played this and persona 3 dancing, which are basically the same game. giving this one half a star more and the review because it ran better on my computer. sorry p3, the songs in p3 were better and more interesting, but also, p3 had worse voice acting, so i still enjoyed playing it less. idk. p3 just had worse vibes like they would not do this. sees should not have fun. i would honestly not mind if both games were remade or added to with royals/strikers and reload content because look. theyre fun rhythm games and they have my best friends in them. addicted to goro akechi will power. thank you

literally just finished the game, rambly thoughts ahead. the game is fun. definitely more fun than i had playing p3p, although both left me feeling fatigued. maybe that's thematically appropriate. i was definitely ready for this game to be over, but i did enjoy it. so, tartarus is a better experience than it used to be, although it gets boring after a while. well, what doesn't get boring. you could say things about the ai being stripped and characters being controllable, but portable also did that, so i can't really complain. more good additions include the linked episodes for male party members, although i could really do with replacing some of the social links because there's just a lot. and many of the social links are lacking. i understand wanting to create an "authentic" experience, but the things taken away make me wonder why some of the social links didn't get reworked or at the very least, more fleshed out. it felt like some of them would have three lines and you're done, just like the original. not to mention how a good half of them at the very least would have the character completely change their outlook halfway through and thank you profusely, as if you had ANY say.. which all the persona games do, but with the tiny amount of time you spend with some of these people, it just felt WILD. the majority of character work was great though, takaya and strega as a whole being a noticeable improvement that i wouldnt have even put on my list of things i wanted from this game, but they were really strong!

so that's what the game added and did well. what the game removed is... kind of disappointing. 1, femc. well cant complain she was added later i guess, but the amount of times i sat there arms crossed saying "if this was femc it would be sooo much better" like okay, im biased with aigis, im always gonna prefer lesbianism to no lesbianism, and i can just relate more to femc but i also think there's a lot of strengths that femc has. mitsuru social link is much better with femc, for one, as well as just the general dynamic between her and the party members. (Not ken though... lol... credit where credit is due, ken is great in this game. really like him. some bad vibes in femcs route) i also generally like her social links better, which i don't think is a controversial opinion. saori and rio come back to me. this is the persona game where women are written best, so forgive me for wanting to see more women! it's just sad that we don't have her at launch and will probably have to pay more money for her as dlc.

Speaking of dlc, where's the answer?! the most inaccessible gameplay wise part of the game, with a deeply compelling story and satisfying conclusions to the characters' arcs, especially yukari and aigis... it makes me mad that it's not even announced yet, (although the leaker has confirmed it, but maybe they're lying about this one thing? lol. we know its coming but it doenst make it easier to choke down waiting and paying more money.) so most people have to resort to piracy to get the awesome end chapter of this game, if they even know it exists at all...! if they can even tolerate the repetitive and difficult gameplay in the first place. i dont want to make it seem like it's wrong to enjoy or not enjoy the answer, but not having it is missing out on a lot... and even if it didnt get difficulty options, just Having It On The Same Platform is a lot. well, go play it or watch the scenes on youtube. it's good.

one last thing whose exclusion pissed me off is the tired mechanic. seriously, that really drilled in that you were so fucking tired all the time! as someone who is tired all the time, im missing my representation... But seriously, what's the point of letting you sleep in class when it'll just level up your courage, which is easier to get than academics? why go to the nurse's office for more useless courage? and what happened to resetting the game to stay sick and maximize your courage gains? I know i just said that courage was useless, but if you actually had a reason to go to and know about the nurse's office before your courage is maxed since theres so many other ways to do it, it would be a lot better! like, you needed to game the system because of your lack of free time, but now there's even so much more time in the evenings... Well, we can't have gamers hating the main character like they hated morgana, lol! It just screams insecurity at the main conceit of the game, and making it less unique to appeal to more people. which SUCKS!! LET'S GATEKEEP!! unless it's the answer, which should be accessible to all, LOL. okay i understand im pearl clutching at some things and preaching inclusivity at others, but if it's so unapproachable because of the strict schedule, dont play it. If you're stressed, follow a guide. turn the difficulty down, no one's keeping track. this game just feels really easy. combat's easy, it's easy to get all the social links, it's easy to max out your social stats. hell, i romanced yukari and aigis at the same time... I felt bad at first, but i promised the yukari that lives in my head that it would strengthen the narrative in the end... and there were no consequences...? at least not that i saw...? perhaps cheating with aigis specifically has no consequences, but it was just strange considering the text that appeared telling me to think it through because i already had a relationship.

one last thing i want to mention is ryoji. what were they thinking...?! well, atlus is neither confirming nor denying the homophobia allegations... man. well i like that he got more screentime and i did actually like him this time around, but he is more kaworu than ever, and a lot of it left a bitter taste in my mouth. well thats the fujoshi lifestyle for you

I really liked this game, but the grammatical errors absolutely ruin it for me. "Okay, you type your reviews like a menace" this is a published game. You should be able to use commas correctly. In this game, there are no (or very few) commas used with direct addresses. Instead of saying, "You should come to my house, LD." it's "You should come to my house LD." Incredibly pedantic, but it pisses me off so much because i actually liked all elements of this game. Im still rating it very positively- this game would not get higher than 4 stars for me even if this mistake was corrected- but seriously. I (obviously!! look at how this is typed!!) dont care what your grammar is like in your social media posts, just when it's a published work! With unintentional errors! It kills me!

Anyways, i loved the story, i loved figuring everything out, and i loved exploring! I played on switch and i would play on pc in the future because i think first person platforming is bad on switch and I didn't explore everything i wanted to because i am just a mouse and keyboard first person controls person at heart. but as a fan of weird ass mysteries, this really entertained me.

I disliked this game a lot. It feels very empty, and then there's a weird chase sequence (?) toward the end and at that point i was like i do not care enough. so i shut the game down and watched the rest of a playthrough. and maybe that was a mistake, because the end is... pretty bad. I don't mind sad endings, but all this for something deeply cliche and not at all interesting? Okay. Not that i was invested in the story at all or could tell you gun to my head what happened in it except for the ending. Also, i discovered that i have a deep fear of astronaut suits, which is good to know. I mean, I'm not gonna run screaming, but I'm gonna be unsettled, and i might have to fight back tears. they're freaky, okay? The way you cant see the face... and the proportions on the one in this game were weird... Well, that's my problem, not the game's. The game was just so boring and vapid that me being deeply afraid of the little astronaut was the most interesting thing that happened. Also, i want to say, i love walking simulators. This game just did not do it for me. It's also not really the type of game that should "not hold your hand". i was really mad at that and the phrasing when i played it. I've forgotten most of my critiques of that specifically though. sorry! Hold my hand please, it's cold!

the journey of thinking you've figured it out, scrapping that idea, then thinking you've figured it out again was worth playing. i really really liked how the game did its story, even if the story itself was just okay to me. and the ending was deeply whatever. some of the characters did stay in my head for a while, but for the most part I didn't find many of them super interesting. and i could take or leave the combat. didn't really contribute much for me, but it didn't take away from the experience. After playing it, the amount of people who declare it one of their favorite games ever surprised me, but to each their own, it just didn't really click with me, i guess. Very well made game, so me not liking it too much (i mean, i just feel neutral on it, not a lot of dislike) is not a dig at anyone who does. very glad that this ambitious game was so well received by so many people and i hope it inspires similar games!!! nonlinear stories rule hard. anyways, ryoko rules, my final message to the world

I was very very pleasantly surprised by this game. I played it with a big chunk of nonlinear story mystery esque games such as Gnosia and 13 Sentinels, and I did not play AITSF at that time but it is reminiscent of that too. The way things fit together and how you can pretty much always figure it out is just great. There are some very emotional moments but the narration typically has a good sense of humor, and I truly loved the characters. One in particular i thought was absolutely delightful and craved more of every time she wasn't on screen. overall, huge recommend to fans of games in this specific genre.

what to say about twewy? it's cohesive, coherent, and well made. sometimes the difficulty will skyrocket for a specific boss, which is kind of annoying, and you can't change out your pins instead of changing to easy mode, which is kind of annoying. but hey. im not very good at the gameplay anyway. post game is great. definitely give this game a shot if you have a DS. I was lucky enough to find an actual hard copy of the game, and it's now one of my prized possessions. I love it dearly. its got all my friends on it. can carry around my beautiful ds lite everywhere with me and see joshua whenever i want to.

i guess I'll talk about the plot a little. Shiki is a really well made character, and everyone who comes after her is also really good, but not quite as good as shiki, but theyre not a downgrade. Shiki is simply special. The game manages to get across its message without being overly saccharine or corny or disingenuous. And the style sure is stylish. Unfortunately, it will not be my favorite game played in 2024, so they are putting Joshua down soon. Sad, but it had to happen. (Edit, changing my mind, listened to Calling so much that it may be my favorite game of 2024. We'll see how the year shakes out)

Acting is spectacular, FMV is awesome and the cast nailed it. There were some moments that took my breath away. controls and gameplay are wonderful. It just goes really really hard on centrism which is so so so disappointing. I thought they were gearing up to say something a little more revolutionary, maybe, since the enemies were kind of ultra liberals, not entirely left wing, but that... seemed to be the devs' idea of a left wing run dystopia and we just need more centrism and we'll all be better. like, okay. I thought we were criticising liberalism in a fun way from a farther left perspective. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Well, i loved it up until that point, so there's that!

I havent played this game in years, so i might have to replay to give a thorough critique, which i feel it needs, as a 2014 SJW game. I was there, as a 2014 SJW. so i feel this criticism is important. I actually wrote and rewrote this for a VERY long time, lmfao. The story's fine, characters are loveable, turing's there, whatever. My main contention is with actually one of my favorite characters, Jess, who has undergone a hybridization surgery to save her life, and looks like a cat woman. In this world, hybrids are humans who have decided for whatever reason to medically alter their genes to have animal parts, or something like that. They are used as this game's allegory for fantasy oppression, basically. or sci fi oppression. either way, creating an unreal class of people to be oppressed is not something that games should do unless they're prepared to really carry it through, and do the research. In this game, the Human Protection Act exists to make sure hybrids don't overtake humanity. Which... Remember that hybrids are human and these are all just references to real life, mostly racist legislature that the game updates to imagine in a cyberpunk society. Okay. So, you make a microaggression towards Jess, and she of course gets mad, tells her life story to you in detail so you understand... how bad hybrids have it, i guess?

It's just deeply uncomfortable to say something that you, as a player, probably can see will not be taken well, have to say it, and then see it not taken well! And that's where your knowledge of hybrids comes from. And i just feel like there couldve been a better way that feels way less exploitative of this woman's trauma, and way less personally offensive to me as a disabled person who gets a lot of this in my real life already and whatnot... And All this for a racism metaphor. Every confrontation with Jess has a weird vibe and she seems like the writers want her to just constantly be educating you. Which is not the role anyone should have, much less someone who... has been through a lot and has a lot better shit to do with her time.

Also, the term "genotypicals" makes me want to genuinely throw up.

The weird vibes with jess' treatment shine through in other ways i believe, but I don't remember this game fully... Only these parts because they really made me upset! Game is not even that bad otherwise. a little copagandic. but the narrative and the way hybrids were handled did not do it for me at all and it left a very bad taste in my mouth.