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This review contains spoilers
As someone who doesn't play (or finish) a lot of story based games, this is one where it really threw me for a loop. Usually at the end of a game, I leave it feeling emotional, like I've absorbed something from it into my character that leaves me itching for more.
I played this a couple of months after finishing Persona 4 Golden, and boy did it take me more than a couple of months to finish. Marred by my horrible housing situation at my university and the countless drama in which I was embroiled lengthened my time to finish this game by almost a whole year. Sorry, Ethan.
I enjoyed the updated graphics and the added activities to do during the daytime. The streamlined railway map to help the player figure out what exactly they were able to do was greatly appreciated, something that was absent in P4G. As with all Persona games, I don't know if it's just the repeated exposure to the songs or if they genuinely are just that catchy, but this soundtrack stayed with me for a while.
"I'm a shapeshifter, at Poe's masquerade. Hiding both face and mind, all free for you to draw." Genius!
The ending of the game, something that I mentioned in the beginning of the review, is definitely something that I could spend hours talking about. Granted, I am talking about the Royal ending, with Takuto Maruki and his palace. The entire epilogue I found myself questioning why I was even fighting him. I agreed with him on every aspect that he was talking about. Why should humanity be subject to hardship, if he had the ability of taking that away? Granted, it takes away free will in way, but he was doing it to everyone's wishes. Is that not what people want, and not what Maruki wants? The main point of contention about his character is that he thinks that he can play God, and shape reality to his liking. But, his background as a counselor and learning of everyone's desires and needs to become happy, he ultimately is giving that gift. The world he created was not born out of his desire, it stemmed from humanity's.
Despite our boastings on how advanced we, as a species, are, we are all simple in our desires: To be happy and be able to live. Should we really fault him for giving us what we truly want?
I played this a couple of months after finishing Persona 4 Golden, and boy did it take me more than a couple of months to finish. Marred by my horrible housing situation at my university and the countless drama in which I was embroiled lengthened my time to finish this game by almost a whole year. Sorry, Ethan.
I enjoyed the updated graphics and the added activities to do during the daytime. The streamlined railway map to help the player figure out what exactly they were able to do was greatly appreciated, something that was absent in P4G. As with all Persona games, I don't know if it's just the repeated exposure to the songs or if they genuinely are just that catchy, but this soundtrack stayed with me for a while.
"I'm a shapeshifter, at Poe's masquerade. Hiding both face and mind, all free for you to draw." Genius!
The ending of the game, something that I mentioned in the beginning of the review, is definitely something that I could spend hours talking about. Granted, I am talking about the Royal ending, with Takuto Maruki and his palace. The entire epilogue I found myself questioning why I was even fighting him. I agreed with him on every aspect that he was talking about. Why should humanity be subject to hardship, if he had the ability of taking that away? Granted, it takes away free will in way, but he was doing it to everyone's wishes. Is that not what people want, and not what Maruki wants? The main point of contention about his character is that he thinks that he can play God, and shape reality to his liking. But, his background as a counselor and learning of everyone's desires and needs to become happy, he ultimately is giving that gift. The world he created was not born out of his desire, it stemmed from humanity's.
Despite our boastings on how advanced we, as a species, are, we are all simple in our desires: To be happy and be able to live. Should we really fault him for giving us what we truly want?
"If I play a game you like, will you play a game I like?" - Ethan, or me, I don't fucking remember anymore.
It was this sentence that sent me on a two year long obsession with these games and its surrounding universe. Ethan played Okami, I played Persona 4 Golden.
Despite its obviously dated aesthetics, I didn't take it any less seriously than when I played P3R two years in the future. The game itself is presented in a characteristic mid-2000s light, especially weighted its character design and outfits, environment, and dialogue. When I first heard "Heartbeat, Heartbreak," my spine began to recoil a little bit, I will admit. I gave Ethan a game with a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack that's reminiscent of traditional Japanese historical music and he gives me this seemingly annoying pop/electronica theme? Seemed like a scam to me. I even asked Gavin if I was going to be hearing this song often, and I was very much disappointed in the response I heard back.
Oh, do I ever so proudly stand corrected.
Not only did I fall in love with the song, catching myself humming its melodies even away from the computer, I fell in love with the entire soundtrack. Every song was a banger, and every song on every future Persona installment continued to appeal to my ear.
I knew nothing of this game's story going into it, so I kept a very open mind. If there's one failsafe genre to get me to stay hooked in a piece of media, it's murder mystery. Twin Peaks, Dark, Sherlock Holmes, all these shows helped foster my love for the genre, and I was pleasantly surprised with what was presented to me.
What I ended up getting from the story was not just satisfaction that I had finally finished a game for the first time in many years, especially a 60-hour-long one, it was also the connection that I formed with characters in it. Although there were some truly annoying characters (ahem, yosuke), I truly, from start to finish, rooted for their victory. I cried at their losses, and my blood pressure rose at their every epiphany.
Never has a game hooked me as much as Persona 4 Golden. Or maybe I should just play more games. :)
It was this sentence that sent me on a two year long obsession with these games and its surrounding universe. Ethan played Okami, I played Persona 4 Golden.
Despite its obviously dated aesthetics, I didn't take it any less seriously than when I played P3R two years in the future. The game itself is presented in a characteristic mid-2000s light, especially weighted its character design and outfits, environment, and dialogue. When I first heard "Heartbeat, Heartbreak," my spine began to recoil a little bit, I will admit. I gave Ethan a game with a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack that's reminiscent of traditional Japanese historical music and he gives me this seemingly annoying pop/electronica theme? Seemed like a scam to me. I even asked Gavin if I was going to be hearing this song often, and I was very much disappointed in the response I heard back.
Oh, do I ever so proudly stand corrected.
Not only did I fall in love with the song, catching myself humming its melodies even away from the computer, I fell in love with the entire soundtrack. Every song was a banger, and every song on every future Persona installment continued to appeal to my ear.
I knew nothing of this game's story going into it, so I kept a very open mind. If there's one failsafe genre to get me to stay hooked in a piece of media, it's murder mystery. Twin Peaks, Dark, Sherlock Holmes, all these shows helped foster my love for the genre, and I was pleasantly surprised with what was presented to me.
What I ended up getting from the story was not just satisfaction that I had finally finished a game for the first time in many years, especially a 60-hour-long one, it was also the connection that I formed with characters in it. Although there were some truly annoying characters (ahem, yosuke), I truly, from start to finish, rooted for their victory. I cried at their losses, and my blood pressure rose at their every epiphany.
Never has a game hooked me as much as Persona 4 Golden. Or maybe I should just play more games. :)
After months of Ethan and Gavin begging me to play Persona 3 FES on my hastily-set-up PCSX2 emulator, ATLUS released this wonder of a game. Having just played Persona 5 Royal (which was way too easy according to Gavin), I was excited to play a remastered version of the game I intended to play (intended in this context means, "play a couple of times and let it rot in my library").
At first glance, this game is beautiful, and continued to bedazzle me the more I played. I was already a couple of hours into the game when I pressed the pause button for the first time and was greeted with one of the most awe-inducing pause menu animation Ethan and I had ever laid eyes on in our lives. Personally, I'm a motion-blur-truther, and my god is this game so smooth. The animations of the many different Theurgy moves scratch an itch in my brain that I never even knew I needed. Not to mention the soundtrack, which I knew I was going to love, given the series' track record with their extremely catchy soundtracks.
I was expecting a storyline more akin to Persona 4 Golden and P5R, and was given something much different. Away with the murder mystery of 4, the timeline jumping of 5, and the overall (relative to P3R) grounded storylines both 4 and 5 have, and instead arrives a plot line that almost immediately introduces its sense of gravitas. Oh, and that ending! I feel like I could talk to someone for hours about my thoughts about it, much like my reaction to P5R's ending, albeit more positively.
Anyway, to the only two people likely reading this, sorry for endlessly taunting you about the ease of my playthrough (Maybe I'll try P3FES one day.), I will proudly admit that you were right about this game being the best of the (current) modern Persona games. I eagerly await the release of the DLC, and Persona 6 :)
At first glance, this game is beautiful, and continued to bedazzle me the more I played. I was already a couple of hours into the game when I pressed the pause button for the first time and was greeted with one of the most awe-inducing pause menu animation Ethan and I had ever laid eyes on in our lives. Personally, I'm a motion-blur-truther, and my god is this game so smooth. The animations of the many different Theurgy moves scratch an itch in my brain that I never even knew I needed. Not to mention the soundtrack, which I knew I was going to love, given the series' track record with their extremely catchy soundtracks.
I was expecting a storyline more akin to Persona 4 Golden and P5R, and was given something much different. Away with the murder mystery of 4, the timeline jumping of 5, and the overall (relative to P3R) grounded storylines both 4 and 5 have, and instead arrives a plot line that almost immediately introduces its sense of gravitas. Oh, and that ending! I feel like I could talk to someone for hours about my thoughts about it, much like my reaction to P5R's ending, albeit more positively.
Anyway, to the only two people likely reading this, sorry for endlessly taunting you about the ease of my playthrough (Maybe I'll try P3FES one day.), I will proudly admit that you were right about this game being the best of the (current) modern Persona games. I eagerly await the release of the DLC, and Persona 6 :)