What Are You Playing (Summer 2012)

[Finch]

Persona 4 is Persona 3 2.

[Diff-chan]

It's ridiculously repetitive. I know most games are but this one just wears it on its sleeve with every school day being the exact same thing, Tartarus being a bland random number generator that only has variety in the color overlay, and only a limited amount of locations to go to. The style in everything is AMAZING and almost makes up for the gameplay, but eventually I just couldn't bring myself to grind it anymore.

Every school day isn't the exact same thing. The stuff you do during the day affects your character at night. That's the point.

As for Tartarus, it's not for everyone I guess. If you don't dig the battle system or the deck building then it's not for you.

If Persona 3 was a kid in highschool, it'd be the guy with the terrible baseball cap who drove the Jeep Cherokee with the Dave Mathews sticker and Acid Bears proudly displayed in the back window. Everyone likes him then, but 10 years later he's still exactly the same guy, only 50 pounds heavier.

I don't want to turn this thread into yet another Persona 3 debate, but this doesn't make any sense.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

They're up to Persona 37 in Japanland.

[Finch]

I don't want to turn this thread into yet another Persona 3 debate, but this doesn't make any sense.

It does if you knew that kid. Wait... Were you that kid?

[Mzo]

I understand what Chris is trying to say. By the time I got to the days leading up to the final encounter I was slacking on my Tartarus training and going to bed early because I just wanted the damn thing to end already.

They build up scenarios using very basic components and narration that can be reused and recycled like the five ingredients in the Taco Bell menu. I found that they did a really good job with what they had, though, but it is annoying that Tartarus only changes in the most basic, cosmetic ways throughout. You might also get burnt out if you're trying to finish the game as quickly as possible. You need to get used to the fact that this is going to last a really, really long time and put in a couple of hours here and there, like a television series.

[MechDeus]

Every school day isn't the exact same thing. The stuff you do during the day affects your character at night. That's the point.

Your second comment doesn't reinforce your first comment.

Yes, you choose what social link to pursue. Yes, you occasionally get asked a question. That is the complete extent of the gameplay during school. Every day has the same structure with the same order of events and the random events are always in the same spots at the same times. They'll switch up things like which character model is talking at the front gates in the morning but it almost never has any actual effect on anything. It's fine for a while but the cut-and-paste design of every fifteen minutes being the same thing starts to feel like an anime Groundhog Day after a while, where I want to start killing myself just to change things up.

I don't want to sound too harsh because I did really like what I played, but let's not kid ourselves about the layout.

[A Robot Bit Me]

I never felt like.

[Diff-chan]

Yes, you choose what social link to pursue. Yes, you occasionally get asked a question. That is the complete extent of the gameplay during school.

No, you choose how you want to spend your day. Go to the mall, study, work (maybe this wasn't in regular P3?), etc. All those things affect how your character develops.

The people that show up at the front gate advance the story.

[Finch]

so miserable.

[Finch]

I was hoping someone would pick up on the song so we could get to the part where

You gotta tell me your love came all over me