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Finished Persona 4 earlier tonight (like I said, January 31, 2010 is really the perfect day to beat a Persona game. Only thing better would have been if it were Persona 3). Now I'm kind of sifting through my feelings for it while listening to the soundtrack on iTunes.
Which is causing interesting feelings in my chest as my heart clenches at certain moments with the music as I remember key plot points and battles. (Shoji Meguro absolutely outdid himself on this soundtrack. "The Genesis" is some of the most epic music ever.)
It's interesting, you know, how music can be tied into events in visual media, and how it's used to hammer home an impact. And how if it's used badly, it can totally ruin everything. P4's the latest in this string for me, but I can't help but want to kick some serious ass whenever I hear "Libera Me from Hell" (Tegan Toppa Gurran Lagann) or "Battle for Everyone's Souls" (Persona 3), or straighten up a little when I hear the "Imperial March", or a hundred other little things. (Oddly, I can't recall a leitmotif from the 'gateverse that really has the same effect.)
I don't know if that's a remnant from my (very slim) music training as a kid. Or rather, whatever that music training I got left is that I react very well to crazy electric guitar chords. I do wonder how it is for other people.
Anyway, I know that this seems odd for most people on my flist, to have such an emotional response to a video game. To a lot of people, it probably doesn't make much sense. I can argue that it's very much like TV shows or movies or books, that the games I'm fond of (RPGs, especially Eastern RPGs) can have engaging characters and stories, but it's possibly outside the realm of easy comprehension for a lot of people. How in the world can I have an emotional reaction and get attached to characters who exist only as a series of 1s and 0s on a disc? It's not the printed word, nor is it actors on a screen, or animation.
Maybe it's because video games are still a young industry. And that it's only been within the last 20 or so years that RPGs have really been trying for stories (Eastern, at least. Western still is more sandbox-y, but that's changing too). That's not a long time. And it's very different from other game genres, like FPSes (Half-Life) and platformers (Mario, Sonic).
But I just finished spending over 100 hours of my life with a group of characters, who were fleshed-out and had character development and grew as people over the course of a year in-game. 100 hours. That's more hours than Stargate Atlantis has.
So when I put down the controller and watched the ending, since the Protagonist is such a blank slate in this game, he really pretty much is you...I felt like I was leaving Inaba myself. And all my dear friends who'd been through so much with me, and grew stronger as people, were saying good-bye to me as well.
Damn if that doesn't hurt.
I haven't had this feeling from a game in a very, very long time, if ever. (Maybe the closest was Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete) In fact, I don't recall having this feeling for any form of media in a long time.
Well done, Atlus. You now own my soul.
Which is causing interesting feelings in my chest as my heart clenches at certain moments with the music as I remember key plot points and battles. (Shoji Meguro absolutely outdid himself on this soundtrack. "The Genesis" is some of the most epic music ever.)
It's interesting, you know, how music can be tied into events in visual media, and how it's used to hammer home an impact. And how if it's used badly, it can totally ruin everything. P4's the latest in this string for me, but I can't help but want to kick some serious ass whenever I hear "Libera Me from Hell" (Tegan Toppa Gurran Lagann) or "Battle for Everyone's Souls" (Persona 3), or straighten up a little when I hear the "Imperial March", or a hundred other little things. (Oddly, I can't recall a leitmotif from the 'gateverse that really has the same effect.)
I don't know if that's a remnant from my (very slim) music training as a kid. Or rather, whatever that music training I got left is that I react very well to crazy electric guitar chords. I do wonder how it is for other people.
Anyway, I know that this seems odd for most people on my flist, to have such an emotional response to a video game. To a lot of people, it probably doesn't make much sense. I can argue that it's very much like TV shows or movies or books, that the games I'm fond of (RPGs, especially Eastern RPGs) can have engaging characters and stories, but it's possibly outside the realm of easy comprehension for a lot of people. How in the world can I have an emotional reaction and get attached to characters who exist only as a series of 1s and 0s on a disc? It's not the printed word, nor is it actors on a screen, or animation.
Maybe it's because video games are still a young industry. And that it's only been within the last 20 or so years that RPGs have really been trying for stories (Eastern, at least. Western still is more sandbox-y, but that's changing too). That's not a long time. And it's very different from other game genres, like FPSes (Half-Life) and platformers (Mario, Sonic).
But I just finished spending over 100 hours of my life with a group of characters, who were fleshed-out and had character development and grew as people over the course of a year in-game. 100 hours. That's more hours than Stargate Atlantis has.
So when I put down the controller and watched the ending, since the Protagonist is such a blank slate in this game, he really pretty much is you...I felt like I was leaving Inaba myself. And all my dear friends who'd been through so much with me, and grew stronger as people, were saying good-bye to me as well.
Damn if that doesn't hurt.
I haven't had this feeling from a game in a very, very long time, if ever. (Maybe the closest was Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete) In fact, I don't recall having this feeling for any form of media in a long time.
Well done, Atlus. You now own my soul.
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Persona 4 is a bit of an anomaly, honestly. Both it and Persona 3 are very, very character driven (P4 moreso than P3). But it's also a fairly hard game. :P Atlus, as a company, is pretty well known for making bleedingly-difficult games that'll make you think. Both in terms of strategy and to figure out just what the hell is going on. :) It's a reason why I like them so much.