FL Plays the Persona Series

[Fynn]

Idk, I kinda agree. Chrono Cross' was kind of a slog, EP's is smooth and fun

[Forsaken Lover]

The Innate System and the field effect was an awesome feature. The different points going into attacks was neat. Assigning spells to different levels was intriguing. There was actaul strategy and layers to the combat.

Collecting hundreds of cards is not what I'd call smooth. It's the very definition of a slog.

EDIT:

Also I will say that the final boss fight in EP is fantastic and very satisfying. It helps they re-use the IS final boss theme. (IS had a way better soundtrack) Hearing Nyarl scream "SUCCUMB, SUCCUMB!" in impotent fury as we beat his ass, and then watching him whine afterward only for our heroes to lay the smackdown on him, is just so cathartic.

You know, the later gods all accepted their lose in good grace.

[Wolf Kanno]

The innate abilities don't quite have the strategic advantage one would think outside of making your character an easy target for bosses since they can dish out more hurt than normal enemies and their massive HP pools will easily allow them to shrug off whatever your character can do before the boss kills them, so it's actually more useful to the computer than you. Same with the area effect mechanic which is a neat concept, but too difficult to take real advantage of for the player. You're often better off just wasting magic spells to prevent the enemies from taking advantage cause when it comes down to it, your melee and skills are more useful than the actual elements are outside of healing and getting the true ending. I don't even want to go into how absolutely useless summons and time consuming summons are or how utterly underwhelming the Dual/triple techs systems in this game are.

CC's system kind of combines the worst aspects of VII's materia, FFTactics' Mages, and Xenogears combat systems together with pointless customization you'll never use because the whole system is designed to make magic as tedious as hell to use, especially when melee trumps everything. I load characters up with some low level healing and just crack heads with my party, and despite the large cast, only a few characters are actually worth using. Never really had much use for the mechanics and it honestly makes going through the game a chore for me.

P2 might have pointless melee, but I honestly feel like that's a good thing because too many RPGs go the other way so at least making fusion spells and Persona customization keeps you invested in all of the mechanics. Collecting cards isn't even all that tedious and I often enjoy chatting with demons. It's better than just endless grinding for the stuff.

[Forsaken Lover]

Fair enough, I just want to know how you're supposed to restore Eikichi's and Lisa's memories in EP. I never saw any option for anything like that.

[Forsaken Lover]

This is a little post I wrote elsewhere about the genius of Innocent Sin's plot:

We all know how things go down in RPGs. Ancient prophecies, bad omens, the end of the world is nigh, etc.. There's a whole oracle that sounds fittingly mystical and ominous. But P2 flips this all on its head because, while it does continue prophecies, omens and the end of the world, all of this is strictly the delusions of three people. The problem is that, because one of these people has magic powers and is also a terrorist, he starts to make others believe in his nonsense about Mayan Aliens and the city being the cover for an ancient UFO. Now, in this magic universe, rumors become real. As such, as panic grows, people start to believe this patently absurd nonsense. The rumors become real, Nazis invade to seize the UFO, and destroy the world.

It's such a...video game plot yet it is lampshaded to Hell. None of these things mattered or were real until people started to believe they mattered and were real. All this stuff is treated like total nonsense and a joke, because it is, but then it becomes terrifyingly real. My favorite part is when our heroes triumphantly confront the main villain and are like "we have the Quest Iems! You stand no chance now!" And his response is to...laugh in their faces and chuck the item to the ground like worthless trash. Because it is worthless trash. It means nothing. None of this has meant anything. It's all been a farce, a mockery of the kind of story that might be treated 100% straight in another game.

I dunno if I read too much into it but it really felt to me like teh game was basically a giant jab at other fantasy stories.

Innocent Sin is such a good game. I'm so glad I gave it another chance.

I think I'll try to do the same for P5 eventually. My problem there, much like with IS and FFVI, was that I kept looking squinty-eyed it, searching for its alleged genius. When nothing wowed me, I got impatient. When nothing astounded me, I got angry. Eventually I was just aggressively demanding the game to amaze me already. Because Persona 4 Golden actually did all those things. P4G is one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had in my life and I wanted that again with P5. When it didn't deliver, I got rather upset and maybe hyperbolic.

So, I'll give it sometime. God knows when but I'll replay it someday and probably not hate it quite as much. I doubt I'll ever love it as much as P4G, though. Or P2IS.

[Wolf Kanno]

Fair enough, I just want to know how you're supposed to restore Eikichi's and Lisa's memories in EP. I never saw any option for anything like that.

EP Spoilers!You have to make all of the wrong choices with the Shadow versions of the party that are holding them hostage. If you do so, Lisa, Jun, and Eikichi will wake up early and remember everything. This will change the stats and abilities of the final boss making him more difficult and will change their scene in the ending. There are actually variations of it if you only wake up just one or two of them and not all three. I can't remember exactly, but you may even be able to speak with them at the Araya Shrine if you leave the final dungeon but my memory is fuzzy about that one.

I can understand your feelings with P5, a similar thing happened to me with P4 after coming off of the fantastic P3.