everything rad is good for you: a persona/shin megami thread

5 so far has managed to sidestep the thing from 4 where they ran not very funny by-the-book versions of every standard high school comedy bit

just got P5 on sale. my gosh this game is great so far.

did spend the entire evening just clicking x though.

There are sections of that in all of them but it's usually fun/bearable/worth it

Finished P4 Golden at the weekend. Feels the weakest of the last 3 to me, the balance is off and some of the just clicking x sections felt ridiculously long. Still amazing, obv. Started straight back into NG+. Think the balance issues are probly mostly to do with the added missions, haven't played the PS2 version tho.

beyond QoL improvements the added stuff is mostly just marie and her social link and postgame dungeon. plus some of the shitty 'comedy' scenes with the fat girl

i think there might be some changes to persona fusion that make the game easier too actually yeah

The fusion in 4 is great tbh, the comedy is bad, the game hangs around way too long between the original bad guy and Marie and her dungeons' SP mechanic is a pain.

Idk i feel like without Marie the game is a lot shorter and easier than 3 and 4 but maybe i missed a boss first time round or more likely i just know how to smash the dungeons now.

3 and 5 i mean

it's definitely the shortest of the three, golden or original

I'm unhealthily obsessed with the series at this point tbh :D so there is never enough of it to spend time in

yeah there's really only the 3 games with that formula, i'm sure we'll get a p6 in another 4 years or something though

The redux of P5 is gonna be the thing that makes me finally get a PS4 next year i'm sure. The thought of how far off P6 is is just depressing.

Didn't they just do a P5 redux?

they announced it, it's not out in english until next year

Cautiously good news: https://kotaku.com/persona-5-royal-is-editing-two-homophobic-scenes-1841751118

its just the english localization team changing it as far as i can tell, atlus/hashino still don't care

i like persona 5 now. the black and red plaid punkish aesthetic really turned me off at first, strong early 00s mall punk sum 41 vibes, but i have come to terms w it.

5 makes a lot of the social mechanics more explicit which takes away some of the immersiveness of 3 (the best game of the entire megaten series imo, followed by nocturne) but also makes it less stressful, wondering if i was totally blowing the late game by eating the wrong ramen or whatever. music is also not as good as 3 or 4 but there are def some tunes.

it's a good game, though i did stop.

the dating stuff gave me massive anxiety. what if i gave the wrong gift and didn't get to fuck the one i wanted to fuck????

there was also a serious difficulty spike in mementos which scared me

3, 4 and 5 are all near-perfect no back answers

no i agree - i feel that i failed it, rather than the other way around

tbf i've NG+ed all of them 3 or 4 times, it gets a lot easier

https://kotaku.com/persona-2-guide-written-in-2011-gets-one-hell-of-an-u-1843430262

hey Persona 4 Golden is out on Steam, only $20/£16 too
hope they port P3 next

Here I am, 12 years late to the party, playing P4 for the first time, having never played a Persona before. I like pretty much everything about it except for the bland randomized dungeons. The soundtrack is having a Major Effect on me, let me tell you.

it's a shame it's a straight port otherwise i'd've bought the fucker again

the dungeons are one of the weaker elements until 5 tbf

Ugh I am so tempted to rebuy it and play it again but I have enough to play

i bought a PS TV just so i could play the Golden so i'm not gonna get the PC version

I’ve been thinking of getting P4G because it looks like the kind of game I’d like (turn-based RPG, colourful visuals, weird as hell), but i fear it might be too dense for me since I’m not much of a gamer.. should I just say fuck it and go for it anyways?

yeah, it's very user friendly and the learning curve is gentle

P5R is on sale and I'm trying to be smart and resist buying it as I played the base game already. Maybe if it ever goes under $20, I'll give it a try.

Lol that didn't last long! Bought it just now anyway.

i'm tempted to give it another try, i own the base game but fell off it 25-30 hours in and there being a Better version makes me less inclined to resume

Apparently Royal has quality of life improvements too.

i've put 400+ hours into P5 and i'm getting Royal as soon as i've got a machine to play it on, worth every penny

i should play TMS first though since i already own that one

actually P5R is half price on the PS Store over here, very tempted to buy it now so it's ready for when PS5's are available next summer

been playing a lot of persona 3 lately. I haven't played any other games in the series yet so I don't know how it stands up against the others, but the world it creates is just so perfect. and the characters! and dialogue! I'm far from even being halfway through the game, but I already feel so attached to the characters and story

the summer vacation beach scene -- where junpei drags akihiko and the protagonist into trying to pick up girls at the beach before they meet aigis -- is such a good portrayal of adolescent male awkwardness and arrogance (except for that one part where it gets weirdly transphobic. that part has not aged well!)

sadly you get those little moments of stupid unpleasantness in the series but yeah otm, the Persona games have become the most emotionally affecting games I've ever played and I'm fairly obsessed.

(not obsessed enough to take a chance on Strikers yet tho. has anybody played that?)

those atlus writers are really queer-phobic. look up the scenes they added in catherine full body if you want to be disgusted.

Finally finished P3:FES (The Journey) after 4 months and 100 hours of gameplay. Man, what an absolutely incredible — and just downright heartbreaking — ending. I know 4 and 5 get more acclaim (probably because 3 does have some gameplay flaws), but I’ll be amazed if either of them can pull off a better finale than that.

3 is the best ending

it's out

this went well pic.twitter.com/nbIwkih86B

— ella (@Ninto55) November 20, 2021

yep it's been kicking my ass too haha

Soul Hackers 2 for every platform except Switch, Aug 25th 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emsm8wfo_MQ

rip all my jokes about how atlus's ps4 game will come out in 2025

if they are willing to make a Soul Hackers 2 this means that Digital Devil Saga 3 can't be far off ... right?

define "far"

anyway finally something i might want to buy for PS5

So I've beaten Persona 4 Golden now... the (true) ending was kinda underwhelming? Like most stories have a trajectory where they build up to a thrilling climax and then there's a denouement and conclusion.. but in P4G it hits a massive climax in december, then there's a period where not much happens, then suddenly there's another big confrontation at the end that happens so suddenly the payoff doesn't feel too large?

Of course it's still an incredible near-perfect game with characters i love to death, but P3 had such a more satisfying ending! and (slight spoiler!) i may have shed a tear when all your maxed-out social links visit you during the last battle

over time i've come to appreciate the relatively downbeat P4G - there's a lot going on with rurality and mythology and connection to place. 3, 4 and 5 all have very distinct moods