So, Genesis-type Non-combat oriented ASW?
Sorry, forgot that those things aren't supposed to exist :/
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Persona Community Thread |OT4| The Golden Number
- Thread starter Dantis
- Start date
So, Genesis-type Non-combat oriented ASW?
That's smart. Probably also means you didn't get spoiled on P3's story yet.
Yeah, P4A's story structure is pretty repetitive, with the exception of the P3 characters for the most part. You'll probably come to appreciate it more after you're done with P3.
Both the Japan and North America side of Atlus have been saying how much there is a "TON" of new story content in P4A2, but I have to wonder just how much of that will be needless padding or retreading compared to actual story told. Hopefully it'll be more of the latter and not the former; I remember Hashino (or someone else on the dev team) talking about how P4A had 20-25 hours of story mode content, but a lot of it was due to its repetitive nature.
Akihiko in Persona 4 Arena is the single worst character design in that entire game. Like, it actually makes no sense. Why is he wearing a cape. Why is he wearing a cape.
He probably hasn't joined your battle party yet, but when he does, be sure to use him for a while! He's been waiting for this, after all.
Shouts out to Kanji. That whole story mode was like a dream come true.
LelouchViBritannia
Member
I was wondering why he looks like a big man in P3, but in Arena he's wearing a superman cape lol.
They probably do have a lot of story content in it. It's not like they're working with unproven territory anymore. They know what they're doing the second time around, so I wouldn't be surprised if they go all out.
I just wish we'd get more info on what the console version actually contains.
Yeah, Kanji, Naoto and Teddie all have pretty good story modes. I personally really like Teddie's story mode.
InsaneElite
Member
I just assume it's PR doing PR until we actually hear something about the console version. At least there shouldn't be a lot of time spent recapping the previous games. Shouldn't.
What a lameo!
LX_Lameo
I know, right? We should all just like ignore him.
Red The Hunter
Member
From what I remember hearing, he had a different design more akin to his Trinity Soul appearance. And then changed it, because they felt they needed a "wild man" in the game. Yeah I don't get it either.
I don't mind his design, though I do think that his outfit is pretty ridiculous and the fact that his is the even more ridiculous than Mitsuru's outfit says something.
buddha0991
Member
According to Zen United, the European publisher of Persona 4 Arena, Akihiko's appearance in said game was originally going to be modeled after Jason Statham and how he looks in the Transporter movie series. Soejima was asked to redesign him to look more "wild or rugged" by Wada, the game's director, after they noticed that no other character in the roster would be able to fill that role.
Green Mamba
Member
That's a pretty dumb reason to give an established character a bad and unfitting redesign.
Aoi x Akihiko confirmed?
I remember hearing that from somewhere, but that was from Zen, huh. Not too sure I could trust the source. There's no mention of it in the P4A art book, though it could have been omitted, of course.
Hehehe
SloaneRisette
Member
This is pretty funny.
I wanna ro(bot)ck.
I don't agree with this assessment. Of the 4 initial members, Yu and Yosuke actually had decent story modes. Yu was good by virtue of the fact that it introduced several of the main story concepts (such as friends fighting friends) in a way that was fresh and exciting. Yosuke's confrontation scene in particular stands out as arguably the strongest confrontation scene in the entire game. It really sells the hopelessness and futility of being put in a situation where you're forced to fight your friends. It's especially great to see the characters doubt themselves AND their friends. The confrontations invariably go downhill from here, as characters are given weaker and weaker reasons to fight each other (Kanji). Barring all that, the novelty of having a previously silent protagonist think and talk made his story mode worthwhile.
Yosuke had a compelling story mode because it further added depth to his character. Like, the scene at the beginning where he was anguishing over his future, and despairing over how he wasn't "a part of the investigation team" (and then feeling bad for thinking that in the first place) was legitimately great. It's actually believable when he thinks that the P1 grand prix was set up as a result of his thoughts. That, and his interactions with the rest of the cast (Labrys, Aigis, Mitsuru) made his story worthwhile. Of course, his story mode is sadly undercut with him being stupider/incentive due to weaker writing, but it's a small squabble in what's ultimately a decent story mode.
Kanji's story was a goddamned joke. Kanji isn't bright, but he isn't stupid to degree that's unbelievable. Sure he can be naive and a bit of an air-head, but he's also surprisingly level-headed and thoughtful when it counts. The fact that he shows a surprising amount of understanding when it comes to his friends is complete gone in P4A, so watching him run around and beat up his friends for saying stuff they wouldn't ordinarily say was physically painful. "Oh but he thought it was a dream." Fuck that noise. What a lame cop-out. It would have been interesting to see how he'd genuinely react to the "friend" battles. Worst story on the P4, side by far.
Teddie's story mode was standard fare. It wasn't good, but it wasn't offensive either. It's not very memorable outside of the bishie Teddie scene with Labrys.
In terms of quality:
P4 side:
Good: Yu, Yosuke, Naoto
Passable: Teddie, Chie
Terrible: Kanji, Yukiko, Chie*
I can't...: Kanji*, Yukiko*
* = gag ending
Yu's story mode is awful outside of a few interactions with the P3 cast. There's pretty much nothing there, and
which removes a significant amount of the tension compared to if you had done Yosuke's story mode first. Literally the only interesting scenes he has are his interactions with Aigis and Elizabeth.
On the other hand.... you're right, Yosuke's story mode is pretty awesome. Can't disagree with you there.
I think the only redeeming quality Yukiko's story mode has is the hilarious lines of dialogue that Labrys gets in it. The rest of the story mode is pretty unremarkable. Sometimes I remember Labrys's dialogue, but forget which story mode its from. Then I conclude it must be from Yukiko's story mode because I forgot it. >_>;
His scenes with Aigis, Naoto, and Labrys were all pretty good. Some of them are heartwarming too.
he's handed all the answers on a silver platter
On the other hand.... you're right, Yosuke's story mode is pretty awesome. Can't disagree with you there.
I think the only redeeming quality Yukiko's story mode has is the hilarious lines of dialogue that Labrys gets in it. The rest of the story mode is pretty unremarkable. Sometimes I remember Labrys's dialogue, but forget which story mode its from. Then I conclude it must be from Yukiko's story mode because I forgot it. >_>;
His scenes with Aigis, Naoto, and Labrys were all pretty good. Some of them are heartwarming too.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Everyone nearly died in a TV excursion and they got the Robocop treatment.
buddha0991
Member
I liked Kanji's story mode.
InsaneElite
Member
If you want to get the most out of P4A's story in as little time as possible, I'd say go with Yosuke and Aigis/Mitsuru. Naoto and Teddie are also okay. The only concrete and important character is Labrys, so the quality of each story is really dependent on the character having some sort of relationship with her, or the writers caring enough to actually write them half decently (Yosuke).
Opinions, but I thought it was pretty good!
I'm not sure what you mean when you say that there "nothing there" because there's plenty of good stuff. For one, you're introduced to each of the main plot plot points in detail (whereas they're rehashed, glossed over or even outright skipped in other story modes). In addition to that, his interactions with his friends were pretty good because they wrote Yu with the assumption that he actually understood them (too bad they couldn't do that with the rest of the cast...) Hearing his "canon" thoughts and opinions on the investigation group members was hella intriguing. I already explained why Yosuke's confrontation was amazing (seriously go watch it, it's that good), but the others were pretty great too. (IE: Yu relaxing when he meets Yukiko because he's used to her being sharp and reliable. Poor guy.)
You're outright off-base on the assertion that everything was handed to him. "Nothing" was handed to him; Margeret showed up with cryptic information on the events to come, but she didn't tell him anything. In fact, she tasks him with finding out the truth, and that's pretty much it brunt it. Yu finds out most of the mysteries by himself. He deduces that there must must be some external circumstance that's causing Yosuke to insult him (Something that only Naoto and I think Mitsuru were also able to deduce) and is able to figure out mechanics of labyrinth through observation.
I thought his scenes with Elizabeth were pretty weak. It was pretty much "use the power of friendship to overcome a stronger opponent!" Complete with lots of grunts, powering up, and an enemy who commends the hero for putting up a good fight. A.k.a every typical shonen anime battle against a strong opponent! Ugh.
On the other hand, his extended interactions with Labrys were good (particularly because he was the only character who didn't fall head over heels for her) and his brief scene with Aigis was awesome. I loved how he outright threatened the mastermind for using Teddie's guise. Don't fuck with this guy.
I'll take your word for it. I don't remember anything from it
Teddie's was the only story mode I enjoyed to any real degree. I found it pretty funny tbh, though even then, I felt like they made him a caricature.
I seem to think someone (Might have been Atlus US, not JP) said it had a fifty hour story mode. Which is basically a straight up lie, haha!
I seem to think someone (Might have been Atlus US, not JP) said it had a fifty hour story mode. Which is basically a straight up lie, haha!
A.D. Skinner
Member
Maybe, but I am quite enjoying it, unlike early Fallout. After playing Fallout 3, I tried 1 and 2 but they were just too hard (and completely different) so it didn't go so well. Maybe since I haven't played any other Persona, I'm not having that same issue.
I do have Persona 4 Arena, which I'm hoping they allow a DLC upgrade to the updated version, but I've barely played that (it is also, completely different).
fallout 2 is soooooooooooo gooooooooooood.gif
new vegas approaches it but doesn't quite get there. f3 reminded me of oblivion (the crap bits of oblivion, i.e. the pointlessly large yet empty world, the generally kind of meh writing etc) but it was the revival of the franchise so i can't really complain too much
new vegas approaches it but doesn't quite get there. f3 reminded me of oblivion (the crap bits of oblivion, i.e. the pointlessly large yet empty world, the generally kind of meh writing etc) but it was the revival of the franchise so i can't really complain too much
I finished my first playthrough of Persona 4 a few weeks ago. Absolutely loved that game, and as a former exchange student in an Inaba-like town (
), it was a great nostalgia trip.
Since then I've been reading all about other Persona games and trying to decide which ones to play next. I bought P3 digitally and loaded it onto my PSP, but it looks too similar to P4 so I might put it off for a while.
Now let me ask about Shin Megami Tensei "If...". Is this game fun? I ask because it seems to be set in a fictional "Karukozaka High School", and I live right near this place. Atlus had their headquarters at the top of the Karu-kozaka ("Light Little Hill") so I know where they got the name. This is my neighborhood right here.
I prefer the modern-Japan story of P4 to the hellish demonic stuff of SMT. But this location is unbeatable. So is it fun?
except that you couldn't actually jump into the TVs
Since then I've been reading all about other Persona games and trying to decide which ones to play next. I bought P3 digitally and loaded it onto my PSP, but it looks too similar to P4 so I might put it off for a while.
Now let me ask about Shin Megami Tensei "If...". Is this game fun? I ask because it seems to be set in a fictional "Karukozaka High School", and I live right near this place. Atlus had their headquarters at the top of the Karu-kozaka ("Light Little Hill") so I know where they got the name. This is my neighborhood right here.
I prefer the modern-Japan story of P4 to the hellish demonic stuff of SMT. But this location is unbeatable. So is it fun?
P4A's art book is quite light on commentary about the designs anyway. I figure that Soejima must have created at least some more sketches before he finalized the designs, especially after I saw the super rough sketches for Kajita's and Isomura's outfits.
I'm not even sure how Zen comes to the conclusion that Akihiko's design was drastically different at the beginning. Maybe they confused his Trinity Soul appearance. Whatever, it's not like asking Zen would amount to anything.
SloaneRisette
Member
Yosuke is 2pretty4me
Have you played many SMT games before? If you don't mind an older interface or the basic mechanics of the SMT series than I'd think it should still be fun.
Turns out that what I was referring to was actually director Wada saying that the game's story was 30-40 hours long, which is rather inaccurate unless someone was a particularly slow reader.
The scope of the game is too large for a DLC upgrade.
buddha0991
Member
Be morally good.
buddha0991
Member
You thought SMTIV was bad? Welcome to old school Megaten! Can't wait till you play one of these that isnt forgiving about its difficulty either!
You thought SMTIV was bad? Welcome to old school Megaten! Can't wait till you play one of these that isnt forgiving about its difficulty either!
*Incoherent grumbling*
So I got Gozu Tennou or whatever. Now I'm trying to figure out the insane troll logic behind how to fuse Phaleg. I figure I'll hold off til I'm out of a dungeon to try and fuse
Narukami, who I want for the sheer novelty.
buddha0991
Member
Fusing Phaleg shouldn't be a big issue, I think Gozu Tennoh is rarer than Phaleg.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/924580-shin-megami-tensei-persona/51580487
Here is a list of pretty good Personas.