Persona series

That.

"Gimme one Lifestone!"

"I like ya, here's a gift!"

[Received one Lifestone!]

2's combo negotiations are often cited as a proto social link system, even if the two ideas aren't alike at all.

But yeah, like Tarsen said, it wasn't just a nameless hero stepping up to try and recruit demons, it was a colorful cast that had their own preferred ways to try and impress them to collect cards they could use for fusion, instead.

And in the 2 Duology, up to three people could team up and do something silly to impress the demons - ie, a Boke and Tsukkomi routine from the two older ladies in Innocent Sin, the hero and a wannabe heart throb competing to see who's the manliest, the hero and a former delinquent (harmlessly) beating the shit out of the enemy, etc.

The best demon negotiation combo will always be Jun and Tatsuya being gay.

That's it. They just be gay, and demons fork over the spell cards.

hehehe

decided to play the english version of the psp port of innocent sin at long last, cuz im tired of holding back to play the japanese version.

im kind of pertubed by the clearly-quite-pained-tatsuya on the name-select screen.

im so used to default face tatsuya from the psx version. :X

Even he's sick of all the Persona 4 pandering.

Is Japanese version!Tatsuya as sassy as the PSP's? Cause he's probably the biggest asshole of all the Persona heroes if that's the case.

edited 2nd Sep '14 12:58:04 PM by Hashil

Considering the people he's surrounded with and the things he goes through, can you blame him?

He starts out with death threats and smug confidence, though.

hmm? we talkin about negotiation options or dialogue options?

unfortunately ive never gotten far enough into the japanese version to check either.

His general demeanor, his battle quotes (he likes to open with "your death will be quick!" in the PSP version,) and the fact that he can opt to beat the living crap out of a demon alongside Yukino to negotiate with it. A lot of his dialogue options are kind of rude too if you want to go that route.

ah.

on another note, im glad the official translation replaced the kasu-gay-ama nick-name with the generally simpler and less cringe-inducing "cuss high"

I dunno, I mean to go back a bit earlier, I do enjoy social links and not having to constantly go in dungeons every time you beat a dungeon.

wha-?!

is eikichi voiced by..kanji? the voice sounded familiar...

i did not expect that kind of voice out of eikichi.

edited 2nd Sep '14 1:39:35 PM by Tarsen

Seems to me that social links could mesh well with the negotiation system. You could unlock improvements and new options as you go through your party members' links, like how in 4 they would become willing to die for you. Say, advance Kanji's link enough and he can start showing off the stuffed animals he made as a contact option.

unfortunately, the negotiation system wouldnt mesh well with the enemies of the recent games, who have all been more or less mindless outside of bosses.

Yep. Troy Baker's Eikichi.

Well, sure. Demon negotiations would require demons, but demons can be had. I'm pretty sure 3's breakout popularity didn't come from the enemies being weird masked critters.

Very good point. I've seen lots of fan art of the various demons, and even some of shadow bosses, but almost never for the generic shadows.

And even than, shadows can apparently become sentient given time - there's nothing stopping them from having evolved to a point where even the mookiest of shadows possesses at least a basic personality.

i have kind of thought that, as the embodiment of humanity's hidden feelings, shadows should probably speak more, even if its in disjointed, madness mantra kind of ways ala the foul demons from nocturne.

i wonder what the rewards to negotiation would be in this case? items and escaping battle- both are legit reasons for it but the cards were really the driving force of it in the early persona games and its a little hard to figure out how that would factor into shadow negotations.

suggestions about shadow negotiation though:

• the weakest shadows, unable to be negotiated with, attempting to do so just gives an incomprehensible result like foul demons
• the shadows with more of a set "form" (like the tables and horsemen and plant babies); can be negotiated with, and what personality type they have is determined by their arcana + some other factor
• boss shadows, cant truely be negotiated with, but attempting to do so makes them talk. possibly with illuminating results. bad choices = debuff or enemy buff

I never paid much attention to the generic Shadows. It took me ages to realize the masks they wear correspond to their arcana.

Maybe negotiation replaces shuffle time as the way you get, among other things, new Personas?

the card given out could be decided by enemy/player level + arcana

I could see golden hands or an equivalent working kind of like 2's rumored demons, or those handful of demons you could get Fool cards from, and that could add a pretty cool dynamic to them - do you kill them for all their experience and cash, or negotiate to get a really elusive, powerful persona?