Persona series

I find an issue with Q is that they use it to try to fix the flaws in Persona 3 with the Yukari/Mitsuru one-sided fued, which I never cared for and that the Investigation Team get's no such other thing for their plot, at least so far as halfway through Evil Spirit Club is giving me.

...outside of using Ken's plot to sorta highlight the issues they have but then just use it to make Ken more endearing, which as a Ken fan, I'm okay with but it does nothing outside of showing that Kanji is still the best. It does nothing for 4 because they already are tight friends. Or so the game makes out.

Q always had an Excuse Plot. That's what happens when you make a fanservice game.

I think what bugged me about the plot itself was how it all felt very familiar... casts of both P3 and P4 are summoned to a warped version of Yasogami High, where they meet and befriend a mysterious girl with no memories in a Yasogami High Uniform that no one recognizes who, shockingly enough, turns out to be indirectly causing the whole incident through her subconscious dealing with her trauma.

Just felt phoned in.

could support the theory that the characters are related.

I liked Arena, so naturally I didn't have that much of a problem with Q. Also unlike Arena, which rehashed all the P4 characters issues again, the characters themselves do have their own scenes or develop, even if it's near the end.

My problem with PQ is that I have to buy DLC Personas to complete my compendium, and that foes don't have more nulls/resists/absorbs on them.

In comparison Arena's sequel is the only one so far that's left a bad taste in my mouth. Can't say anything about Dancing All Night yet besides some of the outfits don't fit the characters.

PQ didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth, but it just... didn't leave much of a taste at all. I didn't really enjoy it, but I didn't hate it. The story was phoned in, and I guess the most notable thing was that the flanderization was really to the next level.

I liked the character designs, though.

Ultimax did leave a bad taste, though. Sho being the Malevolent Entity was an anticlimax, the dialogue was... not good, and 3 paid DLC characters is utter bullshit.

edited 27th Apr '15 10:13:45 AM by Larkmarn

That's pretty much my opinion on PQ. I see how others could like it, but it just didn't click. Perhaps I should play an EO one of these days to get used to the style.

There weren't even that many characters that were flanderized, and Teddie was at his worse concerning being a perv ingame for P4 when they were taken into PQ as well.

And what flanderizing they did get was already seen in Arena before it. People act like it started with PQ when it didn't.

For me, the issue was that it showed they had decided to go with the flanderizing and run with it, rather than turn it around.

But like I said, it's just more "fuel to the indifference fire" to me. It's hard to get excited about the much vaunted meetup of the teams if they're just caricatures of themselves.

Save for Naoto, I don't like P4 cast that much, but this game made me love Rise. Her interactions with Fuuka are the best. Also, Yosuke doesn't annoy me as much as elsewhere, but then again I'm playing P3 side...

Know what bugs me?

In P4, there's Pale Rider is an early/mid-level Persona, but White Rider is much higher. Not to mention that Pale Rider isn't even of the Death Arcana, but rather Jester/Hunger. I'm 99% sure they just messed up and got the Pale and White Riders mixed up, since whether he's Conquest or Pestilence, either way they make a lot more sense being of the Hunger Arcana. Not to mention that Death is almost always the greatest of the Horsemen.

... it's just odd.

edited 27th Apr '15 12:34:37 PM by Larkmarn

If I recall (it's been a while), White Rider was in vanilla, but Pale Rider was added in Golden.

So that's why Pale Rider is of the "wrong" Arcana: the new Personas in Golden are pretty much all Hunger or Aeon.

No idea on why he's so weak though.

edited 27th Apr '15 12:37:23 PM by Otherarrow

And Ares is, what, level 23? Level doesn't necessarily equal power.

Or the other way around, sometimes. Ogre is a starting demon in the Devil Survivor games, but somehow jumped up into the forties for Shin Megami Tensei IV.

And there's P3, where Oberon was level 15 or something while Titania was around level 50.

I get that, but it's odd because usually they're internally somewhat consistent. You're not going to see them put Freya be stronger than Odin any time soon.

Pale Rider being level 33 in P3? Sure. It's Pale Rider being weaker than another Rider that confuses me.

edited 27th Apr '15 1:00:40 PM by Larkmarn

Well, in Devil Survivor, I think Odin is level 40-ish. While Sleipnir, his horse, is level 50-ish.

... okay, then I got nuthin'.

Shit = bananas.

Though I guess a better comparison would be Kohryu being below Genbu, Seiryu, Byakko, or Suzaku.

edited 27th Apr '15 1:08:23 PM by Larkmarn

In GMT Kali was in the single-digits, and Azathoth wasn't even the strongest in his family (Vile).

GMT had issues? Gasp.

Ultimax ain't that bad jeez, it's still a very good game. The P3 and Adachi story were actually pretty good, but the P4 story(worst in either Arena) and true ending were kind of lame and I'm not crazy about Sho or the True Final Boss.

The dialogue has its moments but like most Persona stuff is waaaaaaay too long winded sometimes.

DLC whoring sucks but that's ASW being greedy as usual, unfortunately more and more FG developers are doing this. NRS is even worse with MK 9.

Like as an actual fighting game, it's pretty sick. Presentation is out of this world(dat menu theme) and it's fun to learn and play although kind of cheap to where competitively it seems frustrating. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it and the story applies to this as well.

Like another Arena with P5 characters down the road? I'm so in.

Yeah I agree.

But what I'm wondering is why don't the Arena DLC have any of the non-canon characters, such as the casts of the first 2 games.

edited 28th Apr '15 5:33:28 AM by TempusIV

We kinda stablished that Atlus hás been getting a bit silly lately with what's cânon or Not.

While the P3 story isn't too bad, it does some things that frustrate and rehash some issues for the P3 cast just like Arena did for the P4 cast. Like Mitsuru trying to take everything on by herself again, or ignores things that were brought up in several routes of the original game like her knowing the Investigation Team would get involved, but acts like they won't in Ultimax.

The worse is that it's not canon, so nothing truly matters in the route as I prefer Labrys beating up Kagutsuchi by herself to gay sword fusion.

Ultimax just felt... phoned in. The production values for anything that wasn't lifted from Arena didn't seem great (cutscenes felt few, far between, and low in quality, for example). I dunno, it's just me.

Know what I'd really like in Persona games? Social Links that don't go to 10. It'd be a nice way to avoid an Interface Spoiler (yes, we totally caught the killer! And that brought Teddie's SL to... five. Game over, guys!) and the Fridge Logic of how the universe seems to know exactly how close you are to forming an unbreakable bond.

I think Adachi's SL had something where it'd skip a few ranks for one of the endings, but still. I would appreciate more like that.