Persona 3

[ilnadmy]

This is mainly aimed at Tashi since he oh-so-proudly advertises on his sig that he's playing the game, but I would love the comments of anyone who's played this game. What's the game like? I've read a few reviews and watched some videos and I must say the game really intrigues me, but some parts of it seem weird, like attending class and what have you. The relationship and dating part of it seems interesting enough, since I haven't played a game like that before, but the whole going to class part seems a bit...I dunno, boring? And also what's up with only controlling one player during the battle? Does that work out well?

[T.Tashi]

This is mainly aimed at Tashi since he oh-so-proudly advertises on his sig that he's playing the game, but I would love the comments of anyone who's played this game. What's the game like? I've read a few reviews and watched some videos and I must say the game really intrigues me, but some parts of it seem weird, like attending class and what have you. The relationship and dating part of it seems interesting enough, since I haven't played a game like that before, but the whole going to class part seems a bit...I dunno, boring? And also what's up with only controlling one player during the battle? Does that work out well?

I oh-so-proudly point you to my post here

http://forums.videogamereview.com/showthread.php?p=103200#post103200

The school stuff goes by at a pretty quick pace. The scenarios and conversations don't linger for long, which is probably a good thing.

[ilnadmy]

Oh-so-proudly.

Seems like a great game, very interesting. I'll end up getting it eventually, maybe after I finish Xenosaga. Or maybe I'll play both at the same time.

You didn't go through this in your post though, but what's the story like? Good? Bad? Average? Just a yay or nay suffices, I don't want to spoil anything story-wise.

[T.Tashi]

Oh-so-proudly.

Seems like a great game, very interesting. I'll end up getting it eventually, maybe after I finish Xenosaga. Or maybe I'll play both at the same time.

You didn't go through this in your post though, but what's the story like? Good? Bad? Average? Just a yay or nay suffices, I don't want to spoil anything story-wise.

I'm very persnickative about story details. It's why I skip most movie reviews. Most reviewers are so lazy they give away plot details I'd really rather not know. I'm not deep enough to give anything significant away storywise anyway tho.

So far the story rocks. Altus did a hell of a job. Great translation, great voiceovers and it's very well written. I'd say it's exceptional. If you're a story oriented gamer you won't be disappointed.

The biggest knock against it IMHO is the graphics. It has a cool art style and character designs but the graphics are nothing to write home about.

[ilnadmy]

Awesome. The story is half the experience in a game as far as I'm concerned.

[Mochan]

I'll be getting this probably over the weekend.

Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games have always had a strong narrative so I was expecting as much. I don't mind the going to school bits I'm so used to seeing that in anime.

[Mochan]

I'll be getting this probably over the weekend.

Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games have always had a strong narrative so I was expecting as much. I don't mind the going to school bits I'm so used to seeing that in anime all the time. I am looking forward to this game I was playing Rogue Galaxy but haven't gotten into it yet so I'll ditch that and play this instead.

[ilnadmy]

Rogue Galaxy is another game I'm meaning to get. I played the hell out of Dark Cloud 2, loved that game. The one bad thing about it though is the random levels start to get really annoying and repetitive over time.

[Mochan]

Dark Cloud 2 was great but not awesome. Persona 3 is awesome. Rogue Galaxy looked good on paper but after playing I suddenly lost interest playing after just the start. It might be a great game but it was so conventional as a JRPG and I lost my interest for the time being... looking for something else.

[ilnadmy]

The thing about Dark Cloud 2 is it had so many things you could get caught up in. You could invent items by taking photos of everything, you could go back and adjust the cities you had built up, you could spend hours upon hours leveling up your items and weapons and converting them into new and different weapons, etc... If Rogue Galaxy has anywhere near the same level of depth and customization I'll probably dig it.

BTW I take it you bought Persona 3 and have played it?

[Mochan]

Yeah I got myself a copy but I'm still hunting for a real copy of it, preferably the Japanese version. This game is just unbelievably awesome. It's probably not for everybody but I just can't help but urge anyone with the slightest interest in JRPGs to pick it up. It's something I could see someone like Gadfly enjoying.

The gameplay is more or less typical Shin Megami Tensei combat though with some really nicely-done anime cues. The overall graphics aren't as good as Digital Devil Saga's but the anime style is very appealing. But the concept of the game is what sets it apart. Tashi already gave a rundown of it, and he's very accurate. That and the renai aspect of it which you never see in Western games or Japanese games ported to the west, makes it incredibly addicting. It is all surprisingly well-written and the dub is one of the best I've seen in a game. Persona 1-2 not required to play, though if you played the previous Personas you'll recognize Igor giving you his "tips." All in all an incredible game if you like JRPGs go pick it up now I am 100% it's a ton better than Blue Dragon, and probably much better than Eternal Sonata or Lost Odyssey. I am almost ready to put it as my top JRPG of all time... except I've barely played it yet. So I'll finish it first before escalating it to the ranks of Suikoden 2.

Oh, and the soundtrack is way funky. It's got the most insane combat music I've ever heard. =_= "I will burn my dread!"

[Mochan]

And yeah I loved how in Dark Cloud 2 there was so much to do. Yeah. I loved that too. :) The one thing it lacked to really put it in the "awesome" category was a cohesive, well-placed, well-told story. I often felt I was just loafing around having fun rather than actually following a story. A hallmark of great, standalone gameplay but as a whole it was a "its sums are greater than its whole" sort of deal. But yeah the game's dungeons did seem like they dragged as you went along.

BTW I can't seem remember how Dark Cloud 2 ended, though I'm sure I finished it.

[Mochan]

And yeah I loved how in Dark Cloud 2 there was so much to do. Yeah. I loved that too. :) The one thing it lacked to really put it in the "awesome" category was a cohesive, well-placed, well-told story. I often felt I was just loafing around having fun rather than actually following a story. A hallmark of great, standalone gameplay but as a whole it was a "its sums are greater than its whole" sort of deal. But yeah the game's dungeons did seem like they dragged as you went along.

BTW I can't seem remember how Dark Cloud 2 ended, though I'm sure I finished it.

[folken001]

Mochan is on a double post frenzy.

I liked rogue galaxy. I thought the battle was pretty fun except against certain enemies. The load time is a bit annoying though. I suggest anyone to play it with the support of the hdd.

I bought Persona 3 on the day it came out but haven't had the chance to play much of it. I just done exploring the Tataurs(sp?) the first time. Seems pretty easy. I wonder if battles will become harder later on?

[ilnadmy]

Seems like I'll be picking up Persona 3/Rogue Galaxy a lot sooner than I expected. Xenosaga is majorly pissing me off. It hasn't really opened up yet, and I'm 12 hours into the game. And throughout the whole thing it doesn't really let you level up with any consistency, then throws you up against this ridiculous f***ing boss, for which I'm severely under-leveled. I now need to go and fight random enemies to somehow gain 4-5 levels because there's no way in hell I'll be able to beat this boss otherwise.

[T.Tashi]

Seems like I'll be picking up Persona 3/Rogue Galaxy a lot sooner than I expected. Xenosaga is majorly pissing me off. It hasn't really opened up yet, and I'm 12 hours into the game. And throughout the whole thing it doesn't really let you level up with any consistency, then throws you up against this ridiculous f***ing boss, for which I'm severely under-leveled. I now need to go and fight random enemies to somehow gain 4-5 levels because there's no way in hell I'll be able to beat this boss otherwise.

Dark Cloud 2 was really exceptional considering how bland the 1st one was. But it did have an insane amount of depth. I liked it better than Zelda.

Xenosaga is a really odd game balance wise. I bought the guide with it and the guide makes it sound like you need to do this one specific thing to beat the bosses and it's so not true. I got it mainly for collection reasons anyway. But yeah some of those boss battles are gonna piss you off. I ended up not skipping any fights at all for that reason and by the end of the game I was sufficiently over leveled. It's hard to strike a balance it's either power level through the whole game or get pwned. I quit Arc the Lad for that very reason. Couldn't beat the last boss so I was limited to running around the flying pyramid to level and said f'k it. If I'm strong enough to get to the last boss, that should be sufficient to beat it. I scanned every inch of the net for a strategy and the only option was to power level... at the end of the game. Pissed me off...

I played a demo of Rogue Galaxy (I have the flag that came with the demo hanging up at work) but I never did get the full game. Western devs seem to have a better grip on action rpgs than the Japanese developers. In general that is. RG just didn't hook me, but I did think it was a good game. I'll pick it up one of these days.

I agree with Mochan Persona 3 has already inched its way into my top 3 rpgs off all time, and I'm only 27 hours in. If I knew it was gonna be this good I woulda took time off from work. :p I gotta start getting a decent nights sleep but damn it's so hard to put down.

[Mochan]

LOL that's strange how did that happen. =_= The double post is like a day apart.

The battles in Persona 3 aren't very hard the fact that you can have any persona with whatever skills in your repertoire makes it easy to exploit weaknesses. It's nowhere near the difficulty of Digital Devil or Nocturne.

Xenosaga I stopped playing that from Episode 1. I lost my faith in Xenosaga with the first game. Horrible graphics, bland characters, poor pacing, bad gameplay, idiotic plot with tons of holes, the works. I dunno if they fixed stuff up later on but I gave up on the series already, it's no Xenogears by any stretch.

So Xenosaga III is a 12 hour borefest, LOL glad I bailed out of this crap a long time ago.

[Mochan]

Yeah I just spent every bit of free time for the last 2 days playing Persona 3, I so wanted to call in sick today just to play Persona 3. It's been a long time since I felt like this (last time I think was with Suikoden 3).

Rogue Galaxy I will probably go back to it to check it out later. I just gave it a quick look and it didn't hook me in. Looks gorgeous though. Felt a bit like Grandia 2. Probably.