Well it pioneered the concept of the social link system and the formula so its really hard to say if it needed it or not, personally I just feel a high school setting makes everything very convenient in regards to explaining how your characters meet and giving the player lots of options for outside activites, we are talking the age group that games harder than others because they have way more free time than most people but also because they are not expected to be dealing with responsibility like an adult would.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yellow_Magic
It's a valid point but I would also point out that we never really see anime college stories either so I'm of the opinion its not as interesting or just more of the same with less stress and need for activities. My issue is that beyond curiosity I still don't feel it would add a new layer to the narrative that can't already be achieved with the current formula.Quote:
I think it'd just make a nice change, personally. I don't really know much about how Japanese colleges operate, myself, but I'm guessing a large proportion of the western audience wouldn't and as such would be interested in comparing their own college lifestyles to the Japanese versions. Something to consider IMO
It's not that its boring it has more to do with a different mindset. Teenagers are for the most part encouraged to be selfish and self-absorbed because it's really the only time of your life you can do it unless your adulthood throws you into an outlier demographic of societal norms. Adults tend to just be more responsible. I mean in college I had no issue staying up all night or bar hopping with friends but now I've got too much stuff on my plate to be like that anymore. I'm usually one of the first of my friends who will refuse a last minute invitation to a friendly get together if I know I have work the next morning and I don't really blow my money on frivolous activities when I have rent and bills to account for. Not saying I couldn't choose to be a bum and act like I did ten years ago but I prefer being stable than living paycheck to paycheck. It's why Vincent from Catherine is an interesting case because despite being a man near his 30s he acts more like Junpei or Yosuke than he does say Mitsuru or Dojima. His whole story arc is choosing whether he wants to be a responsible adult or flutter his life away like he has been by acting like he's still a student.Quote:
Wow, you're certainly not helping me look forward to starting full-time work proper next week lol. I agree with you to an extent, but not ALL adults' lives are that, well, boring...
Seriously, most of my friends who have real 9 to 5 jobs never have time to hang out except every blue moon. My friends who started families dropped out of my life due to being too busy with the new family and also because hanging out with them was usually awkward because all they talk about is their family while I only have stupid trout to talk about. Our interest and focus changed and while they are all cool people I ended up drifting away from them because our responsibilities took us in different directions. My point is that adults would have bigger issues skipping out on school to stop shadows as opposed to adults skipping out on work, bills and family. It will catch up to them though I guess the game could implement a system where you have to earn enough to pay your living expensive and then use the rest to buy equipment and summon personas for fusion but I don't know how well that would go over. Again, I don't feel it couldn't be done, I'm just saying an adult main cast would seriously alter a lot of dynamics of the formula that would risk losing the audience but since this thread I have been brainstorming what an adult Persona game might be like and it intrigues me even if I don't feel it would do well with its target audience.
They are all fantastic characters but not great material for the social link system, Ulala would spend hers whining about not getting a boyfriend, Baofu would spend his time boring you to death about baseball, and Katsuya would spend his time divulging his insecurity about whether Tatsuya likes him and that one was actually done in P4 with the Temperance S.L. ;)Quote:
I think Baofu and indeed, Ulala from Eternal Punishment are pretty good examples of such justification. Katsuya to a certain extent as well
When I speak about adult characters I'm thinking in terms of what they could bring to the S.L. side of things I mean these three characters are great but their major drawing power as story figures is front line stuff, their social link side is kind of dull because so much of their personal quirks are directly tied to plot moving events that it would be hard to come up with a compelling SL for them.
I agree, especially since it sounds to me like the social/dating aspect of the game does not appeal to you, P2 is a pretty traditional JRPG in comparison to the games that came after and its a better game than the first one.Quote:
You really should play Persona 2: Eternal Punishment if you haven't already, because it almost has exactly what you're looking for - even a detective!Quote:
Originally Posted by Vyk
I think one of the reasons why I don't quite want to move away from the formula is because I feel there is still room to grow. The High School angle has not been fully tapped just yet as much as players just having ADHD about wanting meaningless change in the hopes it will bring a fresh perspective but I would rather watch the S.L. system evolve into areas it hasn't touched yet like dealing with cheating partners, your friends S.L. with other characters (which can be used to build better teamwork among friends) actually play up being a poor student in the school as opposed to some genius star athlete, using the clubs to customize your characters and delving how gender roles play in a high school setting. Seriously the whole thing is far from being tapped out and I don't believe the P-Team is beating a dead horse just yet in concept... their blatant fan pandering to the P3/P4 fans on the other hand...
