Taking this over from our Persona talks in the “What Videogame(s) Are You Playing?” thread, this thread is dedicated to the general Megami Tensei franchise and also its very popular Persona spin-off series.
So I thought I’d update on my Persona 4 Golden playthrough. I’ve beaten the third dungeon, currently in the middle of July. I’m having fun, enjoying the story.
Story spoilers:
I’m liking the cast of characters, at this point nearly the whole ensemble is here with Rise joining the team and Teddie becoming a party member now. I think the murder mystery plot is getting quite juicy now, King Moron has been murdered, we’ve got the ace teen detective on our trail now, our characters have no idea what is going on, and neither do I really. I think the mystery plot is very well done so far, I don’t know where it is going, and I really want to see the answers. Kindof makes me realise how P5’s plot sometimes got a bit burderned with exposition dumps. Will be interesting to see by the end of this which cast of characters I like better by the end, the P5 group or the P4 group.
Gameplay:
I’m enjoying the game, but I really really do think P5 is just better in terms of gameplay. I think my biggest obstacle was the idea of the randomised dungeons. P5 doesn’t have this, the dungeons in that game are all pre-designed, with the exception of Mementos, which is basically a side area designed for a few optional bosses and grinding effectively. I can’t say I’m a fan, it does make each dungeon feel very random in a way where I feel like I’m not making any real progress.
Still, I’ve managed each dungeon in 2 days, making sure to keep track of my SP and what not. Not a fan of the quest system either, apparently there are 69 of them all together in the game and I just dread that considering it seems most of them are just fetch quests, and alot of them seem to be dungeon items that you can only aquire after completing the dungeon the first time. I guess there is also optional bosses that spawn in a dungeon after beating it, I’ve done the optional boss for the first dungeon.
I dunno, I guess I’m dwelling a bit too much. Frankly I keep wondering what this game would be like if I didn’t set the money and XP to “more” in the options, I don’t know how much of a boost it is but god at least I don’t feel like I’m having to grind, I just make sure to attack all enemies in a dungeon and explore each floor fully which seems to be sufficient. Just wish my party members I wasn’t using also got the same XP, Kenji is 15 levels behind everyone else right now and I feel like I’ll need to grind him a bit to get him up to speed.
I like the card system. I actually like the skill card system here more that in P5. In P5, it’s a bit convoluted and it’s tied to a specific character. It feels way more accessible here and I can imagine myself using it a bit more when I get further into the game and start fusing higher level Personas. I’m actually playing around with Persona fusing alot more, also trying to satisfy Margaret’s requests again. (P5 actually has a Velvet Room resident who asks the same thing but I actually forgot about in that game, never satisfying it. Probably why I’m making an effort with Margaret.) I must admit, despite buying P4G on Steam like a year ago now, I’m kindof glad I played P5 first, P5 has a very drawn out tutorial that explains most of what you need to know, and I’m kindof glad I knew how P4 worked.
Kindof interesting how much hasn’t changed between games. So much of the social stuff is pretty much identical, you have 5 stats that go from levels 1 to 5 that often gatekeep your relationships. It feels quicker and easier to level these stats up though, with the exception of Courage/Guts, because it is the only one that doesn’t have an associated activity tied to it in your bedroom. With the exception of Knowledge which you can do easily with Studying, it takes more time in P5. P5 gives you more options to gain stat increases but there is no obvious super quick way, at least to my knowledge.
So yeah, I’m having fun, getting there, will be nice to finish the game to discuss full spoilers. Still highly recommend P5R when you guys are ever able to get it. @TheChicken @Freezer
Well, well, well,
I was totally unaware this year was that milestone
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That’s pretty awesome. Sure @Freezer will appreciate the little bit of love for the P3 female protagonist. 7 projects teased? That’s pretty awesome, although I assume some will be more minor things, including that mobile leak. I mean personally my hope would just be some ports honestly, get those PSP versions of 1 and 2 out on Steam and the like, and maybe give 3 a proper remaster that is a best of both worlds of FES and the PSP version.
Currently I’m on dungeon #5 in Persona 4. Enjoying the game although the difficulty is definetly ramping up a little bit, compared to Persona 5 where it seemed like it was just slowly getting easier as I aquired more and more abilities. Enjoying myself but I think after I’m done I think I’ll wait a while til I decide to P3.
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Welp, that’s Persona 6 confirmed.
The Persona 6 confirmation is thanks to an official recruitment page that Atlus Japan uses. This site includes interviews held with a variety of Atlus employees to get a feel for what the culture was like at the company and more about upcoming projects. It was during these interviews that the confirmation that Persona 6 is in development was found.
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Good news, if somewhat unsurprising. There was an 8 year gap between the initial releases of 4 and 5, and we’re about to hit the 5 year anniversary of P5, so hopefully P6 isn’t that far off. Wonder if it’ll be a Playstation exclusive again.
Well, I finished Persona 4. And by finish I mean I got a bad ending. Urgh, guess I’ll be looking up a true ending guide now, but I must admit I do feel slightly bitter since I honestly have no idea what I did wrong or what I was meant to do right. Ah well, I’m going to have dinner and then come back to it I guess.
EDIT: Looked up a True Ending guide. Well, looks like it won’t be too hard to rectify my “mistakes”. But will take a few hours, since I’ll use a save file that’s about 3 weeks before the deadline. Still annoyed though, but hopefully it should be worth it in the end.
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I think I’m going to give Persona 4 rest. I am enjoying it but there’s alot of things that annoy me about the game, and I’ve hit a turning point in the story that I feel it is a good time to give it a rest for now. Will get back to this eventually, but I think a break is neccesary. Think it’ll be a while until I hit up Persona 3, who knows, I think it’s September when we should get some Persona announcements, maybe a port of P3 will be one of them?
Believe I’ve finished the main game and have just started the “Golden” portion of the game. Found out Atachi was the killer, defeated him and God, and that whole plot seems to of wrapped up, with the story now on Marie. Still, good conclusion to everything, although I did kinda of guess Atachi was the culprit ages back on a hunch. I guess I’m not that far from finishing everything, but I do need a break, I am a bit burnt out now.
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It’s best to avoid burnout, the old good games aren’t going anywhere.
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So, this is a surprise. Soul Hackers 2 is a thing, 25 years after the first Soul Hackers on the Sega Saturn. Looks interesting, liking the art style. Very clearly taking assets from SMTV but considering how long SMTV was in development for I can’t say I blame Atlus. Design over 200 fully animated demons for Unreal 4, might aswell use them for more than 1 game.
This makes it the fifth Devil Summoner game, although SH2 drops that from the title. First Devil Summoner game was ported to the PSP but has never been offically translated, doesn’t even have a fan translation yet, which is frustrating since in many respects it is a precursor to the first Soul Hackers. Soul Hackers 1 was given a port and English version for the 3DS, which ofcourse you won’t be able to buy digitally next year. Then you have the two Raidou Kuzunoha games which was basically its own sub-series and completely different in terms of gameplay and setting.
I am very interested in this. We don’t have any real gameplay footage yet aside from some brief snippits, all we know is that you have a party of human characters like Persona. So the question is, can each party member summon their own demons that you fuse and recruit? Could be very in-depth and interesting, especially if it is that free for each character to choose their own demon, unlike modern Persona where only the MC can choose their Persona. Seems like the game could be a bit of a bridge between SMTV and Persona 5. One screenshot does show that demon negotiation is in the game.
Game is out for nearly everything: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S… but not the Switch. SMTV is Switch exclusive, Soul Hackers 1 might as well be 3DS exclusive, but it is the one place you can’t get this. Kindof funny but also frustrating for the Nintendo fans I imagine.
@Freezer Any thoughts?
