Shin Megami Tensei / Persona News

[Maf]

Atlus holding a $20,000 charity tournament on the 18th

 

https://dotesports.com/fgc/news/atlus-to-host-20000-persona-4-arena-ultimax-charity-sho-down-on-march-18

 

Maybe a good chance to check the game out (LordKnight, one of the streamers I like is one of the 8 invited which is cool)

[Maf]

P3P, P4 Golden and P5R all coming to Xbox Game Pass. Starting with Persona 5R in October. 

 

 

Unfortunately Persona 3 looks like just a HD version of the PSP version. But whatever any P3 is better than no P3 (IMO the best of these 3 games) 

[one-armed dwarf]

Tbh, I would sooner play a modded version of the ps2 FES with proper party control on an emulator. The PSP version just lacks personality imo, which is pretty important in this game given how repetitive it can be.

 

But anyway, this means that persona 5 is coming to a handheld (steam deck). Maybe I finally get more than 10 hours in but it felt very samey to me back in 2017

[Maf]

I don't know what you mean when you say lacks personality. I also don't remember how the party stuff worked. I definitely played FES version but didn't the party act by themselves in that version, too?

[one-armed dwarf]

In FES they are AI controlled and do stupid things, it's rly annoying 

 

Lacks personality in that you have 3d animated characters in FES reacting to story events, while you don't have that in P3P, you just look at portraits of people. 

 

That sounds like a small thing but it had a pretty big impact on my impression personally, I thought it lost too much there

 

 

[Maf]

I never had much problem with the AI party stuff. P3 was like all Persona games. Starts hard, levels out, gets really hard right at the end. As far as I remember the party stuff wasn't an issue for me. 

 

I didn't know there were no cutscenes in the portable version. That will hurt for sure, but might be all right. 

 

The thing that's going to hurt new players is Tartarus. 100 floors of procedurally generated rooms lets go 

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[HandsomeDead]

I've not played P3P but from what I've heard the interesting thing about that version of the game in particular was being able to have the protagonist as a girl.  And it wasn't done in a way that is usual where the game plays out the same way but it was rewritten with other characters treating her differently in subtle ways.  I think I remember the devs saying it actually ended up being more work than they expected and why they haven't done it again.

[Maf]

Playing as the girl I think means you can flirt with the whole other half of the cast. Including, err…
 

I was so high on Persona 3 when I played it I got P3P pretty much straight after. But it was too much too start that whole game from the beginning so only got about a hour or 2 in. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Wait so the PSP version is for nonces? 

[Maf]

The second P doesn’t stand for portable 

[DisturbedSwan]

Just announced for Switch as well, think it's the same trailer:

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Persona 3 Remake rumoured to be at Xbox Showcase

 

 

Source is a Resetera user so take with a heaps of salt. 

 

[HandsomeDead]

Persona 3 Remake rumours are consistently rife in weeb areas ( I'm weeb adjacent enough to know this).  Fucking rules if true.  

 

But yes, it has a wonderfully dark and weirdly optimistic story at the same time.  It sells it consistently with its themes.  But it has 2006 attitudes that undermines it.  In a way it was ahead of its time but very much not so at others.  I'm not even applying modern standards to it, there was discourse even back then. 

 

If a remake is real I hope they've recognised that too.  Then put all that Persona 5 aesthetic over it and now you have probably one of the best games of all time.  It's worth shooting for.

 

P3 is one of my favourite games of all time.  And a version of it without the really, really cringe stuff, and some really cool characters applied better.  It could be a perfect video game.

 

Then we can forget about Persona 4...  Fuck I hate the Vita for making Persona 4 a lot of people's first Persona so we have to take it seriously.  Persona 5 is obviously better, then we get a P3 remake which always had the strongest bones as a story, then we can forget P4 existed.  It can be the Final Fantasy VIII of the Persona series.  Even though FFVIII is better than P4.  

 

Sorry, I've secretly hated P4 and I'm coming out of the closet.  I played it a lot.  It's not without its merits but it's too square.

[DANGERMAN]

Wonder if they keep the guns to release your Persona? 

[HandsomeDead]

I think they kinda have to, it was the striking, upfront visual that sets the scene of the story.  

 

The trigger warning Tumblr crowd don't have that much actual cultural impact, if they ever did they certainly don't now.  I'm sure they'll be a trigger warning: this includes themes of suicide but the broader story is about overcoming these feelings.  I do see it as a story that is cathartic to people who go through this kind of situation, to put it in a broader sense it's like listening to a sad song when you're sad.  It's like not feeling alone in your feelings when you might in your life.

 

I guess they may just adopt how Persona's were summoned in all the other games to stay under the radar but while the series is bigger than it was in 2005 I don't think they're being noticed by the mainstream in a big way.  It's a remake, the "well we already did it" argument is there, and it's tightly tied to the story's themes.  I'll be more surprised if it's cut than not.

[DisturbedSwan]

I've always wanted to play Persona 3 but never have, to be fair before the recent remasters the only way was to pick up a copy of FES or P3 on PSP/PS2 which usually go for a lot of money nowadays, but after the remasters came out I said to myself I'd buy and play through P3 on Switch but never have.

 

So yeah, this rumoured Remake would be fucking fantastic to me. I don't jive with all this Persona 4 slander though, one of my favourite games of all time, miles better than Persona 5, not played P3 so will be interesting to see how it compares if/when I get to play the Remake.

[Maryokutai]

I wouldn't even call it a rumour at this point, they showed some footage of it in an investor's meeting.

 

Edit: I also don't think they're going to touch its central themes too much. P5 tackled some serious topics as well that you'd think would be taboo in a JRPG, and despite being in the limelight for a while didn't catch too much flak for it. And even if it had, that's no reason to back down.

[one-armed dwarf]

Both games are fine, P4 is slightly better here if we are talking about the PS2 versions. The AI controlled party members in FES were really fucking annoying. The portable version fixed that, but extracted all the charm by removing all the animations and character interactions and replacing it with a visual novel style. It's always been frustrating for this, there's no ideal version of the game to play. Not to mention it's an earlier, creakier framework for the 'modern' Persona games (which again imo, P4 is actually better at. I can't judge P5, I was done with the series at that point).

 

One of those situations in remake-mania where I kind of see the point in remaking it. As long as it's still a turn based grindy game at the end of the day, a visual uplift which keeps all the cool charm of the original with the gameplay enhancements of later entries is a way to go with it.

 

Also be cross platform please, PC for steam deck. Or even Switch, the OLED screen is so nice that I can forgive the lack of power

 

Also Mary's right we already know what it looks like 

 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/possible-first-footage-of-the-rumoured-persona-3-remake-the-new-jet-set-radio-teamreal-vs-teamfake.706616/

 

No evoker present in this footage, btw

[HandsomeDead]

My issue with P4 is purely story.  They definitely got better at making these kinds of Persona games as they went along so structurally it's better than P3 but it's just everything else.

 

I liked how you had no direct control of the party members in some ways.  Mostly because it made the battles quick and they were very predictable with using the tactics commands and having bi-proxy control of the party.  Problem is you got the different commands drip fed to you and it made early parts of the game up to the AI whether they'll play ball.  I guess there could be a world where that was developed like FFXII's gambit system than just giving the player full control of the party.