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Persona 3 FES
I finished FES a few days ago and started P4, which howhoa is totally awesome. I'm digging the creepy and the psychological headgames. I'm also restarting Crisis Core, still with the stubborn belief that if I get all the missions or something, I will get the secret good ending.
Combat: Okay. I had quite a lot of problems. Like how the AI is too good, too rational, too human; the characters won't voluntarily take actions that endanger themselves, which sometimes results in them skipping their damn turns uselessly, so that in the end I had to do the stupid thing that endangered me just so that the rest of them would stop being useless. And I'm the only member of the party who isn't fucking expendable. I should always be the person their AIs prioritize, because if I fall down, the game ends instantly.
There were other objections. But... it's hard to be angry at them anymore when I'm so happy that P4 has fixed those things. I can now directly control everyone! Characters will take fatal blows for me! It's beautiful.
Music: One of you, my beloved flist, mentioned that if I hated The World Ends With You music, I'd probably hate Persona 3 music. I'm pleased to report that this is absolutely not the case. I enjoy P3 music, and sometimes (especially all of the variations that debuted in the last month of the game) I actively love them. The Nyx Avatar battle theme that varies on the Velvet Room's theme... ♥
As for the characters...
Someone recently argued with me about whether or not Minato (MC) is soulless. He isn't, of course, but at the same time he kind of is. Minato has Orpheus as a "base" personality, it's true, but frankly, Minato's "base" seems to equal "closed off and reserved". In the manga he's characterized as being lazy, only speaking when spoken to, and spending his spare time sleeping. In other words, he really is the blank slate, exressionless, barely reactive creature that we see in the opening cutscenes.
Meanwhile, although I'm only a few hours in, Souji (P4 MC) is less dead in cutscenes -- he's even emotional, perhaps. He has a lot more and more frequent dialogue options (he's more outgoing) and his are a lot more interested in his surroundings and concerned for other people. (Though it's hard to beat some of Minato's dialogue options, like the one to tell a little girl that it's probably her fault her parents are getting divorced, and that she probably deserved to get hit by her dad.)
Aigis and Minato are totally OTP. The soulless boy and the little robot girl who loved him. Minato's romantic social links (Mitsuru and Yukari and Fuuka as well as everyone else) were like all his others: people he put on Persona for, instead of being himself. They were all about the girl in question. Her problems, the things she wanted to hear, the person she wanted him to be. Minato was wearing a mask for them, which is indicated by the fact that he had to be X amount of charismatic or intelligent before they would begin to be interested in him. Whereas Aigis is interested in... him. Not the magnetic person or the genius, but Minato. There's no qualifications on her social link, very little in the way of right or wrong answers for her (you only need 1pt per rank to move up with her, any little thing can make her love him more), and even if you ignore her totally, she still falls in love with him.
I liked Yukari, up until the Answer, when she took a nosedive off the edge of reason. She just got -- very bitchy at everyone, outright cruel, and her reasons for doing so were extremely shallow and inconsistent. I understand a lot of it: I know why, and I think that the themes she was working with (setting an impossible goal, becoming frustrated and overacting in her attempts to live up to it; jealousy over someone else's connection to someone she never had a real connection with) are very mature themes. But she was very immature, very childish, always thinking only of herself and her own wants and her own opinions and her own past, and while I think this is IC -- after all, when her father died and her mother got all whorish she forced on herself a kind of mature outlook and grim determination that she wasn't emotionally ready for, so she needs to revisit childish wants -- I wound up liking her less for it. She can stay, but I still found her behavior inexcusable for likes 95% of the Answer.
Junpei also took a nosedive off the edge of reason when he met Chidori and became obsessed with her within days. He lost massive cool points because I couldn't have a conversation with him without it being about Chidori Chidori Chidori. Fortunately, he recovered and became awesome again, so I give him almost all his points back.
On a related note, I have zero interest in Chidori. Or Takaya or Jin, but especially Chidori.
Mitsuru and Akihiko are fucking adorable and should get married. I love them both so much, and Akihiko's motivation flashback in the Answer was-- sklfjglfkjg. They were tiny. :D
Also, I heart the puppy. Also, Ryoji. :( ilu
And the Hermit social link in the epilogue is -- is fucking priceless. Oh man. Wow. She's awesome.
Long story short: Awesome game. I mean, truly in another class. The ending and the sequel brought everything together and made it totally complete. Except that someday Minato and his little metal girl will be reunited.
Also, seriously? Just died in your sleep. The end of the first game was you dying? Goddamn Minato. Lame. In his sleep. Mutter.
Combat: Okay. I had quite a lot of problems. Like how the AI is too good, too rational, too human; the characters won't voluntarily take actions that endanger themselves, which sometimes results in them skipping their damn turns uselessly, so that in the end I had to do the stupid thing that endangered me just so that the rest of them would stop being useless. And I'm the only member of the party who isn't fucking expendable. I should always be the person their AIs prioritize, because if I fall down, the game ends instantly.
There were other objections. But... it's hard to be angry at them anymore when I'm so happy that P4 has fixed those things. I can now directly control everyone! Characters will take fatal blows for me! It's beautiful.
Music: One of you, my beloved flist, mentioned that if I hated The World Ends With You music, I'd probably hate Persona 3 music. I'm pleased to report that this is absolutely not the case. I enjoy P3 music, and sometimes (especially all of the variations that debuted in the last month of the game) I actively love them. The Nyx Avatar battle theme that varies on the Velvet Room's theme... ♥
As for the characters...
Someone recently argued with me about whether or not Minato (MC) is soulless. He isn't, of course, but at the same time he kind of is. Minato has Orpheus as a "base" personality, it's true, but frankly, Minato's "base" seems to equal "closed off and reserved". In the manga he's characterized as being lazy, only speaking when spoken to, and spending his spare time sleeping. In other words, he really is the blank slate, exressionless, barely reactive creature that we see in the opening cutscenes.
Meanwhile, although I'm only a few hours in, Souji (P4 MC) is less dead in cutscenes -- he's even emotional, perhaps. He has a lot more and more frequent dialogue options (he's more outgoing) and his are a lot more interested in his surroundings and concerned for other people. (Though it's hard to beat some of Minato's dialogue options, like the one to tell a little girl that it's probably her fault her parents are getting divorced, and that she probably deserved to get hit by her dad.)
Aigis and Minato are totally OTP. The soulless boy and the little robot girl who loved him. Minato's romantic social links (Mitsuru and Yukari and Fuuka as well as everyone else) were like all his others: people he put on Persona for, instead of being himself. They were all about the girl in question. Her problems, the things she wanted to hear, the person she wanted him to be. Minato was wearing a mask for them, which is indicated by the fact that he had to be X amount of charismatic or intelligent before they would begin to be interested in him. Whereas Aigis is interested in... him. Not the magnetic person or the genius, but Minato. There's no qualifications on her social link, very little in the way of right or wrong answers for her (you only need 1pt per rank to move up with her, any little thing can make her love him more), and even if you ignore her totally, she still falls in love with him.
I liked Yukari, up until the Answer, when she took a nosedive off the edge of reason. She just got -- very bitchy at everyone, outright cruel, and her reasons for doing so were extremely shallow and inconsistent. I understand a lot of it: I know why, and I think that the themes she was working with (setting an impossible goal, becoming frustrated and overacting in her attempts to live up to it; jealousy over someone else's connection to someone she never had a real connection with) are very mature themes. But she was very immature, very childish, always thinking only of herself and her own wants and her own opinions and her own past, and while I think this is IC -- after all, when her father died and her mother got all whorish she forced on herself a kind of mature outlook and grim determination that she wasn't emotionally ready for, so she needs to revisit childish wants -- I wound up liking her less for it. She can stay, but I still found her behavior inexcusable for likes 95% of the Answer.
Junpei also took a nosedive off the edge of reason when he met Chidori and became obsessed with her within days. He lost massive cool points because I couldn't have a conversation with him without it being about Chidori Chidori Chidori. Fortunately, he recovered and became awesome again, so I give him almost all his points back.
On a related note, I have zero interest in Chidori. Or Takaya or Jin, but especially Chidori.
Mitsuru and Akihiko are fucking adorable and should get married. I love them both so much, and Akihiko's motivation flashback in the Answer was-- sklfjglfkjg. They were tiny. :D
Also, I heart the puppy. Also, Ryoji. :( ilu
And the Hermit social link in the epilogue is -- is fucking priceless. Oh man. Wow. She's awesome.
Long story short: Awesome game. I mean, truly in another class. The ending and the sequel brought everything together and made it totally complete. Except that someday Minato and his little metal girl will be reunited.
Also, seriously? Just died in your sleep. The end of the first game was you dying? Goddamn Minato. Lame. In his sleep. Mutter.