[PS2] [VITA] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

[christian]

http://p4.atlusnet.jp

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[christian]

Golden opening movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SHRgAPqXnk

I like the opening movie. Particularly the first 5 seconds, when seen on a Vita. It's like you're falling into the handheld. What a neat little effect.

[christian]

Game Over when MC dies in Persona is a terrible mechanic. Why is this still a thing? - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1361049

There is no reason for it and it's pretty stupid. The stealth and camera are terrible, too

The reason is to add tension to what would otherwise be very tedious grinding. EVERY fight in P5 is an opportunity to lose if you screw up, get ambushed and some fucker casts the wrong thing on you. So you try very hard not to screw up. When you do screw up, it hurts, this is known as "playing a game".

For an alternative, look at something like Bravely default which allows you to turn all battles off, walk to the save point and then grind beside it with absolutely no danger to anything. It makes it incredibly boring.

Persona is doing this right.

[christian]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=263

I feel like the idea of the MC dying = Game Over seems like a Hashino thing he takes a liking to? It's present in all/most of the games he's directed, starting with Nocturne.

If we're going to analyse that, I'm going to say that I feel Hashino doesn't really like the concept of parties in games but feels "forced" into it due to conventions. His first game at Atlus was Maken X, which is a first person slasher. Complete player agency, no party or menu gameplay. When he made SMT3, he removed the concept of a human party completely, and made it about the Demifiend and his demons. Lots of isolation, every other character in the game acts against you somewhat or courts your favor. With DDS he toyed around with a traditional party, but didn't stick around to direct the sequel. Instead he makes Persona 3, which has a party system where only the MC can be directly ordered. I think there's a running theme there. He changed Persona with each entry due to fan feedback, but given the freedom to make "anything" he wanted after Persona 4, he created Catherine, again a title with a single character being controlled.

Maybe it's coincidence, maybe it's subconscious preference, I don't know. But Hashino strikes me as someone who really wants to make games where the player -is- the character he (sorry, women don't play videogames) controls and likes building games and stories entirely around that. It'll be interesting to see what his idea of a fantasy RPG is.