I've talked a lot about Persona on this blog. I was so excited for the upcoming release of Persona 5 in 2017 that I embarked on a partial marathon of the series with plans to finish up right before the release. I played Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 4 Golden in succession, finishing just in time for the Persona 5 release date, which I then played nonstop for about 120 hours. Needless to say, I was pretty burned out on Persona at that point, even though I enjoyed the game a lot.
With the news that Persona 5 Royal is essentially an enhanced rerelease of the game, do I feel ready to embark on that 120+ hour journey again? Well, considering that the game doesn't come out in the US until next year, I think the answer to that is probably yes. It's been enough time. I'm perfectly ready to be stressed out by the planning needed to max out all confidants, especially since this version of the game will have at least two more of them than the original release. But that's okay, since it evidently contains an additional semester, just like Persona 4 Golden did.
It's clear at this point that the Atlus goal of branching out the Persona 5 brand into as many different revenue streams as possible is coming to fruition. First there was Persona 5 Dancing, which was surprisingly excellent. Next year will be Persona 5 Royal and announced just today was Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, a musou game in the tradition of Dynasty Warriors with an as-of-yet unannounced release date. Considering how fun Dragon Quest Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors were, I'm definitely on board for this Persona variety. I think there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with it as long as they retain the base game's sense of style and aesthetic.
What no one's really talking about at the moment is another Persona spin-off game coming up in just a couple months, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. I loved the original Persona Q, which featured characters from both Persona 3 and 4 in an Etrian Odyssey dungeon-crawler mashup. I liked it enough that it sparked my interest in the Etrian Odyssey series in general. Here I am several years later, playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, having completed every main entry in the series up to that point. I'm really excited about Q2 because of course it adds Persona 5 characters but keeps all the old ones too. Sure, some might grumble about breaking out their old 3DSes again, but mine never really left the rotation in the first place.
With all of these new Persona 5 titles coming soon, it's not hard to see why Atlus decided to work with Nintendo to incorporate Joker into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, especially considering that Persona 5 Scramble will be releasing on Switch in addition to PS4. Sony seems to have a stranglehold on exclusivity for the main Persona titles, but Atlus is still giving Nintendo a lot of support in spin-off titles. Maybe one day we'll see Persona on Switch, but it seems at least for now that's not happening.
Showing posts with label super smash bros. ultimate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label super smash bros. ultimate. Show all posts
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Saturday, April 13, 2019
December 2018 Catchup
Well, here we are, the last month of the two years of time I didn't touch this blog. Sort of. It's not a perfect cutoff point, but it's the span of time I chose to cover, and I'm sticking to it.
In December, I played a pretty oddball assortment of games. I alluded to it previously when I discussed playing God of War: Ascension and God of War III Remastered, but I finally decided to pick up the new God of War reboot for PS4 and finished it near the beginning of December. It is, in my mind, a true evolution of the series. While the previous God of War games are arcade-style action games with some light character progression and puzzle-solving, the new God of War is this fully-realized, open-world action RPG from an over-the-shoulder perspective.
It's easy to see how God of War stalwarts might have been turned off by the change in direction, but as someone who has played through all of these games (yes, even the PSP ones), I can't agree more with the direction Sony has decided to take the series. I mentioned previously that revisiting God of War III put a bad taste in my mouth because it was so garishly tackly, so much a celebration of gore and gratuitous sexuality. The new God of War is violent and dark, but it serves a purpose. It serves the narrative.
God of War moves past the series roots in Greek mythology and firmly lodges itself in the mythos of the Ancient Norse and its pantheon of gods. It's unclear how Kratos found his way to Scandinavia, but he is much older, more grizzled than before. His rage has been tempered, but he is no less terrifying in combat. He is also feared by his only son, Atreus, who, willingly or not, accompanies the storied warrior throughout the game.
I'd never been particularly compelled by the plots of previous God of War games, but this one really drew me in. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece, but it's very engaging. It's helpful that the combat itself is extraordinarily satisfying. Ditching the classic Blades of Chaos for a simple axe was probably about the best call Sony Santa Monica could have made. After wielding those blades for five different games, they'd started to feel quite dull. The enchanted axe Kratos wields in God of War feels powerful and impactful. There's not much more fun in video games than hurling it into a dark elf's face and then recalling it directly to your hand.
There's a lot more I could say about this game. I loved that when traveling by boat through the waters of Midgard, Kratos and Atreus would exchange stories. When you come ashore, they'd stop the story in the middle and promise to resume later. It's a small, relatively inconsequential thing, but I really appreciated how natural it felt in the context of the game. It's also so antithetical to how the previous game's functioned. God of War is about fatherhood, companionship, redemption, and yes, tremendous amounts of violence. It is a game with considerably more depth than its predecessors and I can't wait to see what else is to come for the series as a whole.
After finishing a lengthy AAA open-world action game, I decided to move on to a game that could be considered the polar opposite of that--Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight. And I loved it. Although I skipped the original release of the first Persona dancing game on PlayStation Vita, I couldn't help but be entranced by the idea of the Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection which compiled three different releases together containing music from three different Persona games. I like rhythm games in general and love Shoji Meguro's Persona soundtracks, so it sounded right up my alley.
P3D is unlike a lot of other rhythm games I've played in that it requires you to manage pressing buttons on both sides of the controller and also tracking notes that are heading to both the left and right sides of the screen simultaneously. I felt like I had to reprogram my brain a bit to understand exactly how to do that. As another layer of complexity, it features special Fever Rings that require you to move the analog stick to trigger. At higher difficulties, some of the songs are extremely difficult but a lot of fun.
Another big draw of the game is that it features the actual characters from Persona 3 and as you complete songs, not only do you get to see them dancing along, you unlock the ability to have conversations with them, not unlike the social links from the main series. There are also costumes, accessories, and other cosmetic effects that are neat, but not the main appeal of the game for me. The core gameplay is really strong and addictive.
The collection also included the original Persona 4: Dancing All Night, which I completed afterward and was surprised to learn was very different in that it features a full story mode. And it's... not a good story mode. It is surprisingly text-heavy and ludicrously boring, especially early on. It takes a good 30-45 minutes before you even get the opportunity to play your first song, which is ridiculous. I'm not sure why I was surprised, though, since the original Persona 4 features probably 2-3 hours of story scenes before you get actual gameplay. Unlike that game, though, the story in P4D is pretty silly and trite. Luckily, the gameplay itself is just as strong as the other dancing games, but the fact that it's locked behind hours of painful text-driven story sours the experience quite a bit.
The only other game I finished in December was Super Smash. Bros. Ultimate, which I actually have mixed feelings on. The fact that it contains every single Smash Bros. character ever is incredible and the gameplay is as strong as its ever been. It also features some great new characters like Ridley, King K. Rool, and the Inklings from Splatoon. I also really appreciate that there's a lengthy single-player mode to play through, because Smash 4 didn't really offer much for people who didn't care for multi-player. But it's still disappointing that there wasn't anything in the game like Brawl's Subspace Emissary, with all of its ridiculous cutscenes. I know I'm in an extreme minority, but I like fighting games to have significant single-player story content, and although the Spirits mode gives you plenty to do, it's repetitive and ultimately not terribly rewarding.
I did try to get in as much online multiplayer as I could so I could get the full experience of the game, but my experience with the series and the significant amount of practice I got from the Spirits mode was not even close to enough to prepare me for playing against other people. I lost probably dozens of times. It was enough to really sour me on the experience--and that's a recurring problem I have with multiplayer games in general.
That's it, though! That's two years worth of games. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll do one more post to wrap everything up and show some statistics for what I completed in 2018. As I'm looking over some early 2019 stuff, I can see there are still some games I never ended up writing about--but we'll see how that goes.
In December, I played a pretty oddball assortment of games. I alluded to it previously when I discussed playing God of War: Ascension and God of War III Remastered, but I finally decided to pick up the new God of War reboot for PS4 and finished it near the beginning of December. It is, in my mind, a true evolution of the series. While the previous God of War games are arcade-style action games with some light character progression and puzzle-solving, the new God of War is this fully-realized, open-world action RPG from an over-the-shoulder perspective.
It's easy to see how God of War stalwarts might have been turned off by the change in direction, but as someone who has played through all of these games (yes, even the PSP ones), I can't agree more with the direction Sony has decided to take the series. I mentioned previously that revisiting God of War III put a bad taste in my mouth because it was so garishly tackly, so much a celebration of gore and gratuitous sexuality. The new God of War is violent and dark, but it serves a purpose. It serves the narrative.
God of War moves past the series roots in Greek mythology and firmly lodges itself in the mythos of the Ancient Norse and its pantheon of gods. It's unclear how Kratos found his way to Scandinavia, but he is much older, more grizzled than before. His rage has been tempered, but he is no less terrifying in combat. He is also feared by his only son, Atreus, who, willingly or not, accompanies the storied warrior throughout the game.
I'd never been particularly compelled by the plots of previous God of War games, but this one really drew me in. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece, but it's very engaging. It's helpful that the combat itself is extraordinarily satisfying. Ditching the classic Blades of Chaos for a simple axe was probably about the best call Sony Santa Monica could have made. After wielding those blades for five different games, they'd started to feel quite dull. The enchanted axe Kratos wields in God of War feels powerful and impactful. There's not much more fun in video games than hurling it into a dark elf's face and then recalling it directly to your hand.
There's a lot more I could say about this game. I loved that when traveling by boat through the waters of Midgard, Kratos and Atreus would exchange stories. When you come ashore, they'd stop the story in the middle and promise to resume later. It's a small, relatively inconsequential thing, but I really appreciated how natural it felt in the context of the game. It's also so antithetical to how the previous game's functioned. God of War is about fatherhood, companionship, redemption, and yes, tremendous amounts of violence. It is a game with considerably more depth than its predecessors and I can't wait to see what else is to come for the series as a whole.
After finishing a lengthy AAA open-world action game, I decided to move on to a game that could be considered the polar opposite of that--Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight. And I loved it. Although I skipped the original release of the first Persona dancing game on PlayStation Vita, I couldn't help but be entranced by the idea of the Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection which compiled three different releases together containing music from three different Persona games. I like rhythm games in general and love Shoji Meguro's Persona soundtracks, so it sounded right up my alley.
P3D is unlike a lot of other rhythm games I've played in that it requires you to manage pressing buttons on both sides of the controller and also tracking notes that are heading to both the left and right sides of the screen simultaneously. I felt like I had to reprogram my brain a bit to understand exactly how to do that. As another layer of complexity, it features special Fever Rings that require you to move the analog stick to trigger. At higher difficulties, some of the songs are extremely difficult but a lot of fun.
Another big draw of the game is that it features the actual characters from Persona 3 and as you complete songs, not only do you get to see them dancing along, you unlock the ability to have conversations with them, not unlike the social links from the main series. There are also costumes, accessories, and other cosmetic effects that are neat, but not the main appeal of the game for me. The core gameplay is really strong and addictive.
The collection also included the original Persona 4: Dancing All Night, which I completed afterward and was surprised to learn was very different in that it features a full story mode. And it's... not a good story mode. It is surprisingly text-heavy and ludicrously boring, especially early on. It takes a good 30-45 minutes before you even get the opportunity to play your first song, which is ridiculous. I'm not sure why I was surprised, though, since the original Persona 4 features probably 2-3 hours of story scenes before you get actual gameplay. Unlike that game, though, the story in P4D is pretty silly and trite. Luckily, the gameplay itself is just as strong as the other dancing games, but the fact that it's locked behind hours of painful text-driven story sours the experience quite a bit.
The only other game I finished in December was Super Smash. Bros. Ultimate, which I actually have mixed feelings on. The fact that it contains every single Smash Bros. character ever is incredible and the gameplay is as strong as its ever been. It also features some great new characters like Ridley, King K. Rool, and the Inklings from Splatoon. I also really appreciate that there's a lengthy single-player mode to play through, because Smash 4 didn't really offer much for people who didn't care for multi-player. But it's still disappointing that there wasn't anything in the game like Brawl's Subspace Emissary, with all of its ridiculous cutscenes. I know I'm in an extreme minority, but I like fighting games to have significant single-player story content, and although the Spirits mode gives you plenty to do, it's repetitive and ultimately not terribly rewarding.
I did try to get in as much online multiplayer as I could so I could get the full experience of the game, but my experience with the series and the significant amount of practice I got from the Spirits mode was not even close to enough to prepare me for playing against other people. I lost probably dozens of times. It was enough to really sour me on the experience--and that's a recurring problem I have with multiplayer games in general.
That's it, though! That's two years worth of games. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll do one more post to wrap everything up and show some statistics for what I completed in 2018. As I'm looking over some early 2019 stuff, I can see there are still some games I never ended up writing about--but we'll see how that goes.
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