12.09.11 / Atlus, RPG, Sony PSP, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: persona, review, shin megami tensei
I beat Pandora. As far as SMT/spin-off bosses go, she was by far the easiest I’ve ever faced. The only reason she killed me the first time was because I didn’t know the fight was coming up, so I didn’t have enough Balms of Life and most of my personae were weak to magic. All I had to do was regroup, buy about 50 BoLs and Beads and give Armaiti to Maki so she could have Mediarahan. Everything after that was a mere formality.
Aside: Speaking of buying Beads, I had about ¥3 million at the end of the game. I’ve always wondered what game characters do with their massive piles of cash once it’s all over. Let’s see, that’s about $35,000 USD… If they split it equally that’s about $7,000 each. Pfft, puny. I should’ve wasted a few more demons and bought me a nice condo or two.
But I digress. So I beat Pandora in a long but relatively simple battle and restored Mikage-cho to normal. We gave her the usual “Loners are losers” speech and and she was like “Oh. Okay.” Then Maki kissed me on the cheek and some old guy turned into butterflies. *roll credits*
Yeah, that was a totally…uh…great ending. W-wait, why is my nose growing? Stop that! …I kid, I kid. It was a fairly straightforward, easily understood and well wrapped-up story. That’s rare for an Atlus game. At the end the only question I had was, “How the heck did this ever get a sequel?”
You know, when people ask me which game in a series to play, I almost always advice them to start with the very first one and work their way up. I formed this theory after beating the Breath of Fire II before I and doing the same with Shining Force I and II. In both cases I was able to finish the original, but I know I would have fully enjoyed and appreciated both games if I’d done them the other way round.
Going later-to-earlier is so much harder, because while earlier games may have their own charm, they are usually far less polished and thus much harder to enjoy for fans of the later installments. For example I urge people to play Persona 3 before 4 (even though I honestly think P3 >>>> P4 and I liked it that your party wouldn’t always do what you wanted) simply because the interface and the gameplay are seriously improved.
So, looong story short, I’m not going to ascribe any of my lack of enjoyment to Persona itself. Heck, to be honest I did enjoy much of the game. Uhh, the, uhh, music…was too poppy and annoying. In fact I had the music turned off 90% of the time, so that can’t have been it. The graphics…were okay. The CG bits were nice. The characters were memorable, in their own way. I thought the MC this time was particularly colorless, but he was the first so it’s understandable. The story? As near as I can gather, the message was: “Be true to yourself,” and “If you turn your city into a monster-filled hell, you’ll turn into a penis-monster and your friends will come and kick the crap out of you.” Words to live by.
Holy typo, Atlus!
But seriously, I know I enjoyed something, I just can’t remember what right now. It must have been the dungeon crawling, since that’s what 90% of the game consisted of. I like dungeon crawling, especially if the maps are fixed and just need exploring, i.e. not random. It was easy to go down the wrong path, but hard to get permanently lost, and apart from one puzzle and a few switches to pull, Persona‘s dungeon crawling was largely pain-free.
What’s more, I almost never had to do the same dungeon twice. I hate backtracking. It smacks of lack of imagination on the developers’ part. Where it’s present, I prefer it to be largely optional. So I’m grateful that apart from the Lost Forest and the subway, progress in Persona is all about the new. The game even records the paths you take, so you can withdraw, restock and then come back and proceed faster than ever. Bliss.
Battles were fairly good too. I think ALL games should have an auto-battle system, no exceptions. At the same time there was enough variety in the enemies that you couldn’t blindly select Auto for every single fight. You have to use your Personas as much as possible so they rank up, and there’s EXP (determined by damage dealt) to consider, so it’s never a “Mash X to win” fest.
It’s not all good news, though. There were a number of clumsy and inconvenient elements as well. For one thing you could only stock 3 personae per party member, and you couldn’t switch personae between party members except in the Velvet Room. Recruiting most of the later demons without a FAQ or a very, very, very good memory is an exercise in futility. The five second pause before the game decides not to allow you to escape a battle was adding insult to (inevitable) injury. Weapon shops are few and far between, and most of the stuff they sell is crappy anyway. “Gather three compacts” to unlock the final dungeon door was dumb, but understandable for a 1996 game, etc etc.
As for why it took me a while to finish it after my last post, it’s because I was suffering from the Sunken Cost Fallacy. I thought I’d spent almost 200 hours on it, so I was all like, “OMG, I have to finish this thing, I can’t let all that time go to waste!” Once anon informed me that wasn’t actually the case, finishing it took a massive backseat to all manner of other games. If I hadn’t already been in the final dungeon, it might never have gotten finished. But finished it is, and it was a decent experience, all things considered. Now I’m looking forward to the Persona 2 PSP English remake, which should be out next week on September 20th.
12.08.11 / Atlus, RPG, Sony PSP, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (5)
Tags: persona, shin megami tensei
Nngh… I dunno what to say about this one. I’ve been playing it for a while and I think I’m almost done (I’m in Avidya world if anyone’s played it before). My characters are MC, Reiji, Nanjo, Mark and Maki, and they’re all between level 47 and 58.
I think there’s something wrong with the timer on my PSP though. It says 164 hours and I really can’t believe I’ve been playing this game for that long. I don’t feel like I’ve achieved anything in all that time. We went to the hospital, shit went crazy, we wandered around for a while, got transported to another world, wandered around some more, gathered some magical doohickeys and opened a portal and…that’s all. I haven’t had a single moment of excitement or great interest, but suddenly 164 hours have gone by? Nope, gotta be some kind of mistake.
Usual disclaimer: Persona is not a bad game. In fact I really like it. The dungeon crawling is far more bland and simplistic than in the later, more polished games, but it’s fun in its own way. I just don’t understand how I could have poured 164 hours of my life into this game and have so little in terms of plot development, achievement or satisfaction to show for it. When I was young I had a part-time job that paid me $15 an hour. If I’d poured that kind of time into it, I’d have an extra $2,460 to show for it. Here, nothing.
Still, assuming I really have spent 164 hours on Persona so far (the PSP must be broken, I swear), that just shows I’m having a good time…I guess? Seriously, I don’t know how to feel about this game. I don’t have any strong opinions on it one way or another. There are some things I really like, mostly the auto-battle system and the formations. There are some things that are okay, but could be better. Like the options for talking to demons and trying to recruit them are really confusing. It’s hard enough keeping track of all the demon personalities and right choices, but then you start getting demons with four, five different personality traits. I don’t know how anyone goes through all that without making extensive notes or resorting to a FAQ.
About the only thing I didn’t like was the music. The poppy, hip-hoppy tracks in Persona 3 and 4 eventually grew on me, but even after 164 hours (allegedly), the Persona soundtrack just grates on my ears whenever I attempt to listen to it. I’m also not really crazy about the story so far. “Sick girl gets jealous of healthy friends, crap ensues.” It’s like ehhh, okaaaay, but I expect a little bang for my $2,460 ya know?
Anyway, I think I’m almost done so I’ll just push on and finish it. Maybe I’ll find something to say about it once it’s all over.
04.06.11 / Action RPG, Nintendo DS, PS2, RPG, Sony PSP, Strategy RPG, Summon Night, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (2)
Tags: jeanne d'arc, nora to toki no koubou, persona, shining force feather, summon night 3, the world ends with you, tokimeki memorial 4, unchainblades rexx
I forgot to make New Year’s gaming resolutions this January, but better late than never. Last time I made them I managed to play all those games before the year was out, so I’m hoping I’ll have the same luck/leisure this time round. There are only six months left till 2012 (where does the time go?) so I’ll limit the list to six items for simplicity.
1. Nora to Toki no Koubou (DS): I’ve stopped following the news on this. Apart from cancellation there’s nothing they can say or do that would stop me from playing it. Even if they come out tomorrow and announce it’s now an FPS, I’m still going to play it.
2. Jeanne d’Arc (PSP): I hear it’s an excellent SRPG, and that’s all I need to hear. To be blunt, I don’t know anything about it except that, but there’s no way on earth it could be worse than, say, Tactical Guild, so I’m going to play it, and soon.
3. Tokimeki Memorial 4 (PSP): I love the Girls’ Side games, but apart from the first TM game on the SNES, the others haven’t done anything for me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy chasing girls, just that TM2 and 3 looked and felt clumsy so I’ve never played more than a few “days” of each. Maybe the 4th time is the charm.
4. Summon Night 3 (PS2): It’s been over a year since I played Summon Night 2 (which cooled my Summon Night ardor for a while) so I’m ready to jump back in the fray. With a few exceptions I’ve gotten used to playing my SRPGs on handhelds so it’ll be a bit of an adjustment to make, but I’ll get used to it soon enough. I just hope my old PS2 can take it.
5. Persona (PSP): I seriously overdosed on Shin Megami Tensei and related games in 2009 and 2010, which is why I haven’t even looked at one so far this year. I was going to play Devil Survivor 2 instead, but I just can’t work up the enthusiasm. The lame-ass ending I got (Gin route) in the last game still rankles a bit, plus I want to get it in English if possible so I’ll add that to my 2012 list.
6. The World Ends With You (DS): To be honest, I don’t really want to play this. Nothing I’ve ever seen or heard about it even remotely implies that it’s something I’d enjoy. But someone’s been nagging me for years to give it a shot, so I’m going to do it just to get it over with. If I get a pleasant surprise, cool, but I’m not holding my breath.
I’ll fit other games in there when I get the chance, like the upcoming UnchainBlades Rexx which I’m more than a little excited about. The main character’s design looks more than a little “inspired” by Jin from Shining Force Feather.
I was going to say Sega should totally sue but it turns out they have the same (evidently unimaginative) character designer. One more reason to look forward to it.
02.11.10 / Atlus, PS2, RPG, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: atelier lina, digital devil saga, lina no atelier, nocturne, persona, shin megami tensei
I finally finished Digital Devil Saga 2, and it was a complete disappointment (more on the whole game if and when I can ever be bothered). Also finished one round of Lina no Atelier, though I didn’t get a good ending it wasn’t that bad after all. More on that as well later.
However, I just picked up SMT: Nocturne, I’m only 2 hours in and I’m having a great time! I missed fusing personas/demons from the later games, and the Magatama system looks remarkably fun. It’s not that hard either, so far anyway. I’m guessing part of the legendary difficulty comes from the fact that it was the first SMT game for a lot of people. That, and if you throw a skill away it’s gone forever. I’ll have to be careful about that, but Fire Emblem Path of Radiance was kinda like that and I managed it just fine, so I think I’ll be okay.
But I like the post-apocalyptic landscape so far, and the relative lack of NPCs is fun too, especially the lack of dumbass party members slowing you down, whining, bitching, moaning, leaving your party at the worst time. This game is awesome! Well, 2 hours of it is awesome anyway. So if you don’t see any posts for a while, you know what I’m getting up to.
