Persona 4
First let me say up front, this one is not as dark as Persona 3 and storywise it is less mature or complex. Another one off the stack!
Start up and Synopsis:
You are a second year transfer student to Inaba High School. Your parents are both "working overseas" and you've been shipped off to live with your Uncle - Dojima Ryotaro and cousin Dojima Nanako for a year. As you pass through a tunnel on the train there is a vision of the Velvet room. Maybe it was a dream? This time you are rolling in during the day, you are met at the station by your Uncle and his daughter Nanako. Seems you have not seen him since you were in diapers. He has to explain his relationship to your mother to you - ok I want to know the story there! Why has she not spoken to her brother since you were a baby?
You guys head back to the house, Inaba seems to be a sleepy town. But it must have been a long trip. You stop at the gas station and Nanako makes a beeline for the bathroom - but not until her father asks her if she can go by herself. (What sort of father does not know the answer to that?) The gas station attendant seems to know the Dojimas. He welcomes you to town, tells you they are looking for part-time help and you will probably be bored fast here after coming from the city and be wanting a part-time job. He shakes your hand in greeting but before he gives you his name Nanko comes back and asks if you are feeling OK you look sick.
You get back to the Dojima residence, sit down for dinner and Dojima's cell rings. He has to go to work leaving you and Nanko alone. You find out he is a detective and that he is gone a lot. She settles down to watch TV, the news is all about a newscaster, an enko singer and a city council member who is married to the singer and having an affair with the newscaster. Nanako finds it boring and switches channels. A commercial comes on for Junes, and she sings along happy and settles in to watch a show. You go upstairs go to bed and have a freaky dream that involves a figure shrouded in fog that keeps asking you if you want to find the truth. You chase it through the fog, find you can throw lightning and use some sword techniques against it. It laughs at you and tells you come on then, and you awaken.
Nanko cooked breakfast for you, no sign of you Dojima. You two start walking to school together. Along the way you see a kid a fall off his bike, you decide to leave him alone. You are introduced in the classroom by the homeroom and Philosophy teacher, Morooka Kinshiro. He goes off on a rant about morality, a girl interrupts him by asking if you can sit there, and your school year starts. As class is letting out teachers are called to a meeting and students told to stay in the classroom. So naturally people who are curious about the 'big city' come to talk to you. You find out the girl is Satonaka Chie she and her friend Amagi Yukiko offer to walk home with you. You are told to leave police working in the school zone alone, there has been an 'incident" off you go. Of course on your way, you run into the crime scene, it is a murder. You find out later the victim was the newscaster that was in the love triangle and she was found hanging upside down from an antenna on a residence (hanged man tarot style). Dojima yells at you for being there and everyone decides to go home.
So you help Nanko with some housework when you get home and head up to bed. No freaky dreams tonight. It is raining when you are on your way to school. You see the same kid skid on the slick pavement and wreck his bike again this time he is stuck in a garbage can. His name is Hanamura Yosuke and he is in your class. Yosuke invites you out after school Chie horns in and Yukiko has to go home and help at the inn. The three of you end up at Junes. Chie tells you all some weird story about the midnight channel where you supposedly see your soulmate at midnight if the tv is turned off and it is raining. She makes you all promise to watch it.
Enter the unrequieted love of Yosuke's life, Konishi Saki. She seems down, Yosuke asks what is bugging her. She makes some comment about if only she had not left school early and then ignores his question. Eventually you head home and you find Nanako alone seeming to think your uncle may not come home again. ( Chaos Monkey and I would up calling him Dickhead Dojima, If you follow his social link you will see why. ) Just as you are starting to comfort her, in he comes. She puts on the news for him. The press found the high school girl who found the corpse and are interviewing her. Her face and voice are masked. Nanako thinks it is boring and your uncle is asleep sitting on the couch.
You head upstairs remembering your promise, At midnight, a girl appears on the TV. It is blurry and you cannot quite see her. You go to touch the TV and your hand goes through the tube and gets stuck in it. You manage to pull it out, fall on the floor and wake Nanako who comes to check on you - giving you a very odd look.
The next day at school you tell your friends about the midnight channel. It seems you all saw the same girl and Chie is confused that her soul mate is a girl. You also hear that Saki was the person who found the corpse and she is not in school that day. You go to Junes after school with Chie and Yosuke again seems Chie's family are looking to buy a TV. As you are all looking through the department you stick your hand in a widescreen TV. It goes through, Your friends freak out and run around as customers are heading that way all 3 of you fall through the screen into the "TV World". Where you meet Teddy the empty bear suit. He helps you get out then you all go home. Eventually through various things you put together that people who appear on the TV during the Midnight Channel die - so off you all go to find out what is going on and to a clue on a student's death. You meet with Teddy again and eventually FINALLY have your first real fight. It is almost 2 hours since you started the game.
Now, the fun starts almost every time you save someone they are added to your party. Of course there are social links as with the other one. No one I really cared about died in this one, One us under the threat of dying at some point after they are saved. Eventually you uncover the plot withing the plot or do not. If you make wrong choices at crucial moments, the game fast forwards to your leaving to return to live with your parents. If you make the right ones, you get the final answer and leave satisfied.
Gameplay
The game again combines a card fighter with a High School RPG. By day you attend classes -except holidays. You fight shadows to level up and use the Velvet room to fuse personas. Your time however is very limited with less leeway than Persona 3 even, so you will have to make choices. You must balance your after school time trips into the TV, with school clubs, working and other social activities to raise your social links.The social links affect the types and levels of Persona you can fuse as well as when it is with a group member how much they will assist and how. Some will take death blows for you. It is better to complete a social link than to have multiple ones almost complete. Only completed ones count in the end. Part time jobs and books help raise your courage, understanding, knowledge, diligence and expression. Some of these must be at certain levels before you can start a social link with some individuals. Some can be done at night. Also there are the usual side quests and this time there is fishing added which raises diligence and gets you things you need for some quests or just better eq.
Battle in the TV world can be is easy enough each persona has different strengths and weaknesses. Like any RPG of this nature, you gain more party members as you rescue more people. You can bring 3 into the zone with you and each has their strengths and weaknesses as well. You can set characters to act as they see fit or to support or to play them a individuals and you set their actions. The latter is definitely suggested for boss battles after the first one maybe even for that one and I found some characters I wanted to control because they are SP hogs and blow through all the SP in the first few levels.
With a little forethought you can have a party ready for almost anything. There is no limit on the time you can spend in the TV world. But you have a time limit to save each person based on the weather forecast. The person must be out of the TV world before it becomes foggy in Inaba. Fog usually occurs after "several days" of rain. Boss battles take place on the highest level of a zone and most have a mid boss of some type. Your real life intrudes frequently in the form of exams and school trips so you sometimes have less time than you think.
You gain money through quests, defeating shadows, from your part time jobs and from selling things you gain in the TV world. There is a shop that makes interesting weapons for you. And the usual supply store that sells healing things.
Technical
None - GOOD Job!
Complaints
I preferred having the weapon types to the streamlining of just physical.
It is not as dark as I like - less for mature audiences than the previous one.
Teddy is annoying, I hated when he was my support as soon as I got Rise I ditched him. He is just as bad in your party. I refused to use him.
To much grinding needed still and you have to spend longer bouts of time in the World.
The music wears on your ear after a while no variety in choices (unless I did not unlock it).
Having to enter the velvet room to save persona, leave to dismiss persona then come back in to take others out of the compendium STILL.
The start took too long. Almost 2 hours before your real first fight and I was blasting through the choices when I timed this, having already done it once.
I liked the combo persona specials in 3 and am sorry they took them out of this one.
Sometimes the forced story portions went on too long. I needed places to break or save.
Likes
The multiple endings and the fact you can fail, more games need a game over.
The part time jobs made a nice change from the reading to raise the stats.
The gameplay was solid and consistent. No technical issues
Lots of slots for saving. I like this in an RPG lets me branch decisions.
Engine for battle seems better, I prefer not having my time set by Death or being tired.
I can SKIP the card shuffle THANK YOU!
When I fuse a persona it is now immediately added to to compendium.
Upshot
I liked the game. I have already started another one to see how many social links I can get done. The boss is good and hard, not a cop out. The story is good and the solution odd enough but it is just not dark enough nor is it anything innovative, I mean a bunch of kids outsmarting the police department in their investigations - how scooby doo . The protagonist and the people are not as mysterious overall and most of the social links were not as interesting in their stories, too pat, set seen it before. Where Persona 3 had Bebe, the girl whose parents were getting divorced, the drinking monk and Tanaka - this had only Kanji and the nurse that I actually enjoyed the story on the links. The rest were rather ho hum and I felt like slapping the a few of them for being idiots and not seeing the answer. The battle engine is much smoother and the annoyances that detracted from Persona 3 are for the most part gone, although I did like being able to tell the group to split up in 3, it made the grind go a little faster, I rarely missed it. I do recommend it. Out 10 I give Persona 4 an 8.
Showing posts with label PS2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PS2. Show all posts
08 June 2011
31 May 2011
Persona 4 Cracked Theories
It's time for more cracked theories - those ideas we come up while we are playing the game sometimes after 4 am.
The upshot of THIS Persona is that you are new to town, staying with your Uncle while your parents are wherever Japanese Parents go to leave their kids. (If we believed Anime and games NO kids have any parents around or at least one is dead. So upshot of this is kids go to Japan, but LEAVE before you start a family cause there is 50/50 chance you will be the dead parent!)
Anyway the protagonist gets dragged into events by entering a world in the television. If they get the people out before their shadows consume them as it were they survive. If they fail, the person dies. I will do a FULL review once I beat this boss I went in under leveled AGAIN. But for now onto the theories, We have been collecting them as we went, and who knows ONE of these or more maybe true!
1. There is something in the fog or rain that causes it. Your first oddity occurs as you are on the train heading into Inaba and pass through a tunnel. There is a repetition of weirdness at the gas station and later on when you touch the tv screen in your room it 'melts' Maybe it is something in the rain.
2. The Parking attendant is behind it. He is always there in the rain. He may also be the gas station attendant that first greeted you, offered you a job and none ever appears on the board. Okay maybe not the same guy but it is odd that people only want valet parking in the rain. And why do we see him only when it rains, he says something about the streets being more empty. Perhaps he is hiding out from his last crime spree on some other place?
2. Your Uncle is behind it all - the death of his wife unhinged him. He constantly is not home, he tells Nanako he is working when he is receiving calls about the mysterious car that killed his wife. At one point you see a figure in the fog who is upset that he failed this time (something very Jack the Ripper like in it)
3. Nanako is behind it all - at every time she says something is boring that is on the news on TV, that person is the next victim. There is a Panda bear in the room with her that is reminiscent of Teddy. And the TV world seems a little like a child's idea of how things would be.
4. Yosuke is behind it all - he is bored, there is nothing interesting going on. The TV's the kids enter through are in Junes where he works and the locals all hate him and his family for 'ruining' their downtown. Sounds like a perfectly good revenge to me. To top it off, there was this girl he was interested in who seemed lukewarm to him. He protests his interest is all to help find her killer, methinks he doth protest too much.
5. You are behind it all - The first murder gave you the idea and you knew you could do this thing with the TVs already. So you are playing stupid and letting everyone set themselves up. Your parents actually are dead or in the TV world or left for fear of their own safety.
6. Yukiko is behind it. She seems a bit unstable in many ways, very cold not interested in a boyfriend and hates how everyone expects her to take over the Inn just be cause she is an Amagi. She wants to leave and find her own way, but keeps getting held back by a sense of duty to her family and the expectations of the town..
7. Misuzu Hiiragi, the wife of the man (Taro Namatame) who had the affair with the first victim (Mayumi Yamano) is behind it. She travels a lot, seems to be more than a bit of a controlling type and is concerned about her public image. He disgraced her and these others may have seen something.Her picture appears on posters in the TV world at the Mayumi Yamano's death place.
8. Adachi is behind it - come on NO one is that nice and that gullible! He seems ineffectual but sometimes shows a flash of insight and competence.
9. Naoto is the actual killer. The Prince of Detectives shows up BEFORE he officially reports to the station. He talks to Kanji, and Kanji is the next victim. He is hiding something from everyone (that is obvious) and seems to know a lot more and be willing to believe the high weirdness than any NORMAL person should. Plus he taunts the group repeatedly about it being a game for them.
10 Mayumi Yamano is behind it all - she is not dead, went into hiding and substituted someone else's corpse for her own. She killed Saki because she saw her doing the replacement or saw something that would point to her. She went for Yukiko because she was in chrage of the hotel on the days that Mayumi Yamano stayed there. She goes for the others because they all have contact with Yukiko in some way.
11. The town itself is the cause. Their xenophobic nature gives rise to the shadows. There is something odd about beef being the food Inaba is known for when there are no cattle ranches near there. It is mentioned a few times. The town is full of people who judge and find their neighbors wanting. The entire theme seems to be about what OTHERS think and hiding from them in the fog.
12. The owner of the beef stand and/or her husband is behind it. They are killing people who have figured out the secret behind the beef.
13 Kinshiro Morooka is behind it all. He certainly seems to hate immoraloty, his job, the students, and Inaba today as opposed to how it WAS.
14. Juness the department store is behind it all. They are taking over the city because they are actually owned by the Corporation that was doing shadow research over a Gennouken High School in Persona 3.
Actually. looking over our list (which was compiled as we went) MOST characters hate Inaba. Kanji seems ok with the town, but dislikes the people, everyone is so full of hate for the place and each other and envious of other towns that we thought maybe it was a sort of Inaba Gestalt. Anyone have any others? BTW the answer was in our theories and we were rather surprised that the coders were almost as warped as we are. Any that anyone else had - EXCLUDING the correct one?
The upshot of THIS Persona is that you are new to town, staying with your Uncle while your parents are wherever Japanese Parents go to leave their kids. (If we believed Anime and games NO kids have any parents around or at least one is dead. So upshot of this is kids go to Japan, but LEAVE before you start a family cause there is 50/50 chance you will be the dead parent!)
Anyway the protagonist gets dragged into events by entering a world in the television. If they get the people out before their shadows consume them as it were they survive. If they fail, the person dies. I will do a FULL review once I beat this boss I went in under leveled AGAIN. But for now onto the theories, We have been collecting them as we went, and who knows ONE of these or more maybe true!
1. There is something in the fog or rain that causes it. Your first oddity occurs as you are on the train heading into Inaba and pass through a tunnel. There is a repetition of weirdness at the gas station and later on when you touch the tv screen in your room it 'melts' Maybe it is something in the rain.
2. The Parking attendant is behind it. He is always there in the rain. He may also be the gas station attendant that first greeted you, offered you a job and none ever appears on the board. Okay maybe not the same guy but it is odd that people only want valet parking in the rain. And why do we see him only when it rains, he says something about the streets being more empty. Perhaps he is hiding out from his last crime spree on some other place?
2. Your Uncle is behind it all - the death of his wife unhinged him. He constantly is not home, he tells Nanako he is working when he is receiving calls about the mysterious car that killed his wife. At one point you see a figure in the fog who is upset that he failed this time (something very Jack the Ripper like in it)
3. Nanako is behind it all - at every time she says something is boring that is on the news on TV, that person is the next victim. There is a Panda bear in the room with her that is reminiscent of Teddy. And the TV world seems a little like a child's idea of how things would be.
4. Yosuke is behind it all - he is bored, there is nothing interesting going on. The TV's the kids enter through are in Junes where he works and the locals all hate him and his family for 'ruining' their downtown. Sounds like a perfectly good revenge to me. To top it off, there was this girl he was interested in who seemed lukewarm to him. He protests his interest is all to help find her killer, methinks he doth protest too much.
5. You are behind it all - The first murder gave you the idea and you knew you could do this thing with the TVs already. So you are playing stupid and letting everyone set themselves up. Your parents actually are dead or in the TV world or left for fear of their own safety.
6. Yukiko is behind it. She seems a bit unstable in many ways, very cold not interested in a boyfriend and hates how everyone expects her to take over the Inn just be cause she is an Amagi. She wants to leave and find her own way, but keeps getting held back by a sense of duty to her family and the expectations of the town..
7. Misuzu Hiiragi, the wife of the man (Taro Namatame) who had the affair with the first victim (Mayumi Yamano) is behind it. She travels a lot, seems to be more than a bit of a controlling type and is concerned about her public image. He disgraced her and these others may have seen something.Her picture appears on posters in the TV world at the Mayumi Yamano's death place.
8. Adachi is behind it - come on NO one is that nice and that gullible! He seems ineffectual but sometimes shows a flash of insight and competence.
9. Naoto is the actual killer. The Prince of Detectives shows up BEFORE he officially reports to the station. He talks to Kanji, and Kanji is the next victim. He is hiding something from everyone (that is obvious) and seems to know a lot more and be willing to believe the high weirdness than any NORMAL person should. Plus he taunts the group repeatedly about it being a game for them.
10 Mayumi Yamano is behind it all - she is not dead, went into hiding and substituted someone else's corpse for her own. She killed Saki because she saw her doing the replacement or saw something that would point to her. She went for Yukiko because she was in chrage of the hotel on the days that Mayumi Yamano stayed there. She goes for the others because they all have contact with Yukiko in some way.
11. The town itself is the cause. Their xenophobic nature gives rise to the shadows. There is something odd about beef being the food Inaba is known for when there are no cattle ranches near there. It is mentioned a few times. The town is full of people who judge and find their neighbors wanting. The entire theme seems to be about what OTHERS think and hiding from them in the fog.
12. The owner of the beef stand and/or her husband is behind it. They are killing people who have figured out the secret behind the beef.
13 Kinshiro Morooka is behind it all. He certainly seems to hate immoraloty, his job, the students, and Inaba today as opposed to how it WAS.
14. Juness the department store is behind it all. They are taking over the city because they are actually owned by the Corporation that was doing shadow research over a Gennouken High School in Persona 3.
Actually. looking over our list (which was compiled as we went) MOST characters hate Inaba. Kanji seems ok with the town, but dislikes the people, everyone is so full of hate for the place and each other and envious of other towns that we thought maybe it was a sort of Inaba Gestalt. Anyone have any others? BTW the answer was in our theories and we were rather surprised that the coders were almost as warped as we are. Any that anyone else had - EXCLUDING the correct one?
13 November 2010
Cracked Theories - possible spoilers for persona 3
Yes, it has been a while, yes I have been working on Persona 4 again. in the mean time, here are some of the cracked theories we came up with on Persona 3.
- The protagonist is a persona of the 'creepy kid' who is behind it all. Ok this was a bit too close for comfort, but this came about because of the opening sequence ever notice how it looks like the protagonist is wearing a mask like a shadow? So what if the protagonist was a new type of shadow created or augments by the Corporation
- Mitsuru is behind it all, yep she was sent along to form this team and watch over it to keep those able to stop the corporation from world domination in line.
- Nozomi Suemitsu is behind it, he is revealed to be a religious fanatic so perhaps he is actually behind all of this talk of the end of the world because of how sinful people are.
More next time but hope this whets your appetite for more cracked theories on games We have a BUNCH for persona 4!
27 July 2010
Persona 3 FES
This was my first foray into the Persona Universe. Let me say 2 things up front about this game First it is Dark As you know I like dark. Second - while I would call this a Mature Game, it is not Leisure Suit Larry or even GTA. The game deals with death. people die, people you like, people you do not like. Do not give this game to anyone under 16, you will scar them for life.
That said : on with it. Yes Another one off the stack - almost.
Start up and synopsis:
You are a second year transfer student to Gekkoukan High School. You also happen to be an orphan and there is no explanation of You arrive late at night at the station on April 1st and head to the dorm. As midnight strikes most people are suddenly replaced with coffins. You continue on listening to your headphones. It seems you have seen this before. Or just do not care. Upon arriving at the dorm, you are greeted by a creepy kid and have to sign some sort of contract. OKAY So you sign and suddenly there are people in the lobby, one of them has a gun! They are both acting a little odd but the girl with the gun shows you to your room (Could I have an escort without a gun please?)
You get up the next morning and a seemingly normal High School rpg begins. There is a lot talk about Apathy Syndrome sweeping the nation. People just stop and stay where they are. You hear students gossiping at the gate about it. You find your class meet some people and the game at this point does not really allow you to make many choices, this is one long set up.
Then they come, shadows attack the dorm drawn there by Akihiko, one of the dorm residents. You head for the roof with the girl with the gun you have found out her name is Yukari. I call her annoying. Sh points the gun to her head and is unable to pull the trigger. You grab the gun, point it at your head and know instinctively what this is, it is not a gun but an evoker. You utter the word Persona and the first of your persona's appears and kicks the Shadows' ass. End of basic game set up and tutorial. Ok so it's a little strange that you have to shoot yourself in the head.
The truth comes out that these Shadows attack people, and their nest is is the location of Gekkoukan High School. But it is only accessible during the dark hour. that weird time at midnight when most people are in their coffins. The few that are not are Persona Users. The students at the dorm have formed SEES - "Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad". You the player are special user in that you can use multiple personas. So of course they wanted you to join. Eventually you find out there is an opposing group - Strega led by a nihilist prophet -Takaya. They use the dark hour to carry out assassination requests they received through their Revenge Website. You are told you have 1 year to get to the root of the problem. Once the truth about Nyx is revealed, they become the center of a cult wishing for her arrival and the annihilation of society and of course they try to thwart your plans to save the world.
In being special you find there is a door in Tartarus that none but you can see. Behind it is a room with a man, Igor who gives you advice concerning social links. He has the contract you signed and reminds you of it periodically. He also allows you to fuse personas (DO NOT DO THIS YET) to form new ones. His odd sidekick Elizabeth can store them and makes some odd requests of you. Most of which are fun.
As the plot thickens there are lots of betrayals, revelations and some deaths. It turns out there is a reason you are special. There are people who help and some who hinder. but eventually it boils down to you have to save the world from the eventual coming of Nyx the mother of all shadows and her desire to wipe the slate and start over. You have to make some hard choices and that is part of the fun.
Gameplay:
Somehow the game manages to combine a card fighter with a High School RPG. It does so well and with minimal annoyances. By day you attend classes and clubs, hang out with your friends, work on social links or stat increases through various activities. and do some of the side quests given to you by Elizabeth. By night you have the option to fight shadows in Tartarus, increase your courage by singing Karaoke, increase knowledge by studying, there are some social links that are available only at night as well. The stats you can increase affect your ability to get some social links started. The social links affect the types of Persona you can fuse. It is better to complete a social link than to have multiple ones almost complete. Only completed ones count in the end.
Battle in Tartarus is easy enough each persona has different strengths and weaknesses. Like any RPG of this nature, you gain more party members. You can bring 3 into Tartarus with you and each has their strengths and weaknesses as well.
With a little forethought you can have a party ready for almost anything. The more time you spend in the Shadow's nest, the more tired you become. If you are too tired you are forced to leave the dungeon. If you stay on a floor too long death comes after you. Eventually you must fight him. Do not try it before you are ready.
Each character in addition to have a persona also has a weapon type. Some shadows have the ability to block Junpei's slashes but not Akihiko's punches. This becomes important especially in the higher levels of the nest as you hit more and more shadows with only
The daily grind is broken up by Boss battles that take place somewhere in town. Each boss appears at the full moon and the completion of the battle reveals more of the story.Sometimes party members get ill or you do on those days you may not be able to form a party to fight. And your other life intrudes in the form of exams holidays and school functions so time management is necessary.
However there is still the grind of leveling and gaining money so that you can store and unstore persona. If you get to the goal in Tartarus early, you get the bonus of gonad. Harder mobs no death to stalk you, it was fin but not needed. So no sweat if you are cutting it too close to the deadline.
Technical:
Some loads take a while. When I completed the game, it did not save the completed version. So if there is anything to unlock I cannot do it. Other than that no technical issues.
Complaints:
Likes:
Upshot:
I liked the game. I will play it again in hard mode. Easy is too easy BTW. This time I will work on the social links and stats more. I highly recommend it. Out 10 I give the Journey portion of this a 9.
FES
Ok so the Answer is a second game on this. It takes place after the events above on March 31st. The last day of your year. I will not review that here. As a matter of fact I MAY not finish it, it is shaping up to be a major grind with no social links
and less of a story to hold my interest.
That said : on with it. Yes Another one off the stack - almost.
Start up and synopsis:
You are a second year transfer student to Gekkoukan High School. You also happen to be an orphan and there is no explanation of You arrive late at night at the station on April 1st and head to the dorm. As midnight strikes most people are suddenly replaced with coffins. You continue on listening to your headphones. It seems you have seen this before. Or just do not care. Upon arriving at the dorm, you are greeted by a creepy kid and have to sign some sort of contract. OKAY So you sign and suddenly there are people in the lobby, one of them has a gun! They are both acting a little odd but the girl with the gun shows you to your room (Could I have an escort without a gun please?)
You get up the next morning and a seemingly normal High School rpg begins. There is a lot talk about Apathy Syndrome sweeping the nation. People just stop and stay where they are. You hear students gossiping at the gate about it. You find your class meet some people and the game at this point does not really allow you to make many choices, this is one long set up.
Then they come, shadows attack the dorm drawn there by Akihiko, one of the dorm residents. You head for the roof with the girl with the gun you have found out her name is Yukari. I call her annoying. Sh points the gun to her head and is unable to pull the trigger. You grab the gun, point it at your head and know instinctively what this is, it is not a gun but an evoker. You utter the word Persona and the first of your persona's appears and kicks the Shadows' ass. End of basic game set up and tutorial. Ok so it's a little strange that you have to shoot yourself in the head.
The truth comes out that these Shadows attack people, and their nest is is the location of Gekkoukan High School. But it is only accessible during the dark hour. that weird time at midnight when most people are in their coffins. The few that are not are Persona Users. The students at the dorm have formed SEES - "Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad". You the player are special user in that you can use multiple personas. So of course they wanted you to join. Eventually you find out there is an opposing group - Strega led by a nihilist prophet -Takaya. They use the dark hour to carry out assassination requests they received through their Revenge Website. You are told you have 1 year to get to the root of the problem. Once the truth about Nyx is revealed, they become the center of a cult wishing for her arrival and the annihilation of society and of course they try to thwart your plans to save the world.
In being special you find there is a door in Tartarus that none but you can see. Behind it is a room with a man, Igor who gives you advice concerning social links. He has the contract you signed and reminds you of it periodically. He also allows you to fuse personas (DO NOT DO THIS YET) to form new ones. His odd sidekick Elizabeth can store them and makes some odd requests of you. Most of which are fun.
As the plot thickens there are lots of betrayals, revelations and some deaths. It turns out there is a reason you are special. There are people who help and some who hinder. but eventually it boils down to you have to save the world from the eventual coming of Nyx the mother of all shadows and her desire to wipe the slate and start over. You have to make some hard choices and that is part of the fun.
Gameplay:
Somehow the game manages to combine a card fighter with a High School RPG. It does so well and with minimal annoyances. By day you attend classes and clubs, hang out with your friends, work on social links or stat increases through various activities. and do some of the side quests given to you by Elizabeth. By night you have the option to fight shadows in Tartarus, increase your courage by singing Karaoke, increase knowledge by studying, there are some social links that are available only at night as well. The stats you can increase affect your ability to get some social links started. The social links affect the types of Persona you can fuse. It is better to complete a social link than to have multiple ones almost complete. Only completed ones count in the end.
Battle in Tartarus is easy enough each persona has different strengths and weaknesses. Like any RPG of this nature, you gain more party members. You can bring 3 into Tartarus with you and each has their strengths and weaknesses as well.
With a little forethought you can have a party ready for almost anything. The more time you spend in the Shadow's nest, the more tired you become. If you are too tired you are forced to leave the dungeon. If you stay on a floor too long death comes after you. Eventually you must fight him. Do not try it before you are ready.
Each character in addition to have a persona also has a weapon type. Some shadows have the ability to block Junpei's slashes but not Akihiko's punches. This becomes important especially in the higher levels of the nest as you hit more and more shadows with only
The daily grind is broken up by Boss battles that take place somewhere in town. Each boss appears at the full moon and the completion of the battle reveals more of the story.Sometimes party members get ill or you do on those days you may not be able to form a party to fight. And your other life intrudes in the form of exams holidays and school functions so time management is necessary.
However there is still the grind of leveling and gaining money so that you can store and unstore persona. If you get to the goal in Tartarus early, you get the bonus of gonad. Harder mobs no death to stalk you, it was fin but not needed. So no sweat if you are cutting it too close to the deadline.
Technical:
Some loads take a while. When I completed the game, it did not save the completed version. So if there is anything to unlock I cannot do it. Other than that no technical issues.
Complaints:
- The party sometimes gets in each other's way.
- I really hate cutesy stuff. The dog story is cool the dog in the party is not.
- What is it with robot girls in these things. This one actually has a story plot but you know, this is just getting old.
- The music wears on your ear after a while thank goodness for my ZEN Mp3 Player. Celldweller and Five Finger Death Punch worked well as background music in the dungeons when grinding.
- Speaking of wearing on you, so did Mitsuru's and later Fuuka's words of encouragement. Let us lose them please.
- Having to enter the velvet room to save persona, leave to dismiss persona then come back in to take others out of the compendium.
- The final boss battle. COP OUT. I wanted an epic battle. But at least if you were going to do it like that you did not make me waste hours.
- Sometimes the forced story portions went on too long. I needed places to break or save. Sometimes I got them, usually I did not.
Likes:
- The story does not pull punches. I like that it is dark and while things turn out ok they do not for everyone on a personal level.
- The social links and their stories were interesting and varied. The nice answer was not always the best depending on to whom you were speaking.
- The gameplay was solid and consistent. No technical issue (except perhaps that the end.
- Lots of slots for saving. I like this in an RPG lets me branch decisions.
Upshot:
I liked the game. I will play it again in hard mode. Easy is too easy BTW. This time I will work on the social links and stats more. I highly recommend it. Out 10 I give the Journey portion of this a 9.
FES
Ok so the Answer is a second game on this. It takes place after the events above on March 31st. The last day of your year. I will not review that here. As a matter of fact I MAY not finish it, it is shaping up to be a major grind with no social links
and less of a story to hold my interest.
15 July 2009
Gaming Backlog: Devil May Cry (PS2)
Ah HA! I finished one. Fr those of you who do not know I have a gaming backlog like you would not believe. But at last I finished Devil May Cry. Game play was good. I did not do a completest game. So impressions are from a first play through without annoyances.
Start up and synopsis:
The game starts out with a cut scene of Dante sitting in his office as a long willowy woman comes crashing through the window. Interesting way to get some one's attention. She proceeds to try to kill him, then when that fails she hires him. All normal for Dante.
So off they go to a Castle on an island and now things start to get strange. First Trish as we have been told her name is goes vaulting up to the top of a cliff leaving Dante to walk up the long way. This theme runs through the whole game. Yep, that's right Dante can't jump for shit. So off he goes walking.
Several hours (game play time), a few platforms and some cool weapons later, he finds Trish again and guess what? She is working for the bad guy. Shock! You mean the woman that looks a LOT like Dante's mother who just happens to come into his office through the window and can jump sheer cliff-faces in a single bound is a DEMON? (or are they devils? Still fuzzy on that.) So now it is time for her to deliver Dante to her boss and guess what, yep she fails.
Now comes the weirdness. Dante is starting to clue into what is happening (never mind the PLAYER is smarter than the supposed professional in this and has figured it out LONG ago.) Dante goes for the big guy. Big guy almost gets him but guess what yep the woman saves him (why? Dante gets all emo over it (Talk about picking the wrong women) Goes off fights some more and guess what? Yep, Trish shows up able to function in spite of being deaded a while ago by her ex employer. OK Then comes the REALLY stupid stuff. Starfox/Sonic Adventure style flying of a museum relic that Dante just HAPPENS to know how to fly and a last minute getaway before the bad guy's corpse and any remaining minions are supposedly buried under a ton of rubble.
Well we will see about that there are 3 sequels after all.
Gameplay:
The moves are fun to do, not annoying ones that you have to contort your fingers into pretzel shapes in order to accomplish anything and even auto mode is playable. Except once it is on, you cannot turn it off. The biggest complaints I have are lack of the ability to change my camera and Dante can't jump. Look I do not mind the occasion engine controlled jump from the correct spot but I should be able to jump BACK. Not fall down and have to climb all over.
Game is mission oriented grades applied to mission upon completion based on object collected, NPCs whacked and time.
Technical:
Don't know if it is my set, the switcher box or what but at times backgrounds and graphics were too muddy. Had to turn it up all the way on the game to see things like ladders against the wall. I do not have to do that on other games so suspect it is the overall clarity of the graphics in the game. Dark is good, muddy is bad.
No locks, no bugs, no issues Good solid coding. Great job on that.
Fun factor:
Overall the game was good. Dante definitely earns the title of Badass. Missions for the most part go fast with a few exceptions caused by the difficulty seeing and getting used the inability to turn the camera to get in the right spot for a jump. Will probably replay it at least one in Dante Must Die mode.
Upshot:
Bosses in the game on Normal Mode are hard, but for the most part not impossible to beat even first time through. The story line is acceptable and only gets ridiculous near the end. The female character, Trish, is rather lame. There are major holes in the RPG plot. But hey for a shooter it has more plot than most. Give it 4.5 out of 5
The ending was a too stupid to warrant that last .5.
I started DMC 2 Can anyone tell me why Dante now reminds me of the Prince in PoP Sands of Time? Hmm
Start up and synopsis:
The game starts out with a cut scene of Dante sitting in his office as a long willowy woman comes crashing through the window. Interesting way to get some one's attention. She proceeds to try to kill him, then when that fails she hires him. All normal for Dante.
So off they go to a Castle on an island and now things start to get strange. First Trish as we have been told her name is goes vaulting up to the top of a cliff leaving Dante to walk up the long way. This theme runs through the whole game. Yep, that's right Dante can't jump for shit. So off he goes walking.
Several hours (game play time), a few platforms and some cool weapons later, he finds Trish again and guess what? She is working for the bad guy. Shock! You mean the woman that looks a LOT like Dante's mother who just happens to come into his office through the window and can jump sheer cliff-faces in a single bound is a DEMON? (or are they devils? Still fuzzy on that.) So now it is time for her to deliver Dante to her boss and guess what, yep she fails.
Now comes the weirdness. Dante is starting to clue into what is happening (never mind the PLAYER is smarter than the supposed professional in this and has figured it out LONG ago.) Dante goes for the big guy. Big guy almost gets him but guess what yep the woman saves him (why? Dante gets all emo over it (Talk about picking the wrong women) Goes off fights some more and guess what? Yep, Trish shows up able to function in spite of being deaded a while ago by her ex employer. OK Then comes the REALLY stupid stuff. Starfox/Sonic Adventure style flying of a museum relic that Dante just HAPPENS to know how to fly and a last minute getaway before the bad guy's corpse and any remaining minions are supposedly buried under a ton of rubble.
Well we will see about that there are 3 sequels after all.
Gameplay:
The moves are fun to do, not annoying ones that you have to contort your fingers into pretzel shapes in order to accomplish anything and even auto mode is playable. Except once it is on, you cannot turn it off. The biggest complaints I have are lack of the ability to change my camera and Dante can't jump. Look I do not mind the occasion engine controlled jump from the correct spot but I should be able to jump BACK. Not fall down and have to climb all over.
Game is mission oriented grades applied to mission upon completion based on object collected, NPCs whacked and time.
Technical:
Don't know if it is my set, the switcher box or what but at times backgrounds and graphics were too muddy. Had to turn it up all the way on the game to see things like ladders against the wall. I do not have to do that on other games so suspect it is the overall clarity of the graphics in the game. Dark is good, muddy is bad.
No locks, no bugs, no issues Good solid coding. Great job on that.
Fun factor:
Overall the game was good. Dante definitely earns the title of Badass. Missions for the most part go fast with a few exceptions caused by the difficulty seeing and getting used the inability to turn the camera to get in the right spot for a jump. Will probably replay it at least one in Dante Must Die mode.
Upshot:
Bosses in the game on Normal Mode are hard, but for the most part not impossible to beat even first time through. The story line is acceptable and only gets ridiculous near the end. The female character, Trish, is rather lame. There are major holes in the RPG plot. But hey for a shooter it has more plot than most. Give it 4.5 out of 5
The ending was a too stupid to warrant that last .5.
I started DMC 2 Can anyone tell me why Dante now reminds me of the Prince in PoP Sands of Time? Hmm
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