-They both have the Lovers arcana
-They're both obsessed with the main protagonist
-They both had a brief stint as idols (though Rise continued, while Lisa stopped being an idol)
They're pretty different in temperament though. Lisa is brash and superficial whereas Rise is kind and judicious.
I dunno man, I think dark meaning "gritty, visceral, violent, brooding, and """"""MATURE"""'"", has existed at least since Marvel comics decided to use those exact themes in the late 80's early 90's in all of their comic books to appeal to an older demographic and make more headway against DC. Wrestling had an era like that too.
I think The Dark Knight was less about being gritty visceral, violent, and brooding and more about being a really realistic take on batman, almost to the point that it's not even batman. Since then the trend has been more take out fantastical elements of children's comic books and make it feel "raw" and "plausible". But quite frankly, this was already happening with Bayformers along with a lot of stuff. I've never really thought of TDK as dark, but just a very realistic take.
The idea of maturing up a kid's story has been happening for a long time. Although, I think TDK is my point of contention. I don't really see that as being the catalyst to what you're talking about. Honestly, the bigger trend is "darkifying" fairy tales, thanks to good ol' Twilight. TDK has been influential, but I feel like we're talking about two different trends. But we're splitting hairs here. Regardless of where and when it originated, it's a real and endlessly frustrating trend that clearly annoys us both.
I talking about lasting effects on our culture, and the difference between TDK and X-men comics in the 90's is this: The Dark Knight made 800 million dollars domestically, meaning far more people saw it than a small portion of the population that read those X-men comics.
"Dark" being accociated with the things I mentioned eariler has existed for a long time, yes. Though the larger populaces obsession with it is a lot more recent.
Either way, we agree that it's a shitty trend that really needs to go away.
She's all over the protag just like Rise *at least where I'm at near the beginning of IS*
And are people really clamoring for dark, gritty reboots? That's what studios think people want but then you get flops like Robocop and Total Recall for every success like Nolan's Batman movies.
Thanks for your impressions, Corvo. It's been quite the ride.
...I might just compose Corvo's Theme just for fun while I'm working on a certain other nonspecific music project that has absolutely nothing to do with Persona whatsoever.
No kidding. Mitsuru literally has all of my fetishes rolled up into one person (Gorgeous red head who's super smart, a swordswoman AND speaks french?) I'm surprised I don't like her more!
There's nothing wrong with something being "dark" if its actually done well and isn't trying too hard. P5 is probably going to be "dark" with whatever societal challenges the cast faces. It is a silly complaint.
The problem with "dark" in stories/games is when it is dark for dark's sake. Same thing for lighthearted stuff. It becomes forced in there just so it can be gritty and mature (or childish and such).
It works when it deals with the themes. Persona works on a thematic level, so its a great example of when the dark or lighthearted stuff works well.
It's not that I personally don't like "dark" media, far from it, it's that I don't think every piece of fiction needs to be that way(that is the type of "dark" media we've been discussing). Part of the fun of Persona is it's lightheartedness at times, just think about how we all still make jokes about steak for example. Fiction can be painted in broad strokes in terms of tone and still be a mature story.
It's not that I personally don't like "dark" media, far from it, it's that I don't think every piece of fiction needs to be that way(that is the type of "dark" media we've been discussing).
And every piece of fiction isn't that way. Where is this subset of people you are arguing against? It certainly isn't this thread.
And part of the fun of Persona for you might not be all that appealing to someone else while someone else might appreciate other nuances of the series more.
-They both have the Lovers arcana
-They're both obsessed with the main protagonist
-They both had a brief stint as idols (though Rise continued, while Lisa stopped being an idol)
They're pretty different in temperament though. Lisa is brash and superficial whereas Rise is kind and judicious.
I guess I can see some impersonal similarities. I also suppose that, based upon our conversations about Naoto, we probably all have a different image of what Rise is like in our heads.
I guess I can see some impersonal similarities. I also suppose that, based upon our conversations about Naoto, we probably all have a different image of what Rise is like in our heads.
I agree with Levito. A work can be lighthearted while still being mature. I mean, look at the film Her. It's incredibly whimsical and mostly upbeat in tone, while still being one of the most thoughtful and mature looks at romance I've seen in a long while.
Likewise, dark doesn't automatically mean mature. The Human Centipede series is disgustingly grisly and bleak, but also really juvenile and tasteless altogether. Tone and maturity are not mutually exclusive.
So I viewed Yukari as such because of how she fit into the group dynamic, really. Yukari is the First Girl, just like Chie, she's much more the "friend girl" than Mitsuru who fills out Yukiko's "more attractive, more aloof girl." and because Yukari, like Chie, had that jealousy thing going on. I dunno, to me it seemed clear that Chie was building upon Yukari's archetype.
Congrats on making it to the end dude. You're absolutely crazy for effectively playing through the same game twice, but I definitely appreciate it; it made one hell of a recap.
In regards to P3, my thoughts mostly align with yours.
Not gonna lie, it was a trip, but now I'm like "What do I even play now?" Not that I have any shortage. Bravely Default, Tales of the Abyss, Pokemon X, Dragon Quest 4, The World Ends With You and Persona 1 are all calling to me. Plus The Answer, I guess.
Agreed. The really improved on writing social links after Persona 4.
And I can't fault them for how P3's were, I mean, it being their first go at it and all. I think P3's didn't play enough into the game's theme, but there were a few diamonds in the rough there, specifically Hanged Man, Sun, Tower and Hierophant. Hermit was good fun, though.
Haha! I felt like P4 had way stronger husbandos, but to each one's own. What did you think of the other female side husbandos (bebe, hidetoshi, etc)?
Bebe was hilarious, but I was disappointed that you couldn't make him say "Hasta La Vista" as a girl. Hidetoshi almost made me throw up a little, though. Like, "Hey, I get that you've improved dramatically as a character, but keep off."
This, this, this, this THIS. The amount of people who lambaste FeMC for not being canon is disturbing... to say the least. I've been derided for merely suggesting that someone should consider playing through FeMC's path for the first time. PersonaGAF is pretty understanding for the most part, but the rest of the internet consider's Makoto Yuki's path as "sacrosanct." Screw trying to play as FeMC; you need to play as Makoto Yuki or the world ends NOW. It's honestly pretty disheartening to see people put down FeMC for something as tenuous as "not being canon" (Do people get off on canoncity? Who cares) so you can imagine my surprise when you actually agreed to playing through her story.
Originally I was going to end the story with FeMC and Shinjiro eloping to explain all absences from future stuff, but then I was like "No, dammit. This began together it ends together."
I'm a sucker for the whole "learns about what it means to be human" thing anyway (I loved it in FF6) and especially for robots (I was a huge Asimov fan as a teen, and so AIs becoming human is an all time fave for me) but what really sold me was that Aigis managed to be completely different from Teddie in spite of being essentially the same character type. Granted, Teddie also has some similarity to
Ryoji
, but his learning about what it means to be human through his exposure to the world through the cast is closest to Aigis. The Aeon SLink was really, really good.
No kidding. Mitsuru literally has all of my fetishes rolled up into one person (Gorgeous red head who's super smart, a swordswoman AND speaks french?) I'm surprised I don't like her more!
Yeah pretty sure they were like "How do we make the hottest girl ever?" and then added character depth from there. For awhile I was worried Mitsuru would JUST be fetish fuel, but when the game took the time to really explore her relationship with Yukari both of them benefited spectacularly.
Returning to my comments on Yukari, then, I think a lot of Mitsuru went into making Yukiko. Specifically the moment Mitsuru
tells off her fiance
really foreshadows
Yukiko telling off the newsman.
Seeing Yukiko and Mitsuru interact is something I'm looking forward to, because they have a lot in common.
I really enjoyed reading through this playthrough (even more than your P4G playthrough, believe it or not)
Thanks! It's been a lot of fun playing through this series in here. I'm really glad to have sort of drunkenly stumbled upon Persona and PersonaGAF.
Returning to the topic of "tone" I think I've picked out the words I would use to describe and differentiate Persona 3 from Persona 4 now. I would say that first, Persona 3 is more melancholy than Persona 4. I realize this is a matter of semantics, but it's something I feel is distinct from "dark," "mature," or "serious" in a meaningful way. Persona 3 feels less happy. The team comes together much later, they don't do as much together, and there is a general air of unhappiness clinging to them that is somehow different from the problems that the cast of Persona 4 face. It's not that their problems are more serious because that's an impossible metric, nor that they're more mature, nor even darker. It's more that where Persona 4's cast keeps a smile on even when they're in pain, Persona 3's cast is more, shall I say, vocal? This sort of pushes into the territory of saying one game is more upbeat than the other and I'll get to that in a minute, but I think that the word melancholy really is how I would describe it. Which makes sense when you look at the 4 best shared Social Links
because they deal with things that can't really be fought. Akinari WILL die. Maiko's parents WILL get a divorce. Mutatsu DID screw up his life, the tree WILL come down. The latter two get reversed, but not before the SLinks make peace with the impossibility of them.
The second term I would use is that Persona 3 is a lot more negative about humanity. Bullying plays a larger aspect of the plot, several of the teachers on campus are absolute monsters, numerous adults wind up terrible people who do terrible things
In this way I actually feel that P3's Devil SLink is better than P4's.
and while it has common elements with Persona 4, specifically
unrepentant murderers and death cults
Persona 3 leaves them as they are while Persona 4 goes out of its way to
show that the townspeople are as capable of being good as they were bad and that Adachi is much more than just a dark dark dark dark guy.
And because Persona 4's Social Links tie so much more into denying the main claim of the game's villains than Persona 3's do, the villains in Persona 3, who make a much more general claim than Persona 4's, come across as being somewhat more correct in their views than Persona 4's do, making the overall tone of the game a little more negative about human beings than Persona 4 was.
So that's how I would go about differentiating them. I realize, again, that it's just semantics and that I've only played the game once and barely given this that much thought, but there you go.
Returning to the topic of "tone" I think I've picked out the words I would use to describe and differentiate Persona 3 from Persona 4 now. I would say that first, Persona 3 is more melancholy than Persona 4. I realize this is a matter of semantics, but it's something I feel is distinct from "dark," "mature," or "serious" in a meaningful way. Persona 3 feels less happy. The team comes together much later, they don't do as much together, and there is a general air of unhappiness clinging to them that is somehow different from the problems that the cast of Persona 4 face. It's not that their problems are more serious because that's an impossible metric, nor that they're more mature, nor even darker. It's more that where Persona 4's cast keeps a smile on even when they're in pain, Persona 3's cast is more, shall I say, vocal? This sort of pushes into the territory of saying one game is more upbeat than the other and I'll get to that in a minute, but I think that the word melancholy really is how I would describe it. Which makes sense when you look at the 4 best shared Social Links because they deal with things that can't really be fought. Akinari WILL die. Maiko's parents WILL get a divorce. Mutatsu DID screw up his life, the tree WILL come down. The latter two get reversed, but not before the SLinks make peace with the impossibility of them.
The second term I would use is that Persona 3 is a lot more negative about humanity. Bullying plays a larger aspect of the plot, several of the teachers on campus are absolute monsters, numerous adults wind up terrible people who do terrible things In this way I actually feel that P3's Devil SLink is better than P4's. and while it has common elements with Persona 4, specifically unrepentant murderers and death cults Persona 3 leaves them as they are while Persona 4 goes out of its way to show that the townspeople are as capable of being good as they were bad and that Adachi is much more than just a dark dark dark dark guy. And because Persona 4's Social Links tie so much more into denying the main claim of the game's villains than Persona 3's do, the villains in Persona 3, who make a much more general claim than Persona 4's, come across as being somewhat more correct in their views than Persona 4's do, making the overall tone of the game a little more negative about human beings than Persona 4 was.
So that's how I would go about differentiating them. I realize, again, that it's just semantics and that I've only played the game once and barely given this that much thought, but there you go.
Returning to the topic of "tone" I think I've picked out the words I would use to describe and differentiate Persona 3 from Persona 4 now. I would say that first, Persona 3 is more melancholy than Persona 4. I realize this is a matter of semantics, but it's something I feel is distinct from "dark," "mature," or "serious" in a meaningful way. Persona 3 feels less happy. The team comes together much later, they don't do as much together, and there is a general air of unhappiness clinging to them that is somehow different from the problems that the cast of Persona 4 face. It's not that their problems are more serious because that's an impossible metric, nor that they're more mature, nor even darker. It's more that where Persona 4's cast keeps a smile on even when they're in pain, Persona 3's cast is more, shall I say, vocal? This sort of pushes into the territory of saying one game is more upbeat than the other and I'll get to that in a minute, but I think that the word melancholy really is how I would describe it. Which makes sense when you look at the 4 best shared Social Links
because they deal with things that can't really be fought. Akinari WILL die. Maiko's parents WILL get a divorce. Mutatsu DID screw up his life, the tree WILL come down. The latter two get reversed, but not before the SLinks make peace with the impossibility of them.
The second term I would use is that Persona 3 is a lot more negative about humanity. Bullying plays a larger aspect of the plot, several of the teachers on campus are absolute monsters, numerous adults wind up terrible people who do terrible things
In this way I actually feel that P3's Devil SLink is better than P4's.
and while it has common elements with Persona 4, specifically
unrepentant murderers and death cults
Persona 3 leaves them as they are while Persona 4 goes out of its way to
show that the townspeople are as capable of being good as they were bad and that Adachi is much more than just a dark dark dark dark guy.
And because Persona 4's Social Links tie so much more into denying the main claim of the game's villains than Persona 3's do, the villains in Persona 3, who make a much more general claim than Persona 4's, come across as being somewhat more correct in their views than Persona 4's do, making the overall tone of the game a little more negative about human beings than Persona 4 was.
So that's how I would go about differentiating them. I realize, again, that it's just semantics and that I've only played the game once and barely given this that much thought, but there you go.
Yeah, this is good stuff. And the reasons you outline are exactly why I like Makoto so much as the main character of this game. He's a melancholic, detached person to start but grows with the rest of the cast throughout the game. I feel like moreso than Yu, he learned from his slinks more than figured everything out for them.
I thought it was a discussion, not an arguement. *shrug*
You see people clamoring for a grimdark Persona all the time. Say for example, when Persona 5 was actually revealed there were people crying foul all over twitter, reddit, tumblr, and even the GAF thread. Mainly because they revealed the game would take place in highschool again, as oppossed to college--people were upset because they had this idea that college is more mature. Completely ignoring the differences between what high school is in Japan, and how different it is here in the west. Not to mention, the game isn't out yet, nor have we actually seen it, we have no idea what the tone will be.
And part of the fun of Persona for you might not be all that appealing to someone else while someone else might appreciate other nuances of the series.
Didn't say the humor was the sole thing I enjoyed about the series, hence why I said "part of the fun". There are many ways in which these games can be enjoyed, they're pretty all encompassing, and that's one of the things that makes them great!
Fair enough, all the same. I was just stating how I felt on the matter.
You see people clamoring for a grimdark Persona all the time. Say for example, when Persona 5 was actually revealed there were people crying foul all over twitter, reddit, tumblr, and even the GAF thread. Mainly because they revealed the game would take place in highschool again, as oppossed to college--people were upset because they had this idea that college is more mature. Completely ignoring the differences between what high school is in Japan, and how different it is here in the west. Not to mention, the game isn't out yet, nor have we actually seen it, we have no idea what the tone will be.
And that's why I called it an "argument" instead of a discussion. You are actively attacking the position of these people based on their tastes which clash with yours. If you don't care that the game is not set in college, then fine. But then you have to joke about the position of those who do want it to be set in college because their preference doesn't match yours? High school implies teenagers, while college implies young adults. One of them would obviously be more "mature" in a literal sense.
Didn't say the humor was the sole thing I enjoyed about the series, hence why I said "part of the fun". There are many ways in which these games can be enjoyed, they're pretty all encompassing, and that's one of the things that makes them great!
I agree, but what I meant is that a part of the series that you find appealing might actually not be appealing to someone else. That doesn't give basis for someone else to make fun of your opinion of those elements.
The thing about Persona 3 versus Persona 4 and how it falls back to “grimdark”, “angsty teenagers" and“scooby doo” is that Persona 4 is objectively a better game. It is more polished, characters get more time to develop and there is overall put more thought into it. And that is where it falls back to the themes of the story, the tone of the story and character personalities to justify Persona 3 as a better game.
As much as I love Persona 4, I'm personally in the Persona 3 boat. The thing about Persona 3 is that it tackles more melancholic themes and adjusts the tone of the game to fit. This can also be reflected in the character back stories which I like. Whereas Persona 4 handles the issues of finding an identity in a modern world, the characters in Persona 3 had more separate story lines about how to cope with the stuff life throws at you.
We have the good girl who works hard to lighten her fathers burden and right their family's wrongdoings and a girl who tries to be a good student and catch up to her superior, but is brought down by her widowed mother. There is the orphan who wants to reach physical perfection because he was too weak to save his last relative in a fire. Then there is the other orphan who could not control himself and accidentally killed a woman and orphaned another boy. Lets not forget about the not so clever boy who wants to be important. And before some of you go “but anime robot, lol” even Aigis have a relevant story. She is a robot that develops a personality who was used to betray those she was meant to assist and when she tries to redeem herself by fulfilling her purpose and take on the shadow of death, she fails and nearly breaks.
The shadows of Tartarus even differs from the other shadows of the series by being born from the public's nihilistic thoughts (you know like when people said the LHC would open a black hole that would consume the world or when people said the world was going to end in 2012/13 or when people said the rupture would come, etc.).
Sadly the presentation of Persona 3 does not convey the message so good and most of it sounds better on paper than in game. Even if the presentation fell flat on its face, Atlus deserves major credit for testing waters with the game and its writing and also introducing the social links and calendar system. Luckily the Persona 3 movie looks like it will be better and has a good presentation.
Although I like Persona 3 more, Persona 4 is still one of my favourite games and I like that it didn't try to be Persona 3 and mimic it too much. I also hope that they continue this trend with Persona 5.
Sorry for the bad English and if I am stating the obvious in my write-up, but I felt like sharing my thoughts on Persona 3 and the Persona 3 vs. 4 debate. I see a lot of mud throwing between Persona 3 and 4 fans and it usually goes like “grimdark, lol”, “a couple of deaths doesn't make a game grimdark”, “angsty teenagers”, “scooby doo”, and “anime”, but I guess that is just how it goes down on the internet when it comes to fandom.
The thing about Persona 3 versus Persona 4 and how it falls back to grimdark, angsty teenagers" andscooby doo is that Persona 4 is objectively a better game. It is more polished, characters get more time to develop and there is overall put more thought into it. And that is where it falls back to the themes of the story, the tone of the story and character personalities to justify Persona 3 as a better game.
As much as I love Persona 4, I'm personally in the Persona 3 boat. The thing about Persona 3 is that it tackles more melancholic themes and adjusts the tone of the game to fit. This can also be reflected in the character back stories which I like. Whereas Persona 4 handles the issues of finding an identity in a modern world, the characters in Persona 3 had more separate story lines about how to cope with the stuff life throws at you.
We have the good girl who works hard to lighten her fathers burden and right their family's wrongdoings and a girl who tries to be a good student and catch up to her superior, but is brought down by her widowed mother. There is the orphan who wants to reach physical perfection because he was too weak to save his last relative in a fire. Then there is the other orphan who could not control himself and accidentally killed a woman and orphaned another boy. Lets not forget about the not so clever boy who wants to be important. And before some of you go but anime robot, lol even Aigis have a relevant story. She is a robot that develops a personality who was used to betray those she was meant to assist and when she tries to redeem herself by fulfilling her purpose and take on the shadow of death, she fails and nearly breaks.
The shadows of Tartarus even differs from the other shadows of the series by being born from the public's nihilistic thoughts (you know like when people said the LHC would open a black hole that would consume the world or when people said the world was going to end in 2012/13 or when people said the rupture would come, etc.).
Sadly the presentation of Persona 3 does not convey the message so good and most of it sounds better on paper than in game. Even if the presentation fell flat on its face, Atlus deserves major credit for testing waters with the game and its writing and also introducing the social links and calendar system. Luckily the Persona 3 movie looks like it will be better and has a good presentation.
Although I like Persona 3 more, Persona 4 is still one of my favourite games and I like that it didn't try to be Persona 3 and mimic it too much. I also hope that they continue this trend with Persona 5.
Sorry for the bad English and if I am stating the obvious in my write-up, but I felt like sharing my thoughts on Persona 3 and the Persona 3 vs. 4 debate. I see a lot of mud throwing between Persona 3 and 4 fans and it usually goes like grimdark, lol, a couple of deaths doesn't make a game grimdark, angsty teenagers, scooby doo, and anime, but I guess that is just how it goes down on the internet when it comes to fandom.
There's ultimately no wrong answer when it comes to which you prefer, p3 vs p4. It really all comes down to which tone of game you prefer, really. I never used the term "mature", but I have used the term "dark" to describe p3. Reading the above though, yeah, melancholic is definitely the better term.
It makes it all the better seeing Yukari in her PQ trailer comment on how different the IT seems to be with each other in comparison to SEES. Man I cannot wait for that game.
It makes it all the better seeing Yukari in her PQ trailer comment on how different the IT seems to be with each other in comparison to SEES. Man I cannot wait for that game.
Yeah, I also think there was a line about whether or not she could trust the Investigation Team? Upon its reveal, I thought that the P3 x P4 aspect of PQ would be reiterative because of the Arena series, but it'll definitely have a different dynamic to it, mostly because of the P3 side.
QUESTION: At what point should I go ahead and order a US 2DS for PQ? Is it worth waiting to see if it comes out in the UK reasonably fast? Or should I just bite the bullet and order one plus SMT4 so that I'm ready on launch? Also, how is the SMT4 collector's edition stuff? Is the art book any good?
Yeah, I also think there was a line about whether or not she could trust the Investigation Team? Upon its reveal, I thought that the P3 x P4 aspect of PQ would be reiterative because of the Arena series, but it'll definitely have a different dynamic to it, mostly because of the P3 side.
Well it is very different from how Arena did it. Having the full cast there is huge and they're being plucked directly from somewhere during P3 instead of after. Should be totally different.
And that's why I called it an "argument" instead of a discussion. You are actively attacking the position of these people based on their tastes which clash with yours. If you don't care that the game is not set in college, then fine. But then you have to joke about the position of those who do want it to be set in college because their preference doesn't match yours? High school implies teenagers, while college implies young adults. One of them would obviously be more "mature" in a literal sense.
My neo-nazi comment was in jest, apologies if it came off as patronizing.
The college thing bugs me for a variety of reasons, though, the primary one being people already writing the game off simply because it's not in college. People forget that these games are written for a Japanese audience first and foremost. Obviously high school is a far different beast over there, and that's why it so prevalent in much of their media.
I agree, but what I meant is that a part of the series that you find appealing might actually not be appealing to someone else. That doesn't give basis for someone else to make fun of your opinion of those elements.
There's ultimately no wrong answer when it comes to which you prefer, p3 vs p4. It really all comes down to which tone of game you prefer, really. I never used the term "mature", but I have used the term "dark" to describe p3. Reading the above though, yeah, melancholic is definitely the better term.
It makes it all the better seeing Yukari in her PQ trailer comment on how different the IT seems to be with each other in comparison to SEES. Man I cannot wait for that game.
Definitely. I think that P4 has a lot of improvements made to it, but when it comes to picking a favorite or which one you think is best, follow your heart.
Definitely. I think that P4 has a lot of improvements made to it, but when it comes to picking a favorite or which one you think is best, follow your heart.
The college thing bugs me for a variety of reasons, though, the primary one being people already writing the game off simply because it's not in college. People forget that these games are written for a Japanese audience first and foremost. Obviously high school is a far different beast over there, and that's why it so prevalent in much of their media.
Sure, for the college point in particular, it's irritating to see people write the game off because it isn't set in college, especially when practically the whole series is set in high school. "High school" is just a template that can convey a whole lot of different stories. I can understand someone's desire for the game to be more relatable in terms of their college experiences, though, even though it most likely wouldn't suit the series as it is now.
I apologize if I came off too confrontational, as I didn't mean to. I just think it's important for one another to respect each other's opinions, even if they are the opposite of our own.
.I'm a sucker for the whole "learns about what it means to be human" thing anyway (I loved it in FF6) and especially for robots (I was a huge Asimov fan as a teen, and so AIs becoming human is an all time fave for me) but what really sold me was that Aigis managed to be completely different from Teddie in spite of being essentially the same character type. Granted, Teddie also has some similarity to
Ryoji
, but his learning about what it means to be human through his exposure to the world through the cast is closest to Aigis. The Aeon SLink was really, really good.
If Junpei and Aigis were your favorite characters, I would suggest at least checking out the Answer. Junpei has a particularly great moment in there, and Aigis receives more substantial development. I have issues with her characterization in the Journey, but in everything outside of it (The Answer, her story mode in Arena, and even the P3 story-heavy drama CDs), I'd say she is interesting and has consistent development as opposed to some characters who stagnate.
I would recommend the two pairs of story-heavy drama CDs (New Moon/Full Moon and Daylight/Moonlight) regardless though, especially if you had an issue with the amount of downtime in P3. Both are about material not covered in the game and help to flesh out the characters more.
QUESTION: At what point should I go ahead and order a US 2DS for PQ? Is it worth waiting to see if it comes out in the UK reasonably fast? Or should I just bite the bullet and order one plus SMT4 so that I'm ready on launch? Also, how is the SMT4 collector's edition stuff? Is the art book any good?
There's only about 12 pages of art and a 2 page interview with Kozuka and Tsuchiya and then the rest is a guide. The CD has a couple of remixed themes from the older game and the Cathedral of Shadows theme played live. I wouldn't say it's a must-have package.
There's only about 12 pages of art and a 2 page interview with Kozuka and Tsuchiya and then the rest is a guide. The CD has a couple of remixed themes from the older game and the Cathedral of Shadows theme played live. I wouldn't say it's a must-have package.
I'm waiting until the summer to decide. Some time in late August will be when I decide. Really what it boils down to is several things (in no specific order):
1) Whether SMT IV has a release date in EU (probably not).
2) Whether Persona Q has a release date in EU (probably not).
3) What the Canadian-UK currency exchange rate is like.
4) Do I really want to reward Nintendo for fucking me over by giving them more money?
Assuming the first three of those make importing a no-brainer (and I can get over number 4), I'll do it, otherwise I'll consider my options. Right now I'm leaning towards waiting it out, but that's only if both the games have a release date, or at least some specifics on their PAL release (like who is publishing, whether it's physical or digital-only, and a rough idea of a release date). If there's no word on a PAL version by late August, or the information is vague (as it has been with SMT IV), then I'm not bothering to wait and will grab a US 3DS with PQ and SMT IV. I may even pick up Rune Factory 4 too, since I'm kind of curious about it now.
If Junpei and Aigis were your favorite characters, I would suggest at least checking out the Answer. Junpei has a particularly great moment in there, and Aigis receives more substantial development. I have issues with her characterization in the Journey, but in everything outside of it (The Answer, her story mode in Arena, and even the P3 story-heavy drama CDs), I'd say she is interesting and has consistent development as opposed to some characters who stagnate.
I would recommend the two pairs of story-heavy drama CDs (New Moon/Full Moon and Daylight/Moonlight) regardless though, especially if you had an issue with the amount of downtime in P3. Both are about material not covered in the game and help to flesh out the characters more.
I will get to The Answer, I just don't know if I have time for it this semester or not. Which kinda bites cuz I wanna jump right into P4A when school ends, but not until I've finished P3 all the way.
Also Dantis, consider that SMT IV is probably canceled for EU at this point. It's soon been a year since the English release, and it is a flagship title for Atlus. If they had any intention to release in EU they would have done so by now.
I will probably import a used 2DS, so that Nintendo doesn't get a cent of my money.
Also Dantis, consider that SMT IV is probably canceled for EU at this point. It's soon been a year since the English release, and it is a flagship title for Atlus. If they had any intention to release in EU they would have done so by now.
I will probably import a used 2DS, so that Nintendo doesn't get a cent of my money.
I apologize if I came off too confrontational, as I didn't mean to. I just think it's important for one another to respect each other's opinions, even if they are the opposite of our own.
*sigh* Nintendo really need to give me a reason to buy a 3ds, SMT4 could have been it. If PQ come out over here then that may be the purchase, but theres just nothing on that platform that interests me at the moment.
Also Dantis, consider that SMT IV is probably canceled for EU at this point. It's soon been a year since the English release, and it is a flagship title for Atlus. If they had any intention to release in EU they would have done so by now.
I will probably import a used 2DS, so that Nintendo doesn't get a cent of my money.
At least Europe got Bravely Default before NA. On the other hand, NA actually has SMT IV. I can not think of an MS paint image to sum up how I feel on the matter, but I'm sure it will come to me soon enough.
