AuthenticM
Member
I recently beat Persona 4 Golden (I might do a thread about it later) and it fueled my anticipation for the next main game quite a bit. Thinking back on Catherine also hypes me up. If P5 looks on par with Catherine or even better (which could very well be the case if they are making a brand new engine in-house), I will be blown away. Just thinking about running around a town, talking to people and ranking up social links with Catherine's level of graphics makes me giddy. It's hard to believe that we're nearing the end of 2013 and the game still hasn't been shown, but I have hope that it will sooner rather than later (VGAs, maybe ?).
Graphics aren't the only thing that should be improved, obviously. Persona 3 and 4 were very similar in style and gameplay. While I don't want another big gameplay revolution similar to what happened between P2 and P3 (at least not yet), there are some things that I would like to change. The first and main one is the age of the characters and the setting. I personally want P5 to star young adults either in college or in university, instead of the high-school kids we've had so far. Playing Catherine only cemented this opinion. The game had its characters aged between 25 and 35 years old, if I recall correctly, and it was a refreshing change of pace. Seeing these people talk and chatter around drinks about their jobs, lovelife and life in general made me associate with them a lot more than the previous games did for their characters.
I got out of high-school ten years ago. I am 26 going on 27 and high-school is very far behind me. While I appreciated the stories in P3 and P4, getting an older cast in P5 would resonate with me more, on top of being different than the previous games. The games could get stale if they were always set in high school and starring a bunch of virgin kids. Having the game set either in college or university would provide a near identical framework, but with the potential of having characters deal with different life problems. If Atlus really wanted to change things up, they could have the characters be in thier late twenties or thirties and have them work in the same office building or something like that instead of going to school, but maybe that would be pushing it too far. I say college first, then university for P6, and then maybe something else entirely for P7 (if there is to be one). I personally believe it would bring refreshing change to the series' formula and could even attract a new demographic who are turned off entirely at the idea of playing as kids.
The setting is not the only thing that needs to be updated. As I was playing through P4G, delighted by the little tweaks and changes here and there, I noticed some things that could be improved even further. One of these things is the personae (yes, personae and not personas; don't you motherfuckers know how to speak latin ?!). I don't know if it would be better, but I'd like to see how the game would play if there were more variety in them. Right now, the personae are qualified by skills, attributes and affinities. These three fields offer plenty of variety, yes, but in the end, I felt like that the only thing I looked at were the affinities because the number of skills that I used regularly were very limited. If a persona had an ice affinity, I would give him ice spells; if he had a wind affinity, wind spells it was; if he had more strength then magic, physical skills he received; and so on.
There are two changes that I would like to see. The first one is the return of earth magic; the "tera" skills. They were in Digital Devil Saga (I don't know about the previous Shin Megami Tensei games) but were absent from Persona 3 and 4. One more affinity could spice things up a bit, as you only have four party members in battle. By having five main magical affinities (light and dark are their own category, in my book), you essentially force the player in juggling two different affinities if he wants to always have all five in battle, as the other three party members only have one each. I've heard the argument that having yet another affinity would be too cumbersome, but Persona 3 had three different physical affinities, which is one more than having one physical affinity and the additional earth affinity.
The other change that could be interesting would be for the personae to have different number of skill slots. As it is, they all have eight. But what if certain persona only had six ? Or three, or five, ten or even one ? Personae with ten (or more !) skill slots could have lower attributes, which would devaluate them as attackers, but could make great horders of buff skills. Maybe one of the ultimate personae in the game only has one skill slot with one skill which cannot be forgotten, but it is the most powerful skill in the game ? It would provide a greater challenge by forcing the player to be more conscious in which personae he caries, and would make him juggle them more in battle.
Another thing that hit me while replaying P4 was how secluded and sterile the social links with party members were. No matter the social link levels at which you were with your friends, it would have zero bearing or influence on story cutscenes. I found this disappointing. If bits of dialogue changed depending on your social link levels, or even whom you are dating, it would greatly help in making the entire story feel more alive and responding to player input. As is, sometimes it is even off-putting, such as seeing Dojima scold and yell at the player in a story cutscene which happened to play right after having a moment with him in his last social link level. It takes the player (at least, me) out of the experience and reminds him that "oh right, I'm playing a video game. sigh". The same can be said of the dialogue options offered to the player regularly. Not only do they have zero bearing on the rest of the cutscene, but some of them don't even offer one extra or different bit of dialogue ! There are moments where the player has to choose between two or three different answers, and all three of them lead to the exact same response from the other party. Disappointing. This could be taken to the next level. I'm not asking for the entire story to change, but maybe if, after picking one answer or the other, the rest of the cutscene played differently, or had its atmosphere tampered with. Maybe if you insult someone, his social link goes down by one level and the player has to gain it back by going through a different social link cutscene that acknowledged the founding incident. I think it would be neat and more immersive.
Speaking of dating, here's another disappointment. The feature feels like a throwaway idea from the team. Dating someone has no bearing at all on either the cutscenes or the gameplay at all, save for Valentine's Day. You can date nearly every girl with whom you have a social link, and yet the rest of the story will play differently. What if you could only have one girlfriend for a playthrough ? Here's my idea. The player can only date one person for his entire playthrough. The choice to date or remain friends with said person happens at level 9 or 10 of their social link, just as it is now. Once the player chooses to date that character, then in order to keep them as his partner (or her, if we can hopefully play as a female), he has to regularly spend time with her. This provides an additional challenge to the player, as time in the Persona games is a currency which dictates what stats and social links he gains. Fail to call your girlfriend at least once a week or two (yeah yeah, this is still a video game, yall) and she dumps you. The player has a limited amount of chances to patch things up and reclaim her as your other half. Three strikes and your out. You have to get a different one. If the player succeeds in keeping a girlfriend up to the endgame, then he gets a very special and desirable item that cannot be gotten anywhere else in the game. How does that sound ? And again, returning to my previous point, having a girlfriend, if she's a party member, would change some bits of dialoge here and there through the story cutscenes. As is, just like Dojima, sometimes a story cutscene would play and it would feel disconnected from player input as the girlfriend would speak or behave as if nothing had happened between her and the player. This needs to be improved.
Anyways, that's about it. I wouldn't be surprised if I forgot things, but that's enough for an OP. What do you want from Persona 5 ? Be demanding; the guys and gals at Atlus are talented and can surely deliver.
Graphics aren't the only thing that should be improved, obviously. Persona 3 and 4 were very similar in style and gameplay. While I don't want another big gameplay revolution similar to what happened between P2 and P3 (at least not yet), there are some things that I would like to change. The first and main one is the age of the characters and the setting. I personally want P5 to star young adults either in college or in university, instead of the high-school kids we've had so far. Playing Catherine only cemented this opinion. The game had its characters aged between 25 and 35 years old, if I recall correctly, and it was a refreshing change of pace. Seeing these people talk and chatter around drinks about their jobs, lovelife and life in general made me associate with them a lot more than the previous games did for their characters.
I got out of high-school ten years ago. I am 26 going on 27 and high-school is very far behind me. While I appreciated the stories in P3 and P4, getting an older cast in P5 would resonate with me more, on top of being different than the previous games. The games could get stale if they were always set in high school and starring a bunch of virgin kids. Having the game set either in college or university would provide a near identical framework, but with the potential of having characters deal with different life problems. If Atlus really wanted to change things up, they could have the characters be in thier late twenties or thirties and have them work in the same office building or something like that instead of going to school, but maybe that would be pushing it too far. I say college first, then university for P6, and then maybe something else entirely for P7 (if there is to be one). I personally believe it would bring refreshing change to the series' formula and could even attract a new demographic who are turned off entirely at the idea of playing as kids.
The setting is not the only thing that needs to be updated. As I was playing through P4G, delighted by the little tweaks and changes here and there, I noticed some things that could be improved even further. One of these things is the personae (yes, personae and not personas; don't you motherfuckers know how to speak latin ?!). I don't know if it would be better, but I'd like to see how the game would play if there were more variety in them. Right now, the personae are qualified by skills, attributes and affinities. These three fields offer plenty of variety, yes, but in the end, I felt like that the only thing I looked at were the affinities because the number of skills that I used regularly were very limited. If a persona had an ice affinity, I would give him ice spells; if he had a wind affinity, wind spells it was; if he had more strength then magic, physical skills he received; and so on.
There are two changes that I would like to see. The first one is the return of earth magic; the "tera" skills. They were in Digital Devil Saga (I don't know about the previous Shin Megami Tensei games) but were absent from Persona 3 and 4. One more affinity could spice things up a bit, as you only have four party members in battle. By having five main magical affinities (light and dark are their own category, in my book), you essentially force the player in juggling two different affinities if he wants to always have all five in battle, as the other three party members only have one each. I've heard the argument that having yet another affinity would be too cumbersome, but Persona 3 had three different physical affinities, which is one more than having one physical affinity and the additional earth affinity.
The other change that could be interesting would be for the personae to have different number of skill slots. As it is, they all have eight. But what if certain persona only had six ? Or three, or five, ten or even one ? Personae with ten (or more !) skill slots could have lower attributes, which would devaluate them as attackers, but could make great horders of buff skills. Maybe one of the ultimate personae in the game only has one skill slot with one skill which cannot be forgotten, but it is the most powerful skill in the game ? It would provide a greater challenge by forcing the player to be more conscious in which personae he caries, and would make him juggle them more in battle.
Another thing that hit me while replaying P4 was how secluded and sterile the social links with party members were. No matter the social link levels at which you were with your friends, it would have zero bearing or influence on story cutscenes. I found this disappointing. If bits of dialogue changed depending on your social link levels, or even whom you are dating, it would greatly help in making the entire story feel more alive and responding to player input. As is, sometimes it is even off-putting, such as seeing Dojima scold and yell at the player in a story cutscene which happened to play right after having a moment with him in his last social link level. It takes the player (at least, me) out of the experience and reminds him that "oh right, I'm playing a video game. sigh". The same can be said of the dialogue options offered to the player regularly. Not only do they have zero bearing on the rest of the cutscene, but some of them don't even offer one extra or different bit of dialogue ! There are moments where the player has to choose between two or three different answers, and all three of them lead to the exact same response from the other party. Disappointing. This could be taken to the next level. I'm not asking for the entire story to change, but maybe if, after picking one answer or the other, the rest of the cutscene played differently, or had its atmosphere tampered with. Maybe if you insult someone, his social link goes down by one level and the player has to gain it back by going through a different social link cutscene that acknowledged the founding incident. I think it would be neat and more immersive.
Speaking of dating, here's another disappointment. The feature feels like a throwaway idea from the team. Dating someone has no bearing at all on either the cutscenes or the gameplay at all, save for Valentine's Day. You can date nearly every girl with whom you have a social link, and yet the rest of the story will play differently. What if you could only have one girlfriend for a playthrough ? Here's my idea. The player can only date one person for his entire playthrough. The choice to date or remain friends with said person happens at level 9 or 10 of their social link, just as it is now. Once the player chooses to date that character, then in order to keep them as his partner (or her, if we can hopefully play as a female), he has to regularly spend time with her. This provides an additional challenge to the player, as time in the Persona games is a currency which dictates what stats and social links he gains. Fail to call your girlfriend at least once a week or two (yeah yeah, this is still a video game, yall) and she dumps you. The player has a limited amount of chances to patch things up and reclaim her as your other half. Three strikes and your out. You have to get a different one. If the player succeeds in keeping a girlfriend up to the endgame, then he gets a very special and desirable item that cannot be gotten anywhere else in the game. How does that sound ? And again, returning to my previous point, having a girlfriend, if she's a party member, would change some bits of dialoge here and there through the story cutscenes. As is, just like Dojima, sometimes a story cutscene would play and it would feel disconnected from player input as the girlfriend would speak or behave as if nothing had happened between her and the player. This needs to be improved.
Anyways, that's about it. I wouldn't be surprised if I forgot things, but that's enough for an OP. What do you want from Persona 5 ? Be demanding; the guys and gals at Atlus are talented and can surely deliver.
