Okay so, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a great game; I can't stress that enough. It is, however, a frustrating game. While P4 did improve on P3 in many important ways to streamline the experience, it is still a fact that P4 motivated me to hurl my controller on many occasions. I feel the primary source of my frustration lies in how common instant-kill moves are on frequently encountered enemies. There's nothing quite like stumbling into a Shadow and immediately being killed because you didn't have the initiative and the enemy was packing a Hama or Mudo spell. Granted, the developers did take pains to reduce the likelihood of this occurring; if you have close relationships with your party members, they will often push you, the protagonist aside just as you are about to suffer a fatal blow and bear the brunt of the attack. There is also an item called the Homonculus that will automatically sacrifice itself to prevent an instant-kill spell from going off. Despite all these safeguards, nothing can reduce my rage when I have to lose 5 floors of progress because I was attacked from behind and nailed with four instant-kill spells in a row. And they often cast a version that targets your entire party, which means there's no saving you.

How could they have alleviated this stress further? Don't issue a game over as soon as the protagonist goes down. Most RPGs do this, why not Persona? Granted, Persona does follow the mute protagonist model and you, as the gamer, are expected to fill his shoes; without your input, the game cannot continue. But come on, Yukiko has a resurrection spell! Why must she be limited to using it only on two of her party members? I feel like this is an artificial inflation of difficulty for an already satisfyingly challenging game. I guess I shouldn't complain. Persona 3 was worse, and it took me a good 20 hours longer to complete.

Let's try this out.

I've always had this nagging urge to maintain some sort of blog and although I've kept a LiveJournal for many years now, I very seldom update it. I feel like LiveJournal is primarily an outlet to discuss one's personal life, or at least that is the precedent I have set and I don't feel comfortable changing it. I don't consider myself an interesting person by a long shot; what could I possibly have to say (about myself) that would intrigue anyone? I maintain that there is nothing. That is not to say that I won't ever update my LiveJournal again, but I'm hoping that this blog will be an impetus for me to start writing more frequently. But what will I write about, you ask? Video games, of course.

Today (and I use the word in the loosest sense, since I began at 7 PM and it is now 10 AM the following morning) was essentially a marathon gaming session. First I tackled 2008's Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, beginning from the save point right outside the final dungeon. This turned into an hours-long endeavor when I realized the final boss was a huge pain and would require lots of grinding. Still, I did eventually emerge victorious, much to my relief. I purchased the game not long after its original release and although I progressed quickly through the majority of the game, my frustration prevented me from continuing past a certain dungeon for oh, two years or so. I had been wanting to finish it for a very long time, but every time I revisited it, I found myself lacking the determination to continue. Persona 4 is not the most difficult game I have ever played, but it punishes those who do not wish to grind, much like its direct predecessor Persona 3. After completing it, I can safely say it ranks as one of my top RPGs, but it is of course not without its flaws, and I prefer Persona 3 in some ways. After all, there had to have been some reason I shelved the game for so long.

After the long grind of Persona 4's final boss battle, I was jubilant with victory. I was on a roll, I thought! So, I decided to resume my playthrough of Radiant Historia, a recent RPG release on the Nintendo DS. This game was originally hyped (by a Gamestop employee) as being similar to the legendary Chrono Trigger, but despite the game's involvement with time travel, I must disagree. Still, it's a very good game, probably the best Nintendo DS RPG I have played, but again, not without its flaws. It's nearly 11 AM now and I just finished the final boss fight (which was a breeze) after laboriously completing sidequest after sidequest (not such a breeze) in order to achieve the coveted "Complete" status that is so often out of my reach.

I am very tired. I will try to go into more details about these games tomorrow, and talk about what I'm tackling next.