FL Plays the Persona Series

[Forsaken Lover]

So Normal seems like the safest bet. This does not seem like it will be one of those games where you have to pick Hard to get any sort of challenge.

So far Nocturne is nothing like I expected. It has the Persona 2 town map stuff for starters. I'm apparently a schoolkid with classmate buddies is another thing. I wonder if Yuko is the final boss. I hear it's the same final boss in every "route" in this game. Bit disappointing but oh well.

I tried to run away from the crazy monologuing man who can summon monsters. "Face death honorably"? smurf you. There's no honor in getting annihilated for no reason. Also while I've played myself as fairly "cool" towards these friends I actually don't know, the one friend's random line that went "and if you get in trouble, run like hell!" seemed like good advice both in and out of universe so I heeded it.

...or not. There goes the neighborhood, all of them.

Maybe the "little master" will be the final boss, though.

But man, I spent all last game hating the demons and now I -am- a demon. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe? Hard to roleplay here given lack of dialogue so far. Lots of talk about me deciding things but, well, I've just beaten up some little kids so far.

This game is just piling on the MYSTERIOUS FIGURES though. I can dig it.

I should have been asleep hours ago...but man this is a lot of smurfing fun. I am going to like this game.

Do these dialogue choices matter? I am emphasizing my PC being kind of clueless. Cihiaki asked me if I knew what happened and I didn't say "the Conception happened" because what the smurf does that even mean.

What's up with these...nearest I can think of them for comparison is from Star Ocean": Th eLast Hope. They were called Ambushed when you were forced into a second battle with a new group of enemies immediately after killing the first group. But as it pertains to this game, is there any rhyme or reason to a second group of enemies appearing like that? Seems like it could get dangerous in later dungeons with harder enemies.


At Ginza now, I told "Spectre" I was going to kill him...er, it because it was clearly out to get me. The Network place was wonderful for gaining Macca and EXP, though. So far I've been working on the ice and support Magatama. Since you gain abilities at level up, I'm kinda worried about sticking with just one and missing out on useful skills.... On the other hand, constantly switching will also leave me screwed in terms of missed skills. Decisions, decisions.

Although I nearly got my first Game Over when I had a double dose of "new enemies appeared." It was my own fault for forgetting I have support moves and being reluctant to use MP but in the end I made it out alive. I do have quite the supply of Chakra Drops, maybe I should be less stingy with skills.

So I've been so engrossed in Nocturne I haven't written anything in ages.

I've had several more game overs since my last comment. Most notable and least shameful was against Matador. I did not see a boss fight coming! Luckily he made me realize my party desperately needed reconfiguring and that was why I was getting my ass kicked so often. I went and did some fusion, turning Angel and someone else into Uzuma and some other random monsters into the catgirl thing. I would like to take credit for realizing Matador uses Force attacks and that's why I chose these monsters but I guess it's kinda obvious given, in my first attempt (of only two attempts, mind) I was the only one not being wrecked by his assault.

Let's go over that for a second. I was advised to pick melee or magic at the start. Mage 4 Life so I was very happy when I arrived at the little underground hideout and could buy more magic Magatama. Up until that point I had learned Ice Earth with the ice magic Magatama but I spent far more time on the support magic one. That was what really saved me against Matador. True, my party now being largely immune to his attacks was a good thing but it was the Defense Down spell I learned that really sealed his face. Inuagami and his Medium-level Bite attack has been my best source of damage in the last couple boss fights. He just evolved into Makami too. Although now I have Tornado + Force Boost so here's hoping I can now kick ass.

In terms of plot...well, Matador was pretty cool for the five seconds he was around . Otherwise it's just mystery upon mystery up until this point. I'm at the Mantra base and I guess my other friend is here so that's cool. I suppose ostensibly my ultimate goal is to try and find Ms (Mrs?) Takao and the other jerk. I had to look up his name. Hikawa is not a very memorable or interesting villain so far. I'm far more interested in the little kid and the mysterious woman. MegaTen wiki says Hikawa is a "Reason Bearer" whatever that means. Maybe he'll be better later on.

Overall, I am pretty much addicted to this game right now. Strange Journey was a lot of fun but...I dunno, it all felt so impersonal. It doesn't sound like much but actually being able to see myself and my demons in battle matters.

So Thor was quite intimidating at first. I mean, the bastard gets like three or four attacks in a row! I was stumped for a bit, thinking I just had to somehow tank it with the help of lowering his attack power.
However Makami has Fog Breath now and I guess what Thor does is considered some kind of combo attack because when he misses the first move, he doesn't get any mor attacks in. Made the fight a lot simpler.

So is my old buddy who clearly was hot for teacher dead? They explained Magatsuhi as, I think, energy born of emotions and stuff. Is it like a soul? Can you not live without it? I thik my friend deserves some props merely for surviving one hit from Thor.

Also I remember we are supposed to be looking for "the others" like Chiaki recommended. Well, there's one other down and we're about to go find Takao maybe. But Chiaki hasn't said trout and neither did I. I guess nobody liked that kid Thor killed.

So....I hate Dante. Always have. I hate him in his games and I hate him here. Constantly de-debuffing himself and then using Provoke twice when I have no defense up skills. I managed to scrape out a win by fusing myself an Oni with Focus. He can do about 600 damage a turn which is awesome.

But now we are off to finally get into the Assembly thingy. I told the big guy that i wasn't sure about his offer yet. I need to se what Nihilo is all about before I pick a side.

But man, there are SO MANY Magatama still to come and I'm already way out of skill slots.... I suppose some of the skills will be replaced by upgraded versions, like how I dumped the lesser atack down skill for War Cry. But even still, this is gonna get annoying, trying to juggle all these abilities.

So I met Hikawa again. I told him I was there to see him because what the smurf else am I doing in this game? I said no I don't know what's up with the Magatsuhi. Apparently you need it to usher in a god. Not GOD god though. Also when he asked if I had come to see Yuko, I said no. That lady is ancient history to me now. You realize how many hours and levels it's been since I've seen her? Speaking of which, Dante is the worst demon slayer ever. "An old man told me to kill you." Even I am pretty sure I know who that old man is. Way to go demon slayer master bishie moron.

Speaking of all that netherworld business though, I just got my second Candelobra from that asshole who loved draining your MP. I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do in that Labyrinth? Just keep going lower and lower? I made it to the second Kalpa a while ago but stopped there.

But yeah, I annihilated that chump and Ose too. I figured a big boss was coming so I went and started messing with Fusion. Guess who found, at level 30, they can help recreate the awesome Matador? I was thinking I'd try to do sacrifice to amp him up but the game is on to me or something because it only let me fuse him when the Kagutsuchi cycle was low.

Oh and hey, I had begun to wonder if the plot had forgotten about Chiaki. Talk about off-screen character development. I like the serene music while she's talking about the strong trampling the weak though. She certainly cuts a different picture of this "Yosuga" than the Mantra top guys. Oh yeah, way back when the big guy asked if I wanted to join, I said I had to think about it. Anyway she asked if I agreed with her new enlightened worldview and I told her no. More accurately, I said I didn't "see the point." She took it all in good stride though. See you later for a boss battle probably.

And holy crap, Isamu IS still alive. Crazy. Now I gotta go rescue some Mankin.

Only, that will wait. At present, I am Level 32 and my new awesome team that just wrecked te hbosses consists of Matador, Zouchou and Sarasvati. Nearly Level 33 and I've played the game 20 hours.

I might still play more tonight but this post is gonna be so friggin' long... I can't help it. I literally couldn't stop playing except when I had to sleep, eat or walk my dog. This game is so good. I'm not only having a blast in terms of gameplay, I'm really interested in seeing where the story takes me. I already feel closer to this Nik than I did SJ's Nik. There's a huge cast of intriguing characters and mystries piled upon mysteries. I have to see how it's all unfolded and resolved.

Bit premature maybe but if this game continues to get better, it might end up one of my favorite JRPG's of all time. Bit more focus on the story and maybe some more dialogue choices or whatever and it be perfect.



Running into Matador was really a high point for me in the game and this song is a big reason for that. "trout gets real" to use a crass but apt cliche.

Also while it is a bit hard to RP in these games, I do have to consider my "Reason." That's the whole point of all this. All I know right now is I feel like my hero is rather detached. World ended, woke up as a demon, is now pretty much doing nothing but consorting with demons and dealing in their affairs. World of Stillness or Might Makes Right, neither one really appeals to "him." He just wants to continue experiencing it all, ya know? Find out who, what and why. Although Ms. Takao and my classmates have long since ceased having much meaning to me.