... Or is it? After wrapping up the fourth labyrinth, I was ready to bid PQ2 goodbye: not only was my run clocking at a respectable 46 hours at that point, but I got a lovely conclusion involving (spoilers) Hikari overcoming her inner demons and gaining the necessary strength to pursue a happy life. This outcome was so satisfying that the idea of cruising yet another labyrinth to rescue poor souls stuck in the same predicament as Hikari-chan felt perfunctory. I got my happy ending, now I'm outta here! (End of spoilers)
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| Music to my ears. |
... Or so I though. But after taking a couple of steps in the final labyrinth, I... I want to keep playing! Not only is that final labyrinth the most gorgeous of the bunch by far, but I'm really just starting to master the whole Persona business for good and all. I want to fine-tune that mastery just a tad more before my first foray into the canon Persona series — and have fun doing so while I'm at it. Having said that, I still feel like I mostly had my fill of PQ2 — pun totally intended — and thus I'm gonna drop all the sidequesty fluff and focus on exploring that final labyrinth and refining my Persona mastery. Here's what I want to achieve during that last stretch:
- Let my Fab Five learn Vorpal Blade and Invigorate 2 through Sacrifice Fusion. The former is the perfect boss killer; as for the latter, it will allow me to cruise longer in labyrinths without having to worry about my SP. (Then I'll have to worry about my inventory being full, but that's another matter.)
- Let my dungeon navi learn Paths of Light and Roads of Light, and my battle navi learn Victory Cry — for even more insane HP and SP replenishment.
And... That's all, I guess! Apart from maintaining my full elemental coverage all the way through, that is. I gave up on my plan to grow specialized Sub-Personas dealing with a single elemental field; not only is it way too tedious to achieve, but it can be downright counter-productive in battle when triggering Boost requires two elements handled by the same character. Things are working just fine with my Sub-Personas handling mixed elemental skills; and so I'll keep cruising that way until the credits roll. And talking about this: back to da grind — again!
I don't think we've ever disagreed more. I dropped the first game after the first dungeon and never looked back. This might be because I actually knew the characters beforehand, unlike you....and my god, did they mess up P3's cast big time. And I really don't care for P4's cast, so my big reward for beating the first dungeon being them was...underwhelming to say the least.
ReplyDeleteSince I've played other MegaTen games, I could see how little Etrian gameplay that game had. They just removed the automap and added the FOES. If what you truly love is the dungeon crawling, then you owe yourself a mainline MegaTen game instead. Try Strange Journey, or SMTIV Apocalypse (I recommend that over the original IV because that one has a very infamous town that's hell to navigate).
Again, this was the first game. I won't say this game had no improvements, and I haven't played P5, so maybe even a worn down version of that cast is still superior to what they did to P3's cast. But I've never had the urge to go back. Everything that was good about the game is available in the mainline MegaTen, and if I want a spin off, I'll go for my favourite RPGs ever, the Devil Survivor series, thank you very much.
Also, I'm very bitter that we're still getting 2 billion persona spin offs, instead of original ones (or just continuing previous ones like devil survivor). Or heck, even getting the mainline games. SMTV is nowhere to be seen and it was announced in 2017...at this point, I just have a rancid reaction to anything Persona.
Hopefully, this game will at least get you into the rest of the franchise.
Oh the P5 game you mentioned on switch is not "just shaping off to be different.", it's just a warriors style spin off. No gameplay connection to the actual P5. It's as much of a spin off as the P5 dancing game (and probably have just as much DLC).
As for me, I got sick of grinding on Tales of Graces, and I'm now grinding for Yugioh cards on the switch instead. I've really gotten back into yugioh these past two months, and that switch game is a godsend. My left joycon started drifting (WHAT A SHOCK...that it lasted this long), but I got a third party bluetooth adapter (8bitdos) and now the switch is permanently docked and I use a PS4 controller instead. I can still use the BS motion controls, like in Mario Odyssey. The only game I can't play with the PS4 controller is Let's Go, but that only requires one joycon so....screw you nintendo.
It's honestly better this way. My TV is right in front of my bed, and the performance boost is amazing. Dragon Quest Builders 2 becomes almost unplayed undocked after a certain point.
Given your apparent dislike for all things Persona, I knew we were going to disagree on that one... :P Still, I'm glad you read the whole thing and commented. Thanks a million! ^__^
DeleteI'll sure get into the whole Shin Megami Tensei franchise — Persona et all. I'm pretty sure I'll adore Strange Journey, because first person dungeon crawler; and I also have good hopes for SMTIV. As for Persona, well... Even though I said I loved the whole PQ2 crew, I have serious reservations about the Persona 4 cast in particular. Teddie grates on my nerves like no mascot character ever has, and the MP leaves me cold. Supposedly, Soejima designed him to look like a loyal dog? Not good. I dislike dogs, so that ressemblance is certainly not going to endear him to me. But hey, we'll see!
I actually quite adore Persona 3, and like the previous entries (even if I have PTSD with Persona 2 due to a sidequest in it). I've just never been able to get into P4, and given the way that game is beholden as the best thing ever and is the cause of Atlus dropping all the other spin offs in existence in favour of milking persona for ever and ever...well, I'm bitter about the series now. I wanted to like the first game of this, I really did, but the fact they completely messed up the P3 cast while licking the taints of the P4 cast...well, that just set me up to give up on it on top of everything else. Had I been allowed to completely ignore the P4 cast, I might have soldiered on, but no.
DeleteI had big hopes for Persona 5, but there's several things I'm not sure about that I hoped they would fix in the royal edition, but alas, it seems they didn't. And unlike with P3P, they once again missed the chance to add a female protagonist, despite the fact people were begging them for it. Just like they did with Persona 4 golden (I hope for the fans that are looking forward to P5 royal that they don't add a completely bland mandatory waifu like they did with Golden at least.)
All and all, Persona 4 bears the grunt of my rage because I genuinely don't care much for it and Atlus started getting lazy after it. That complaint about them not making any effort other than adding a useless waifu in a remastered port? That's a trend. They did it with P4 Golden, Devil Survivor 2 on 3DS, Strange Journey Redux, and now possibly with P5 Royal. And P5 royal isn't even a port! It's on the same darn system it was released in! Atlus is so greedy, they couldn't even wait for a new console generation to start before milking the persona teat some more and the PS5 is just around the corner!
Persona 3 and 5 dancing were complete rip offs with no story and way too many DLC. Persona 5 gets a warrriors-like spin off despite the fact they have Raidou from the Devil Summoner series (a spin off that they haven't touched in ages) who would be way more suited to that genre. And it adds on and on. All this while we get no news on SMTV, the main bloody series. Where’s Shin Megami Tensei V Atlus? It’s been two years now, still waiting.
I doubt Atlus will ever truly make a bad game. They have too much experience to do that. But compared to their 2000's era, you can definitely the passion is gone and the milking is in and well, they were my favourite game developer. It’s sad.
Also, not a fan of dogs either, but I actually really liked taking Koromaru on walks and seeing him fight in P3. That says something.
DeleteAlthough, despite not liking dogs as a whole, I like quite a lot of them in games, when they're not used as a cheap thing to get some tears out of you when the story inevitably kills them. That manipulative crap is BS. But I really liked Blanca in Shadow Hearts 2, playing as a wolf in Okami, and having my doggy protector Hewie in Haunting Ground.
As for Teddie...not to give P4 spoilers, but there's a very credible theory that he's meant to be Lucifer in disguise. His human appearance leads a lot of credibility to it, and some of his attitude and murky role in the story as well. When I look at it through those lens, he becomes more interesting to me. If you take him at just face value...well, he's a lot more annoying in this series, at least he was in the first game, so there's that.
I sorta came late to the party as far as Atlus is concerned; but even I get the feeling that their clout has been receding these last years. When I started collecting back in 2013, there was some blatant hype around them: they were that quirky developper with an edge and a flair for unusual gaming concepts. Since then, their production has become less inspired and more fan-servicey — case in point, PQ2. That game fails to recapture the charm and spirit of the original EO and indulge way too much in Persona fanservice for the faithful. Of whom I am not (yet?), which is why all that megaverse crap in PQ2 annoys the heck out of me.
DeletePersona 4 did indeed become the series' flagship upon arrival. Man, the hype it generated at the time of its release! This was the first time I ever heard about Persona, and the series became pretty much ubiquitous and highly revered in RPG circles after that. Persona 4 was actually one of the very first games I bought for my shiny new Vita back in 2014.
Since then, I got my greedy paws on all the portable Persona entries, and thus own the whole series apart from Persona 5. I'm kinda set on playing them in chronological order, if only because the early instalments are said to be much clunkier that the late ones. If I start with Persona 4, it may prove impossible to dive into the original Persona later.