There's no method to the madness.

• 27Jun 09

  Normally, I'm the first one to rip games for being too long....

  But forty hours in, and maybe halfway through, I'm still digging Persona 3. It's a huge gamble to design a game to be this long, because in all likelihood, most people will lose interest, but this game is good enough to keep your attention from beginning to end. In fact, I'm considering starting a New Game+ as soon as I finish.

  The only thing that makes me wonder is if at any point the pace starts picking up. I'm already on the verge of maxing out my character's social stats, and my characters are beating down shadows with relatively low opposition, but do the days start moving more quickly at some point?

  • Posted Jun 27, 2009 9:22 pm PT
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• 18Jun 09

  Persona 3: FES is brilliant.

  I have not played a JRPG this... strong in years. I don't know if it's the best RPG in my "now playing" set (Final Fantasy VI is in there as well), but it is the most absorbing. Absorbing enough to keep me playing until 5AM two nights running. Yikes.
  
  I hadn't been playing this game much, since I had bought the original version of Persona (which I've since given away to a friend), and restarted the game (with some stat bonuses) for FES. It was slow going having to go through the overly lengthy exposition again, then go through social links I had already discovered, but I turned the corner the other night and am well into new content. I met the seventh SEES member and added the fifth playable character, and I finally feel like I grasp the entire system of the game.
  
  Incredibly strong gameplay. Fighting is just difficult enough to make you work, but if you're smart, you can stay ahead of your foes. The random generated dungeons does not allow for a whole lot of unique layouts, but searching for loot and dealing with or avoiding enemies is an enticing formula, and climbing ever higher into Tartarus is tense and exciting. The characters are far more believable and likable than your average anime archetypes that plague these sorts of games; Junpei is a convincing loser, Yukari's mix between kindness and aloof pretension is fun to watch play out, Akihiko is a fun mix of seriousness and wry humor, and Mitsuru's coolness combined with her insistence upon personal ettiquitte is intriguing. These people seem like, well, people. And the presentation is stylish (and even seems to work the limitations of the PS2 to its advantage), with excellent character and monster designs, attractive visuals, good voice acting (some stronger than others, mind you). Oh! The side story social links are all intriguing. The plot burns slowly, but it's gradually starting to pick up, with questions about the exact nature of the dark hour, the Shadows and what, exactly, Apathy Syndrome is. But there's certainly enough side content in the game to not make you care that the story advances at its own pace. It gives room for all the small bits of character development and getting a chance to meet others.
  I've talked myself into playing this game more. Unfortunately, I've got an errand to run this afternoon, so I won't get a chance until later. But if you haven't already, give this one a shot.
  
  And personally, I can't wait to move on to Persona 4, which by all accounts, is at least at the same level as this one.

  • Posted Jun 18, 2009 11:44 am PT
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• 5Jun 09

  So E3 came...

  I'm overwhelmed. It'll likely take me all weekend to catch up. Looks like there's some good games out there... I'm just not sure if there's that one game I'm totally pumped for yet.

  • Posted Jun 5, 2009 9:53 am PT
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