In response to the previous critique of Persona 3, I'd like to start with I can easily see why people wouldn't like the game. It caters towards a specific audience and in all honestly has an overall most watered down game mechanics out of most SMT games that I have played. I guess to make this easier to defend it I'll just try to respond to each point made against the game in the order they were introduced.
The Persona line of games have always been about tying the universe of Shin Megami Tensei into everyday life. The first, Revelations: Persona started out at a highschool. The protagonist and his friends from high school get sucked into their mystical adventure, meet Philemon who gives them the Persona ability and on goes the story of crazy demon fighting in the real world. The story in both Persona 2 installments begin at a high school as well, again Philemon does a little storytelling and gets you on your adventure way. I have not personally played the first Persona or Innocent Sin but I have played through Eternal Punishment and a lot is upheld in the third entry into the series, but even more is changed.
As we can see, since the cultural experience of high school in Japan is so universal for kids there then I can see why they would choose that to be a major anchor into "real life" for the vast majority of gaming culture in Japan. This has been a recurring theme throughout the series and honestly the fact that a high-school-sim-like-game even made it across the pond to US shores makes me glad that Atlus brings over such off-the-wall and different games. The Anime sequences in P3 aren't the best, but honestly I enjoy any number of Anime sequences in a game, the voice acting in P3 is top notch and hilarious in actually making the kids human, and driving home the fact that they are just a couple kids in high school. Kaneko Kazuma's art-style, as always, excels when brought to life through polygonal cel-shading. While I enjoyed the sprites in P2, ever since Nocturne the presentation has reached an almost seamless transition from Kazuma's actual concept art. When it comes to production values, aside from the Anime cutscenes which seemed pretty rushed (the cut scenes for the new chapter in FES are much better), everything is highly polished and you couldn't really ask for more except for having the Japanese VAs if you were so inclined.
A lot of the critiques LBJ had with the game I honestly had myself, but it didn't bother me as much since the overall experience to me outweighed it. I poured 150 hours into the game and beat it, the overall story is nothing new or different. What is most enjoyable is the level of detail in your interactions in either the social links or just with your fellow SEES members. Like I said before, you really get to know your teammates because the VAing is very well done. The contract you sign is presented to you later in the game. I enjoyed the fact that the Protagonist this time around is for the most part "you" the player and just an anomaly placed into the story and the story revolves around you. You aren't given the reigns over a guy named "Flame!" who already has a personality and inclinations towards particular decisions and you're just along for the ride.
My issues with the game are somewhat similar, the battle system is meh. I enjoyed it a lot better than the standard ATB or turn based affair, I didn't really mind controlling only 1 person since it was similar to Star Ocean without being able to switch. What I do take problems with is that you can't change the persona of fellow teammates like you can in previous games. Yes persona being tied to cards was in the previous games, it isn't a fad tagging along with recent CCGs and at least Tarot cards factor in reasonably a lot more with the occult than a random card mechanic. The fact it's a dungeon crawler is a big turn off to a lot of people, the previous titles were not dungeon crawlers but I still enjoyed it. I definitely did not like the fact that there was no dialogue/talk mechanic and the creatures you fight are not normal SMT demons, instead they are mostly shadows made up specifically for the game. The stat growth and customization occurs with the persona, your character's parameters change with the persona you have equipped. If your persona is more heavily magic oriented then you yourself are that, I find this flexibility very nice and it presents the player with whatever play style they want. You can increase persona stats with items. The growth in commands you can give your party members, the intelligent AI, the ever expanding options you have for fusion and side quests are amazing. The random-stats of items is also a nice touch for the most control-freak-inclined.
Overall I wish they kept the talking/dialogue from P2, the control over 4 people, the combos between different persona on separate people, and the larger compendium of enemies(not just palette switches) are what's on my mind currently. For the most part though LBJ's complaints of the game to me seem like he wouldn't be inclined to play a high-school sim-game, so not the right target audience. I personally found the mechanics of the game overall watered down compared to previous Persona/SMT offerings but I still liked the polished experience. From what it sounds like if he was willing to invest some time into it then he may change his mind, then again it may not. The game overall is a slow start because it slowly introduces each mechanic to the player. Also the first time I played an SMT game there was a great deal of game play details that I did not pick up on until I either beat the game or a very long time after. Aside from that it's just a matter of opinion, people will love it and people will hate it.
In closing what I can say is that I love it. It reminds me of the original Valkyrie Profile for playstation in that there really is nothing else like it available on the market which adds a uniqueness to it (on the market in the US at least). I personally haven't played FFXII though, I'm not too strongly inclined to because of it's MMORPG-like interface...FF X was a bad enough experience for me that i never want to return to. I'll stick to Atlus' odd RPGs, Square's (not Enix) forays into RPGs in the era of the PS2 have totally turned me off and I've been pleased with the other options there are (Shadow Hearts, NIS games, Atlus, Enix's franchises).
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3 comments:
Oh right, yeah that was kinda rushed since I'm at work but one more thing. It is definitely the weakest SMT game that I have played, and is more "fun" to play than anything else. Since the Persona games tend to be more light-hearted and the fact it's such a different type of game than what I am used to playing. I can honestly say though I am not sure what my opinion would be if Shoji Meguro did not contribute his awesome soundtrack and the art-style/presentation was different and basically if it was not an SMT game.
OK, I will definitely give this game more time. I mean...I liked the American dating sim game, Sprung, so maybe I just needed to get past the beginning. I was hoping you would respond like this so I could get a better idea of what Persona 3 is relative to other JRPGs in the market. In hindsight, I probably should have just sent you an e-mail asking for a good RPG to play. I've just gotten frustrated with the last couple I played, including Shadow Hearts 2. What did you think?
You've shown me I couldn't generalize Persona 3 to such an extent or criticize it so deeply, but it just seemed like everything I played in the genre was doing the same kinds of things. I agree that the conversation choices allow me to say what I would say in the given situation instead of forcing my hand. It saddens me that those choices keep landing me in the Fool arcana...
FFX was pretty bad, but I played it a lot. I'll take a play at these SMTs sometime in the future. Revelations: Persona sounded pretty fucking cool from the wiki page.
P.S. It's badass you update the MS(g)B at your workplace.
I'll start with PS2 RPGs that I have really enjoyed. SMT III: Nocturne and DDS1&2 are definitely up there for my favorites, although they are a little hard to find. In my eyes Enix still has a lot of magic going for them these past couple years. I waited a long time for Star Ocean 3 since Second Story on PS was wonderful. The third one was pretty good, didn't live up to the second one in terms of characters/story (the VAing is kinda eh) but game-play wise it is solid. Radiata Stories is pretty cool cause it has a real time element like Majora's Mask to each day (no time travel) and there are a lot of characters to recruit to be in your party, it did a lot of different things that I think really worked. Dragon Quest 8 is a solid old-school affair with the dressings of the newer generation.
One reason I can see Shadow Hearts 2 not seeming as great as it definitely is, is that it is actually the third game in a 4 game series. I own Koudelka (PS), Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts 2, and SH From the New World, but I have yet to play the last one. Based on the ending of Sh 2 the third isn't necessary to appreciate all of them, but the intricate story for all 3 of the first games is really astounding. I am talking foresight on the level of Arrested Development in terms of how characters interlink, and the emotional attachment is all the greater.
They did a lot of things in P3 that in one sense makes it a smoother ride, but at the same time rubs me the wrong way. I personally think the library of spells that all the persona have is pretty limited to what other SMT games have, for example higher level demons end up having "the next higher level" version of a spell instead of something unique (oh Thor has Bolt 4 instead of Bolt 2). Also the "evoker" business is total bullshit that was definitely added for shock value if anything, no evokers were used in previous games (in fact I prefer the characters saying "Persona!" quite ridiculously whenever they used magic).
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