#the persona 3 fes playthrough continues

[hauntiingg]

this is so funny. “so you’ve reached lvl 99? congrats you get maxed everything now.”

[firebornamari]

Prime numbers!

*googles prime numbers* Sweet Lord, here we go. 2. Top 5 games of all time -Tales of Symphonia, Majora's Mask, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, FE: Three Houses and Hades

3. Favorite Boss This is so hard. I'm going to be honest, I have like a faint idea of something I enjoy fighting in some game, but I can't grasp it. I do like Humiliating Theseus in Hades, though.

5. Most memorable gaming moment? So, one of the memories that sticks with me the absolute most is when I was just a silly teenager playing Tales of Symphonia for the first time (In like 2005), I genuinely believed the game was ending when you first go to the Tower of Salvation. I thought the other characters on the cover and in the op were just like, filler? Didn't think they were characters. So when you get betrayed by Remiel, and the Game CONTINUED I was really, really shocked. I remember that awe every time I get to that moment again.

7. Most recent game you played? If by recent as like recently released, I guess it would be Persona 3 Reload. Otherwise, I played Arknights and Honkai Star Rail at the same time today lol.

11. Favorite game genre? This is going to shock and awe everyone, but I like JRPGs, Woah. I know. I'm surprised too. I do prefer turn based ones to, but I don't mind action ones either if they let you baby mode it to hell and back.

13. Coolest enemy/boss design? Kind of like Favorite Boss fight, I feel like I know this answer but it's just beyond my grasp. I'm sorry!!

This is only because it's more recent, but I like Cocolia's Final fight is so fucking cool.

17. Do you play mobile games? No! Of course not! Gacha Games are bad and evil and hey stop looking at my phone! Don't look at my profile -- HEY STO--

19. A game that you wish you could play for the first time again. I feel like the easy answer is Symphonia, but like I also don't want to replace the memories that I still have from my first playthrough.

23. Do you typically choose to play a male or female character (when asked to pick)?

Used to always be the girl, lately it's been the boyos, but honestly it's down to whose design I like better.

29. Favorite childhood game? I'm going to call childhood as like before I was a teenager. I guess if you were to say it was by pure hours I put into it, you could argue it was either Pokemon Sapphire or Pokemon Puzzle league. There's a part of me that wants to scream Ocarina of time, but I genuinely had no idea what I was doing despite how much I dinked around in that game.

31. If you could only play one game for the rest of your life, what would it be? Like I know you're sick of me saying Symphonia, but it's true. It really is. I already go in such a Zen mode playing it, that like it's such a comfy place for me to be in, I wouldn't mind continuing forever. 37. FMK. Skipping until someone actually gives me characters.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read!! Send some more!!

[cyanrendipity]

Emperor and Empress defeated in P3RE so now I get to write my thoughts✌️

Under the cut cause I talk too much

So I finally got to see my first two linked events! It was very cute hanging out with Junpei and also super funny you have the options to just be terribly rude to him LMAO

I hated Junpei on my first FES playthrough but I'm glad they made him more and more likeable with each iteration, it was the dancing game that warmed me up to him actually, I never actually played just watched the dances, but the way he dances is so cute 😭 I shouldn't yap about the dancing games or else I'll never shut up but I LOVE how much personality each choreography gives the characters.

Anyway Akihiko's linked event also very nice! I don't remember seeing him grapple much with that side of always being ogled by other people against his wishes, usually he was just played as a Jotaro-esque "girls are annoying" popular guy. I love him.

I'm really glad they added these linked events to the game, since one of the biggest weaknesses from Persona 3 compared to 4 and 5 is that your teammates don't really feel like a friend group like they do in the other 2, I never felt like they *had* to be as buddy buddy as the investigation team or the phantom thieves but being able to feel closer to them is definitely good (especially since the games does talk about bonds a lot while only letting you further your bonds with the female teammates, and it having to be romantic, very annoying) after my first playthrough I mostly had undying affection for the social links I picked rather than the main characters, I only started liking the teamates more later on (Minus Aigis I was obsessed with Aigis from the start but what can I do it's a robot girl and her social link is amazing).

Back to complaining the new sprites continue to bother me, Akinaki my beloved finally showed up but I feel like he was a little yassified 😔 It's weird cause I really miss how upsetting the old art was, the angles of the faces always made me uncomfortable cause it's so unnatural but now I miss that feeling of upset especially when looking at him.

I keep seeing people praise the new art so it's probably nostalgia, but still!!!! Feels like it lost some of it's personality (Objectively I do now the new sprites are better)

Oh but the 3d is so good! At first I thought it was strange the cutscenes were with the 3d models instead of anime but I got used to it pretty fast, they're very good! I love being able to see the characters emoting compared to the simple ps2 graphics (which were very cute but very limited)

The gameplay tho keeps surprising me with just how easy everything is, I know the original game was unnecessarily complicated with bad frustrating game design but I feel like this is an overcorrection? The fight against the empress and emperor shadows was so simplified?? They used to change weaknesses so we had to keep asking Fuuka for an update but I guess now that they gave her SP like Futaba they had to keep it at one time?? Even the mini bosses felt harder to defeat and more complex than the actual boss. The function to switch to another teammate that they borrowed from Persona 5 also makes it way too easy 😔Maybe I should have just gone for merciless instead of hard but it seemed like a bother.

I think that's it? oh yeah the study group events were also SUPER CUTE AKIHIKO MY MAN WHATS WRONG WITH YOU

10/10

[crescentfool]

hello tumblr today i offer you a ryoji shitpost

[neomedievalist]

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!

[bobzora]

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

[seasaltmemories]

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

[super-metroid]

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)

[tsukai22]

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.

[aurimeanswind]

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.

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.

[hauntiingg]

finding out we don’t actually see the protagonist as a door until the answer was the biggest troll moment of finishing persona 3

[doktorpeace]

2 4 17 18 30

2: Favourite genre?RPGs probably. I’ve played too many 100+ hour RPGs for them to not be. I love games that are in depth and detailed and have a lot to do. Personally I think the best way to experience a game is to engulf yourself in it as much as possible, and while it’s fun to like, blow through a puzzle game or a platformer in a day or two, sometimes it feels great to just lose yourself in a game for a week or two. At least it’s that way for me. Mechanics, story themes, characters, settings, everything can vary so much and in such meaningful ways. I feel RPGs tend to be more meaningful by convention of their genre being more ‘full’ in terms of worldbuilding.4: Top three video games?I did a Top 20 countdown a little over a year ago at the request of a friend and at the time I said Super Smash Brothers as a series, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Final Fantasy X. But after attempting to replay X recently and also experiencing a few more games in the last year I can easily say Persona 3 has safely snagged that #3 spot. I’d probably still say XBC and Smash are in the 2 and 1 spot though.17: Favourite video game character?Gosh this is hard. For a long time I would have said Proto Man without a second thought, but ultimately the Mega Man series canon is fairly shallow. Proto Man’s a great concept with a few really good stories (and a great band named for him) but he’s definitely not number one anymore. I’m not sure who I would say is #1 though, I’m a little too fickle to have a definitive absolute favorite individual character in that way I think. Dunban, FE’s Ike, and Aigis come to mind though.18: Favourite video game villain?This is a bit easier to narrow down. I’d probably say The Boss from MGS3 is exceptionally good. Her motivations and goals are honestly even better than the player’s and it really hurts to kill her at the end. Snake continues on in life, but misinterprets her dying wish and, well, we see how that impacts the world of MGS for the rest of the series.30: What aspect of a video game is most important to you - eg graphics, storyline, soundtrack, controls?For me I’m willing to slog through a bad looking, poor controlling game for a good story. Not all games need a story though, and ultimately what makes a game an enjoyable gameplay experience is the control scheme. Controls are incredibly important and otherwise very fun and good games can be really marred by unintuitive or just plain bad controls.After that I’d say Story is most important but by a slim margin.Then the content of the game itself generally. Again, games can be great with no story or in spite of a bad story, so this can supersede story in terms of importance for games that aren’t RPGs or story focused genres. A game can have great controls and a good story but if you’re a slog to playthrough or just generally uninspired you’re not really making a good game are you?Sound design next. Soundtrack, sound effects, voice acting, etc. Any one of these things can be bad or subpar and a game can overcome it, but good games mechanically can be ruined utterly by having a combination of these. They can go from enjoyable to downright embarrassing to play.Then graphics. Visual Art is such a subjective medium and that extends to games. Games as a whole are an art form but really you can sell bad or minimalist graphics as apart of the charm, like Thomas Was Alone for instance. Sure, I like seeing some good looking games like Xenoblade X, Motiga’s Gigantic, FFXV or the oh so stylish Persona 5, but there’s plenty of room in my heart for games like F-Zero which never really looked great but were fantastic experiences.

[ludonarrativediss]

My Favorite Games of 2016

Overwatch Overwatch is my favorite game of 2016. I bought it twice, first on PC and then on PS4, because I wanted to play it so much. I made it to level 40 on PC and level 50 on PS4, which is not a measure of skill, but simply a sign of how much I played Overwatch this year.

Every character in Overwatch plays so differently, it’s like twenty games in one. What’s better is that as you improve with the characters, understand each of their quirks and play-styles, the way you play as the other characters change. People always reference Team Fortress 2 and MOBAs when they talk about Overwatch, but I think that natural skill progression makes it more like the best fighting games. Also like a fighting game, it has a wide-range of diverse characters, each with their own skills, and lets players dip their toes in by just choosing a character that they identify with, or simply one that looks cool.

Overwatch is fun in hour one when you have no idea what you’re doing, and fun in hour 60 when you have a tiny idea of what you’re doing. The continued support for Overwatch with two new characters, new maps and modes, and huge seasonal events has given me reasons to come back again and again. Lastly, in the current world we live in, a game that embraces multi-culturalism, diversity, and just revealed the character on its box to be lesbian—that’s the sort of game I’m glad I put so much time into this year.

Doom Doom feels good. It cuts away the fatty mechanics that have weighed down first-person shooters in the 20+ years since its namesake defined the genre, only taking what it absolutely needs. Out goes reloading, in goes a simple upgrade system that encourages learning advanced techniques.

The story, the music, the speed, and the violence all made me smile again and again. It doesn’t take anything serious except the fun. It does a thing that so few games take the time to do: it pauses to learn lessons from the past before heading into the future. It’s a throwback and a step forward. And oh man, does it just feel good to play.

Mafia 3 Mafia 3 proves that a game can be about something real, can have a huge budget, and can still make a bunch of money. Mafia 3 has the best narrative I played all year. Like the best works of fiction, it's a personal story that feels important today. Unfortunately, Mafia 3 is a great 10 hour game crammed into a 30 hour game. It's still very much worth playing, but it's a great example of how despite having some amazing open world games, maybe we haven't quite figured out open world games yet.

Titanfall 2 I loved playing the original Titanfall multiplayer with friends. In a year with Overwatch, though, I barely put any time into the Titanfall 2 multiplayer. It seems great, more of the same, but the single player campaign is still enough to put Titanfall 2 on my best gaming experiences of 2016.

Every level in the Titanfall 2 campaign feels like it could be its own great game. Like a Super Mario Galaxy game, each level presents a new spin on the established mechanics—or presents brand new mechanics—then quickly gives you something else fun to do in the next level. That moment where the pieces peel away and the game tells you “Press L1 to [spoiler].” Wow, I haven’t felt that way in a game since Half-Life 2.

Firewatch Firewatch is a great story told well. It's spooky and personal and will make you feel things a game maybe hasn't made you feel yet. Wandering around the woods and getting to know the two main characters is great, but there's something about the text that opens the game that I'll never be able to shake.

Hitman I've never played a Hitman game before, but I don't think that's the reason I only just now made it past the first level of the new Hitman. Don't get me wrong, I "beat" the first level the first time I played it, but what's great about the new Hitman is that your first playthrough of a level is just the start. The real fun is going back in and discovering all the murderous secrets just under the surface. 

Uncharted 4 I didn’t think I wanted another Uncharted game. I didn’t think there was anywhere for the story to go. Then Uncharted 4 comes out and it might be the best traditional storytelling I’ve seen in a game. It's also got such a great, definitive ending, which is something games find so hard to do and it's refreshing to see it done right.

I had a blast with Uncharted 4, but like a summer blockbuster, I sort of forgot it as soon as I finished it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t great, it just shows that right now I’m much more interested in the new ways games can tell stories, and that the traditional cinematic storytelling of Uncharted, even at its best, is a fleeting enjoyment.

Hyrule Warriors Legends Hyrule Warriors Legends was a dumb purchase. I already owned the Wii U version and had barely played it. But I bought it anyway, I guess because I wanted to see what a female Link named Linkle was. Despite the lower graphical fidelity, I ended up putting a ton of hours into it. Sometimes portability can make an okay game great.

Forza Horizon 3 I'm forever chasing that rush I felt while playing Burnout Paradise, and the Forza Horizon series is best at getting me close to that. After the sort of boring Forza Horizon 2, this third entry brings personality back into the open world, and makes a car and music festival feel the right level of dumb again. I played a lot of Forza Horizon 3 this year, but if you asked me I'd say I hadn't played enough.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Persona 4 is one of my favorite games ever, and this game is a pop music version of that favorite. I probably put twenty hours into it, and I hope to go back to it and finish it before Persona 5 comes out.

Games I still want to play:

Watch Dogs 2

The Last Guardian

Final Fantasy 15

Games That Didn’t Come Out in 2016 That I Loved In 2016:

The Witcher 3 - The Witcher 3 is the best game to come out this generation. Go play it.

Her Story - It's a great narrative experience that really shows games aren't done showing us new things. I think it's even on phones now? Go play it.

Max Payne 3 - I missed this when it first came out because the glory kills looked so gross, but this year I gave it a chance and the noir story roped me in deep.

Nuclear Throne - I am not good at Nuclear Throne, but I still love jumping in for five minutes, shooting some gross looking things, and then exploding in a blob of big pixels.

Diablo III - Last year I played a ton of Diablo III on PS4, and this year I returned to it on PC and played through a few seasons. This game is still great, and still a great example that a game can come out awful and then be fixed later on with time and care and an understanding community (I'm looking at you Destiny and The Division!)

Anyway, this probably needs another draft, but I'm gonna just post it now so I can go and start Final Fantasy 15. Happy new year and happy gaming!

[hauntiingg]

december in persona 3 is just depression huh

[hauntiingg]

so i finally got around to booting up the ps2 emulator + my persona 3 fes file today and i’m further than i thought i would be

[hauntiingg]

even as i move through persona 3 fes at a snail’s pace, i managed to beat the reaper today