Megami Ibunroku Persona（女神異聞録ペルソナ）

As I grow older by the day, I can't help but look at the pile of games that my sister keeps complaining about and try to gain some perspective. Like geesh, sis, you're barely even using your basement. And no, why should I go out and get my own place and a "real" job when my patreon and twitch revenue is earning plenty enough for all my essential needs (buying games, dew, and doritos). I don't know why you keep bothering me about rent and utilities. I don't even rent games and all my utilities are freeware!

Shut up, sis! I'm just about to get the Janus coin. Geez!!

What I actually meant by perspective is whether I would even live long enough to finish my games. I kind of thought about making a bucket list of sorts for all the best games I should probably play instead of oh, I don't know, fucking NIGHTRUTH? (Though to be fair, that one was so bad, it was hilarious.) I decided one of the series I definitely want to finish before I kick the bucket is Persona. Though I ended up beating P3 and P4 before I started playing things in order, I'm happy to announce that I just finished the first Persona game. For some reason, they removed the Megami Ibunroku part from the title in the PSP version.

What? A Japanese game title with less than 10 words? Blasphemy!

I know I've ranted about this before but notice that the Japanese cover makes no mention of SMT. Even the original PS1 title "Megami Ibunroku" has no "Shin" anywhere. So yeah, this is the only Persona title labeled as a spin-off to the Megaten series and boy, does it sure play like one.

YAMR (Yet another Megaten RPG)

First of all, while you do talk to people and walk around rooms in a top-down isometric view, the dungeon exploration is all 1st person, just like the various Megaten games that came before it. You can also equip both swords and guns. However, the big difference is the battle system where you have to place your members on a grid via a formation.

I'm a millennial so girls fight in the front (or at least those who identify as a "girl")

I don't think anybody likes this battle system? If an enemy isn't in your attack range, you just sit around and wait for your better placed allies to finish them off. Sure, you can set up various formations in advance but 1) it's too much hassle, and 2) you lose a turn to change formation so fuck that noise. Also, you can only put like 3 people in the front because for some reason, each person has to be a couple squares away from everybody else. You really only need to set up 2 formations, the second is so that when you get fucking back attacked, you have a second one to switch to. It's REALLY annoying.

Overall, the gameplay was just a mess with pretty much everything you could imagine thrown in. First of all, there's a stupid amount of elements that were (wisely) cut from later games such as "gravity", "nuclear heat", "revelation", "shock", and others I don't really even understand such as 「降魔」(descend demons?) and 「破魔」(break demon?). Oh, that's where hama comes from! Thank god at least that analyze happens automatically after defeating the enemy.

Unfortunately, my 奇跡 ("miracle")  element(??) skills were lacking against these guys

As for recruiting demons, literally the only thing you care about is increasing their interest level to get their spell card. Each character has a bunch of dialogue options so you have to choose the right character AND the right dialogue choice. Fuck that, google time. Also, everybody has 2 levels, your actual level and another one for the level of persona you can use. Both levels are almost always around the same so the second one is completely pointless (hence removed in later games). You also need to increase a Persona's rank by using their skills repeatedly to unlock new skills. Thank god their rank at least carries over even if you reassign to another party member.

The stats distribution is super weird too since the Persona's stats override yours. If you spread your points evenly across, they'll be wasted if your Persona's stat is higher. I dumped every point into TEC and AGI as they increase more of your base attributes.  Anyways, you get the idea. It's a big hot mess.

Oddly SP is fixed for each Persona so there is no reason to ever use a weaker skill

In addition, at least in the PSP version, the economy is totally broken. I read that they lowered the difficulty in this version and added a bunch more save points but I played on EXPERT mode so I assume that the difficulty is on par?  But boy, the last boss was pretty easy when you can buy 99 restore full HP items. It was so ridiculous that I ended up with almost 3 million yen with nothing to spend it on.

I'm no game designer but revive + full HP for 6000 yen seems a TAD unbalanced...

Still, even though the gameplay was a mess, I had fun with the game. At the very least, it was a relief to finish off the last boss on my first try after the grueling hell that was P3 FES on hard. Once you get used to the game, off you go, just good ol' regular dungeon exploring, leveling up, and googling demon negotiation and whatnot. I sure wished I read the manual however because the PSP version has a skip option for battles that I only discovered by accident during the final dungeon. Probably would've saved a lot of hours that way.

As usual, I liked the Persona aesthetics

As for the story, I guess I liked it well enough. There's no voice acting except for just one guy, which was kind of odd. As fit for the first game in the series, the theme centers on the various personas and masks we put on as members of society.

Hey, is that a Uzaki-chan poster? Why is the white underwear transparent??

Another interesting aspect of this game is the whole Snow Queen Quest thing. Basically, it's a completely different branch of the game that you can end up in during the first couple hours of the game. I did not play this scenario yet, something to do I guess on a rainy day... if I'm still alive by then.

One more game done! How many years I got left?

Score: 3 What? No Christmas date? No summer beach swimsuit break? This is NOT a Persona game! out of 5 (48 hours to beat)

This is not exactly a title I would wholeheartedly recommend but meh, it was still pretty fun overall. Obviously, I would have loved to use the skip option from the start but whatever. It was a serviceable RPG and the story is... not bad. At the very least, it's interesting to see how far the series has come from its humble roots. I liked the music as usual but man, I have to say the battle theme was a bit too much Persona to hear ALL THE TIME. However, the new PSP ending credits song was #BAE.

I liked it about the first 200 times but... might want to tone it down

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely

Persona 3 FES （ペルソナ3 フェス）

Persona 3 is my personal record for the game that took me the longest to beat of all time. As I mentioned in my Persona 4 post, I started this game around 2007 before FES even came out and I finally, finally beat the game in 2020. A lot has happened in the 13 years or so since I started this game so holy fuck, it's like I'm closing a chapter of my life, namely, the good one when I was young and dapper. Now onto my next shitty chapter of middle age crisis, bemoaning the good ol' days and being afraid of the social media lashing if I state my opinion on all those pronouns on Twitter. So I guess it's business as usual, same shit as last year.

Back when you could tell the gender of the right side at least

I have kind of a semi-excuse for why the fuck it took me so long. I first played like 40 some hours of Persona 3 and then FES came out so I started over. At least I was able to import my academics, courage, and charm. Of course, since FES added hard mode, I just had to be stupid and play on hard to be "hardcore". Hard mode is no fucking joke so I got stuck a bunch of times because of the grind and plus I rarely have free time to play on a console, anyways, here we are, Happy New Year, it's FUCKING 2020!!!

Went to Hatsumode last week and not a single hottie in furisode just some middle-aged obasans in down jackets... IRL sucks!

Of course, I probably would have finished this game a lot sooner if I opted to play the PSP version. Unfortunately, being on the PSP, there were some significant compromises such as the removal of cut-scenes for a more visual novel type of presentation. Because the Vita didn't exist (RIP), there is no definitive version like Persona 4 Golden. I do intend on replaying the game (again!) at some point much, much later for the portable female MC route. I just have to see if I can steal Junpei from Chidori and promptly throw him away as he's not my type. That's what I would do as a hot anime chick, at least. I thought adding a female MC was a really neat idea and something all games MUST HAVE, YOU SEXIST GAMERS!! SHAME ON YOU!!! or something to that effect.

I mean seriously, it's so EASY! Hex has done it so many times I'm sure!

So yeah, in a nutshell, Persona 3 is a great game. Personally, I liked Persona 4 way more because of DEM FEELS but Persona 4 wouldn't exist without all the mechanics and things inherited from Persona 3. The central theme and concept behind this game is to reflect on our finite lives and the suggestion that maybe you might want to spend your limited time on this mortal coil wisely. You have to juggle your school schedule, social activities, and you get tired in dungeons.

This real life idea permeates throughout the entire game, often to the detriment of the gameplay itself. For example, in real life, you can't just open a menu and make somebody else equip some new items. No, you have to actually go up to your party member and talk to them to change their equipment. Also, in real life, you can't control other people like umm... game characters. No, you have to make suggestions via strategies and they'll decide exactly what they want to do LIKE NOT FUCKING HEALING YOU AND RESULTING IN A SENSELESS GAME OVER!!! And that's the other thing. As soon as you die, it's game over even if someone in your party has the fucking ability to revive you. Of course, P3 Portable "fixed" all these gameplay issues and is more like Persona 4.

The "Control you like the fucking game character you are" Strategy

Personally, I liked the original version better as it reflects a central theme that drives the game as an entire whole package. FES even fixed up some time "loop holes", for example, praying at the Jinja takes up time instead of being a freebie stat increase. I hated having to go to the shrine to pray every day anyway. The only part that is less realistic is that you can go out with like 5 girls and never have to choose one like in Persona 4 (boo). Personally, Mitsurugi is best waifu and we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas together. #CreepyGamer #Weeb

#1 Waifu, no question

Overall, after finishing the game, I had to sit back and reflect on how I spend my precious days as I age past middle age and set one foot in the grave. Then I realized I spent 115 hours of my so called "precious" life PLAYING THIS FUCKING GAME ON HARD! Thanks Atlus for making me feel guilty and ashamed.

Kamiki especially makes you think... about maybe not wasting your life playing Persona 3

Especially at the end, oh my god, the final boss is a fucking nightmare, let me tell you. It's not that it's super hard after I grinded to about level 85, it's just fucking LONG but that's not even the worst of it. Just before he dies, he pulls a cheap move of random status ailments and WITHOUT FAIL somebody gets charmed and heals the fucker to full health. Several hours of whittling away at his HP WASTED. It's like the ultimate slap in the face. On my 5th try, I finally beat the fucker by changing everybody's strategy to attack and popping precious Somas I had hoarded like they were candy. It was probably one of the most frustrating final boss battles I've ever played but oh the rush when I finally put that fucker down.

I BEAT IT! I'M SO COOL! CAN'T WAIT TO TELL MY FRIENDS!! ...oh wait

I also really liked that you can go talk to your maxed out Commus to get the final conclusion of each mini story. But it was like 3 am in the fucking morning when I finally beat the game so I wished I could save before all that shit. You can go to the dorm to save for one more day before your Senpais' graduation but I was afraid I would miss something.

Overall, while I think Persona 4 is the better game, I finally "get" the reason for all the mechanics that we are now familiar with. I think it's safe to say that this is the game that really made the Persona franchise what it is today. While yes, there was some incredibly frustrating moments, I really enjoyed my 13 years of mostly not playing this game.

Hook that Shoji Meguro goodness right into my veins ANY time

As for the music, I loved it even though I wasn't a fan of the rapping (especially in the dorm at night, huh?). I much prefer the more somber music it switches to in January. And sure, there could have been more variety in the tracks for all couple HUNDRED floors of Tartarus stair climbing but I still loved the music overall. (Yes, you can ask Fuka to change up the music in FES but that's still like 5 tracks.)

Too many stairs, time not respected. Score: 0 out of 5 - Shitaku

Score: 4 "You didn't cheat but you still didn't grow. You didn't improve anything of real value. You experience a hollow victory and nothing was gained. Stop playing games and get a fucking life" out of 5 (115 hours to beat)

Even after all this non-time respecting BS, I'm now like 5 hours in Episode Aegis so who knows how long that will take to beat. Also, once again, those silly localizers are up to their usual shenanigan by changing Aegis' name to "Aigis". Why?? I have to say, I briefly watched the English dub and it was so cringe. I have no idea how non-Jhipsters can bear it. "Oh no, You-car-ree chan is hurt!" Oh my fucking god, how the fuck can you guys stand it??

No Japanese weeb VA option is like 0.2 bonus smug points for needing to resort to emulation for the undub. "The Journey"? Pfft, just Episode Yourself localizers (psst, I'm saying "fuck you").

Hey, why don't you do both of us a favor and just Episode Yourself ok??

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely

Persona 4 Golden（ペルソナ4 ザ・ゴールデン）

I don't want to sound like a hipster (not Jhipster, but the annoying real hipsters that think a shitty indie game is awesome cause it's "innovative") but I'm glad I was able to first experience the Persona series completely blind from the 3rd entry around 2007, which is kinda impossible to do now given all the praise, hype, and media attention the franchise has gotten in recent years.

I picked up Persona 3 at a store completely on a whim because well, the screenshots and the anime art style looked cool. This was back when I was a typical Final Fantasy mainstreamer and was just starting to branch out into the vast world of a Jhipster gamer. I had no idea what to expect but it was definitely different and interesting. Vicariously living the life of a Japanese high school kid through an RPG? Heck YES! I never did finish Persona 3 and in fact didn't play much of anything while working 10 hour days as a Japanese salaryman. But I did finally finish Persona 4 Golden recently very much late to the party so let's talk about that instead and not revisit those alcohol-hazed, overworked days, OK?

Why did I go to school in New Jersey instead of this? WHY GOD? WHY?!!!!!!

To sum up Persona 4 (and Persona 3), it is a real-life simulator combined with an RPG. If you've ever fantasized about being a Japanese high school student surrounded by 2D JK (and who hasn't???) but still want to enjoy a fun RPG in the process, this is the game for you. The game tries to make you balance your regular ol' high school life such as making friends, studying, part-time job etc. with the secret life of busting up monsters in various dungeons. Every day, you have to decide whether to hang out with a certain character to increase his/her community score or a plethora of other activities that are available based on the calendar.

Now, if this was real life, I would probably have spent every day playing video games at home and wishing I had the courage to talk to all the cool kids but this is not "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure" (review pending) so sadly there is no option to play video games in the game. Now, you can decide to sit around and do nothing but those communities are vital to leveling up personas and unlocking various abilities for your friends when it comes time to fight some monsters. You really need to make the most of your precious time but there is one major flaw to time management: you can stay in the dungeon for as long as you want.

Apparently, I totally went about my high school life the wrong way...
(screenshot not from the game)

In Persona 3, people eventually get tired in the dungeon and if you're playing in hard mode, it pretty much means instant death in most cases as well as losing the next day or even more due to fatigue or sickness. However, in this game, the only real incentive to leave the dungeon is if your SP runs out. But you can easily overcome that early on by buying SP items from the vending machine and later on by maxing out the fox community and paying him some cold hard yen.

If you're like me and you really want to fully experience all the various side stories, you end up with a lopsided pattern of hours of high school life followed by a LONG stretch in a dungeon.  I'm not necessarily a fan of the fatigue system as it is quite annoying as well but I just wish that it was better balanced somehow, perhaps not having such a tight schedule to max out your communities. Would it kill the developers to leave some days you can just totally waste? I mean, in real life, we waste time all the time, right?

Now you can make the argument to just chill and miss out on some communities but it's pretty much impossible for the completionist to not max out all communities (yay trophy whore!) and experience every bit of story the game offers. And personally, the side stories are THE highlight of the game. You would be REALLY missing out if you just rushed through the main plot.

Dem FEEEEEEELSSSSSS!

In fact, I would say that the true allure of this game is in the totally believable characters with their real-world problems in a slightly exotic but still familiar (albeit very Japanese) setting. This game covers every conceivable human themes from death, loss, fame, divorce, social pressures, kids, etc. that you're bound to find something to tug at your heart strings. People die all the time in games sure, but how many games have you spending time with a family member day after day after the character's death? For me, the climax of the game was actually in the first BAD ending which is probably one of the best "bad" endings I've ever seen especially if you've maxed out the relevant communities.


Dem FEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLSSSS!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, the game continues to drag on for a good 20+ hours and it gets a bit preachy and repetitive about the whole persona and being true to yourself theme near the end. I GET IT. The GAME is called PERSONA! However, I'm not gonna be one of those "professional" reviewers that say stupid, asinine shit like "are games too long nowadays?" The game continues to be fun and there are TONS of nice content, even more in the Golden version which added the whole month of February and a nice new dungeon that has some cool twists (how about a boss that repels EVERYTHING??). I feel like it's great value for my hard earned dollars. Oh, and there's some sort of murder mystery thrown in there somewhere? HAHA.

Counting hours lost by dying, probably 120ish hours.
Hard mode OF COURSE. Yeah, this game is a TAD bit long.

This game fulfills my fantasy of living as a Japanese high school kid as well as any game could do without VR (OMG Morpheus Summer Lesson HYPE). Yeah, it's not exactly realistic to have like 10 girlfriends in a small town but hey, it IS a Japanese game. Overall, the OST is great, TONS of high quality story content, fun dungeon crawling, anime cut scenes, and everything is incredibly polished. Besides a few gripes in terms of time management and the fact that everybody acts like you're the most eloquent guy ever despite being completely mute, this game does deserve most of the praise that it has received. Is it the best game of ALL TIME? Not really, I mean it does feels a tad overrated but if you ignore the masses that gush over this game like it was krispy kreme with powdered cocaine, it is still undeniably a great game.

As a Jhipster, I also have to make the obligatory comment about the English localization. The English dub while acceptable doesn't really seem to convey the same aura of camaraderie and just overall "funness" of your fake riajuu high school life. In particular, the TOTALLY HOT AND BEST GIRL Rise loses 75% of her charm without her loli-ero-kawaii voice (yes, that is a thing). Keep in mind my score is always for the Japanese original Jhipster version. Based on what I've seen of the English dub, I would score that one 3/5. Hmph!

Score: 4 when in god's name is this game going to END? out of 5 (～120 hours played)
(optional +.5 for loli-ero-kawaii Risechi)

Nuff said
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely