So, Xenoblade
Gonna be starting this back up today, but last time I ventured forth on my quest. After, that is, going back into Colony 9 for a few more quests and trying out Gem Creation. Kinda cool, but I already have more useful Gems than I can slot from collectapedia and I have plenty of room for more ethers, so I only made one and moved on. Finished the cave, and got my first Monado Art, kinda nice overall though it is making the Monado even more of a plot dispenser than before. Also, Shulk as Chosen One, guess I shouldn't be surprised it happened but I had hope. Oh so much hope. Hopefully they handle it well, like it was for Fei and wasn't for Justin.
Persona Q
Finished the first dungeon. Was right in that there was a boss there. Turns out the boss can summon more mooks than SEES can handle. Fortunately, the Investigation Squad shows up and brings their combat music with them. I get an introductory battle with Minato and their core party (face it, who didn't use Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko as the main party?) then boss time.
Once that's done, requests show up, Margaret displays why she's better at fusions than Elizabeth, and I get a lot of interaction between the two groups. These guys clearly understand their market. The other neat thing in all of this is that Yu is talking, he is a character here. Pretty laid back, well spoken, and his place in the group dynamic fits with how P4 works. He's clearly the leader, the group does seem to revolve around him not because he takes charge, but because he's insightful and says generally useful things. Yosuke still gets the most lines, but Yu's the guy they all fall in behind. Heck, there's even a S Link style scene where Yosuke's got something on his mind and Yu notices, gets him to talk about it, and talks him through it.
So, I think that confirms I'm gonna eventually play this game a second time just to see things from the other perspective and how they handle Minato. Also, see if the music is handled differently since a lot of the soundtrack is P3 thus far.
As for actual plot, there still isn't much. There's been hints that something sentient is behind all this. Margaret has dropped some hints that she knows what happens at the end of P3, but it's not her place to change any of that so she's not telling any of the characters, or Elizabeth for that matter who she knows will take action even though she's not supposed to. And now we seem to be going through a Shadowified version of what the P4 cast did for their cultural festival, because the writers enjoy making that cast suffer. I may need to replay P4 because I can't remember that part of the cultural festival at all. Regardless, all that anyone is willing to say about it is that they don't talk about it, and don't want to remember it.
Difficulty has stepped up, and now there's a nice balance between the ID skills and the elemental magics. Heck, even the physical skills. ID kills if it hits, but it can miss, even if it hits weakness. And if it misses, no boost for you. Elemental magic is basically guaranteed to hit, and will give you the boost. Also, at this point it's getting widely available in the all hitting Ma- variants. Finally, the physical skills are really shining against Bosses and FOEs where there aren't really weaknesses to hit, and a big ol sack of HP to hack through, so you want something that'll step up damage, but won't run out or get rid of healing reserves. And Fuuka comes with this great party wide regen skill that makes recovering from the HP cost for physical skills a breeze. So everything seems to have a place. Still, Mahama is pretty awesome.
Finally, I saved the best for last. Somehow, Koromaru has gotten even more adorable. But, the scene you get when it's time for him to call an all-out attack? Just this dog, sitting there, with knives in his mouth, and his tail wagging eagerly. It's just, d'awwwwww.
