Paranoid android

Day 415

The cell phone store I work for is releasing the iPhone 6 tomorrow and for many of the inhabitants of my sleepy town it'll be their first change to get their hands on it. AT&T and other major providers have had the 6 for a week now, but their coverage in this area is spotty at best. I predict our stock will be gone within a few hours and I can't imagine we won't be very busy. I have the option of going in at 8 AM and staying until close--and I'm understandably hesitant to do so. I don't want to come off as lazy or anything, but I've already met my numbers for the month. It's extremely unlikely I'll hit my renewal quota regardless of what I do so coming in early would only marginally increase the number of hours I have for the week. Either way you look at it, it results in a larger paycheck for me, but I feel like I'd rather just get home earlier.

Anyway, I've beaten the main story mode of Persona 4 Arena, although I still have a lot more individual character story modes to finish. The credits rolled though, so that's good enough for me. I'm not necessarily shooting for 100% completion, although I probably will try to go through and finish the other story modes--unless I decide I'm just not feeling up to it or I'm feeling desperate to play a different game. Torchlight 2 should be finished in just a few days, so that just leaves Theatrhythm and Lufia 2 to contend with .I've read the credits roll for Theatrhythm as soon as you hit 20,000 Ryhthmia so that's what I'm going to try to work on next.

I like a lot of the story elements in Persona 4 Arena but I don't necessarily agree with the way they were presented. Maybe it's just because I tend to play through games in marathon sessions, but playing the different characters' story modes back to back is highly repetitive because things play out roughly identically each time with only the primary character of interest changing each time. Sure, there are different conversations and interactions, but the general events don't change. Particularly after you unlock the final scenes of each character's story in which you'll find yourself repeating the same ending sequence ten or eleven times in a row if you played through the characters in the order I did.

I don't have much in the way of suggestions as far as how to better handle this in a game like Arena. The characters in question all know each other and for the most part hang out with each other more than anyone else. Their backstories are all inextricably tied together due to attending the same high school--except of course for the Persona 3 characters on the roster. Unlike Dissidia, it is difficult to focus on what makes each character different. Their personalities and backstories were all fairly well established in Persona 4--and in many ways their personal conflicts were resolved. Arena attempts to dredge up old conflicts in. For this reason, much of the story mode feels a little played out. The most interesting part of it involves Labrys, the new character introduced just for the game. Unfortunately, since the game centers around her, it's not difficult to become tired of seeing her pop up in every single scene.

The gameplay itself seems a little shallow as well--although I'm definitely not an expert on fighting games. It's possible it's less shallow than I imagine, but it's certainly much easier to exploit that I realized initially. It's possible to pull off very serviceable combos just by mashing Square over and over. I tested once whether or not I could defeat the AI by pressing nothing but Square--and much to my dismay I was able to do so easily. I'd prefer not to game the system like this--and I usually don't because the AI is not particularly challenging in the first place--but it's troubling that it's so easy to do.

Midday slumber

Day 413

Hey, it's the pi entry. This makes me think of pie, circles, and the webcomic Homestuck, a series I enjoy despite its rabid and frequently annoying fanbase. Of course, it's nowhere near the actual pi day, so I guess this is somewhat irrelevant. Never mind the fact the comic hasn't been updating for nearly a year now. 

My point is that I randomly fell asleep! I was really tired because I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately. Unfortunately, I only got about three hours of sleep even this time. It wasn't like I woke up to an alarm or anything, either. I just woke up with no external stimulus whatsoever. That is annoying  and it happens to me a lot. Granted, I don't have great sleeping conditions and I should really work on that considering that I know how big a contributor that is to one's mood. As usual though, I'm far too lazy to be proactive.

I'm almost done with the individual story chapters in Persona 4 Arena but it looks like my playthrough will only be 50% complete once I do that. I'm not sure exactly what's next. I almost wonder if it'll have me play a second chapter of each of those character's stories to continue the overall plot of the game. Every single character I've played so far has ended with To Be Continued after all, with most of them not elaborating much on events past that point. Teddie's storyline has so far gone the farthest in that it reveals exactly what Labrys' shadow transforms into--but it ended right there.

To be honest, the constant repetition in the story elements of Persona 4 Arena is getting pretty tiring to deal with. Every single fight in the game so far has been between members of the Investigation Team (or with some Persona 3 characters) and it generally plays out the same way every time. Some unknown entity is orchestrating it from behind the scenes. He or she is deceiving the characters' minds into believing their friends are saying hurtful things and attempting to incite them to fight. Every time, the characters slowly come to the conclusion that they are being duped and only after fighting each other can they come to terms. Other characters take it more in stride than others, but it's still very repetitive. I say this as someone who quite enjoyed the plot of Persona 4 despite its flaws.

I can only hope the second half of the Arena story mode is more fluid and less repetitive--if it even exists! "To Be Continued" could easily mean the plot won't be continued until Ultimax, the sequel--but I don't think that's what's going on. I would think the overall story in Arena would have more resolution than that, even if it was acknowledged there would be a sequel.It's hard to say , though. I'm on Aigis's story mode right now and I only have two more to go after that--unless there are secret characters with their own story modes. I already know that Elizabeth from Persona 3 is in the game but so far she has not been shown to be playable.

The visual novel fighting game

Day 411

Persona 4 Arena is without a doubt the most plot-heavy fighting game I've played--which is saying something considering the fact I just recently played through Dissidia 012. That was a game in which plot featured heavily, but it is at its heart a crossover fighter mixing characters from different games (within the same series) and featuring plot elements from each of those games. None of the events of those games were meant to fit into anything but an alternate universe canon. I get the impression that Persona 4 Arena is entirely canonical to the Persona timeline--which evidentlly contains Persona 3 as well. It's difficult to say if the first two (three?) games of the series fit into that storyline at all.

In Arena, Yu Narukami comes back to visit Inaba two months after the events of Persona 4. Right before he returns, the Midnight Channel starts broadcasting once again, but this time things are different. The broadcast features all of the members of the Investigation Squad and in perfect clarity--although none of them are inside the TV world as of yet. A heretofore unknown individual is behind it this time, although you're led to believe that Teddie himself has orchestrated some kind of fighting tournament and is manipulating and/or brainwashing the members of the Investigation Squad to fight each other.

I've played through the storylines of Yu himself as well as Yosuke Hanamura because it seemed to make the most sense to play the storylines in the order the characters were recruited in Persona 4. Even though I've only played two characters so far, I've probably spent over two hours on the game--and only about 10 or 11 actual matches. There is a lot of text in this game and a lot of dialogue, all of which is fully voiced. I find the plot interesting, but the balance between story and gameplay is significantly different from what I was expecting. I would have at least preferred for the story battles themselves to take more time. They're all one-round fights that take thirty seconds or less. The mechanics of the game are much more traditional than something like Dissidia, but the controls seem reasonably fluid and although I'm not great at fighting games, I feel I'm getting the hang of it and I enjoy it. The story mode doesn't give you a lot of time to practice, though.

I guess from now on I'll attempt to play a character a little bit in the practice mode to get a hang of their style before tackling their story mode. The characters in Arena don't have pages and pages of moves like in some fighters but the mechanics are still a little more complicated than what I'm used to. On the surface, the gameplay is fairly simple. You have a light attack and heavy attack and so too does the character's Persona. These attacks can be weaved together in combos--in ways that require experimentation on the part of the player. Other mechanics are more difficult for me to understand, like One More Cancels and Furious Actions. Pressing multiple buttons simultaneously on the PS3 controller seems a lot more difficult than it should be--and far more suitable for an arcade stick, something I'm certainly not willing to buy.

Digging deeper

Day 407

Although I fully acknowledge that it's against my better judgment, I purchased two new games today. This is the first time I've purchased physical games in several months--although I did buy Borderlands 2 and Divinity: Original Sin digitally through Steam somewhat recently. I don't feel guilty for doing that though because I completed both of them--and they were co-op. That might imply I'm guilty about my purchases today, but that's only half true. I've had my eye on these games for some time and I'm sure it won't take me long to finish them--and I also fully intend to make Innocent Sin my first priority for the moment. Right after I finish writing this entry, I'm going to get back to it!

Anyway, the two titles I purchased today were Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call for Nintendo 3DS and Persona 4 Arena for PlayStation 3. I'm obviously a huge fan of both franchises and I've been craving some games that aren't just straight up RPGs. Playing so many back to back has been particularly exhausting. Theatrhythm is pretty much exactly as I expected. Not much has changed since the first game of the series but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm a tremendous fan of music from the Final Fantasy series and I'm thrilled to see that Square Enix has decided to include music and characters from less popular titles as well--like Final Fantasy Tactics! Maybe this means they'll make another Dissidia title sometime down the line in which Ramza (or Marche? or Luso) appears. 

It hardly seems necessary to clarify at this point, but Curtain Call is a rhythm game in the vein of Elite Beat Agents or Osu. I'm not familiar with the former but I've heard the comparison made for games that follow the format of tapping circles and following patterns to the beat of music. It's evidently a reasonably popular subgenre of rhythm game, but I've only played Osu! and the aforementioned Theatrhytthm titles. They're quite fun but Curtain Call has the added benefit of being endorsed by Square Enix and having the rights to all of the Final Fantasy characters. The game allows you to assemble a party of characters from the games and vanquish mighty foes and travel across the world, all of which is rendered in an adorable chibi art style. The RPG elements present in the game seem to be little more than background noise for the rhythm game itself, however. I was hoping Curtain Call would have made these elements more relevant, but I suppose I can't render a judgment so quickly since I've only played it for an hour or so.

Persona 4 Arena on the other hand is a reasonably straightforward fighting game at least as far as my expertise on the subject would suggest. What is unusual about Arena is the extreme emphasis on plot in the story mode. I've played several traditional fighters over the years, most of which feature skeletal story modes that treat the player with little more than brief blurbs to suggest that things are indeed going on in the background. Arena structures its plot in much the same way as the main series RPGs do--with a lot of dialogue and exposition. In fact, it's a little overwhelming just how much emphasis there is on that plot especially when one considers the fights themselves generally span 30 seconds or so. I've played the game for probably two hours now and I've been in four or five fights. The balance seems to be a little off but I can't say I mind since I am genuinely interested in the plot of the game.

Yes, this is a photo of my television

Persona 4 Arena strikes me as nothing so much as a visual novel combined with a fighting game. It's a strange hybrid but so far I feel it works for me. I enjoy the Persona series mythos and I'm relieved to find that Atlus hasn't skimped on their storytelling in a genre that typically places less emphasis on plot. I can only hope I'll grow accustomed enough to the game that I won't feel I'm button-mashing my way through every fight. I'm certainly not the best at traditional fighters even if I find them really interesting.