Persona!

[Skyblade]

Persona 4 The Golden Official English Site

Finally, one of the games I have been most looking forward to this past year has been officially given a US release. The site isn't fully functional yet, but I am just so psyched about this game.

Persona 3 Portable is easily one of my favorite Atlus games of all time, even though it is not as technically adept as its Playstation 2 predecessors. The gameplay improvements and new social links just got me really invested in the game, and I have dropped an insane amount of time in it working to create a perfect save file (not quite there yet, I still need to gather 5 more Omnipotent Orbs, and fuse about a dozen more Personas perfectly).

Persona 4 The Golden, however, is going to be an enhanced port of a PS2 game. One and a half times the voice acting, a new character, new chapters, probably a new Persona or two. And it will be portable, so I can play it anywhere. In my room, in my living room, on break at work, with a cat draped over my lap, anywhere! It is going to be awesome!

Persona 4 The Ultimate In Mayonaka Arena Official Site

In other news, Persona 4's fighting game incarnation is looking really, really dang spiffy as well. With a cast expanding out into Persona 3 to include Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Aegis, the game has been looking sweet for a while. However, a quick study of the official website shows an expanded cast list from the last announcement I remember. Elizabeth, Igor's assitant from Persona 3 and sister to Margaret from Persona 4, is there (and carrying Thanatos as her Persona), as well as a character new to the game. She's an Aegis-style mechanical girl, who apparently has two forms, the regular form, and a Shadow form, complete with yellow glowing eyes.

Now we just need Atlus to start releasing info on Persona 5, and everything will be good.

[Mirage]

I'm just butthurt that I can't play the golden on a real console.

[NeoCracker]

It'll be kind of the same if they get a TV hook up like the PSP had, which if I get a Vita and the make one, I'll totally get it.

[Mirage]

It would still require me to get another console for just one game. I feel the same about the Persona 3 Portable release. I am annoyed that they did not release a game that was basically P3Fes and P3P combined for PS2.

Speaking of, I finished Persona 4 for the first time just a few hours ago on an emulator.

[Jessweeee♪]

Due to budget restraints, I won't be owning a Vita anytime soon. Otherwise I'd be so mega hyped for this!

[Wolf Kanno]

^ That's my sentiment. Outside of the P4 Golden, there is not much of a worthwhile library of titles or reasons to own a Vita just yet. I actually started back up on P3P since I got out of my old school gaming slump where I was only playing old PS1 games on my PSP so that's been pretty fun.

I seriously need to play through P4 again, it was a game I loved but annoyed because they made some really silly gameplay changes for no goddamn good reason that make playing through the game not as smooth as the P3 entries. Still, it was an awesome game and deserves another playthrough cause its not like the changes make the game unplayable.

I also need to get back to P2, especially since I'm expecting Atlus to give a US release for the second P2 port somtime this year. After that, the Persona team has no real excuse not to start releasing news on P5, unless they decided to port Catherine to the Vita while no one is looking.

[Skyblade]

Well, Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena is getting a US console release in August, and is looking awesome.

Check it: SMT wiki page

Each character is getting additional forms, complete with swaps of their Personae, that are likely to be unlockable as per usual Arc System's works standard. You want Chidori on your team? Done. You hate Teddie? Replace him with Jack Frost, hi ho!

So not having a Vita is no reason to not be psyched about Persona, especially since we know that P5 is currently in development for the PS3.

[Mirage]

Too bad I don't really care much for 2D fighters.

[Skyblade]

Too bad I don't really care much for 2D fighters.

Replace "much" with "at all", and you pretty much have my opinion. I hate most fighting games with a passion.

I do quite like Smash Brothers, partially for the simplicity and partially for the sheer awesomeness of the spectacle.

But I did wind up playing BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II, due to being in a mood for something completely different, and I enjoyed it for quite a while, until my sanity snapped back into place.

I am just really curious to see how this is going to play out. The game's story mode is set in 2012, 4 years after the events of Persona 4. If Atlus has anything to do with the game's story, it is going to be awesome. If not, well, it's probably going to be confusing as hell, because Arc System Works does not make straightforward plots. But either way, I am curious to see it.

A pity that, like almost all fighting games, I am going to suck at it.

[Mirage]

I actually like vs fighters a lot, I just like having a 3D axis of movement and attack.

[Roogle]

Does anyone know if there is a list available publicly that lists the different points between the original and the enhanced port? I know it can be kind of hard to track these things when the source material is very similar to the new product.

[Skyblade]

Does anyone know if there is a list available publicly that lists the different points between the original and the enhanced port? I know it can be kind of hard to track these things when the source material is very similar to the new product.

Ta da.

As to more specific changes, like what animated scenes are added, or what you can do in the new areas, no clue.




Oh, and it turns out I misread. For the Arena, the alternate character appearances are just palette swaps, instead of full sprite swaps. Pity.

[theundeadhero]

I recently bough Persona 1 and 2 (at least the half that came out in America) for my Playstation (not the PSP) and am very looking forward to playing them. I'm happy enough with those and my PS2 version of Persona 4 and extended edition of Persona 3.

[Skyblade]

Take note, Persona and Persona 2 are pretty drastically different from Persona 3 and Persona 4. While they are good games, in my opinion they do not reach nearly the level of quality of the later entries.

Persona is very clearly a derivation of the Shin Megami Tensei games, especially with the ability to contact/negotiate with enemies. The battle system is more tactical, with party positioning and spell ranges coming in to play, and focuses far less on resistances and move orders.

The world is pretty heavily different too. You get much more demons and zombies versus Shadows and psychological issues (again, much more like a SMT game). You can actually chart a clear progression of the series from the beginning, as it was a spin off that gradually evolved its own identity and began to explore the issues that made it unique. And it has gotten better and better at this.

The depth of character development and the study of the psychological issues has just gotten more focused, and better explored as the games went on, with a major focus of Persona 4 being the actual exporation of the psychological troubles of characters through the Midnight Channel and its expression of the repressed aspects of the psyche as Shadows.