#the persona 3 fes playthrough continues | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

feelinsophantastic · 23 days ago

Text

I Don't Think I Can Finish Persona 3: FES

review #2! i hope this doesn't clog the home page but i wanna get these out there so oh well. this one was written after like 70 hours of playing persona 3 and only liking it half the time and i had a LOT of shit to say so it ended up like double the length of my other two reviews. sorry!

Introduction

I wanted to love Persona 3. For a long time, I heard about its lovable characters and its heartfelt narrative. All of these things interested me, and when I finally began to play it, I was excited. After recently playing an RPG which left me wholly unsatisfied narratively speaking, I was ready to try something more cohesive and complete. After all, I love RPGS! I was not expecting the world out of the game, but I was wholly willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and thought that I would get a fun and compelling experience out of it. I wanted to love Persona 3. And for a decent portion of my 70-hour playtime, I did.

It is a game with so many strong components and a central idea with such potential, held back by its seeming desire for the player to experience as few of those components as possible. It’s designed in a way that forsakes its greatest strengths, and it gets in the way of its own success numerous times. So much of Persona 3 is captivating, intriguing, and meaningful, but it refuses to allow those strengths to shine through in the gameplay at large. Every step forward is accompanied by a much larger step back, and this divide in quality that became ever-present in my playthrough eventually led me to question whether I ever enjoyed it at all.

I haven’t finished the game, but I’d like to document my thoughts on Persona 3 so far and highlight exactly where it lost me. I spent my playtime telling myself that the roughness around the edges was worth it, but as that roughness began to envelop the game, that internal monologue became harder and harder to justify. I can’t say my thoughts are entirely negative, as there is still much to love here, and someone with tastes different than mine can absolutely find a great game within this. But I found Persona 3 to be a game split into two halves, with the tedious and infuriating dungeon-crawling eating away at the social simulation that the game so desperately needs to highlight more. A strong central idea and charming narrative were not enough to keep me playing, and I just don’t think I can finish Persona 3.

The Central Idea

Persona 3 is a game deeply invested in time. In fact, it is so invested in it, that “time” is the first word that the player reads upon starting the game. Time is the antagonist, a resource to be managed, and an indication of progress. I found myself incredibly captivated by the game’s commitment to time, and find it a strong central foundation to build the entirety of a game upon. Persona 3 makes sure that each day matters in some way, whether grand or granular, allowing most of the game’s systems to flow seamlessly together and creating a powerful sense of cohesion. Each action you take throughout a day is a meaningful choice you have to make, and that creates a really strong dynamic between the player and the game where no moment can be taken for granted. You are constantly managing your days, planning ahead, responding to surprises, and treating time with the respect that it quite frankly deserves.

This connection to time allows the game to tell a more convincing story, as well. Moments don’t linger. When tragedy or fortune befalls the main party (known as SEES), life simply continues. It creates a sense of immersion that is incredibly captivating, allowing the player to watch as the world changes around them as well as contribute to these changes with their various escapades and extracurriculars. Time being so consistent makes scheduling possible as well, meaning that each player can form a routine unique to them and strengthen their link to the world. It ends up being really satisfying to plan out and structure your days, breaking the schedule when you need a reprieve or when an important event happens. There’s a lot to balance, and it’s a major part of what I really liked about Persona 3.

That being said, this concept of time is not without its hiccups. After building such a solid foundation for time in Persona 3, Atlus introduced Tartarus, a randomly generated dungeon you visit at night where the goal is to reach the eventual top. While this has aspects of time management, making the members of SEES tired if they spend too long within Tartarus, there is no actual limit upon your time there. And as your level grows, tiredness becomes less and less of a factor, meaning that visits to Tartarus theoretically become longer and longer. After a relatively small amount of playtime, the disparity between the time I spent partaking in social activities and the time I spent wandering through Tartarus became too great to ignore, and the dungeon soon began to engulf a large amount of playtime, even if visited sparingly. While this in theory adds to the mystery and backwards nature of Tartarus, it can lead to a strange understanding of time both in and outside of the dungeon. For example, a character was in SEES for a whole month, but I only went to Tartarus with them once or twice. So the next month, when something moving happened to them, it landed rather limply, because it felt like I had barely known them at all. Tartarus creates a wide gap between the player’s understanding of the time that’s elapsed and the actual time that’s elapsed, damaging the overall illusion.

Generally speaking, though, Persona 3’s emphasis on time is a solid framework to build the game around. It creates a connection between the player and the world that is incredibly charming to be a part of, forcing careful planning and consideration of the hours, days, and weeks ahead. Tartarus aside for now, this sharp focus is an incredibly effective core idea, heightening the atmosphere, tension, and immersion that Persona 3 strives for.

The World and Immersion

On that note, Persona 3’s commitment to immersion is just as strong as the aforementioned commitment to time. The way it makes the player personally involved in the world they occupy kept me engrossed from the moment I began my playthrough, and that link never truly breaks. The game follows the life of Makoto Yuki, a transfer student at Gekkoukan High School, and each decision he makes is driven by the player. He can be reserved or brash, focused on his studies or driven by extracurriculars, charming or awkward. This isn’t executed perfectly, with dialogue options often being very limited, but these failings don’t occur enough to deeply ruin the experience. Ultimately, these choices do end up meaning little in a gameplay sense. The amount of studying you do only impacts an arbitrary exam score, and higher Charm and Courage stats only unlock a handful of interactions, but the intrinsic reward for keeping these stats high is enough. They contribute heavily to a strong feeling of selfhood within Makoto’s actions, and a sense that each playthrough of Persona 3 follows a slightly different protagonist. The game makes it a point to involve the player in each aspect of Makoto’s life, highlighting the mundanity just as much as it highlights the excitement. Despite him being an established character, the player is encouraged to play the game not as Makoto Yuki, but as themselves or who they wish to be.

This is not the only way that a sense of immersion is created, though. The world itself is living, changing, and adapting to the player’s actions within the story. At the beginning of the game, the time after school is spent walking home in short vignettes that show bustling street markets, malls, and subway stations. As the game opens up and the player is given more freedom in how they utilize their time, though, they can talk to new people throughout the game’s world (a city named Iwatodai) and uncover slowly unravelling stories entirely isolated from the game’s main narrative. There is plenty to miss in Persona 3, and while that may rub some the wrong way, it is another avenue for the game to express different facets of life. Just like real life, no one person can talk to or do everything, and thus a stronger bond between the player and the options they choose to pursue is formed. The more time you put into Iwatodai, the more meaning you get out. Shifts both subtle and blatant leave a lasting impact on the player due to the world’s familiarity, and locations become imbued with personal significance as the game progresses. Persona 3 is focused as much as it is on the player as it is on the characters within the narrative, and that personal connection can’t be understated.

The world Persona 3 sets out to create is wholly complete, and exists independently of the player’s will. Each action you take is yours, and that immersion goes a long way towards making the events and characters within the game special. It’s a game where you build your Makoto Yuki, not through perks or skill trees, but through your choices and what paths of life in Iwatodai that you walk. The city of Iwatodai feels like a place that you exist within, rather than a place that exists for your sake. There is a comfortable mundanity to being in Persona 3’s world, aided by the soothing soundtrack and moody visuals. This mundanity accommodates and integrates the player within the world’s boundaries, creating immersion and consistency that allows the player to truly familiarize themself with the game. Small oddities become noticeable the longer you inhabit Iwatodai, and the game’s routines become second nature. It’s a deeply engrossing world that emphasizes player expression, even with limited options at your disposal. While there are not an infinite amount of choices in how you approach your daily life, or in what that daily life entails, Persona 3 sets out to ensure through its immersion that what you can do funnels directly into a virtual lifestyle that is all your own.

The “Role-playing”

Nowhere can the effects of Persona 3’s immersion be more strongly felt than in the social simulation. For me, it’s the main draw of the game, and it is open to the player on almost every day they play through. On Monday to Saturday, a large majority of each day is spent at school, listening to lectures, going to assemblies, and answering questions. While this would typically be associated with boredom and drudgery, it typically manages to avoid overstaying its welcome, and once school is out (and all day on Sundays and holidays), the social sandbox is open to be explored.

The main way the game allows for the player to interact with this sandbox is through social links. Many characters you meet both inside and outside of school have an associated social link, a self-contained story that progresses upon interaction. Some of these take place in clubs that the player is forced into by the story, while others require more personal exploration of Gekkoukan and Iwatodai. This means that while many playthroughs will share common attributes, the list of relationships that one person progresses will tend to be different from the list made by another. Not every meeting moves a link’s story along further, but those that do are often charming, heartfelt, or funny. While getting to experience more of the pleasant characters is an intrinsic reward on its own, these links also strengthen Makoto extrinsically as they move forward. Each rank that a social link grows provides more experience points to associated Personas that you awaken, aiding in combat. You are incentivized to meet and maintain relationships with as many characters as possible, but this incentive is not so strong as to outweigh the reality that one person can’t truly like everyone. Not every character you meet will be friend material, and the game accounts for this. So while the rewards you receive for progressing social links are strong, they are not so unbalanced as to make each social link feel forced upon the player. The relationships you can form with the game’s wide array of characters can often turn out incredibly meaningful, and the more you bond with a given character, the more motivation you have to continue their link.

The system isn’t perfect, though. The game is obsessed with romance, and not in the way one might expect. Rather than being able to date everyone, you are instead forced into romance whenever you maintain a relationship with a female social link for long enough. It is uncharacteristically restrictive, and it blocks off a great deal of content that the player may want to experience. This blemish does not indicate a total failure on the part of social links, but it absolutely drags down the mechanic and makes female social links hard to be as invested in. That being said, though, social links are a success. The strengths of writing and immersion they represent vastly outweigh the weaknesses present, such as a lack of player expression, and they encourage an investment in the world of Iwatodai. Social links reward the player’s ability to maintain schedules, relationships, and a balance between social life and other extracurriculars, giving Persona 3 an identity that its sequels have continued to dedicate themselves to throughout the following years.

However, these mechanics on their own do not entirely facilitate the roleplaying and decision-making I’ve alluded to thus far. These features, if able to be explored at the player’s leisure, would lead to a wholly uninteresting strategic process during the day. It is for this reason that Persona 3’s working relationship with time is so integral to the roleplay, as it is the glue that binds the fragments of Iwatodai together. Each day, the player must decide what they will pursue. Will they meet with a friend they’ve grown distant from, continue a social link that just got interesting, study, or unwind on their own? There is only enough time in a day to take part in one activity, so making sure to balance that time becomes an important aspect of day-to-day living. This is only compounded by the fact that some activities become unavailable on certain days of the week, eventually leading players to schedule their days and weeks ahead of time to fully experience the world in the way they want. It becomes a satisfying combination of strategy and personal connection, and neither aspect really overshadows the other. The social simulation of Persona is a game of resource management within a world that I felt like I inhabited, and it kept the game alive for me even in my periods of doubt. There is nothing that I’ve played that’s quite like it, and even the monotonous parts of daytime life never lost my interest or drew my ire like I worried they might.

The Writing

Monotony is not exclusively found within the social aspects of the gameplay, though, but is utilized throughout Persona 3’s story to portray the duality of a school-going daily life and demon-hunting nights. To get the elephant out of the room, the game’s story is slow. Events, mysteries, and clues are all dripfed to the player at a sluggish pace, and most of the focus is on SEES’ high school life and preparations for Tartarus expeditions. For much of the game, this went unnoticed for me. Persona 3 is very deliberate, and it managed to pace its excitement quite well alongside its mundanity. Eventually, the plodding pace began to wear on me, but this happened around the time that the story began to build to its climax, so that period of uncertainty was brief. Similarly to most other facets of Persona 3, the narrative tends to follow a generally rigid structure. But this is to its benefit, allowing the game to slowly acclimate the player to the characters, world, and mystery that it has to offer. I wasn’t able to fully invest myself in the game’s story, lacking a conclusion in my playtime, but what I was left with was charming and worked well within the experience I had.

The most major reason it worked as well as it did was the characters surrounding Makoto throughout the plot. The members composing SEES are a team only by chance, each of them being inducted into the group and moving into their dormitory as a result of their strange affinity with Personas, expressions of their psyches that they can employ in combat. It’s a dynamic that has been written many times before and will continue to be written in the future, but it’s one I tend to appreciate. Makoto grows to know and appreciate the party alongside the player, and alongside the heightened immersion this generates, it leads to a more meaningful day-to-day story as the player learns more about their peers with every day that passes. None of these peers are perfect, but they all provide a different window of perspective through which the player can view the game’s plot, and each of them carry their own struggles and reasons for fighting alongside them into battle. It’s a strong cast, and I enjoyed the interactions I shared with them on small and large scales alike. As the game progresses, its careful pace begins to quicken, though, and new members join SEES at a pace that makes it hard to keep up with all of them, but this difficulty is not equivalent to impossibility. I ended up enjoying each of the members’ quirks, getting to know more about them through cutscenes, voice lines, and conversations around the dorm. By the end of my time with Persona 3, I did care about the party I surrounded myself with, having favourites among them and looking back on the moments I shared with them fondly. The characters are perhaps the most important part of a slowly paced game like Persona, so the game’s efforts to make them all enjoyable and human is a major reason why its narrative is so easy to grab onto.

But that’s not to say that nothing happens at all. Each month, SEES’ goal is to defeat powerful demons known as Shadows that appear at every full moon. They spend their months training in Tartarus, recovering from their prior encounters, and learning more about the circumstances behind their strange powers. There are few months that are truly empty in Persona 3, a testament to the game’s ability to use its mundanity to highlight the extraordinary. Whether it be a new member joining SEES, a development in the unravelling of Tartarus, or exam season at Gekkoukan High, there is just enough activity in Makoto’s life to string the narrative along. These escapades are accompanied by an intense intrigue that permeates throughout the story, with the origins of the Shadows and Tartarus constantly just out of reach. The narrative slowly chronicles the deterioration of Iwatodai as the Shadows become stronger, and SEES’ responses to this as they uncover the mysteries that lay before them. As things progress, the existence of the Shadows becomes less supernatural and more a tale of human foolishness and overambition, and what the player is left with as the plot begins to move more rapidly is consistently captivating. It’s not the most gripping story ever told, but Persona 3’s narrative offerings in conjunction with its strong character work and interesting world were enough of a hook to keep me playing for much longer than I may have been otherwise.

In terms of smaller scale writing, though, the game is much less consistent. Although many side stories and short interactions were charming and made me glad to participate in the story taking place, it cannot go unaddressed how Persona 3 has aged and how it was already failing to keep with the times even in 2007. To my understanding, it is the game that began the Persona series’ strange infatuation with skirting social norms, at least the norms here in North America. And while there are certainly parts of the game that are lost in overseas translation, it’s no excuse for the problematic undertones present throughout many social links and even the main story content on offer. The nature of social links encourages the continuation of these problematic storylines, and though I said that that incentive is not strong enough to fully provoke that continuation, it is certainly there and certainly noticeable. For example, I took part in a social link where I played an MMO during my free time. I met a friend, we played together, she told me about her job as a teacher, and it was relatively harmless and charming. The further it progressed, though, the more the nature of that friendship began to warp. It was revealed the lady was Makoto’s teacher, and that she seeked a romantic relationship with him without knowing that he was the one she was speaking to. Now, problematic content can exist within stories, and many great pieces of art are built upon confronting the uncomfortable. But Persona 3 is uninterested in this confrontation. The systems at work in the game are encouraging the player to essentially let themselves be groomed, for the promise of a combat advantage. It’s gross to say the very least, and not the only instance of the game presenting thoughtless portrayals of similarly problematic subject matter. If it were exclusively in the optional (but still incentivized) social links, it may be easier to grapple with. The fact of the matter is, though, Persona 3 is unable to contain itself even throughout the main story, and forces the player through a transphobic scene at a beach, one which paints transgender women as “not real” and simply people preying upon young boys. It’s frankly disgusting, and hard to write off as a “product of its time.” Thankfully, this saw revision in the 2024 remake, Persona 3 Reload, but the sheer fact it existed at all is proof enough that Persona 3’s writing fails. It fails often, and it fails hard. And while these failures are not indicative of a poor narrative, they are enough to call into question the intentions of the game and bring its story further away from the potential it lays out for itself from the outset.

Persona 3’s writing is one of its strongest points. That, to me, is not in question. It has its lows, and they go down quite deep, but my playtime ultimately reached 70 hours for the story. It layers enough intrigue, character drama, and charm within its words to give the game staying power in my mind. I found myself alienated by its pacing at times, but not for long enough to matter in the grand scheme of things. The game weaves the reality of life and the mystery of the supernatural together fluidly, and the cast you meet along the way only accentuates this ebb and flow. No part of it is perfect, with several horrible components deservedly marring the game and tinging the experience with a nasty taste. But what’s good remains good, and the writing manages to keep the game’s allure alive in otherwise tedious circumstances. As I’ve said before, Persona 3’s characters and narrative were almost enough to keep me playing until the game’s conclusion, and it’s a strength that I can’t completely write off, despite its gaping holes.

The “Game”

I’ve been quite positive throughout this review. Really, I’ve had a vast pool of good things to say. But that positivity is largely in spite of the thoughts that pounded away in my head as I played Persona 3. Because, fundamentally, Persona 3 is a game. A turn-based RPG. It is an activity that the player has to engage in and play, and the job it does at making that activity worthwhile or rewarding in any way is so abundantly below par that it ended up souring my perspective on the game deeply, and caused my eventual departure from the entire experience. I should absolutely preface this by saying, I have never been a big fan of turn-based combat. I make it a point not to write off games that interest me for its mere inclusion in them, but I find it generally unfulfilling to participate in. While this certainly had a factor in my struggles with the game, though, I don’t think it’s to blame for the bad taste that I was left with. No matter how well Persona 3 utilizes its wide array of successes, they are trapped within a gameplay and combat loop that does not respect them, the player, or the fundamental principles that made the game so captivating from the beginning.

When you aren’t engaging in social simulation or attending school in Persona 3, you have the option to go to Tartarus from the SEES dorm. Unless a special event is taking place at night, the dungeon is always accessible during the evening, and this is where nearly all of the game’s combat takes place. The goal of Tartarus is simple: Traverse the randomly generated dungeon and eventually reach the top, confronting assorted groups of enemies along the way. These enemies wander around the floors in search of the player, granting a stealth-like aspect to traversal (though the erratic and unknowable detection patterns of Shadows hurt this greatly). If the player attacks a Shadow before the Shadow attacks them, they receive the first turn in the ensuing battle, and vice versa. It’s a simple setup, and the area’s unknowability lends a lot to the goal of reaching the top, with the intrigue providing a decent incentive to press forward. Since that “top” is so undefined, though, there are several blockades and checkpoints that the party must reach before the given month’s full moon, serving as smaller goals along the path towards the primary one. These provide a good basis for the player to plan their months around, and each checkpoint represents one step closer to the final goal. The layout of Tartarus isn't labyrinthian by any means, the floors between the checkpoints aren’t too numerous, but there is an appreciated harshness to its atmosphere that makes it feel more challenging to navigate than it is. The otherworldly music and jagged geometry create an overbearing environment, and when combined with the enemies littering its floor, Tartarus is certainly aesthetically deserving of its status as Persona 3’s only dungeon.

But aside from that atmosphere, Tartarus comprises little but battles, and this is the majority of what one will experience as they wander through it. There is nothing else but loot and dead ends to be found, so the area must be kept interesting with the promise of combat. And at a base level, Persona 3’s combat is… passable. It’s obviously not to my tastes, but there is nothing about it that jumps out as offensive. The game follows a mostly formulaic turn-based structure, mainly utilizing elemental weaknesses to provide an added layer of depth to its battles. Both the player and whatever enemy they find themselves facing have the ability to exploit these weaknesses, knock their opponent down, and gain an extra turn in battle. When all enemies are knocked down, the active members of the player’s party can activate a high damage All Out Attack, bringing said enemies back to their feet. This is accentuated by further weaknesses such as different physical attack types, resistances, and the ability to absorb or reflect damage from certain elemental sources. It all coalesces to form something with a clear goal in mind from the beginning of battle (that being the All Out Attack), but makes strategizing for previously failed encounters more rewarding as well. With the ability to equip multiple unique Personas all with different strengths and weaknesses, a smart player can always be equipped for any given situation. In conjunction with party setups, there’s a great deal of flexibility to be found within Persona 3. The player must consider their Personas, party, and enemies carefully, and this is where many will find the fun in Persona 3.

Now, none of this is very upsetting. For the most part, it’s a system that has the potential to create a great deal of satisfaction, but it’s not without its imbalances. There is a final set of weaknesses, the elements of Light and Dark, which remove any interactivity from the combat equation in exchange for a flimsy slot machine. The only attacks that take advantage of Light or Dark properties are instant kills with a low chance of hitting, that chance being raised when an enemy is weak to the corresponding element. These elements only exist to justify one another, and their inclusion only muddies an otherwise generally balanced system. If this was all that I had to detract from the combat, then I wouldn’t have much to complain about, but the issues do not stop there. Unfortunately, with enemies being able to take just as much advantage of the knockdown system as the player, this can lead to unwinnable battles from the outset. Not every battle begins with the player’s turn, and when the enemy starts a fight, they can often kill the player without offering a single chance at retaliation. In a game where death is as meaningful as it is in Persona 3, a point which I’ll touch upon shortly, this is generally devastating. It’s not an imbalance that ruins the combat by any stretch of the imagination, but combined with other factors, the basics of the game’s battles have an uncanny ability to frustrate and bewilder the player.

This doesn’t stop at the weakness system, either. Of course, you are not alone in Tartarus, and are joined by three AI-controlled party members in battle. This has long since become one of the most divisive parts of Persona 3, and it’s well-deserved. The members of SEES have the capacity to destroy the most sound of strategies with one erratic action, potentially ruining hours of progress. But I don’t think this is inherently bad for the game (with many frustrations being the result of other systems), and in actuality, it builds upon the foundations of immersion and connection to the world that had already been so effectively established. Naturally, as you go through battles with your party, you begin to understand what makes them tick. They respond to situations fairly consistently, and display patterns you can capitalize on. Furthermore, the game features a robust tactics system that allows you to more finely tune their actions, without sacrificing the core idea of commanding a team at an arm’s reach. SEES can follow orders, but they cannot perform anything exact at the player’s behest. This fostered a strong sense of understanding between my party and myself, and in that regard, I believe the system is a success. I was not going to battle with a group of statistics, I was entering it with a group of friends. The additional option to view the turn order (which is mostly randomized) ahead of time exacerbates this strategy and teamplay further, meaning that the player has to act more thoughtfully when confronted by an uncertain situation. Strategizing around your party is a key part of succeeding at Persona 3, and it works quite effectively.

It’s not bulletproof, of course. A game made in 2007 was never going to have party AI sophisticated enough to fully sell the illusion that Persona 3 attempts, and the cracks are rather obvious. Party members will be unwilling to capitalize on previously demonstrated weaknesses unless an enemy has been analyzed beforehand, they will waste HP on ineffective spells, and they will repeat useless attacks at the beginning of battle to “teach” the player something they already know. These weaknesses expose the system’s age, and tear the veil of humanity that the AI tries to create. But it’s not a system I would do away with. It allows the characters personalities both in and outside of combat, makes them more real. It gives the game a sense of charm and character that it truly earns, and the mistakes that the party makes throughout a playthrough only add to the relationships that the player can build with their virtual peers. With some refinement, Persona 3’s AI party members would absolutely flourish, but even with its rough edges, the connection that the system provides is invaluable to the experience, and I wouldn’t sacrifice it for the sake of more consistent combat.

Generally speaking, Persona 3’s battles are built upon an absolutely punishing framework, one that requires a careful balance of risk and reward. In many scenarios, it manages to walk the line between thrilling moments of domination and terrifying near-death experiences, with a healthy amount of randomness thrown in. The AI party at Makoto’s side enhances these moments, maintaining immersion and making the player more connected to the events unfolding. In other scenarios, though, that randomness becomes deeply unhealthy, ruining encounters before they can truly begin. The AI acts malicious, erratic, thoughtless. There is a lot of push and pull that takes place within Persona 3’s combat encounters, and battles are not without their frustrations. These frustrations, when acting in tandem with other key elements of the dungeon-crawling gameplay, absolutely begin to wear away at the player, deteriorating the game’s mood to one of anger and its one and only dungeon to a chore that must be completed. But the base system itself works (quite satisfyingly at times), and if that was all that was at play during SEES’ battles in Tartarus, that would not be enough to turn me off of a game with so much else to offer.

Unfortunately, though, it is not all that’s at play. As I’ve mentioned, Persona 3’s combat is a very punishing experience. Death is not strictly the end of a battle, as party members can die and be revived with as many spells or items as you can muster, but Makoto must always be kept alive. There is no leeway in this regard (despite the fact that other party members demonstrate the capability to use healing items, making their inability to use revival items a complete mystery), and when Shadows have the ability to ambush the player so unexpectedly, a single wrong move in Tartarus can lead to hours of progress lost. There are no checkpoints in Persona 3, so each death means a return to a past save, one where no progress is retained. While this may heighten the exhilaration of exploring Tartarus for some, for me all it heightened was the frustration of making the only feasible progress I could only to be reduced to dust by a stray critical hit. This is especially noticeable when ambushed, where all control of the player’s mortality is taken away from them in an instant, and any bad luck means hours gone. In a game where enemies can snowball into a victory so easily, death has no business effectively erasing every iota of progress you can make in Tartarus in one night. It contributes to the notion that combat is far too risky to engage in, and should instead be avoided. Persona 3 becomes noninteractive as soon as any meaningful progress is lost, and any interest that could be found within Tartarus’ systems and construction is washed away by fear. Despite an environment that the members of SEES are supposedly so inclined to train in, death in Tartarus makes the area an obstacle course where the enemies are not gameplay elements to be interacted with, but to be avoided at all costs.

What muddies this already stressful and frustrating dynamic further is the existence of quests. During a playthrough of Persona 3, an otherworldly individual known as Elizabeth will grant the player quests to complete during both the day and night. While those that take place during the day are generally fun, charming opportunities to see more of Iwatodai and interact with a wider array of attractions throughout the world, nighttime quests take place exclusively in Tartarus, and are almost entirely combat-related. Kill a certain amount of enemies to obtain a certain amount of items on a certain set of floors, return to Elizabeth for a grand reward. And to a degree, this is necessary. After all, if death is so brutal, how can the player be expected to… play the game? Why take the risk? Quests provide a strong motivation to actually engage with the systems at play, but their imperfections ultimately end up doing more harm than good to the experience. This is due to the seemingly meaningless but massively impactful decision to give all Shadows in Tartarus the same model outside of combat. It is impossible for the player to tell what enemy they are going to do battle with until the fight has already been initiated, and without any markers for quest enemies, this leads to blind swinging. Every encounter is characterized by the vague hope that this enemy will have the necessary reward. What this means is that when that hope turns out false, it feels like time wasted on both a small and large scale. If the battle turns out successful, the player receives little from it. If it turns out a failure, the player loses out on any quest or floor progress they’ve made during the night. They’re playing a losing game of chance from the start, and battles once again become something to dread rather than look forward to. Persona 3’s quests, their rewards that are too large to ignore, and their lack of indicators, force the player into combat with nothing but a small chance at success instead of merely prodding them into fun or engaging scenarios. They exist to justify the combat and the process of completing them is a test of the player’s mental limits rather than any amount of skill.

All this being said, the straw that ultimately breaks Persona 3’s flimsy back is the enemy design. When the only interactivity Tartarus offers is the promise of combat, one might hope that they are pitted against a variety of complex, engaging enemies. Even with all the pitfalls that litter the floors of Tartarus, even with the chance of hours of progress being lost, the idea that the battles taking place might at least be enjoyable could be enough to make it worth the pain. But alas, they are not. Every block of Tartarus has its own group of enemies that characterize it, whether it be large group encounters, dangerous single targets, or simply an elemental theme across a block. This is all well and good, but this dichotomy generally lends itself to a problem in balance. With elemental weaknesses being as crucial as they are, any enemies with them present are mostly pushovers. They crumble in one or two turns, posing no threat to the player and wasting time in the long run. To counteract this, Atlus decided to make the enemies with no elemental weaknesses incredibly strong and noninteractive to fight. Unreasonably large health bars, massively damaging attacks, and often resistances thrown into the mix for good measure. In some cases, these more spongy enemies will have weaknesses to Light or Dark attacks, meaning that they become races to an instant kill solution. There is rarely any balance to be found between Persona 3’s extremes, with enemies either mowing you down or being mowed down in a majority of encounters. Interactivity falls by the wayside, and on the off chance that the player does engage in the battles that they’ve been steered away from by the game’s harshness, they will be met with little to do but mindlessly pummel the empty husks that are their enemies.

Luckily, not every encounter is like this. Persona 3’s bosses genuinely do offer some unique concepts and strategy to play with, and they’re the only real combat encounters I found myself looking forward to throughout my time with the game. Bosses are fought at certain checkpoints found throughout Tartarus and once at each full moon, and although the checkpoint bosses were more akin to scaled up generic enemies, the ones fought at the full moon are much more unique in both design and function. They are true tests of what little combat knowledge the player can garner from Tartarus excursions, and the encounters were generally the high points of any given month for me. They give the player something to prepare for, look forward to, and be surprised by. There’s little to be said about them otherwise, but the full moon boss fights are crescendos for the game’s plot and gameplay, and are satisfying to play through.

But unfortunately, this is not enough to save Tartarus. In fact, “not enough” is an excellent thesis for the area as a whole. Because, as interesting as the combat may be, there is not enough reason to pursue it when failure poses such a harsh penalty. As harsh as the atmosphere may be, there is not enough level design to make it worth seeing so often. And as much as the game seemingly wants the player to enter Tartarus, there is simply not enough there to make it enticing for any meaningful amount of time. The nighttime experience of Persona 3 consists of wandering around undesigned hallways, afraid of the possibility of gameplay, hoping for an end that will only come after an excruciating stint of wasted time. There is nothing within the walls of Tartarus to excite, no intrinsic incentive to check in night after night, only entering for the promise of experience and some pretense of progression. Nights spent playing the game become nights to be dreaded, black holes of time threatening to devour the careful pacing and structure experienced during Persona 3’s days.

The main focal point of Persona 3’s gameplay, the place where players will likely spend over half their playtime, is void of substance. Its presence is constantly demanding the player’s attention, be it through constantly repeated party dialogue, the pressure of staying on level, or the promise of rewards. Tartarus is not something that can be ignored in lieu of a better experience, but rather an obstacle in the way of that experience. The dread of entering the dungeon for hours in order to make minuscule progress towards the vague idea of a goal, only for that progress to be erased in an instant, begins to overpower a playthrough of Persona 3. It’s a poison that spreads throughout the other systems of the game, threatening the idea of time that has otherwise been so carefully preserved. If time is such an important resource to manage, why can I while the hours away infinitely within Tartarus? If my options during my free evenings are so varied, why is every system so inclined to push me towards the tower? Tartarus is not a system within Persona 3, Tartarus is Persona 3. It is designed to be endured, repeated, and grinded within. And when such a major facet of the game is so vehemently against the idea of that endurance being worthwhile, it makes me question why I would put up with it to begin with.

In Summary

I wanted to love Persona 3, as I’ve hopefully made clear. It was entirely possible I would. There’s a lot to love. I don’t want my complaints here to take away from the game’s successes. The writing is mostly charming, the immersion is exceptional, the score is funky, and the social simulation is incredibly endearing. An entire game could be built off of these aspects, and when bound by the game’s themes of time and time management, they excel.

But they are undercut by the game’s commitment to Tartarus. That careful balance of time crumbles away when countless hours are spent achieving nothing, a nothing that can be erased in a moment. That writing doesn’t shine through when more time is spent in the dungeon than is spent on the story. That score becomes mind-numbing after so many arduous nights spent hearing it. Tartarus’ constant promise of “more” becomes less of a promise and more of a threat as time goes on, and its failures taint the game in its entirety, alienating me completely.

Persona 3 is split in half, torn between its excellent social gameplay and horrendous dungeon-crawling. The game’s strengths as a narrative experience are eaten away at by Tartarus’ weaknesses, and it left me dreading my time with it. What could be ignored in a game with different priorities is instead the focus in this one, and instead of the dungeon-crawling gameplay being saved from its weaknesses by the other exceptional aspects of the game, it drags them down with it into mediocrity. Persona 3 is a game that promises so much, but these promises are gated behind incredibly rigid and unfriendly design, and I simply don’t see the eventual reward as worth it. As hard as the game may try to convince me I should, I don’t think I can finish Persona 3.

#video games #game review #review #persona 3 #persona 3 fes

0 notes

crescentfool · 3 years ago

Photo

hello tumblr today i offer you a ryoji shitpost

#persona 3 #ryoji mochizuki #lizzy shitposts #yall i may not show it that much but man ryoji mochizuki's existence continues to fuck over my brain every damn day !!!!!#its literally not fair how fucked up it is. how ryoji was born as the appriser of death. the role to wipe out humanity. and yet the writers #make ryoji so fascinating that i want to put him in a petri dish. because they juxtapose this idea of 'oooh death pretty dark AND scary!'#with a guy who's 70% legs WHO happens to love and cherish life?? like damn no wonder why he wants SEES to forget their memories-#because ryoji's happiest times were when he was just vibing in gekkoukan with the crew.... fuck man i love this Guy #anyways if u couldnt tell this shitpost was just an excuse for me to get out my feelings for ryoji bc Damn ive been thinking about him !!!#recently got to 11/9 in my playthrough of FES so. yeah. im like. damn. oh my god. seeing him in-game reawakened my braincells lol #one of these days ill make a proper meta post or art post but today is not that day. have a lovely day tumblr dash!! (sparklies)

231 notes · View notes

neomedievalist · 2 years ago

Note

Not to interrupt your anger over that one post but. I just remembered that p3p is coming to the switch. Thoughts? Personally, it's encouraging me to look into hacking my switch because I didn't pay for it when I played it on my psp and I think it'd be funny if I continued that

LMAO ABSOLUTELY PIRATE IT AGAIN that would be funny. uhhh so. i dont know if ive talked about this before on here but. I am a fes defender.HOLD YOUR PITCHFORKS

yeah i. i am of the opinion that FES is the definitive edition rather than portable. yes. i absolutely acknowledge all that portable adds and changes in terms of QOL improvements. yes i acnknowledge the female protagonist and new social links and all of that. that's great and all!

i just honestly think P3FES delivers the story of persona 3 for a first time playthrough the best. i cannot stress enough that the 3d models are really necessary to get the best experience of the plot. they really tried hard to make p3 to work in a VN format but god, so much is lost. running around iwatodai, important and dramatic custcenes with 3d models AND animated cutscenes, so much is lost with the impact of the game's story...i really hate the thought of everyone experiencing p3's story for the first time butchered like this.

p3, believe it or not...is my favourite game of all time. it's very important to me! and watching my friend play through p3p and how confusing and goofy all the important cutscenes are was reallt frustrating. yes i acknowledge base p3's flaws and that it wont be for everyone...i just think it's worth it to push through despite FES's flaws!

...also the answer. shhh ignore the fact that i havent beaten it. just, whether or not you like it, it's a part of p3 that is missing. which sucks!

#data #feel free to debate me in the replies ive gone through this convo so many times

11 notes · View notes

bobzora · 2 years ago

Text

GUESS WHO BEAT PEE3 TODAY (fes, the journey at least)

(lengthy) final thoughts:

ryoji is kind of. um. "that was my name for a while. i didnt mind it." hes kind of trans. is the thing. also bro 100% drew the shortest stick in this game lmao

obviously ryo/mina isnt quite the same as some of the other insane peesona gay people (2,5. 4 is gay but not rlly insane) bc like. in that form at least we only know him for like...two months?or so? but. u know what. they r t4t and both (kind of) dead. good for them.?

jumpscared by "the arcana is the means by which all is revealed." ive been seeing that shit in like. youtube comments since the day i was born. insane

nyx was like. pathetically easy. to the point where i felt kinda bad about it lol. at least its funny. this is what happens when u have level 99 protag + black viper lucifer (+ messiah for salvation for ailment healing. i could just use me patra gems but its more stylish this way). nobody ever got below half health and most phases (minus last bc of the halved non-almighty damage + gown) were a 1/2/3 hit kill. guys who overlevel because they just love the velvet room so so much (and im prolly not gonna do ng+, especially with portable port on its way (femc!). so trying to experience most that i can)

i did cheese the reaper a while back. used thunder reign strat. was actually harder bc new moon rebalance nerfed the shock rate so its not 100% lol. but took advantage of its ai to get it stuck in a break skill loop (akihiko dekunda sweep) the money was nice, and i spent soooo much time in monad levelling personas. wont be able to do liz fight bc not doing ng+. (slightly related: ive played pee5 so many times and ive never actually tried the twins/lvnza/jose fights. vanilla 1 time, royal 1 time, royal again for a friends playthrough but its not ng+, ng+ for 100% royal but only up to exams...royal for another friend's playthru. lol)

yuka/mitsu is real. to me. theyre even the colors of the lesbian flag

i maxed most social links besides magician (bc hes annoying. surt wouldve been nice tho), mitsuru (got up to like 8 then ran out of time), fuuka (trapped at rank 1. dont like her enough, not enough time. sorry. i played with english voices u know how it is), yuko (accidentally reversed her), justice (i know. who would have thought. started her wayyy too late.), keisuke (hes soooo cute like. i wanna look like that tbh. but fortune isnt useful enough and i ran out of time)

speaking of social links i literally hate how they work in this game so so so so much. i dont want to date all these girls! let me hang out with other girls please... this is the biggest example of romance making all these games so much worse. like. what the hell. (aigis is like. the only good female social link (that i finished) (maybe bc she isnt very much a girl))

another mechanic i hate: NOT BEING ABLE TO PICK INHERITED SKILLS. is every ps2 era megaten game like this? i love love love 'sona/demon fusion but it is so much harder to make stupid crazy builds when u have to reroll over and over again. literally just a timewaster. what could have been...i cant believe my lucifer is still weak to ice. WHO USES PEESONAS WITH WEAKNESSES. IN THIS DAY AND AGE????

the extremely strange continuity with 1&2 is fucked up to like. nickelodean sitcom cinematic universe levels. u know.

im still fixated on 5.i make that very obvious. and i do like 5's overall story better (royal being a very big portion of that). but GOD i love love love the theming of this game.

those strega guys r definitely fucking. i literally do not care about them but thats kind of just a fact.

the concept of artificial personas (that kill you) (that u have to take meds for which eventually kill you) REALLYYYY fucks me up what a BANGER CONCEPT. JESUS! JESUS. gg kirijo group.

chidori...(wretched)

akinari... (very wretched)

i dont think i have a favorite. tbh. like i like mitsuru because i like women and shes hot but character wise shes not actually super my type. i like ken because hes the most fucked up ten year old in the world (justice bias). aigis is crazycrazy theres stuff to be said abt her (characters who give metatron bias). yukari is a mean girl and i like that about her (lovers bias). ryoji doesnt have that much screentime for obv reasons but thematically hes cool (guys who beg u to kill them bias). i like the protag a lot (protag bias). yeah

OBVIOUSLY i knew we were gonna die. and when. and where. and how. but :( head in aigis's lap, brushing away her robo-tears... didnt cry but wow this game.

joshua peefee christ figure moment

kimi no kioku is the best 'sona song. period. nyx (avatar)&nyx (nyx) songs go hard too. but man!!!! kimi no kioku!! LOVE how its kind of a motif in so many other parts of the soundtrack, especially near the end...a unifying melody, an overarching theme.

forever from now ill prolly watch the movies just so i can make an amv. this game needs an amv. and unlike pee5 the animovies should cover most of what id want to say in one!

after the answer, ill finally be able to finish eternalpun. im so sorry ive neglected you guys, my friends...my pee2s....

kimi wo i will never leave you <3

#bobtalk #good game #if i missed a censor and u see this in the tags. sorry. lol #at least its so long nobody will ever read this. except me. because i know

2 notes · View notes

seasaltmemories · 5 years ago

Text

Persona 5 Royal Review/Analysis

So I didn’t have a ps4 when the original persona 5 came out, so royal was my first experience with the game, as a result, I will be talking about spoilers for both the original content and Royal bc a lot of the additions seem mixed in aside from just the third semester stuff

let’s get the summary

Prepare for an all-new RPG experience in Persona 5 Royal based in the universe of the award-winning series, Persona! Don the mask of Joker and join the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Break free from the chains of modern society and stage grand heists to infiltrate the minds of the corrupt and make them change their ways! Persona 5 Royal is packed with new characters, confidants, story depth, new locations to explore, and a new grappling hook mechanic for stealthy access to new areas.

So one of the things that I picked up really early on into my playthrough was that Persona 5 feels like a very adolescent piece of media, like yeah it is about highschoolers, but more than just its cast and setting, it seemed really fixated on capturing and adolescent mindset, there is this fresh awareness to the injustices of the world and a burning desire to fix it without much understanding of how to even began to tackle those problems, and the fact it stuck so hard to to that worldview made me a lot more forgiving of its flaws then I might have otherwise been, not that there isn’t stuff to critique about the way it tackles controversial issues, but at the same time i just had this mindset of, “well of course they aren’t going to get everything right, what can you expect from teens?”

Anyone who knows me knows I am a pretentious blow-hard, but I think P5 is a perfect example of just how important style is to anything. So much of the pure glee and joy I got when I booted up the game came from the fun presentation and commitment to the phantom thief aesthetic, I have a lot of thoughts on gameplay that seem to be contradictory to the general consensus but to keep things brief, all the “sneaking’ around a palace, grappling from places, ambushing enemies, and performing all out attacks just all gave this sense of being cool and stylish that was great, even if the writing stronger, without those fun flourishes I don’t think I would have enjoyed my experience as much

I also think the more than any other game, persona 5 does a great job of making me thinking “just one more thing” you got a lot of confidants to fill and stats to raise to fill them so there is always something to do, at most during the story sections things sometimes dragged, but i was eager to finish them to get back to finishing my goals, for as long as the game was, this made it feel so much more manageable

Unpacking an entire 110 hour playthrough is kinda an overwhelming task, so instead I��m going to talk about my four favorite characters and hopefully that will cover some good amount of material

1) Goro Akechi- one of the first things I knew about this game was what a controversial character this bastard was and it turns out I fell on the side that loves him bc I think I have a thing for traitor characters, I have to say though for most of the game I wasn’t sure how I felt about him, I knew his true role going in, so it was hard to get attached to Detective Prince Akechi as most of his interactions with Joker felt like an act, however his Rank 8 confidant link, when he not only pulls out a gun on you and challenges you to an one on one fight but also freaking throws a glove to challenge you in a duel I was like “oh so you’re a little bitch boy then!” and never turned back

To me part of what makes him so compelling is just how stubbornly he is set on his path straight to Hell, a lot of ppl were moved by his tragic backstory but honestly it does little for me, I think it is important to consider, but you have to remember he approached Shido about his powers first and basically volunteered to be his personal assassin, still it is hard to ignore that sense of lost potential, in a way I can see how getting to pretend to be a part of a safe and welcoming team environment almost made things worst because he just kept feeling like, “why wasn’t I allowed to have this earlier” and just too tied to his current path of self-destruction to waver from it, like even the fact the Phantom Thieves and he had the same goals regarding Shido in the end, he couldn’t side with bc that would mean acknowledging all the murder he did was for nothing, so they just continued to be another target on his list, made all the more dangerous bc of the affection he held for them

That said I don’t think I would have liked him so much without Royal’s updates, I mentioned Rank 8 being a key moment for me but aside from that, the fight with him in Shido palace had so much going on, it kinda dulled the weight of any one of the numerous revelations, 3rd semester kinda brought in the perfect amount and balance of the different sides of Akechi, the minute he appeared I swear me and my brother cheered in joy, obvious spoilers for the rest of it

I had seen 3rd semester Akechi called “feral” and while he is still as horny for murder as ever, i don’t really think that fits, there is still a sense of restraint to his actions, yet he doesn’t mask his true intentions and feelings so much, what I like is that his rudeness and outbursts come off as very deliberate and planned, as if he enjoys exposing the contrast between his “pleasant” reputation and his true bitterness, and with the reveal that oops he is supposed to be dead, you still have that determined “don’t be a fucking pussy, just pull the trigger,” attitude, I really like the dynamic that forms between a Joker that just wants the best for him and an Akechi that just emphatically refuses to be saved in anyway, he is an easy character to woobify but I love how canon just at every turn doesn’t let you ever see his true vulnerability even if we all know it exists down there, also just something about hearing him curse is always so much fun and delightful

TLDR: I have a lot of feelings about this edgy bastard and may or may not already have a playlist for him

2) Makoto Niijima- another character I had an interesting relationship with, while from the start she seemed like my type, the overwhelming love for her kinda made my hipster side apprehensive, however predictably I was won over and I did romance her in the end (what can I saw my Joker is into brunettes)

Part of what makes her stick out so much to me, is how the game felt much less afraid to show her unlikable in comparison to other characters, i usually don’t complain or really notice this but more than any other game series I’ve played, there is definitely a lot of self-insert fantasy elements involved, ppl rip the newer FE games apart for that, but I never really saw it as the terrible as the cast had dozens of life changing interactions with other characters, the fact most of the interaction we see are through Joker’s eyes, and the fact that he is the catalyst to changing several adults’ lives made this element a lot more noticeable

But not only does Makoto take an antagonistic role at first, but they let her be so smug and annoying that I probably hated her with the same passion as the characters themselves, yet even when she comes over to or sides, her flaws are still pretty open, like when trying to help out Futuba, she definitely had that air of, “neurotypical trying too hard to make you normal” that was understandable but still annoying, and I appreciate it bc it made the contrast between her good points all the sharper

I kinda wanted to roll my eyes at first at her archetype as an honors student, bc yeah i was a nerdy student who didn’t know how to connect with my peers and just kinda subconsciously sucked up to adults bc I didn’t know what else to do, but in comparison to the teeming tragic backstories involved, you can see a stark difference in scale, yet Makoto is just carrying all this familiar teenage girl anger that reminds me a lot of Serena from Arc V, and getting to see her embrace it is very cathartic, I also really enjoyed her confidant which was surprising after seeing everyone tear into it so much, I feel like a lot of ppl’s confidant’s centered around other ppl and it didn’t just start off with the Eiko stuff, you see her Makoto want to change from the sheltered snobbish life she has kinda trapped herself in and rediscover her dream of being a police commissioner, I also found it fitting for her to also kinda figure that out through her own little investigation and to see that exploration of justice explored through her acting with a third party

The fact she is related to Sae also gives her interesting relationships we get to see from a different POV, and a greater investment in arcs outside her own, it just naturally gives her the feeling of being more well-rounded to have it spread out, and while her romance stuff did have the same sort of fantasy elements (that I greatly self-indulged in) overall I never felt like Joker was “saving” her in some way but growing and exploring along sides her

Overall, a great character and while i think best girl debates are dumb, I will not stand for hearing her described as worst girl

3) Ann Takamaki- honestly before I got this game I expected her to be the “main girl” with a lot of popularity and focus so seeing how little love she gets was heartbreaking for me, bc she is part of what made the early phantom thieves so enjoyable

I’ve heard the discussions about the issues around her sexualization and I think things on that access come out to be a wash, the developers kinda brush near some interesting ideas about the struggles women face with sex and attraction but don’t really know what to do with that, and so I think trying to trace and overall arch one way or another about her and her body issues is kinda a lesson in futility

in the end though what made her click for me is just how much fun her personality is, like I feel like in other stories her cheerfulness might come off as generic, but the fact that she is introduced so depressed and sullen makes her attitude shift come off as refreshing, like we know she can be serious, but the fact she isn’t being repeatedly sexually harassed by her teacher gives her like plenty of reason to goof off and enjoy herself

Again despite all the criticism I really enjoyed her confidants, the Mika stuff was honestly barely a blip in the thing and most of it alternated between her shooting the breeze and just having fun and still dealing with that lingering guilt and issues surrounding Shiho and just not having been able to save a close friend when she really needed her, I think the contrast is very much needed, especially to keep things from feeling like wallowing, which i felt was a problem with some other confidants

In the end though the main reason i didn’t romance her was bc as much as I liked her as a character, I didn’t want her to be with Joker specifically, i wanted to support her and see her finally confess her feelings to Shiho and the two of them go ride off into the sunset lol, still there’s a reason I reached rank 10 with her first

4) Takuto Maruki- lol so in this section I’m going to basically go into all my 3rd semester thoughts, again the first leg of his confidant was kinda dull, but I was prioritizing him bc of the deadline, once we got into his personal past that is where I got interested

On one hand part of the charm was just getting to see a more adult story, while there are other adult confidants I found the grad school and like academic stuff relatable, plus like the little moment with the steamed glasses was very funny, he’s just a down to earth guy and his kindness is genuine

However when he stepped up as the antagonist in the third semester, that’s when he got interesting, I found the conflict itself of a dream world to be kinda simple, aside from the fact obviously we need to oppose this for a plot to happen, Persona 5 is all about this humanist approach to personal growth and change, most of what I found fascinating about Maruki was the kinda self-martyring narcissism to his approach, like aside from treat the phantom thieves with kid gloves at time and just doing his best to avoid being a bad guy, there is this simmering resentment he masks and tries to replace with his desire to basically save the world, rather than deal with his own drama and baggage he tries to invest his energy into solving other problems

And you can see some of the parallels between him and the phantom thieves that points out some of hypocrisy of themselves, calculating the exact risks and harms of altering ppl through the Metaverse is hard to do due to a variety of factors, personally I don’t even have other Persona games to look to, but in general while it is for the greater good, the phantom thieves basically impose their will onto ppl who didn’t consent to that change, and in the end they decide to oppose Maruki purely based on their desires to not live in it, the game doesn’t do much with it, but I found the contrast more interesting than the Holy Grail one, plus his boss battle was more fun bc you actually got to use the main mechanic of the game, exploiting weaknesses and baton passing

But yeah all this comes to a head at the latter half of the boss fight where he just is so desperate and refuses to lose, it is like abundantly clear that this dream world is much more for himself than it is for anyone else, it is a desire to turn all his trauma into something more meaningful than just pain, and nothing shows that more clearly than the fact he fistfights a high schooler even after he has basically lost and tries to let himself die rather than face the consequences of his lost. All in all I think he was the my favorite antagonist and palace holder

Some last thoughts I couldn’t fit elsewhere: Casino was my favorite palace, while weak story-wise, Okumura was far from my least favorite palace gameplay-wise and his boss fight as frustrating as it was might be my favorite for engaging with the player, if anything my least favorite palace was Futaba’s, my favorite showtimes are probably Morgana/Ann, Makoto/Ryuji, and Joker/Kasumi, Caroline and Justine are a delight and I really miss them, Tycoon is addicting and distracted me from being able to beat the game for a while

I got more hot takes I might elaborate on in length in the future, but in conclusion this is another rec where I can see and understand ppl being disappointed in some of the writing and its quality but at the same time i think there is still value ppl are too quick to dismiss and definitely multiple reasons to still enjoy it, I think this is going to stick with me for longer than I first thought it wound

#persona 5 #my reviews #p5 royal spoilers #mutuals feel free to discuss this with me more #bc those hot takes are real but at the same time i wanted to keep this focused on what I enjoyed #rather than drown ppl in nitpicks

9 notes · View notes

super-metroid · 5 years ago

Note

Persona 3 is in a weird "how best to experience it today" limbo. FES is better than the original game, has 3D environments, animated cutscenes and the canonical continuation of the story in "The Answer." P3P, however, was made after P4 and includes a lot of improvements from that game. Controllable party members is one, but the female protagonist's social Links are *all* the party members, not just the ones the main character wants to fuck plus a bunch of random yahoos.

trust me, ive had many conversations about which one i should stream for my blind playthrough and its not easy. i’ll probably do fes with that controllable party members mod (if someone links it to me ill re-setup my emulator and look into installing the mod)

#candy asks #i definitely want the more cinematic experience for the stream #sharkman-jhones

7 notes · View notes

tsukai22 · 2 years ago

Text

Hmm... I’m wondering what game I should replay... the choices I’m deliberating at the moment:

- Continue my almost finished 3rd playthrough of Persona 3 Portable that I stopped playing about 4-5 years ago for some reason. I'd rather start a new game but I can't do NG+ unless I finish my old playthrough. - Do a 4th playthrough of Persona 5 Royal (my 7th P5 run overall) - Playthrough #~26 of FE Fates - I have 2 ideas for themes (CQ while capturing enemies with unusual skills, or Rev while theming each character after another FE character they resemble appearance-wise and/or personality-wise) - Playthrough #5 of FEW 3 Hopes. - Playthrough #7 of FE 3 Houses. I never did a Crimson Flower run where I recruited everyone I could, so I'd do that. - Playthrough #2 of FE Radiant Dawn. - Playthrough #2 of FE Echoes: SoV.

0 notes

aurimeanswind · 7 years ago

Text

Your Favorite Video Game Franchises—Sunday Chats (10-8-17)

I know it seems like I keep using generic questions for my “Alex Asks” Sunday Chats, but hey, bear with me here. You gotta lay the groundwork for all of the best relationships.

This week I asked this:

This comes from a lot of places. This year I’ve especially been thinking about the video game lineages that have affected me or at least left the most with me over the years. Most importantly, the sequels to the two biggest video game worlds in my life, Persona and Zelda, both came out this year. It’s been kind of monumental for me. Both are interesting too, because they have me assessing and looking at what ties me to those two specific franchises.

On one, it’s so much nostalgia Zelda means more to me than most things because it’s really the franchise that made me or helped me like games as much as I do today. Watching my brother Brady playthrough The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past, going to the mall with him when he traded in all his old games to get it, and the story that that encapsulates in my heart and in my mind is critically important to my love of games, and my relationship with the medium as it began. It’s one of those aspects that keeps me tethered to games so forcefully, so completely and utterly in the grasp of the stories and adventures in the medium and that’s where they started for me.

Years later I’d return to A Link to the Past on my own time and play through it to 100% completion by myself. It’s one of the first games I ever 100%’d, and it’s also one of the first times I ever wanted to, a habit that is all-encompassing for just about any and all video games now. I don’t do it as much as I’d like to, because I know the tradeoff of time to commitment, and if I didn’t have to/want to play every new game that came out every day, I’d certainly spend far more time just perfecting and completing them to a near insane-level.

A Link to the Past is where my lineage with games began. It’s one of the first games I’ll play with my kids in the future, if I’m ever lucky enough to have any. It’s massively important to me, and this year’s Breath of the Wild brought not only all those feelings back for me, but entirely new ones as well, as my brothers and I shared a text message thread describing our experiences with the game through the early months of this year.

On the other end of that is Persona 5, which is related to a coming-of-age in a totally different way. Persona 3 FES was one of those games that affected me on a delayed response. I beat it and I felt kind of... hollow. I was so accomplished, and it hit me so hard, and then... nothing. And then when I was laying in my bed alone that night, I just broke down crying. It was something that had genuinely touched my soul, being someone in high school and someone separated from my friends. It pulled all the right strings and hit all the right notes at all the right times.

What’s more, I had never experience any piece of media that had characters grow, and change, and evolve, and relationships with them, in such an intimate way. I loved the characters of that game, I truly did. It impacted me in full force.

Persona 3 was about overcoming insurmountable odds, believing in your friends, believing in what you had done, and fighting until you had nothing left for the betterment of all people. About the selfless act of giving yourself up for all your friends, and Persona 5 revisits a ton of those different themes as well. It’s about those same threads coming to fruition in a completely different, but also globally-impacting way, with plenty of Japanese bullshit along the way.

As I came into adolescence, Persona 3 was the game that made me realize how much I loved all that Japanese bullshit, but also I how much slower pacing worked for me, how much I prefered it. Persona 5 helps rebuild all those feelings, but also ultimately showed me how much I’ve changed and evolved since then, for both the better and worse.

These are the two most important franchises in media to my life, outside of Harry Potter. And I don’t think it’s dumb, or silly to latch onto media and fiction as absolute and important aspects of your upbringing. Myths and stories and franchises are outlets for us to learn new things, experience things we could never ourselves, broaden our horizons, and open our hearts to suffrage that we aren’t privy to. It’s also time for us to reflect on what we like and what we do, and while these two video game franchises may seem shallow to some, they aren’t to me. Whether that’s part projection, or part of something that’s absolutely there, that exact question is precisely what makes media interpretation subjective, and holding those pieces of media close to you totally okay.

So with that said, let’s look at YOUR favorite franchises in games.

Even though Cam is bad at following instructions insofar as “few tweets” is concerned, this is exactly the shit I’m talking about here. This is what I want.

What I love about this story is that this game means something so specific to you because your experience with it was so specific. Just like all games for all people. And there is of course crossover there, but art is reflected in the one who views it, and that’s what makes the discussion around games so fun. That these things reflected onto us in such completely different ways.

What you say about .dotHack reminds me of the way I am with Zelda. That there was this big world out there that only I could save. That I needed to try, and fail, and try again to succeed in that world. That people and tools and deities would help me, and that if my belief was strong I’d hold steadfast and be able to beat the big bad. These are philosophy that, though childlike, you can clearly see reflected in me to this day. And it’s because of a game like that. Without Zelda, I’d at the very least like games in a wholly different way than I do today.

Bravo Cam. I understand.

Well, while I don’t think Roger is being serious about the Frog game, even though I do vividly remember this boxart and that weird frog penis on it, it does make me think of a Frog-related game that got me into a whole different kind of franchise.

Amazing Frog, the Ouya game of all things, is what got me into Game Grumps. And it’s still an amazing episode to this day.

youtube

Ahh my old nemesis Final Fantasy Six. And hearing you bring up FF4 here as well is really important, because I have played Four most of the way through and really love it. To know that Six can build on what was there with new and more engrossing depth makes me want to play it more as well. I love to hear when and where the scope of storytelling in games expanded for folks, because like I said for me that was kind of Persona 3, and how it could get under my skin and into my heart without me even realizing it. My view of games and their stories changed in so many ways with that game.

Of course! And Rock Band has grown into something you’ve played with friends and shared with so many others. It’s a wonderful franchise, and of all the rhythm games I’ve been bad at, Rock Band is surely the one I like the most.

Rock Band parties will always be a loving aspect of my most endearing memories with my high school friends.

Katamari is always a game I’ve only ever experience from arm’s length. I love that it not only resonated with one person, but two! I love it.

Katamari reminds me a lot of the weird Japanese games that have somehow crossed over the Pacific and also found their own niche here in the US. Persona I’d say was in the same camp, but that’s all big now. Katamari never had legions of adoring fans, but it had its passionate it ones. Few games are as carefree and fun, but also odd, and, as Jazz said, visually arresting. A game about rolling up big balls, collecting stuff, and then turning them into stars, may seem nonsensical, and it is, but it’s also just endlessly endearing.

Watching the Game Grumps play that game has been the most I’ve experienced with it, and it seems like a game you can kind of zone out and get lost in. Once again: I love it.

Uncharted is a franchise that, in my head, is like those big movie franchises like Star Wars that resonates for so many human reasons beyond its premise.

If anything, those games showed us what masterclass directors those folks at Naughty Dog are. When we look at the story and writing of something like Jak and Daxter, I’d say it’s good, but the leap to the Uncharted franchise is to another level entirely. It’s human, it’s relatable, and it slowly breaks down all the merits the franchise, and many games, are built on. How the search for adventure can become a sickness, when it starts to put so many lives on the line. It’s all with the caveat of Nathan Drake being a “mass murderer”, sure, but the games build such human characters through humor it’s incredible.

Especially Uncharted 4. Because goddamn.

All the Spoopy factor! How topical!

Resident evil is a franchise that I got to so late, it makes me wish I loved horror as a youngun’. But, regardless, Resident Evil 7 is easily one of my favorite games this year, and I adore it. Where that franchise has gone, both good and bad, from its humble beginnings, is stellar. It really sets the scenes for horror games in general, and with Mikami’s legacy continuing with The Evil Within 2 this coming week, you can clearly see that Resident Evil is at the very least one of the most influential names in all of games.

Man. Metal Gear Solid.

Especially MGS3. That’s a whole conversation on its own.

The end of Metal Gear Solid 3, even if it was lost on me long ago, was a game-changer, that’s for sure. Something like Persona 3 helped me go back and appreciate those MGS games even more, because of the more, lets say, steady indoctrination to “Japanese bullshit” then MGS’s full-throttle approach.

Another franchise I totally missed the boat on, until much much later. But I never knew this about you Andrew! Halo is definitely marvelous, and sets the scene for the modern action blockbuster video game, like an Uncharted. If anything, most of the Sony/Microsoft big action franchises wouldn't be the same, I don't’ think, if it weren’t for the Halo franchise.

For me it wasn’t Dishonored that set the scene for strong morality in games, but Fallout 3. The “Karma System” as i think it was in the game, was where I was first introduced to something like that. Sure, inFamous had it, but such a binary system doesn’t count I don’t think.

I had gotten the want to play passively from stuff like Metal Gear Solid, so that wasn’t new to me, but I love the way Dishonored ties the world to those choices. How it’s reflected not only in Corvo, but in Emily as well. It’s truly a beautiful world in games, unlike anything else out there, from its majesty, to its absolute horror as well.

It’s funny because the political angle of Bioshock is still, to some extent, over my head. Knowing Ayn Rand now and seeing how that is brought into Rapture though, reflectively, has definitely changed that experience for me. I’d have to go back and see Bioshock 2 all the way through to even begin to remember the political commentary in that game.

But Bioshock’s dueling powers that be of Andrew Ryan and Fontaine always frustrated me. Two powers that wished to usurp one another, all for the sake of more influence. with more deeper insecurities laid beneath them. It’s reflective of modern politics in a very unsettling way, and something I could never come to agree with or even empathize with. But that kind of visceral reaction is just the kind of thing video games can evoke out of the player by not just showing you a world, but by surrounding you with it.

Rapture is certainly one of the most compelling settings in all of video game history.

This so fantastic. A game introducing you to a wholly new kind of interest, in such a much more one-to-one way too! Like, I wouldn’t get really into Spelunking from playing Spelunky, that’s not a thing that happens, but Forza to being a gearhead or a car guy or whatever you want to call it totally makes sense.

Forza also has that benefit of being something really approachable too. I think it lays out exactly what it is and how to bring you into its style really well. From my brief experiences with the Forza series, that’s what I’ve taken away at least. That’s so rad!

And hell year EDM. Let’s go to an EDM concert together Jon.

I love seeing how all the franchises roped people wither into game sin a new way or into a totally new thing entirely. It helps evolve relationships, change perspective on storytelling, and more! I just adore it. Keeping play those games. Keep making those stories.

Thanks for placating my question this week everyone. Sorry to the folks that didn’t get it or didn’t read, but no answers from me this week. I will keep writing and be ready to answer them next week, but until then, hey:

keep it real.

#video games #gaming #franchises #enfranchisement #persona #shin megami tensei #the legend of zelda

2 notes · View notes