Starting the Persona Series

[Formalhaut]

I've begun playing Persona 4 Golden! I have to say, I'm really enjoying myself so far. The character interactions are hilarious. I'm on the 1st of May, so I have three teammates: Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko.

Admittedly, the intro video does spoil who will end up becoming my final party, but I don't mind that so much, that intro was so funny and hippie.

I'm liking the non-playable characters as well. I like Dojima and Nanako, and how obviously their relationship is strained. I imagine that will be resolved by the story's end. The school is good, and the source of many S.Links. I've started the Chariot and Sun links currently.

I'm really surprised how early you can start the Aeon S.Link. In P3P, it could only be activated in the final month of the game. I guess that explains why the weakest Aeon persona is Lv. 18.

In regards to combat, I like it. The lack of a clock is going to really bother me though, as I still use SP like I drink water to get All Out Attacks and strike weaknesses. Yosuke is proving to be a very powerful teammate. Chie is as well, though she ends up slipping more often than other characters. Fortunately, the newly introduced bonuses you get from Party S.Links means that Yosuke can help her back up.

There's more player stats to level up, which will be an added challenge. Anyway, I'm really enjoying it. Mr. Carny watched a few minutes and he seems really excited to play that as well (he's still on P3P, end of September).

[Fynn]

You'll get an SP replenishing method soon enough, so don't worry. P4G is WAY easier than P3, even on normal difficulty.

Also, the Aeon S. Link starts early one, but you have less time to max it than most links. Same goes for Justice, Hierophant and Jester, so keep that in mind.

I'm really glad you're enjoying this series While I think P3 is the better game with a story I just adore, P4, despite its flaws, is also amazingly fun

On another note, I just finished Persona Q yesterday and I can tell you that it was also really fun. While the gameplay is different (much more in the vein of hardcore, old-school RPGs - you even need to draw your own map) and the story certainly isn't on par with 3 and 4, the gameplay is really rewarding and the interactions between the casts of P3 and P4 are very amusing. So you might want to check it out later. See some reviews or gameplay to make sure it's your cup of tea first, but if that doesn't put you off, I think you'll enjoy it

[NeoCracker]

I haven't played the hand held versions, but Sleeping Table aside, I actually felt P4 was the harder game. And I played on the hard difficult for both.

[Fynn]

The revamped shuffle time mechanics kinda break the difficulty. My wife beat the last four or five dungeons with just a Decarabia with Megidolaon, since she kept getting magic bonuses, and the Persona ended up with max magic. She was over level 90 in the last dungeon despite devoting no time on grinding (heck, in the last two dungeons she literally avoided all battles) and wrecked the final boss (true ending) to pieces.

Seriously, while Persona may be difficult compared to FF, FF is one of the easiest series out there. Seriously, Persona has nothing on mainline MegaTen at least.

[Wolf Kanno]

Strange Journey and SMT1 are calling Fynn...

[Fynn]

Funny thing is, SMT1 is still on my phone and I'm pretty far in without much trouble. It's just that, I really haven't played it in a long while and have kind of lost track of what I'm doing and where I'm going. It's too much effort to restart, but when I try to play it again, I just cannot get into it. What should I do? Is there any news on SMTII coming out on iOS in English? Maybe that'd motivate me more.

And Strange Journey is still in my top 10, so I'm definitely going to give it another shot one day But not right now. Persona Q kinda burned me out on first person labirynths, and Strabge Journey is just as involving.

[Formalhaut]

Status update!

I enjoyed it so much (that, and I've been rather ill since Sunday) I'm now in June, back in the TV World to rescue Rise. I kinda accidently blew most of my money upgrading everyone's equipment so I'm down to two Personas, until I can earn enough to resummon. I've decided, money is harder to find in this game. It may be because the Wealth Hands are so much harder to kill. I don't think they have a weakness either. It is fairly annoying. Another annoyance is Teddie's inferiority as support. He's funny and motivational, but his ability to analyse is sub-par. I do suspect that Rise will assume command of this however: it is about that time in the game where your primary support character comes into play (Fuuka?).

In story-line news, Dojima is beginning to suspect me, albeit subtly. Nanako is still adorable as ever, and Adachi is beginning to raise a few flags. I'm not entirely sure what it is about him, but something seems off. It could be that I immediately suspect his 'too goofy it hurts' personality. I mean, Yosuke is goofy but he's fairly intelligent beneath it all, same with Chie. Adachi... how did he get employed? Either way, I love murder mysteries, and I know by now it the culprit is usually someone who you meet within the first half of the story. And it being a game, it is going to be a major recurring character as well.

I've literally got nothing else but a feeling about Adachi, and I'm keeping my options open. But I am keeping an eye on him.

Another thing: Kanji. I do feel the game writers take a rather caricatured stance towards his (still fairly ambiguous) sexuality. They never use the word 'gay' or 'bisexual' in any of the dialogue (as of yet). Yosuke's reaction is fairly crappy, especially in the tent scene. I expected somewhat better, or more enlightened responses by the young cast. Really the person who took it well the most was Kanji himself.

Which leads me to a small gripe about Aigis as well. Towards the end of her S.Link, it becomes fairly obvious she has feelings for you (even if they are never fully explained, it is quite clearly romantic feelings), as evidenced by the 'I'm not male... I'm not even human!'. My reaction to that was... and? I do hope Persona 5 gives you the option of romancing or dating male characters. It's really only a small gripe, but one that does nag. I may just be overthinking it though.

[Fynn]

The thing about Kanji is that, in my interpretation (and you know my attitude toward LGBT representation), is not in fact gay. His problems mostly stem from his feminine interests and how that conflicts with what men are "supposed" to be. It's more about the struggle with the toxic image of hegemonic masculinity, where you start to believe that if you don't fit the norm, you obviously have to be gay, and everyone will think that. It's a minor spoiler, but it's not that what you see in the shadows and the TV world is just your inner hidden thoughts - it's societal expectation as well. So yeah, Kanji is my favorite character because his struggle with the performance of masculinity is something I've gone through myself. And then the whole thing with the Naoto happens, making him even more confused about himself, and theres your shadow.

I'm not saying Kanji isn't bi (though for spoilerific reasons, I do believe that he isn't gay), but despite the imagery of his shadow suggesting his issue is with his repressed sexuality, I really do t think his sexuality is relevant here at all. It's all about dealing with patriarchal models of masculinity, with a bit of teenage confusion added in for good measure.

And yeah, Yosuke's kind of a sexist, homophobic dickhole, so even though he doesn't have that much issue with you being the leader as Junpei had, I still vastly prefer Junpei as your magician-arcana BFF. It's all pretty ironic considering Yosuke was meant to be the gay option for the protagonist but was dummied out.

[Formalhaut]

The thing about Kanji is that, in my interpretation (and you know my attitude toward LGBT representation), is not in fact gay. His problems mostly stem from his feminine interests and how that conflicts with what men are "supposed" to be. It's more about the struggle with the toxic image of hegemonic masculinity, where you start to believe that if you don't fit the norm, you obviously have to be gay, and everyone will think that. It's a minor spoiler, but it's not that what you see in the shadows and the TV world is just your inner hidden thoughts - it's societal expectation as well. So yeah, Kanji is my favorite character because his struggle with the performance of masculinity is something I've gone through myself. And then the whole thing with the Naoto happens, making him even more confused about himself, and theres your shadow.

I'm not saying Kanji isn't bi (though for spoilerific reasons, I do believe that he isn't gay), but despite the imagery of his shadow suggesting his issue is with his repressed sexuality, I really do t think his sexuality is relevant here at all. It's all about dealing with patriarchal models of masculinity, with a bit of teenage confusion added in for good measure.

And yeah, Yosuke's kind of a sexist, homophobic dickhole, so even though he doesn't have that much issue with you being the leader as Junpei had, I still vastly prefer Junpei as your magician-arcana BFF. It's all pretty ironic considering Yosuke was meant to be the gay option for the protagonist but was dummied out.

I definitely saw Kanji's problems towards hegemonic masculinity as well. I don't believe he is gay either. I had a fairly humorous scene with my MC, Yosuke and Kanji in Okina, where the entire mission was to 'pick up girls' (which kinda made me cringe). I'd say it is more likely he's bisexual, but more likely to say that it isn't really an issue for him anymore.

Any idea why they dummied the idea of a gay relationship out of the game?

[Fynn]

No clue. Time constraints, maybe? They even had English dialogue recorded, though.



"But he only says 'I like you!'" you may say, but the Japanese dialog actually uses a phrasing that is typical of a confession of love, so yeah.

Still, it would be oddly glaring to me to have Yosuke of all people as a gay option. Heck, despite me not believing that he's gay, I still think Kanji would be a better choice.

[Formalhaut]

No clue. Time constraints, maybe? They even had English dialogue recorded, though.



"But he only says 'I like you!'" you may say, but the Japanese dialog actually uses a phrasing that is typical of a confession of love, so yeah.

Still, it would be oddly glaring to me to have Yosuke of all people as a gay option. Heck, despite me not believing that he's gay, I still think Kanji would be a better choice.

I agree. I do think Yosuke is ultimately a good guy, and I do enjoy his humor at times, but he does have some issues. I just find it funny in a game where you are the silent protagonist and you choose practically everything they say and do, to have only female options as a 'lovers route'.

[Fynn]

Well, you know Japan. They're surprisingly backwards in that regard, especially considering how they handle sexuality Seriously, thriving gay communities represented in the Yaoi, Yuri and Bara genres (among others), and yet it's still stigmatized in the mainstream. What is up with that?

[Formalhaut]

Well, you know Japan. They're surprisingly backwards in that regard, especially considering how they handle sexuality Seriously, thriving gay communities represented in the Yaoi, Yuri and Bara genres (among others), and yet it's still stigmatized in the mainstream. What is up with that?

And of course when it is mentioned it is through the use of a bathhouse

I am hoping for better things in Persona 5. The game already seems rather... different from what I'm used to.

[Fynn]

It looks very similar to the older titles in a weird way, 2 especially (which I also highly recommend; 1 - not so much).

[Wolf Kanno]

The interesting thing here is that Persona 2: Innocent Sin actually does give you a form of the gay option. The game doesn't really hide the fact Jun likes Tatsuya more than just as a friend.