick ring from her trauma ¯|(ツ)|¯

[u/Edge_Grinder]

I thought the XP boost actually did something.

[u/saltier_than_u → u/Edge_Grinder]

Yeah I could have sworn she was levelling up faster than everyone else.

[u/Specific_Fold_8646 → u/saltier_than_u]

Because unless you got Mishima maxed out so that all the reserve thieves earn the same exp with active members, she will earn more than the rest because she is treated as an active thieve.

[u/olliedathird → u/Edge_Grinder]

You're right. I followed up with DeathChaos and they confirm that the both the Expedite Ring and Team Glasses work on Futaba, but the rest do not. I'll edit this post and make a new one with the new info they've provided

[u/Belteshazzar98]

The modder is very easily disproven. Create a save where she is equal level to another party member. Then grind until they both level up with her wearing an XP boost item and reload to do the same grind with her not wearing one. There will be a noticeable difference in how closely they level up together.

[u/KingHazeel]

I'm sorry, but this is a load of bunk.

The argument relies on a non-sequitur. Futaba's inventory checks if she's in the Active Party, therefore it doesn't effect her. Except she's always in the Active Party.

As such, when equipping her with EXP +50%, she becomes higher level than Ren.

[u/olliedathird → u/KingHazeel]

You're right. I followed up with DeathChaos and they confirm that the both the Expedite Ring and Team Glasses work on Futaba, but the rest do not. I'll edit this post and make a new one with the new info they've provided

[u/Informal-Tour-8201]

I give her the Expedite ring or the Team Glasses and she does level up faster

[u/ChameleonOnReddit]

Maybe I'm delusional, but I feel like when I equip luck buffing equipment on her, she actually triggers her assists ever so slightly more often.

Plus, and that is definetely not just my imagination but proven, she gains extra EXP with both the Team Glasses and the Expedite Ring.

I'm gonna try the Invisible veil on her too and come back to this comment, if it does something on her.

edit: You can't equip the invisible veil on Futaba, it doesn't even show up, just like the Willseed-rings.

[u/hmmmmwillthiswork]

i wish the main game would've had hacking sections like strikers does and you had to protect futaba. would've made for some interesting battles

[u/LongBark → u/hmmmmwillthiswork]

That doesnt really work as well with a static turn-based system like p5, as it would essentially just be a regular battle you just can't run from

[u/NintendoBoy321 → u/LongBark]

Or, you could make it so that Futaba is a character that the shadows can attack as well as the 4 phantom thieves and if she gets knocked down, you have to use revival skills/items to bring her back.

[u/hmmmmwillthiswork → u/LongBark]

they could've made some sort of gimmick to spice up the battle lol

[u/PanDPandJa]

does futaba have any use at all for sp/hp? i havent played p5r in a while and ik fuuka has a reason for sp in p3r so

[u/Carolinesimpsanime → u/PanDPandJa]

No, it doesn't unlike Fuuka these stats don't do anything since she doesn't have any skills that need sp to activate. As someone else here said, I think it's just to prevent the game from breaking in case someone tries to hack the game, sort of like how party members have "unused" placeholder code for costume sets they can't equip (like swimsuits or tracksuits for Morgana and Futaba)

[u/Unoriginal__Idea → u/Carolinesimpsanime]

Kind of wish she did have some way to spend sp and actually had stats matter so she's not just basically extra ui and game mechanics and instead is actually somewhat meaningfully "playable"

[u/OKFortune56]

That's...objectively not true. 

If none of the accessories did anything,  she wouldn't be outpacing other party members in exp with Team Glasses or Expedite Ring.

You can also see her stats increase with certain armor. The debate was always over whether her luck stat did anything and whether it was worth adding armor that increases it.

[u/fuckR196 → u/OKFortune56]

Their logic is fundamentally flawed. They say the accessories only check the active party, but Futaba is always a part of the active party.

[u/olliedathird → u/OKFortune56]

Increasing her Luck has never done anything. It's a placebo if anything. Her outpacing her teammates stim from the fact that she's always with Joker (but never counted as an active party member, strangely enough).

[u/OKFortune56 → u/olliedathird]

Yet she can outpace all the other party members, even if they never leave. But only with the accessory. 

[u/OKFortune56 → u/[deleted]]

You could just test this yourself...although I suppose that'd require a Persona fan to play a Persona game.

[u/redf389 → u/OKFortune56]

Orbital Ion Cannon level burn

[u/James6411 → u/OKFortune56]

[u/OKFortune56 → u/[deleted]]

What broken code? It checks if she's an active party member, which she always is baring the start of third semester. 

[u/Jeryhn → u/[deleted]]

Seems like if we're considering the source of the information in the original post to be valid, then the same source would be able to provide an EXP table from the game to verify this.

[u/HopeBagels2495 → u/OKFortune56]

"That's objectively not true" vs the actual objective source showing its true

[u/ASimpleCancerCell]

You can give her the accessory to increase her EXP yield. I know that works. It caused her to reach max level before even Joker.

[u/pansexualsnorlax]

I could’ve sworn that the SEES Armband on her got me more money in fights

[u/Purple-Jester777]

Okay but if I believe hard enough it will, right?