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Persona Community Thread |OT8| Coming Winter 2014

Lunar15

Member
I guess most of you visit personacentral frequently any way but I still wanted to share this interesting image of the sales data here.



The Western sales are really strong if they make up nearly 50% of all sales and it's surprising to see that actually P1 is the best selling Persona main game (not including remakes or add-ons) .

How do you think will be the Persona 5 sales? I think it could become the new best selling Persona game, expecting 300k+ sales in the first week and overall probably reaching 500k in Japan. Well, that's what I hope at least.
International sales should be strong as well, the thirst is real!

I'm actually not convinced P5 is going to sell as well as some people think, at least in Japan. Consoles aren't doing too well in Japan, and I'm not quite sure even the PS3 and the PS4 combined in Japan can rival the install base they had with the PS2. It's kind of up in the air. That said, in some ways, it's kind of good that FFXV also comes out this year, because I think that might spur more people in japan to pony up for the PS4. XV and P5 releasing in the same year might actually be mutually beneficial.

On the other hand, I'd say it has a strong chance of being the highest selling Persona game in the west, but some of that hinges on when it comes out. It might have a long tail if Atlus does some cool sales later on next year. I think those sales really, really boosted the visibility of P4G on the Vita.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
I'm actually not convinced P5 is going to sell as well as some people think, at least in Japan. Consoles aren't doing too well in Japan, and I'm not quite sure even the PS3 and the PS4 combined in Japan can rival the install base they had with the PS2. It's kind of up in the air.

On the other hand, I'd say it has a strong chance of being the highest selling Persona game in the west, but some of that hinges on when it comes out. It might have a long tail if Atlus does some cool sales later on next year. I think those sales really, really boosted the visibility of P4G on the Vita.

You're saying this when Odin Sphere Leifthrasir just had a ~100k debut today.
 

Sophia

Member
What's interesting, though, is that the Vita had the biggest share of sales.

I think what's most interesting is the fact that the PS4 and Vita versions sold very similarly to each other, where the PS3 version is significantly far behind. I originally suspected Persona 5 would do better on the PS3 in Japan, but now I'm not so sure seeing that.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
I think what's most interesting is the fact that the PS4 and Vita versions sold very similarly to each other, where the PS3 version is significantly far behind. I originally suspected Persona 5 would do better on the PS3 in Japan, but now I'm not so sure seeing that.

Nowadays, the PS4 SKUs of games in Japan tend to perform better than their PS3 counterparts, if they have one. The PS4 version of Persona 5 will 100% perform better than the PS3 one in Japan in 2016.
 

Sophia

Member
Nowadays, the PS4 SKUs of games in Japan tend to perform better than their PS3 counterparts, if they have one. The PS4 version of Persona 5 will 100% perform better than the PS3 one in Japan in 2016.

Yeah. I imagine it might have been different if the game had launched on it's original release date. But now the PS4 is gaining traction (to some degree...) in Japan. :S
 

Lunar15

Member
I think what's most interesting is the fact that the PS4 and Vita versions sold very similarly to each other, where the PS3 version is significantly far behind. I originally suspected Persona 5 would do better on the PS3 in Japan, but now I'm not so sure seeing that.

Same, the PS3 version is really really a strange thing at this point.
 

Lunar15

Member
Not really all that strange, especially if the game began as a PS3 title. At this point, pushing it out probably costs them nothing and they still make their money back.

I guess I mean strange in that at one point, we viewed a PS4 version as a weird but pleasant inclusion, but now it kind of seems like it was necessary in Japan. A lot's changed since 2013 when the game was officially announced.
 

daevious

Member
Yeah. I imagine it might have been different if the game had launched on it's original release date. But now the PS4 is gaining traction (to some degree...) in Japan. :S

As much as Japan may drag it's feet with the PS3, it can't hold on forever.
 

Ekai

Member
I guess most of you visit personacentral frequently any way but I still wanted to share this interesting image of the sales data here.



The Western sales are really strong if they make up nearly 50% of all sales and it's surprising to see that actually P1 is the best selling Persona main game (not including remakes or add-ons) .

How do you think will be the Persona 5 sales? I think it could become the new best selling Persona game, expecting 300k+ sales in the first week and overall probably reaching 500k in Japan. Well, that's what I hope at least.
International sales should be strong as well, the thirst is real!

The biggest crime in that entire listing is that the P2 duology sold the least. Innocent Sin seems to MAYBE be on mark with Persona 3 but then P3P soared it above.
 
The biggest crime in that entire listing is that the P2 duology sold the least. Innocent Sin seems to MAYBE be on mark with Persona 3 but then P3P soared it above.

No, the biggest crime is how massively EPP flopped. And I'm still salty we never got it in English.
 

kiriin

Member
^ Yes the PSP version was never localized in the west. From what I heard due to programming/coding. cj_iwakura might know more if he/she still active in the thread (?).

Hmm looks like I might actually finish P1 before P5 is out :p. Haven't been following any persona related info since the stream announcement a years ago. Oh well, nice to see the community thread still very active.
 
Persona 3 The Movie: #3 Falling Down - Thoughts/Review (warning, long!)

This whole thing is going to be in spoiler text because.....well, spoilers!

This movie is the best one so far, hands down!

So, part 3 kicks off at what can only be described as a lightning pace. The opening scene is the battle with Strega and the 12th Full moon Shadow on the Moonlight bridge, and while this scene doesn't really go anywhere (It's just SEES fighting Takaya and Jin, and the shadow at the same time, and then it ends, nothing dramatic at all), the action looks nice and they actually made Jin's persona look quite cool as opposed to just a UFO spinning top thing like in the game. Akihiko and Ken get some nice, Shinji related lines to say, Ken especially since movie 2 actually made me dislike him more than the game (I know I'm in the minority on that point).

Afterwards, Makoto has a nice little chat with Pharos in his subconscious about how getting close to people kinda sucks because they all end up leaving you and you're alone in the end. This plays in really well with his characterisation in the previous 2 movies, since he started off completely not caring about anything, to being close to his friends, to then losing one in tragic circumstances, so of course his psyche is going to be messed up at this point. He doesn't want to feel the pain of losing anyone again, so the best thing to do is not to get close to anyone, right? This becomes SUPER important later on.

With such a quick, and quite heavy start to the movie, you'd expect things to settle down a bi...NO WAIT, IKUTSKI BETRAYAL TIME! This is probably my only gripe with the movie. Dont get me wrong, I know in the game it comes suddenly, but you would think they would throw in some foreshadowing or build up into the movie. Literally the only type of foreshadowing you get is Ikutski in front of the 12 shadow arcana cards and he gives the most minor chuckle. It's literally less than a second, and that is all you get. Next time you see him, he's reprogrammed Aigis, gone batshit crazy and is in front of Tartarus ranting about the end of the world.

Next up is the crucifixion scene, which for my tastes, doesn't go on for long enough. The whole scene feels rushed and you dont get the same level of emotion from either Aigis struggling with her forced actions, or Mitsuru and her father's death. It's too fast. Arrive, Crucify, Gunshots, Escape, Death, Death, Scene end. I remember this being a HUGE moment in the game and it comes and goes so quickly in the movie, it's not a bad scene, it just deserved to be an extra 5 minutes long.

Anyway, that's probably the last time I'll say something negative about the film because the rest of it is fantastic! (all of the above happens in about 20 minutes by the way).

So, after seeing yet another person he knows suffer through loss, Makoto ends up becoming even more distant than he was originally. Whereas before, he was nonchalant and didn't really care, now he is actively avoiding people. He's got it in his head that it's better to be alone in order to spare himself the pain of loss. And that is when the best character in the entire movie shows up!

Ryoji Mochizuki is so good in this movie, it almost makes it seem like the games did his character an injustice. The dynamic between Ryoji and Makoto is brilliant, especially if you know who Ryoji actually is already. He knows how Makoto is thinking, he finishes off his sentences, he's able to look past the façade that Makoto is putting on and see his true feelings. Also, the way that they build up the relationship between them is far better presented than in the game. It always felt in the game like it was "here's Ryoji, he's going to hang around you now for plot reasons", whereas in the movie, it genuinely feels like a friendship is being formed and it's actually really fun to watch develop.

So by the time that the school trip to Kyoto comes around, Ryoji genuinely feels like a character that deserves to be interacting with the group as opposed to just being placed there. Also, the whole Kyoto section of this movie is just amazing. It starts off with the Yukari/Mitsuru scene, and this part is just so well voiced by Mitsuru's VA, you can genuinely hear her breaking apart over what has happened, its great acting.

And then, without a doubt, the two funniest scenes in the entire saga so far (and given what's going to happen in the next movie, I'm going to call these scenes the funniest in the entire story). You remember the scene in movie 2, where Shinji is cooking food for Koromaru, and Aigis is watching, and then Mass Destruction starts up? Well that gag returns with Aigis infiltrating the boys room to attempt to swap places with Ryoji. The dialogue in this scene is funny, there's physical humor, and you get to see Makoto laughing too, which is nice.

The hot springs scene comes next, and this is possibly the most over dramatic part of the entire film, and it works perfectly. And before people start screaming "fanservice" at me, yes there's some. You get a slightly lingering shot of Yukari, but to be honest, in this scene, you see more Junpei ass than anything else. I dont want to say too much on this scene because it is so good. Just completely over the top with tension and genuinely hilarious as a result. It's great.

The Kyoto trip comes to a close, and then we get into the meat of the story, which is the Junpei/Chidori relationship. After the first battle in the film, Chidori is hospitalised, and throughout the film you get the occasional scene here and there of her and Junpei talking and growing closer together. Then when he's in Kyoto, she feels the pain of potentially losing him, and suddenly her state of "I'm not afraid of death" changes, and she realises that while she, herself, is not afraid to die, she is afraid of losing Junpei and the heartache and pain that would cause her (sound familiar?). At this point Jin and Takaya take advantage of this weakness and persuade her back onto their side.

So then you have SEES vs Chidori, and Junpei, being the lovestruck pup that he is, defends her for a while and convinces the others to stop attacking her. He talks to her, (all the while being firebombed by Medea, and he just continues walking towards her, real badass Junpei moment) and she tells him of how she feels about being alone and not wanting to lose him, and this awakens something in Makoto (Told you that stuff earlier was important). And then Junpei and Chidori confess their love and the fighting stops, and everyone is happy and definitely not being shot.

Then Junpei gets shot. And this is how gunshots should work, not like with Shinji who took 3 bullets and managed to give a monologue before passing away, Junpei is immediately dead. Akihiko and Mitsuru go into a complete rage and attack Takaya, which is awesome to see because before, you never saw them losing their cool, but after recent events, this aggression from them is so pure and its exactly what a normal person would do. Yukari and Fuuka go to help Junpei, not much help considering, you know, dead and all. Aigis attacks Jin and Makoto stands there completely dumbfounded, going through his previous conversation with Pharos, but this time with a different perspective. He now wants to fight to protect his friends and be with them.

Chidori then comes over to Junpei and begins her healing thing, and they talk in what I'm going to say is a shared subconscious. She says that she's not afraid of death, but now for a different reason. She doesn't mind dying so long as Junpei lives because she will get to live on as a part of him. The whole scene is very emotional, and Chidori's VA is unbelievable, she gives possibly the best performance in all 3 films combined. Junpei wakes up, she dies (no cop-out here, sorry P3P-ers). Then we get Junpei's awakening to Trismegistus, which looks cool, but is just waved away as "It changed??". It doesnt have the Hermes/Medea fusion like P3P does, which was kind of disappointing, but whatever.

Junpei then absolutely wrecks Takaya. Like, he literally throws him into a pillar. Makoto gets out of his rut in time to save Aigis from being beaten by Jin, and then Strega escape. The scene then cuts to the dorm with Mitsuru giving Junpei Chidori's sketchbook. Junpei explains to the others that her drawings were all abstract and that no one would understand them, then he opens the book to a pristine drawing of himself. And I wasn't crying earlier and I definitely didn't cry at this point either! Shut up! You're crying!

Anyway, the movie ends with Aigis and Ryoji's confrontation on the moonlight bridge, and I remember in the game that this scene just sort of happens. But here, Aigis awakens to her locked memories with the traditional, staticy, off colour, headache sequence that you get in movies. She heads to the bridge and finds Ryoji there, but he's unsure why he's there, it just felt like that was where he needed to be. And then HIS memories awaken. And then just as their about to duke it out, it cuts to Makoto, who's just lying in bed and then suddenly HIS memories awaken. He runs to the bridge and the film ends on this awesome shot of a depressed looking Ryoji standing over Aigis' beaten body as the dust clears.

Overall, the movie is great! It's easily my favourite of the three so far, and I cant wait for the last one. Action filled, funny, emotional, well acted, expanding on the games, this movie just absolutely killed it. I cant wait for everyone else to watch it and post their thoughts about it, because I genuinely think that people are going to like this one the most.

Whew! That was long. Anyway, watch the film and tell me what you think!
 

Drop

Member
Oh wow, that's long.
I probably won't watch the movie before Friday but I'll remember to come back and read this.
 
Persona 3 The Movie: #3 Falling Down - Thoughts/Review (warning, long!)

This whole thing is going to be in spoiler text because.....well, spoilers!

Great review, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to see it myself. There are two parts of your review I wanted to comment on in particular:

Ken especially since movie 2 actually made me dislike him more than the game (I know I'm in the minority on that point).
You might still be in the minority, but I agree with you 100%! I thought they did a great job in the first movie making Fuuka more interesting, but I don't think they did Ken any favours.

And then Junpei and Chidori confess their love and the fighting stops, and everyone is happy and definitely not being shot.

Then Junpei gets shot.
This made me chuckle.
 

Ekai

Member
No, the biggest crime is how massively EPP flopped. And I'm still salty we never got it in English.

The sales of P2 in general are a travesty to me. Not getting EPP is just as bad if not worse. To be honest, P2 never actually got a proper release. We ended only getting one of them in the states in both releases. : /
 

Sophia

Member
The sales of P2 in general are a travesty to me. Not getting EPP is just as bad if not worse. To be honest, P2 never actually got a proper release. We ended only getting one of them in the states in both releases. : /

To say nothing of how butchered the PSP version of Innocent Sin is. They made it WAY too easy. :\
 
The sales of P2 in general are a travesty to me. Not getting EPP is just as bad if not worse. To be honest, P2 never actually got a proper release. We ended only getting one of them in the states in both releases. : /

In Europe we only ever got IS Portable. </3
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Random list of potential teases for unannounced Atlus games:

  1. Atlus JP releases a survey with one of the questions asking what fans would think of a game featuring time travel (this stands out, as the other options for the particular question have been reflected in recent Atlus games while this concept has not been). [March 19, 2015]
  2. P Studio's Kazuhisa Wada (producer & director) states (offhandedly and by being prompted to) that if P4D's sales are good, Atlus would consider a P3D. [June 23, 2015]
  3. P Studio's Wada states (without being prompted to) that Atlus is considering bringing the Persona 4 Arena Ultimax update to home consoles. [October 18, 2015]
  4. In response to a Famitsu survey, Team Maniax' Kazuyuki Yamai (producer & director) says the following for a Musou and SMT collaboration: "Get in touch with us anytime." [November 19, 2015]
  5. In response to a Famitsu survey, Atlus PR says the following for a Persona and SMT collaboration: "It&#8217;d be interesting if we could make it one day." [November 19, 2015]
  6. Team Maniax' Kazuyuki Yamai essentially confirms that they have started working on a game at the beginning of 2016 that will prove to be a "difficult" and "long" journey.[January 7, 2016]
  7. Atlus rep. Naoto Hiraoka states that they have several unannounced titles. [Jan. 14, 2016]
  8. P Studio's Wada implies he's working on a game, while emphasizing that this year is Persona's 20th anniversary. He also seeks to take in feedback for many projects they have going on. [January 14, 2016]
Landmarks:

  1. The Persona 3 The Movie Finale event is on March 3, 2016.
  2. The P4G Meiho One Day Tour is on March 12, 2016.
  3. Atlus' 30th anniversary is on April 7, 2016.
  4. Persona's 20th anniversary is on September 20, 2016.
Personal thoughts:
  • Back when SMT IV Final was announced, some noticed that Kazuyuki Yamai was no longer the director (with Satoshi Ooyama taking his place) and had been "demoted" to a producing role. This was unusual, because he has had a lead directing position for many titles he was involved with, and one would think he would naturally hold the same position for the direct follow-up to SMT IV: "Final."

    Much like how Hashino was the planner for P4A and P4AU, while directing Persona 5; or how George Kamitani was the producer for Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, while directing 13 Sentinels, I think this clearly points to Yamai having been actively involved in a directing position with another game during SMT IV Final's development. A title that would also have more of his attention.

  • Etrian Odyssey V is an NX launch game.
  • Like I said before, some other Persona game gets at least announced this year.
 
Atlus JP releases a survey with one of the questions asking what fans would think of a game featuring time travel (this stands out, as the other options for the particular question have been reflected in recent Atlus games while this concept has not been). [March 19, 2015]
Was this the same survey that had Battle Royale-type game as one of the ideas? Because that could be awesome, if it was done right. There's a lot of stuff similar to Battle Royale, the Arena games for example, but a RPG based around that sounds very exciting to me.

Back when SMT IV Final was announced, some noticed that Kazuyuki Yamai was no longer the director (with Satoshi Ooyama taking his place) and had been "demoted" to a producing role. This was unusual, because he has had a lead directing position for many titles he was involved with, and one would think he would naturally hold the same position for the direct follow-up to SMT IV F.

Much like how Hashino was the planner for P4A and P4AU, while directing Persona 5; or how George Kamitani was the producer for Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, while directing 13 Sentinels, I think this clearly points to Yamai having been actively involved in a directing position with another game during SMT IV Final's development. A title that would also have more of his attention.
Just this idea excites me. Curious to see if anything comes out of it.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Was this the same survey that had Battle Royale-type game as one of the ideas? Because that could be awesome, if it was done right. There's a lot of stuff similar to Battle Royale, the Arena games for example, but a RPG based around that sounds very exciting to me.

Unfortunately, I'm 95% sure that was referring to Shin Megami Tensei IV Final. There was language in earlier news releases (that I'm too lazy to fetch right now) that referred to the game as something of an "all-out war," since it depicts a "battle royale" of Monotheism vs. the Polytheistic Gods Union vs. Evildoer Hunters vs. Angels vs. Fairies vs. etc.

The "brutal scenes" the survey referred to would be stuff like the protagonist getting violently killed at the start or that woman's entrails being splayed out in the anime cutscene they released, that they even had to censor in the YouTube upload because of the gore.

Of course, I would absolutely love an actual "Battle Royale" RPG. I can never get over the fact that Satomi Tadashi's initial plan for Persona 1 was literally Battle Royale before BR, with kids from different schools on a school trip falling into an accident and getting trapped on an isolated island, forced to fight each other for survival. SMT IV Final really seems to be what they meant in that survey, unfortunately.
 
Unfortunately, I'm 95% sure that was referring to Shin Megami Tensei IV Final. There was language in earlier news releases (that I'm too lazy to fetch right now) that referred to the game as something of an "all-out war," since it depicts a "battle royale" of Monotheism vs. the Polytheistic Gods Union vs. Evildoer Hunters vs. Angels vs. Fairies vs. etc.

The "brutal scenes" the survey referred to would be stuff like the protagonist getting violently killed at the start or that woman's entrails being splayed out in the anime cutscene they released, that they even had to censor in the YouTube upload because of the gore.

Of course, I would absolutely love an actual "Battle Royale" RPG. I can never get over the fact that Satomi Tadashi's initial plan for Persona 1 was literally Battle Royale before BR, with kids from different schools on a school trip falling into an accident and getting trapped on an isolated island, forced to fight each other for survival. SMT IV Final really seems to be what they meant in that survey, unfortunately.

Ah, that makes sense. I remember reading Tadashi's original idea for Persona a while ago, and that survey got me hopeful. If they ever do make a game like that though, I'll be very pleasantly surprised.

Either way, I'm happy the BR idea lives on (in some way) in Final. So far, Final is another game--like P5--that's hitting all the right notes for me. I hope we get localization news soon.
 
I can never get over the fact that Satomi Tadashi's initial plan for Persona 1 was literally Battle Royale before BR, with kids from different schools on a school trip falling into an accident and getting trapped on an isolated island, forced to fight each other for survival.

Holy shit, that's the best concept that didn't make it into a game's final release that I've ever seen.

...Darn you Flux, now I will always dream of that being a reality. :p

Hoping the most for a definitive Persona 3 on Vita myself.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
I didn't realize Aigis is holding an evoker in the fourth P3M#4 key visual:
key.png

I guess I must have had this in the back of my mind when I made the comment, but I just got reminded of this: https://youtu.be/01WpV6uDVKA?t=4m54s (P3 SPOILERS)
 

MudoSkills

Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
I just bought myself a sweet PaRappa the Rapper beanie hat from Insert Coin in their January sale, having completely forgotten that they showed designs for a range or Persona 4 clothing last year.

None of it is up for sale yet, so I quickly Googled it. No official updates, but in December they commented on the original blog post from August, saying that the range will be coming in 'early 2016'.

I need that Midnight Channel shirt.
 
I just bought myself a sweet PaRappa the Rapper beanie hat from Insert Coin in their January sale, having completely forgotten that they showed designs for a range or Persona 4 clothing last year.

None of it is up for sale yet, so I quickly Googled it. No official updates, but in December they commented on the original blog post from August, saying that the range will be coming in 'early 2016'.

I need that Midnight Channel shirt.

Theyve been tweeting about it since the start of the new year too, so I would expect the range to drop fairly soonish.

Cant believe this was announced in May and its still not here yet.
 
For some reason playing through P4G right now for the second time I'm finding the mannerisms of the main character to be hilarious. His slouched over "I really wish I was doing anything else" sitting pose, blank deadfaced stares, I dunno.
 
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