P4- Beaten. True Ending gotten. 10/10 game. SH:C just barely beats it out for my favorite RPG, but it still easily earns a place at second. Just a total blast to play. Hilarious, knew when to do what, and in general hit all the right notes. Gameplay is good once you knew what you were doing. Suprising how an soundtrack with so few tracks never gets old or tired. Especially the battle music.
Amazingly, characterization was both a strong and weak point of the game. By the end, it really feels like a tight group of friends and you're sad to be finishing the game. Characters are kinda static after they join, but I guess thats the point that they've already grown as much as a teenager could realistically grow from that. It somehow feels they should be a little more freaked out by things, but I guess you can't really deny the reality smacking you in the face. Chie, as cool as she was, I think was the weak point. She's like the Milhouse of the team. She has her quirks but... she's just kinda boring. She fills the role of the plain friend of the pretty girl almost too fully. Naoto had problems too, but they were more dialogue related, which I'll get to. I also expected Rise to be a little less of a fluffhead, given the setup they gave her, but she was still good. Just surprised me. Yosuke, Yukiko and Teddie were fine, as was Kanji, who has my favorite quote of the game. "To hell with this, I want my animal crackers!"
The writing was good. Not great! But good. It's comedy was absolute gold; very standard stuff but done very well, and there's nothing wrong with a cliche done well! It avoided the pitfalls that many anime fall into by filling too much up on bad slapstick and going way overboard with character quirks. The game's simple presentation ended up working immensely to it's favor. However... while the plot was adequately structured and the story very well laid out, characters had a bad, bad habit of constantly repeating expository dialogue in the same scene. Naoto is ESPECIALLY guilty of this. It's really okay if not all the characters don't always get a chance to speak! There's a time they should, and a time they don't really need to. Still, while annoying it didn't exactly take you completely out of the game.
Other than minor dialogue issues, it does a real good job of giving you a sense of time. The sliding calender is a nice style touch, and I want one even though it would be utterly impractical. The school cycle also gives you a good sense of how time is passing. Time is a point that a lot of RPGs don't do very well. It really helps for scope and many just seem to ignore it for some reason. I realize it's not entirely easy sometimes with some stories, but it still something small that can add a bit of substance to a lot of places.
The murder mystery itself is good. I can see people having a problem with it though, since at times the turns it takes are either too predictable or too random, leaning towards the former. Lots of coincidence, but when you look at it in the context of the true ending, it makes some sense. Even then, while predictable it's not formulaic, if that makes sense. Things are always ambigous enough that it could go either way, and it all does come together nicely. The characters are pretty aware of things that are going on (outside of the obvious reasons), and never really seem either smarter or dumber than their characters or kids their age should be, which is refreshing writing-wise.
The S.Links were fun. Mostly taking standard stuff and going through the motions, but they worked. Some were better than others. Temperance I think was my favorite, while Chariot was a total snoozefest, which surprised me. Then again, see my prior comments on her. Honorable mentions to Devil, Death, Magician, and Hanged Man. Devil was just funny until about halfway, while the latter three handled their topics quite well. Moon I liked too, since the first half she was hilarious to watch, and eventually grew into someone better. Fortune bears mentioning as being very hit or miss between amusing and boring.
All in all, as into the game I got it didn't really MOVE me the way SH:C did. As endearing as the characters and the game were, Yuri's tale is still much more emotionally gripping. P4 was definately more entertaining, but SH:C still left a bigger impression on me, which I guess is what puts it ahead. Granted, I may replay P4 sooner than I would SH:C, but I guess thats just how opinion works.
Suikoden 5 is next! Maybe with a side of Generation of Chaos: Aedis Eclipse!
