I might’ve said this in my review of the PSP remake but the sad truth with this game is it was made to be an ambitious and bold experiment in an era of looking forward for the future of Megami Tensei. This has become evident to me (a “megaten maniac”) with the fact that no video game company nowadays would throw away a system they built upon to make a spinoff that boldly would try and do something so risky like being cinematic (based on interviews this seemed to be the main goal). Sadly this creates a tedious gameplay experience that hides a genuinely good story and one I feel like is the most “wow I need to go outside and live my life now” Persona game I’ve played honestly. Whether it’s having the best use of a hidden video game character for legitimate thematic relevance, the crawling darkness of peering deeper into the mind, the absorbing darkness and coolness of the music, or the inner reflection on loneliness in a genre that’s kind of all about playing a long as game by yourself. I think Megami Ibunroku Persona was a great and interesting experiment.

https://youtu.be/2DYqwhSTeGQ?feature=shared

Beating this game around 2015 as a kid who dabbled with games like Castlevania III and Mega Man 2 on the Wii felt like I was finally able to get the challenge those games presented. Although nowadays I’d say this is possibly the second worst game out of all the Shovel Knight games that come with it for free now (second worst out of a collection of games I find very enjoyable), it’s a very good starting point to appreciate the games as going from “this is a unique spin on things I’ve seen in different NES games” to it’s own thing that feels fun and so refreshing that this game feels stiff which says a lot yet I can still go back to it and have fun

Review of Arcueid's route:

Pretty neat except that time I had to read about 3 different states of being a vampire for the 10th time

Realizing I did not turn on the porn censor thingy made part of this game like a RE4 QTE lol

Me 2 months ago as I reread the entirety of Hunter x Hunter: “wow it’s strange that no one has actually made Greed Island into a full 3D video game”

This video game that has multiplayer that’s more fun than anything any anime arena fighter within the past 20 years could ever dream of being:

Personally the only negatives are the repetitive single player campaign that awkward is a mesh of a tutorial for the multiplayer and a legitimate effort to have something and idk 20 years of technological advancement with 3D and collectible-based video game software that seems obvious to us now because we are here looking back but also this game is still fun TODAY it is still good (and it was so good the people who made this game played it for fun on their damn break) and that says a lot

Even 20 years later and learning about the current meta it feels like the structure of this game’s balancing with the systems in place are so strong that there’s still enjoyment. When making your own “deck” you use in the game there are so many tradeoffs and small things when you get onto the field, obviously a sequel would be phenomenal and like I said some things in hindsight can be added and make life easier but it’s astounding how a game that existed before far more money-magnet-aligned not-fighting-or-shooting competitive online games existed can even remotely have a competitive scene at all with variety

Phantom Dust good, Phantom Dust free, you should try Phantom Dust

>fun beat em up that actually opens up co-op in a genre founded in having co-op
>great animation and vibe
>Mike Patton in the opening

Yes