The Gamer's Quarter

[player 2]

topic
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[TOLLMASTER]

It has very nice music.

It was somewhat popular in Japon.

It combines dungeon (really tower) exploration with those school-life sims that you hear about occasionally. Unlike most of them, this game is supposed to actually work. I'm waiting for one of the Greater Authorities (namely either Jeremy Parish or jiji of Namakoteam) to weigh in, but the idea of a somewhat experimental, somewhat traditional jRPG by Atlus is hard to resist.

[Isfet]

Persona 3 is the kind of game that has some features that sound potentially horrible, but apparently they work. from what i've read, you do the whole high school drama simulator thing during the daylight hours of the game, and then at night your party goes into a tower and does some crawling. the things that you do during the day to attempt to build bonds between your character and other people have an affect on the strength of your Persona. the plot takes place over a period of a year, and you make it move along by meeting certain conditions.

battles aren't random, and you can see the enemies while walking around. you also only have control over the main character in battle while the others run on AI tactics that you set for them.

it sounds like an interesting combination of ideas, for the most part.

[crispus attucks jr]

The school thing sounds kind of neat but I hope it is not too uh... ANIME JAPANESE SCHOOLCHILDREN.

I cannot really explain this but uh... everyone understands what I am saying right? Just like... they changed artists and now everyone's got big heads and Megaten games are always so cool and adult and detached and I'm just hoping they don't fuck that up with little anime children.

But yeah the face-shooting is pretty cool so consider me frothing or whatever.

[Isfet]

[player 2]

Nailed Baseball bats? I already wanted this game.
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[Dracko]

Is this the game where you invoke demons by shooting them out of your head?

And is it anything more than a plotless grindfest?
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Isfet]

yes, this is that game. Persona is a spinoff series based off of Shin Megami Tensei. i haven't played anything of Persona 3, so i can't really speak about whether or not it's plotless or a grindfest, but if i were to judge it based off of the most recent entries (Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga...i haven't played Raidou, so i don't know about that one), i'd probably say no.

these are pretty much the only RPGs i look forward to anymore.

[Six]

My experience with the MegaTen series is limited to the first Persona and the SFC game that Aeon Genesis translated, neither of which I really liked. That said, this looks pretty cool. I can't see myself getting back into jRPGs anytime soon, but color me intrigued!

[Isfet]

the first Persona game was interesting to me when it came out. a friend of mine bought it and i saw its uniqueness, but ultimately i never picked it up because i could feel its awkwardness of gameplay just by watching it.

the translated SFC games (SMT 1 & 2) are "good," but their difficulty is over the top and they require a certain kind of patience that i don't think most people can have these days. i keep telling myself that one day i'll play through SMT2, though.

i can't blame anyone who's stopped playing jRPGs for not having any desire to play one again, as they can be pretty offensive at times (just ask dhex); however, i think the newer MegaTen games have managed to keep what makes them unique while evolving to better meet players' sensibilities. Digital Devil Saga is a good example of this (although i agree with Shaper in that only the first 4/5 of the first installment are good. after that...ehhh...***edit for clarification: i've heard DDS2 is really good all the way through, but since i still have about 5 hours left in DDS1, i haven't gotten to it). Nocturne is great in any way that i can think of. often times, the aspects of jRPGs that can be appealing end up being absurdly irritating, but not so with Nocturne. it can be really difficult, but also extremely rewarding. the only reason i've never finished it is because i had too much to do in my actual life. when that happens, i usually tend to not pick up a game again for a long time. sometime after the next two weeks though, i think i'd like to get back into it (it's only been umm....two years?).

i think what it is is that most jRPGs suffer from becoming easily dated and obsolete. the SMT series is still a lot of fun, but the PS2 games are probably the easiest to get into now, followed by the later PS1 installments, then the SFC games and downward. for the most part, though, this series has always had a different take on the genre, so even its earliest games still have some strange sort of appeal.

Persona 3 seems like it will continue on in the same direction as these other installments. it will probably have some really fun and interesting aspects as well as some points that could be a little more jarring. but i think i've just described every game ever created, haven't i?


2nd Edit: story wise, the MegaTen series seems to have a better grasp on the key concepts of religion, philosophy and psychology than other jRPGs do. in some ways, this series is probably partially to blame for the more absurd story motifs that plague many jRPGs, in that those games are sort of a bastardization of what these games try to accomplish.

[antitype]

[Nana Komatsu]

[antitype]

Ah, no.
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antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[Nana Komatsu]

[antitype]

Yeah, it was a pretty ridiculous suggestion. I mean, lots of my favorite videogames are from Japan and have absolutely nothing to do with what I described above. I guess you just took personal offense to my distaste and thought lashing out at me (DON'T PLAY MY GAMES) would be the answer...?

Unless you were being jokey and I'm misinterpreting things, internet lol.
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antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[player 2]

[Isfet]

well, the Persona series has always been a bit more..."traditional" in terms of dealing with high school-aged characters (Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, a bit less), but that doesn't necessarily stop it from being a good, interesting series. but we shall see...


but hey, if you hate the characters, at least you can make them shoot themselves, right?


edit: also, you can pick up Nocturne for not insanely-terrible prices on eBay (unless you wanted to spend $30 or something).

being more honest, and thinking about it a bit more, Persona was probably made my R&D1 as an attempt to gather a more mainstream audiece, so that's worth thinking about. the gameplay systems in P3 seem to be a little less than traditional, though.

[crispus attucks jr]

I am still deciding whether the rapping in the battle theme is the best or the worst thing I have heard in my entire life. It is definitely one of the two though!

[Persona-sama]

From what I hear, the game combines tower-crawling RPG battling by night and dating sim high school life-sim by day. This plus the addition of a very nicely designed android girl character makes this game highly relevant to my eyes.
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[Lackey]

Can someone explain how they explain the head-shooting mechanic?
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[Persona-sama]

Each character has a demon of sorts locked inside themselves. By using this spirit releasing gun and blowing their brains out, their inner demons are released and can fight for them.

I'm sure there's some sort of commentary on the Japanese public school system and society behind this all. Either that or it's just cool to see kids shooting themselves.
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