This post brought to you by the characters P and 3.

[ultranos]

One day, I feel like I should write the Big Damn Shin Megami Tensei/Persona Post about why I love this series and spin-off series so much, about the characters and plots and mechanics and gameplay and philosophy and everything else. Because it's at the point where I'm contemplating the prices on the Persona 1 PSP remake, because that's about the only way I can still throw money at Atlus (other than buying SMT: Strange Journey).

I have also realized that I have bought P3 3 times, in 3 different forms. I don't actually regret this at all.

I guess it's because where lots of other people pick up TV shows to sink time into and find glee in, I do it with games. And if I've seemed a bit distant lately, it's because I don't know how to talk to people on my flist about this. I can post about it, but it's not...I don't know. I want to make people understand, because yes, I love them, but I also think other people would too. I dunno. I guess I can't see much difference in time commitment to spending 60 hours on a game and watching 60 hours worth of TV. :/

Maybe my brain's wired strangely.

Comments

[synecdochic]

"Poke at it with a sword" is usually a good option, yes! Sometimes I'll be like, fuck it, I'm just going to hit it and hope it goes away.

(The absolute best is when you luck out with elemental affinity on a new Shadow and kill it before Fuuka can scan it. Hee hee hee.)

I was really pleasantly surprised by the game mechanics. It makes a lovely balance of various gameplay tactics, and it prevents the slugfest that RPGs often turn into in late stages, where your physical attacks are so much more powerful than your magic ones that it's just not worth the MP/SP/whatever. If there's one thing that annoys me about the game, it's that SP recovery items are so rare.

[ultranos]

Sometimes that even works and doesn't backfire horribly!

(I love it when that happens. "Let me scan it's weakness." "FOUND IT! :D")

That's what I like. The balance is such that it builds on what strategies you've developed over the course of the game. If you've sat and perfected how to do Fusions, how to scan and attack weaknesses, how to protect your own weaknesses, and such early on, the game rewards you later because it's the best strategy later on. Too many RPGs to try out these things, and maybe they're useful for a dungeon or two, and then you ditch them and never use it again once you have Ultima Weapon or whatever. It teaches you (harshly, at times) how to play it correctly.

SP items are to be hoarded like gold. This leads to amusing situations where I realize I have Somas and spend time wondering if it's worth it to use a smart bomb. (In the original version, there used to be a bug that restored HP/SP in the lobby of Tartarus. It got fixed, though. *sadface*) It is annoying, but it does help against grinding, so I'm torn about it.

[synecdochic]

Yeah. I like grinding, dammit! I relied on the HP/SP restore in the Tartarus lobby a lot, especially when combined with the teleport to lobby gizmos right before each Guardian Boss. When I got into Monad, though, I just started saying fuck it and using my Somas and Chewing Souls and the like -- it was easier than popping back out a lot. (And then it's hello, level 99!)

I have peeked ahead in the walkthrough and seen that the final boss has fourteen fucking forms. I think this is cheating. Final bosses should be allowed at most four.

(We're probably going to hit it this weekend or early next week. *g* I'm looking forward to seeing how the ending goes. I already know what's going to happen, I think -- the story's been telegraphing it the whole way -- but I'm curious about the details...)

[ultranos]

Grinding is fun! There is nothing quite like griding, say, Alice, up there and then you get Die for Me! and everything just starts dying in a radius. It's fun! And I so very much miss the HP/SP restore thing in P3P. The clock now makes me pay for it.

It does have 14 forms! But they all make sense thematically! I AM SO TORN. (It goes fast at high levels and if you know what you're doing.)

(I love how the game telegraphs the ending from the intro movie. Not only that, but there's a reason they only put the first verse of "Burn My Dread" into that clip. The entire song telegraphs everything.)

[synecdochic]

It is telegraphing like a telegraphing thing. I have money on the ending being what I think it is, inside the household. (Except nobody would take the money, since they all agree.)

(When I fused Thanatos, I kept twiddling until it inherited Die for Me! and now THINGS FEAR ME MWAH HA HA HA HA.)

[ultranos]

It is! It very much is! And I love that about the storytelling because it's doing foreshadowing so damn well but the ending's still going to affect you. (My friend who was playing over the summer got creeped out when ~all of us showed up as she was in the final ascent and just watched both the game and her reaction.)

(One of my ultimate goals is to fuse something with Die for Me! and whatever-comes-after-Megidolon (Last Word?) and possibly Brave Blade or something and just WALK ALL OVER PUNY SHADOWS HAAAAH.)

[synecdochic]

I am totally going to do that when we go NG+. First time through I was mostly concentrating on getting Growth 1/2/3 and appropriate elemental attacks on things, not to mention having matching arcana for the social links I was about to go working on, but the NG+ playthrough is going to be all about creating the ultimate fighting Persona ever.

*g* I can imagine it being fun to watch people's reactions. We've been playing with three of us -- me, sarah, and our tenant, who is totally new to JRPGs and who is loving it -- and it's great to play in groups, so much. I love seeing how everyone sees something different.

[ultranos]

A good decision. :) But there is something viscerally satisfying about crafting the ultimate fighting Persona ever. (I do love my resistances. Oh, and Victory Cry is just about the greatest thing ever, which is why you get it so damn late.)

Watching her playthrough turned into a social event, and then pairs of us who'd played before would go off and discuss things in-depth. Because we're crazy like that. And the game gives you so much to talk about and analyze.

[synecdochic]

IT SO DOES. I can't wait to do a NG+ playthrough and watch everything, omg.

*cough*

[shanghairain]

I am the master of Skill Change Roulette.

Re: *cough*

[ultranos]

Only in P4, dammit! And yes. I can't tell if it's because you're just that lucky or you have infinite patience.