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Persona Community Thread |OT3| Your thread title sucks, Yukiko.

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P

PK Gaming

Member
Moonlight said:
Definitely put me in the camp that wants P5 to stand on its' own. I really wouldn't have objections to the odd cameo (#FreeFunkyStudent), but I really like the idea of Persona games generally being fairly self-contained.

But yeah, Innocent Sin is done and it was pretty great! Don't really know where to begin, really. Although I guess I'll start at the first thing that really clicked for me when I started playing, which were the characters. In short, I loved them. I don't know how to lavish praise on them more than I'm sure has already been said, but they're well-grounded, distinctive, and their personal conflicts are by and large well-handled and well written. If there was anything motivating me to suck it up and power through some dungeon, it was the promise that they would all have something new to say in response to what's happening. Dialogue was definitely its' own reward. I especially loved Eikichi and Lisa. Just really bought into their personalities and internal dilemmas, and really liked how well they played off each other.
And not to mention, I had my fair share of surprises. Lisa calling that shop-keeper a slut, uh... wow, certainly wasn't a pulled punch. Kind of cool, though, in the sense that it's a really stark reminder that she's... definitely not the same person she is to Tatsuya.

But having beaten the game, I have to say that I'm still not a fan at all of the combat mechanics. It's not just that it feels archaic, because I can deal with archaic, honestly. I actually really liked Soul Hackers - it's that it's just not that interesting. There's two things that make up combat, which is fusion spells and turn orders, and it's... kind of dull. Shuffling around your party members every now and again because you need something done in a particular order or to use a particular fusion spell just was not that fun. As opposed to Press Turn, or hell, even One More. It has the courtesy of letting battles go by reasonably fast (with the right spell combinations), which I appreciated, at least. And the high random encounter rate really just compounded things. It was just... exhausting, I think. Certainly didn't help convince me not to put the game away for a couple hours. I appreciated tricks like Estoma, but it still demanded you sit around and grind for a while until you pull ahead in levels over every demon in the dungeon.

Funnily enough, the infamous tarot card hunting didn't really bug me all that much. I could usually end a battle in ten seconds through contacting and demons got more predictable the more you did it. It was painless, as far as those things went, although I suppose I never really went for anything outside of the spoiler-free guide's recommendations. I think I still had a healthy surplus of Free cards by the end, anyways.

In short, it joins P3 and P4 in games that are really, really great, except for the part where you actually play it.

A few things are kind of bugging me having put the game down, though. I actually think the game was kind of losing momentum by the
Temples. I think the game did a really wonderful job building up the mystery and I guess the answers weren't as good as I was hoping. I just didn't really like how prominent that In Lak'ech got in the story, I guess. I've already said this before, but it was just pretty difficult for me to reconcile all the mysticism and drama with the off-the-wall sci-fi Mayan conspiracies and Nazis and the like. I mean, yeah, it's absolutely justified but it still left me with a weird taste in my mouth. Didn't help that the game was without an obvious antagonist for a good while in the latter half (or last third?). Once Jun returned to normal (and don't get me wrong, it was a great scene), I was kind of confused on who was the main threat. His 'dad'? The Fuhrer? Both of them more or less zoomed in from left field and it's not up until the very end that there's much gravity to them when Nyarlathotep finally steps into the spotlight. And that bit where Nyarlathotep is like 'yeah, the crystal skulls never mattered at all' was... questionable. Makes the temples themselves almost feel like padding, in hindsight. Almost, because those Shadow encounters? Damn good.

I just think it's a shame, because Joker was pretty compelling while he lasted. Also, Ginji went out like a chump.

Also once the, uh, shock factor of
Lisa's Shadow faded (because wow), it sort of occurred to me that it never really went anywhere. I didn't really need a big melodramatic reconciliation scene or thorough elaboration, but it was a major "wait, what" moment and it's dropped in its' entirety immediately afterwards. Maybe it's something that's addressed more in EP?

There is something kind of cathartic about "yep, that's me" and immediately proceeding to ass-kicking, though, I will admit.

And just as an aside,
it was not entirely clear to me what happened at the end of P2IS. Ms. Okamura comes out of nowhere and stabs Maya. Or was it just another one of Nyarlathotep's projections? I thought it was a bit weird, although not enough to take the wind out of that moment's sails. In particular, I loved the epilogue. This was... a pretty optimistic game, when all was said and done. Certainly not what I was expecting tone-wise, haha. Them colliding into each other at the train stop was superb.

In short, it actually kind of shocked me how similar that Persona 2 was to 3 and 4, for good and for ill.

Oh, and I'm glad that I played Soul Hackers first, otherwise the Kuzunoha stuff would have gone way over my head otherwise.
Click to expand...

(Whistles)

What a post! I'll try and address a few of your questions.

Yeah the game's plot definitely starts to lose me when the battalion starts to show up. I just... really dislike the concept of fighting Hitler in a video game. P2IS handles it in the best way it can, but it just made me uncomfortable. It sorta pulls it back together, but by then the game is practically over. Fortunately, EP's story is pretty consistent the whole way through, and it's freaking amazing.

They don't address the shadow scenes unfortunately, and I freaking wish they did. This is why I wish P2 got a proper remake, a.l.a Persona 4 with all the bells and whistles of 3D modelling and extra content. Because there's just a ton "more"that needs to be told.

Nyarlathotep summons Ms. Okamura and has her stab Maya in order to fulfill the prophecy. Just so you know, that was unnecessary, as Ms. Okamura was willing to sacrifice herself, and Nyarlathotep did that to spite the team. He's kind of a huge bastard.

I strongly recommend playing EP if you dug the mythos. It picks up right where IS ended, with significantly higher stakes and better plot. Though the gameplay is even worse, and the production values are really low. If you liked Tatsuya then there's even more a reason to play this game because it sheds a ton of light on his character. Despite playing as Maya, it's pretty much "his game."It's a huge shame we didn't get the PSP remake of EP, because I have no doubt it would have been a fantastic game.
 
G

Gazoinks

Member
PK Gaming said:
I strongly recommend playing EP if you dug the mythos. It picks up right where IS ended, with significantly higher stakes and better plot. Though the gameplay is even worse, and the production values are really low. If you liked Tatsuya then there's even more a reason to play this game because it sheds a ton of light on his character. Despite playing as Maya, it's pretty much "his game."It's a huge shame we didn't get the PSP remake of EP, because I have no doubt it would have been a fantastic game.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, I would highly caution against going into EP immediately. I did so and got so sick of the gameplay that I've let the game sit around Mt. Iwatodai for weeks now. >.>

I'll finish it, I swear! But whenever I boot it up I just groan whenever I get into a random encounter.
 
K

kewlmyc

Member
Dantis said:
On a complete side note, Persona Rock is the worst song Meguro has ever composed. By far.
Click to expand...

tumblr_m6wrhjGzNc1r5hlbm.png
 
D

Dantis

Member
buddha0991 said:
Eh I like those P3 remixes. They sort of have an odd quirk, the remixes reveal the fate or the nature of what said song represents in a way.
Click to expand...

I love them.

I mean that Meguro kind of turns them into something they weren't originally. I feel like you can either view that as a really great cover or a really bad one. He did the same thing with the stage themes on Catherine and Parabellum II on P2EP Arrange.

EDIT: His Parabellum II remix is fucking amazing. Sounds like a Catherine song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLv7nkWahZk

EDIT 2: To compare, here's the original Parabellum II. How unusual that Meguro would incorporate an electric guitar into his mix!

buddha0991 said:
Did he do Persona Mambo? Don't think so, Persona Mambo guy superior.
Click to expand...

Meguro didn't do it, but I don't know who did either.
 
P

PK Gaming

Member
Gazoinks said:
On the other hand, I would highly caution against going into EP immediately. I did so and got so sick of the gameplay that I've let the game sit around Mt. Iwatodai for weeks now. >.>

I'll finish it, I swear! But whenever I boot it up I just groan whenever I get into a random encounter.
Click to expand...
Yeah you definitely need to pace yourself.

I started it 2 months after IS, and I STILL got burnt out. Lol.
 
M

Moonlight

Banned
PK Gaming said:
(Whistles)

What a post! I'll try and address a few of your questions.

Yeah the game's plot definitely starts to lose me when the battalion starts to show up. I just... really dislike the concept of fighting Hitler in a video game. P2IS handles it in the best way it can, but it just made me uncomfortable. It sorta pulls it back together, but by then the game is practically over. Fortunately, EP's story is pretty consistent the whole way through, and it's freaking amazing.

They don't address the shadow scenes unfortunately, and I freaking wish they did. This is why I wish P2 got a proper remake, a.l.a Persona 4 with all the bells and whistles of 3D modelling and extra content. Because there's just a ton "more"that needs to be told.

Nyarlathotep summons Ms. Okamura and has her stab Maya in order to fulfill the prophecy. Just so you know, that was unnecessary, as Ms. Okamura was willing to sacrifice herself, and Nyarlathotep did that to spite the team. He's kind of a huge bastard.

I strongly recommend playing EP if you dug the mythos. It picks up right where IS ended, with significantly higher stakes and better plot. Though the gameplay is even worse, and the production values are really low. If you liked Tatsuya then there's even more a reason to play this game because it sheds a ton of light on his character. Despite playing as Maya, it's pretty much "his game."It's a huge shame we didn't get the PSP remake of EP, because I have no doubt it would have been a fantastic game.
Click to expand...
Ah, thanks. That makes a lot more sense.
Bit of a shame about the Shadows, though. I felt like there was tons of potential there.

And I am definitely gonna play EP. I mean, I already bought it, haha. Think I'm gonna, I dunno, finish Pokemon or my latest P4G save before I try and jump back in, though. Definitely sounds like something I'm looking forward to getting around to, though.
 
S

Squire

Banned
P4A hand wringing = the continued over-analylization of what is a fun fighting game spinoff and nothing more just because "it's canon".
 
B

buddha0991

Member
Inorigo said:
P4A hand wringing = the continued over-analylization of what is a fun fighting game spinoff and nothing more just because "it's canon".
Click to expand...

blame the people who marketed it as a sequel to persona 3 and 4 and not as a fun non canon fighting game with characters that cant be there instead.
 
S

sasliquid

Member
I know im late to the party (ive had a weird last few days) but woo for OT3. I shall go back to lurking now with the rare post thrown in.

Ps. Anything happened the last few days other than the new p3 movie trailer?
 
C

Caladrius

Member
buddha0991 said:
blame the people who marketed it as a sequel to persona 3 and 4 and not as a fun non canon fighting game with characters that cant be there instead.
Click to expand...

If it were non-canon we could have had characters from ALL the Persona games! >:V

sasliquid said:
I know im late to the party (ive had a weird last few days) but woo for OT3. I shall go back to lurking now with the rare post thrown in.

Ps. Anything happened the last few days other than the new p3 movie trailer?
Click to expand...

We got new Ultimax images (on the previous 4 or so pages) but other than that, nada.
 
S

Sophia

Member
Jintor said:
no-one says or does anything

what am point
Click to expand...
Necrovex said:
That would be me. I would be in there more often, but I always see the chat dead whenever I jump on.
Click to expand...

If you joined the chatroom with your form user name and it was dead, something is horrible wrong, it's 4 AM in the morning, or key people weren't there. We're almost always chatting, especially if I'm in there.

If you didn't use your form username, and thus weren't recognized, then that's your fault!
 
S

Squire

Banned
buddha0991 said:
blame the people who marketed it as a sequel to persona 3 and 4 and not as a fun non canon fighting game with characters that cant be there instead.
Click to expand...

It is a sequel. It is canon. The marketing was not misleading, if that's what you're suggesting.

And the fun - the joke - that couldn't have been more obviously, explicitly communicated without ruining it.
 
S

Squire

Banned
buddha0991 said:
i feel dumb
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm not being clear.

It's canon in the overall story of the series, but it's a spin-off in that it's a fighting game.

The only thing P4A will have baring on in any facet is future Persona fighting games (like Ultimax!).

P5 is going to be another numbered JRPG entry in the series. The ones that came before it will be what informs it. Not P4A.

kewlmyc said:
Are we still fighting over Arena during Persona 5 Eve?
Click to expand...

No, I just think it's incredibly dumb some people express worry over P5's plot only to cite elements of P4A thereafter.
 
B

buddha0991

Member
Inorigo said:
Sorry, I'm not being clear.

It's canon in the overall story of the series, but it's a spin-off in that it's a fighting game.

The only thing P4A will have baring on in any facet is future Persona fighting games (like Ultimax!).

P5 is going to be another numbered JRPG entry in the series. The ones that came before it will be what informs it. Not P4A.



No, I just think it's incredibly dumb some people express worry over P5's plot only to cite elements of P4A thereafter.
Click to expand...


Got it. I think P5 WILL have a reference or two, but probably on the level of the p1/2 references in P3. A passing mention of the Nanjo Group, maybe a blue butterfly or two, etc.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
You know, an article or video series about female characters in SMT could be a great read/watch. I think they've always been pretty good about subverting female tropes, ever since SMT If.

smtif-group2.jpg


I don't see anyone decked out in pink or bows.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
I personally love Arena's whacked out, crazy, fanfictiony, nonsense story. It's fun, and I wasn't expecting the world out of it. Just because I think it's ridiculous doesn't mean I don't think it's fun. Just reign it in when it's time for P5, which I know they will.

But man, I don't know what's worse, waiting for Sunday or waiting for the release of the game once we've been teased.
 
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