very recently started playing persona 3 fes for the first time ever!
i've been spoiled on pretty much every major character death... but besides Minato i don't know how they die so i'm definitely still gonna be in for a ride.
i just got past the first boss. my initial thoughts are mostly
-i dig the aesthetic of the game, including tartarus
-still iffy on not being able to control my party members, but being able to send them out individually and have them explore is so cool??
-a few social links have been pretty good to start off. i'm adoring Yuko a lot, Maya seems like my type of girl (older, drunk, plays mmos obsessively :p), and Maiko's social link is seriously going to make me cry
-the tiredness system is more annoying than anything else
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Maewhoo just beat the second boss(es)
i still adore yuko, but i'm starting to hit social links where girls become jealous if i hang out with other girls.... persona 3 plz
at least make it consistent with the guys too, lord knows guys get even pissier than girls
maiko's SL is going to make me cry seriously, this poor girl
i'm also, uh, pretty underlevelled. made it to floor 36 of tartarus at only level 13, and beating the boss was a huge slog. when i looked up info about the boss online people recommended being level 17, so uh, whooops. had to grind out at least a little bit.
leading up to the boss fight, Mitsuru showed a bunch of personality when it came to her explosives comment, or being confidently pleased in Junpei's actual plan. that seriously sweetened me up to Mitsuru, a lot, when i didnt think i would be.
i'm also starting to really really like yukari... uh, not because she's a sweetheart or anything, but because she's super two-faced and i love it. she's one of the SLs i'm most excited to do.
as a side note, the Protag, Yukari, and Junpei all seem like close friends that dig at each other, but Akihiko and Mitsuru feel a bit more distant like they're watching over us. it's way different from the dynamics in 4 or 5, its weird. i kind of like the change in pace, honestly.
i also liked making yukari mad by doing everything but go to the faculty office
anyway, Fuuka's voice is... not at all what i imagined. i totally forgot what she sounded like since i haven't heard her speak in so long. i dont dislike it, though. the boss fight was also really easy.
glad we finally have our nav, but honestly, i kind of wish we got Natsuki as a party member as well and had her summon a persona... we haven't had a gyaru character as a party member in the series at all (Ann is the only one who even comes kinda close), and a longer story bit and social link about about her trying to improve over how awful she used to be and make amends would be interesting.
but that's way besides the point. really really enjoying persona 3 fes so far, and not being able to control my party members has (almost) been a complete non-issue. its kind of fun, in some ways, when i have to trust an AI my team to make a quick decision when i'm in a tough situation.
Edited by EpicBleye on Dec 17th 2020 at 1:55:45 PM
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Maethat was the intent, i believe, with making the combat so AI driven in P3. and yeah, the dynamic of SEES is very interesting, and I kind of wish Persona would return to the P3 method of the party members having fully independent arcs and lives from the MC
I forgot my password, and I want my old Forum handle back!!!Yeah, I definitely understand why people get annoyed at P3's AI party control, but it was definitely part of the game's charm for me. P3 is the only JRPG I've played where it actually felt like I was playing as "me and my friends" rather than "the party, collectively", and it does make a big difference imo.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Personally, I found it well done. And IS is too easy? Yeah, so are Persona 4 and Persona 5.
Using "too easy" as a complaint for Persona is unfair because legitmately the only games that couldn't fall under that are 1, EP, and 3.
. .Oh and Q.
Anyways, there's a decent amount of menus but I never found it that annoying and the encounter rate wasn't even that bad, the first game had an ungodly encounter rate. And the battle system was pretty solid, the negotiations are well done and the contacts are interesting to use.
Edited by ultimate_life_form on Dec 20th 2020 at 8:54:55 AM
There isn't much objectivity to refuting the existence of a flaw of a game with "I personally liked it" or "but it didn't bothered me !"
I don't intend to critcize the story of a game I didn't played, and I'm sure the gameplay was probably fine at the time, but trying to argue 2 is somehow a better game than it's successors considering even 3 and 4 are showing their age when put next to 5 is pure fan wank, not objectivity.
Edited by Yumil on Dec 20th 2020 at 6:17:17 PM
"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."In general I'm inclined to dismiss most people who bring up "objectivity" when it comes to games because while games do have a functional and design aspect to them, there's a lot more that goes into them than just that and even design decisions can be debated to an extent. Not to imply that's what's going on here necessarily, but a lot of the time it's just a label people put on their opinion to try and make it seem like it's more correct than everyone's else's.
Innocent Sin is top tier Persona but somebody once told me a thing that sticks with me even after I've played pretty much all Persona. P3 is when Persona found its identity. I agree with that. Persona 3 is when Persona became Persona and not jus an SMT spinoff.
For all its merits, Persona 2 was just SMT and Persona would never have become the phenomenon that it did without experimenting and being more daring. Yes SMT fans, Persona was more daring and experimental with 3 and 4 than it was with P2. Battle system, Social Links, the whole focus on The Game/Fantasy World vs. The Real World - these are highly creative elements that made Persona distinct.
I do miss some things from P2 but that was more a function of the writing. If the same people wrote a P2 remake in the style of modern Persona, it would be infinitely better for it.
i honestly just want a remake of 3. i'm loving the game as i'm playing it but, uh, it very clearly shows its age.
if it had the production elements and quality that 5 had... i think i'd be ecstatic. i'm not even to the third full moon yet and i'm totally intrigued by the game and from what i know of the end i'll remain thrilled.
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeAge as in battle mechanics? Play P 3 P then, it brings many of the improvements made in P4 such as direct control and assist attacks.
In a sense this is true, although in my opinion the whole social sim thing has kinda lost its luster when more RPG's started doing it to mimic Persona so it doesn't come across as that unique anymore.
Age as in presentation. I'd levy the same criticisms to P3P I'm sure, and the only battle mechanics I'd say are aged are only being able to swap Personas once and some minor knockdown mechanics.
I also don't mean "this game needs better graphics" either. Stuff like Menuing, what's available on Menus, where you can save, all show the gamee's age.
The menus are also incredibly plain, and while that isn't a bad thing (and I think it matches the game's aesthetics and tone), I do think some amount of flair could be added to make Menus more visibly interesting while keeping the Persona 3 style.
The way Social Links work, of course, need to be reworked and jealousy (as it is) is a super sexist concept.
The relevance of SLs is also a criticism I'd levy. In Persona 4 more Party Social Links went a long way to making it feel like you were bonding with your teammates, as well as how whatever was going on was affecting everyone. Dojima and Nanako's SL gets major props as well for developing on Yu's home life and (while obviously not an option for P3's protag) helps make everything feel interconnected.
In Persona 5, all but maybe 4 or 5 Confidants are directly related to the plot of the game, and in totally different ways. Whether it's from the effects of Shido's Political Career, Joker's home life, Joker's reputation in school, how the masses perceive the Phanthom Thieves and Phansite, etc etc, nearly every Confidant helps fill out the world and how your actions both personally and as a phantom thief are affecting it.
So many of Persona 3's Social Links are totally unrelated to the plot whatsoever. And it doesn't make them bad in the least, but it creates a contrast where it feels like "this is plot" and "these are social links" are two entirely separate things, which isn't the case in 5 at all and happens less often in 4.
On top of that, many of them don't seem to relate to the game's theme of "Memento Mori", whereas more of 4's Social Links seemed to relate to the game's theme of "accepting an unwanted truth" (which isn't super consistent in quality but the theming is usually there).
Granted, i haven't rank 10'd any social links yet so who knows, maybe every one of my social links dies at the end or something.
in any case, that's kind of what i mean by presentation by virtue of "this game presents to me an interconnected world", beyond just better graphics or menu design. i just dont think i'd be terribly pleased with a Persona 3 remake that just had better graphics and better looking cutscenes, i think there are many elements of the game that would need to be reworked in order to feel modern.
i might end up going back on this later, but i feel like no matter how much I like the story and characters, even if I vastly prefer both over 5's, 5 will still ultimately be my favorite simply because it presented itself better.note
Edited by EpicBleye on Dec 21st 2020 at 8:39:48 AM
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Mae
