Persona 4: Finished this game.
...yes, you read that right. I finished this game. Actually a week ago! I know a lot of you who aren't Soppy, Grefter, Elfboy, Snow or Ciato are all wondering "Wait, when the fuck did you start this game, let alone finish it?" and well, actually, I started it before DLC4! ...but that doesn't count, that was more soppy showing me the beginning, I really started it a few weeks ago, and have been playing it in secret, only telling the above people as I played, cause I wanted to avoid talking about it in general.
Why? Cause I know if I said anything controversial about the game, flames would start up. There are reasons the above 5 learned about it (only ones I'll state are that it was Soppy's game so he had a right to know, just for the sake of learning when he's getting the game back, and Grefter was more or less there when Soppy was smacking me into playing it a little before I started it.)
Anyway, I did get the true ending, so don't whine about this. Obviously, this calls for a massive Meeple rant, and from here on in...
THERE WILL BE LIKELY SPOILERS!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!
I'll start by saying that I did have reservations going into this game. Mostly cause me and SMT don't mix. I hated like Persona 1, but that sounds normal! I didn't like Persona 2, and got lashed out cause of it by a few of the major fans cause "OMG YOU WEREN'T PLAYING THE GAME TO THE FULLEST!" even though my complaint had nothing to do with the game being too hard, lacking options, etc. yes I wasn't breaking the game, but the game was so darn easy, I thought "Who cares?" and just yawn fested my way through most of it.
DDS1 had a lot of issues, and was just bland, and DDS2 while fixing a lot of them...still wasn't particularly special.
And all of them had typical SMT bullshit of the entire gameplay is summarized by just exploiting elemental aspects, using Defend anytime some big scary charge move comes up, and possibly (de)buffing for Bosses (note that I didn't use any buffs in DDS, but then, I never felt a real reason too.)
So...naturally, my thoughts were that as an SMT, this game would clash with me, cause SMT is king of bullshit stunts like "You got attacked by enemy, YOU'RE DEAD BEFORE YOU GO CAUSE THE GAME HATES YOU!" and such, but surely, P4, with all its hype, would be different, right!?
...no. P4 ended up being the same. While not as prominent as other SMT games I played, it still had all the same issues SMT games usually have. You can get your ass kicked without any real way around it, merely cause the game decided to laugh at you (one such example was a boss opened the fight by hitting Souji with Fear, then on its OPENING DOUBLE ACT, used Gastly Wail. There was no way to anticipate this, no way to defend against it other than blindly blocking Fear when the game gave you NO REASON to give a shit about fear before then beyond a mild nuisance.) The back attack thing wasn't as bad as DDS where it was utterly random but...maybe it was my team (Teddie/Yukiko/Kanji), but I always felt enemies were going first, or at least, one enemy would go, then Teddie would go, etc.
Now, yes, I know hitting the backside gets you a pre-emptive...but getting that was not trivial. Furthermore, the game's hit detection is so awkward; there are times I am CERTAIN I hit something, seeing the sword actually strike the body...but it doesn't hit, then enemy charges, "Enemy strikes first" >_<
When the game isn't pulling bullshit...I honestly found I wasn't having much fun. Bosses were long slog fests, where you're just constantly reapplying (de)buffs, and sitting around healing. Little strategy is involved in these fights; its basically just "don't overuse resources, don't let Souji die!"
Oh, speaking of that, Souji Dying = Game Over is a fucking retarded concept. Yes, P4 tries to compensate by giving you the "Character protects Souji!" thing, but the problem is when there's MT kicking in, there's no way around it. I actually once lost a fight cause Souji was hit 3 times with one of those randomize hit moves, and that barely killed him...when the others in my team were all hit once...and Souji just happen to get CRIT as well. Again, there's no way to defend against that properly, especially that early when Physical resistant persona aren't exactly common.
The Persona System...honestly, I don't get what they were aiming at. P1 and P2 let you give a variety of Persona to various characters, with your main having customizable stats. This idea was fine! Yeah, it needed some polish, but could have ended up being interesting. So why in P3/4 did they change it to everyone has set skills, and only the main is customizable? It really polarizes your party and forces experimenting, and actually OVERSTATES THE WORTH OF LEVELS, since that's the only way characters progress...outside of Souji, who can flip stuff around.
Dungeon crawling just got bland after a point, fights were monotonous, either cuase they're easy, or the game pulls bullshit like "Hey, look at this enemy! It resists all elements but physicals, and has high evade, isn't that fun ^_^!"
Also wasn't fond of SP conservation. You basically live off SP...but it promotes using it way too much. Sure, it gives you the Fox to let you go through it in several shifts, but he costs so much its not even funny until late in the game. I know there's the option of "leave dungeon, come back next day!" but then you're provoking a time limit. I guess I should give the game props for actually dealing with the passage of time...but honestly, nice thing about RPGs is the suspension of realism, so adding in realistic elements does not necessarily promote making the game better.
It just hit me in all the wrong areas game play wise, basically.
As far as non-gameplay related things...
OST was unoteworthy. on one hand, the Battle Theme was starting to get to me; J-pop as a basic battle theme gets repetitive, and it starts getting on my nerves. Though, this is offset by the Boss Theme being rather good, and there were even workable versions of the song used in plot that worked well enough there. The rest of the songs were fairly unmemorable and such.
Plot...the game is a glorified japanese Scooby Doo story. The Killer so needed to say at one point "I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids and your dog bear!" and it would have been perfect, but alas. At least everything up until Adachi/ameno Sagiri. Inazami was a completely bullshit twist, I felt. Ok, yes, there's a subtle presence...but come on, just coming out of nowhere like that and going "uh, yeah, there was one more SPACE FLEA working under this! No, we couldn't pretend Ameno Sagiri was doing everything, we have to add in some freak with a God Complex instead just for one more dungeon!" I honestly didn't buy the excuse, and the attempt being "OMG awesome plot twist cause you didn't think that throw away character was important ^_^" was just "no, that's a stupid stunt; Paladin's Quest did it years ago, and it was stupid then, and its stupid now."
As far as Adachi being the killer...I called it back in May. Would have called it earlier, but I wasn't really paying attention to random details, part of it was cause in April, it was when I was being introduced to the game, and then hadn't played the game for a while. When he started getting scenes and such, I went "...that guys the killer, I bet. Though, that seems just too easy to pick out..."
Adachi is a pretty lame villain too. Its mostly just him being emo, and your team smacking sense into him; he's also a complete trope.
As far as other characters go...
Ok, first off, I will give the game this; it does have great character interaction. This is hard to dispute. While I didn't like the REAL LIFE SIMULATOR idea, mostly cause I felt I was spending a lot of time just getting through days, but skipping them meant I'd lose gameplay merits, so I had to actually genuinely make use of that time, there was some good character interaction to be had. The problem is, however, is that the S. Links really kind of failed it up badly.
Reason? SOUJI IS A FUCKING SILENT PROTAGONIST. This made S. Links basically just the other character monologuing about their own issues until finally they come to a resolve, with you responding in some way. P4 finally made me realize what I generally despise about Silent Protagonists, especially ones that try to be passed off as real characters through such responses;
No matter what you say, no matter how much of a dick you are, no matter what the scenario is...YOU ARE JESUS. There's very few exceptions to this; you can tell someone to go fuck a rabid buffalo and they'll respond "That's harsh! ...but you're right, that's probably the best thing to do at this moment, thanks!" I know I sound extreme, but P4 really felt like it took the icing on this one. S. Links were bad for this reason; they were like Mana Khemia Character quests, except without Vayne to react to them. Vayne is what made those work. Flay's CQs, for example, are only so hilarious cause we have Vayne on the side going "Wait, what? How did I get myself into this..." and such reactions; if Vayne was Souji, they wouldn't be half as funny. The characters are always asking Souji for help, and regardless what you do or say, Souji's always helping out! YOU CAN'T BE A REAL JERK cause, again, YOU ARE JESUS. Everything you say is good, just, right, and people will be changed by it! YOU WILL DIE FOR THEIR SINS! (but this of course gives a game over, so you realistically can't <_< )
I will grant one S. Link that did feel believable was the Daycare Center one. Here we have a realistic scenario of a step mother trying to grow attached to her new son, who is having problems accepting her, and it was handled in a believable way. OK, so her getting so close to a high school student helping her through these troubled times is a bit weird, but that's a "Suspend Belief" scenario I'm willing to overlook for the sake of a narrative.
Otherwise, the other S. Links were more just "Character has a problem, watch them slowly resolve it on their own while pretending you're actually being helpful through the course of 10 separate scenes!" I suppose for a tropetastic character, Kanji's was handled not half bad, the "Big Tough Guy whose actually a real softy on the inside, but refuses to be open about it" actually being given a remote sense of development for once wasn't bad. But the other S. Links left me generally unimpressed.
Now, the stuff when there were actual cast meetings and such had good interaction. That's where it was good! There were some hilarious moments like...well, really, any scene where Human Teddie played a prominent role. Actually, Teddie was hilarious for this in general; his design is completely opposite of how he acts!
When he's in the Bear suit, he's generally serious. Yes, makes a wise crack here and there, but he's actually not that comical beyond some puns. Come his human side, though? They really take the naivete to absurd levels that make his antics just ridiculous...in a good way. Its especially funny when we have characters like Yosuke face palming at everything he does, cause if you were in their shoes, you know you'd be reacting the same way.
Other characters...
Yosuke I kind of liked. If you ask me, HE should have been the Main Character. There were so many times I actually felt he was the genuine main, cause it felt like he was strong arming the group, like he was the guy who was being important...but then I am reminded "no, this is SMT, the completely useless SIlent Protagonist is the main and don't even think about anything else!" Yosuke otherwise was your typical loser, but not a bad guy, and he's trying to fit in, but sort of failing, and is lucky enough he has the friend's he does.
Chie kind of annoyed me. The Veronica in the game. "Hey, she's athletic and somewhat of a tomboy, but she's also kind of a moron too, BUT SHE'S SELF AWARE SHE'S NOT SMART SO ITS OK!" Um, whatever, I can't find myself giving a shit.
Yukiko, similarly, wasn't much better, and I can say this safely despite getting her maxed S. Link (didn't get Chie's, though I heard Chie's S. Link is just really boring.) Yukiko of course being the Betty of the group, proving that this group is tropetastic. The soft spoken, gentle girl, who has slight OOC moments when she bursts out into laughter fits, but otherwise exists to foil her best friend Chie.
Pretty much covered Kanji before; about as well done as you're going to get for that kind of character, so we'll move on.
Naoto...unsure what to say. First off, I will say that when I first saw her, I immediately assumed she was female...then the game claims she's male and I'm like "ok, so this is just Japan loving effeminate boys!" so when they revealed her being female, I was like "...god, what the hell is wrong with Japan? You make a female pretend she's male, but FAIL MISERABLY AT THAT?" I found it completely unrealistic that the characters would believe Naoto was male as a result.
...but that's more a designer standpoint than the actual character. I don't feel I can properly assess Naoto cause I didn't see any of her S. Links; I don't really have any special thoughts for the angle of "is a prodigy detective whose young and not use to simply hanging out with friends, thus finds self in awkward situations!"
Rise...meh. I appreciate the attempt at a big shot celebrity quitting and trying to live a normal life, and your team happening to befriend her on pure chance, but I felt that this factor didn't really kick in at all outside of S. Links, and her character was mostly just a subverted Genki, I felt. Once she's with your team, she was the overly cheerful, happy go lucky girl (contrast to when you first meet her, she's a bit emo), though never quite takes it to the overly energetic levels that most characters of that archetype go (HI SELPHIE!) so...eh, I guess she's alright, but don't have a strong opinion of her.
Dojima was well done. Actually felt like a single father who was having problems choosing his family life compared to his harsh work life, and he had a few powerful scenes. Also nice to have an uncle with some sort of power who is not a villainous figure in the least for once, and genuinely a good guy.
Nanako was also decently well handled; a little girl who actually felt like a little girl, and not your typical japanese fictional excuse for one! This makes her like the second one EVER that I've met (Lymle from SO4 being the first.) She didn't have these ultra high energy levels, her "Cute" factors didn't feel like she was trying to be ultra cute, but more just typical "young and naive" scenarios, what have you. I can also kind of see what CK meant when he compared my sister to her, considering how she hangs around with people much older than her and fits in well.
Now, let me state that despite this...I wished Nanako would have died. No, I don't mean "THE GIRL NEEDS TO DIE IN A DITCH!" What I mean is Nanako's Disney Death was completely bullshit. The game did a great job of letting you get to know a character like her, grow attached to her, and genuinely make her feel like someone you care about. So killing her off would have been a massively gutsy move on the writers end, and the PERFECT thing to make you truly hate the villains on a truly emotional level, to the point where you really want to kill them (its rare that you truly can hate a villain in this manner. I know one reason people like Kefka is cause of how he sparks so much of this kind of hate, which is GOOD for a villain; using Kefka as a random example cause he's one I've seen hype like this a lot for.) I was almost feeling genuinely sad there...would have been like the second time in a game where I felt truly emotionally touched by a striking event like that (Crisis Core's ending being the first)...
BUt the game screws it up in a few manners.
FIRST OFF, Souji's existence fucks everything up. If he wasn't a silent protagonist, ubt a character who could speak, the scene would have been a lot more powerful. I know, you're suppose to associate yourself with Souji, but its really hard to do so when you have that JESUS syndrome I mentioned earlier, and Souji is very much NOT like you. Now, Souji being silent here I don't mind, but the fact that he's silent makes this scene with him no different than any others. If Souji had spoken, and been silent here, it'd have actually meant something! But as it stands, him being a silent protagonist completely undermines the scenario.
Secondly...SHE DOESN'T DIE. The game decides to keep her alive and suddenly, what could have been one of the gutsiest things an RPG Writer has done in years (kill off a 7 year old girl that you actually spent 90% of the game interacting with and would actually CARE about) into a "Just kidding ^^" moment, and it completely undermines Dojima's over the top "Father has gotten completely irrational learning his daughter just died' reaction, as now you get a sense that it was pointless since she didn't die!
Remember, I LIKE Nanako, but despite this, I think killing her off would have been a far better idea than the Disney Death bullshit they actually pulled, from a writing stand point. Way to fuck up what could have given this game a boost in its score as far as writing goes; instead of being something I would have eternally respected the game for, it ends up being a head desking moment of GRAHness.
A good comparison to this I felt is FMA, which had a similar situation with the character Nina. Yes, you only got to know her for a few episodes, but they spend enough time portraying her as this sweet innocent girl, who the Elric brothers have actually grown attached to, and you just sort of feel an "aw" feeling with her. Then suddenly, the show actually does the unthinkable...and kills her off in such a horrible way, you finally realize what kind of show you're dealing with; FMA isn't going to pull punches. If a character needs to die, THEY'LL KILL THEM OFF (sure enough, episode 26 occurs down the line, and is probably the single most emotional moment I felt when watching really like anything. That episode was brilliant from so many stand points.)
Persona 4 could have achieved a similar thing...but instead, decided to just go "Just kidding!" No, Persona 4, you do not fuck around with pretending to kill off a character like that, just to create Soap Opera like drama, go die.
Lastly, was not fond of the school setting. Look, I went through High School already, I didn't want to do it again. I don't want to have to think about mid terms and what not, don't want to emulate sitting in class...it just did absolutely nothing for me. Mana Khemia did the school setting thing as well, but handled it better, mostly cause it was more a back drop and it was integrated into the progression of the game, where as Persona 4 focused way too heavily on it, and felt removed from the actual story.
*END OF SPOILERS*
This rant wasn't structured well, but meh, couldn't bring myself to do a usual structured style Meeple rant. In the end, Persona 4 was what I expected it to be:
An unimpressive game with a lot of the usual SMT bullshit, with some worthwhile characters and character interaction, but was otherwise a boring experience and one I felt I my reservations were all justified. If P4 is suppose to be the high point of SMT games...then I'm never playing any of these again.
SMTs are just some of the most asinine, boring and tedious RPGs out there, and its always for the same reasons.
So in the end, P4 gets like a 3-4/10. Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of you are going to attack me over it, but I didn't like the game much at all.
EDIT: Oh yeah, don't expect me to play P3...like ever. From all I've heard, P3 is P4 with a lot more issues, which makes it sound like one of the worst games ever.
