Is This A Cluuuuub?

[rionaleonhart]

More Persona 3 FES! I'm coming up to the May full moon, which I... assume is significant, given that the game keeps me informed of the current phase of the moon at all times. Maybe we're all werewolves.

I'm not sure about this condition thing. SP conservation is already enough of an issue when I'm dungeon crawling; I don't want to have to worry about whether my party members are tired on top of that!

I just want to be able to push my friends to exhaustion without having to feel bad or face any consequences. Come on.

One interesting point about the tiredness system: it does force me to pace myself. In 4 and 5, I'd go to the other world once per story arc and stay there for hours. In Persona 3, I have to break the dungeon crawling up into manageable chunks, which does at least mean the fighting and story sections are more evenly distributed.

KENJI DON'T ASK OUT YOUR TEACHER

I've taken a quick dislike to Kenji (it's possible this is a completely unfair 'you're not Yosuke >:(' reaction), so it's perhaps unfortunate that he's the only social link I have a matching Persona for. I was about to hang out with him, and then he made a weird comment about Yukari, so I turned around and walked straight to the other side of the classroom to hang out with the track team instead. Yukari is best girl, admittedly, but I don't want to hear it from you!

(Very confusing that, having spent a couple of months talking about Yosuke and Kanji, I'm now talking about Kosuke and Kenji. I realise a significant proportion of this is my own fault, given that it was my decision to name the protagonist Kosuke.)

This game hasn't clicked with me as swiftly and completely as its successors, perhaps because I haven't fallen in love with any of the characters yet. But I'm only a handful of hours into an eighty-hour game; there's time!

I'm strangely charmed by the fact that one of your social links is someone you hang out with on an MMO. Brings back memories of Runescape. Kosuke's dynamic with the elderly couple is also pretty endearing; they keep giving him food!

I caught myself smiling on my date with Elizabeth. What a wonderful weirdo. She's having a great time.

'Your Charm changed from "Plain" to "Unpolished"!' Ouch.

It's interesting to see the characterisation impressions the Persona protagonists give me, given that they don't really speak for themselves. Rei (my Joker) is sarcastic, playful and a little reckless, but he studies hard to fight against the negative impression people have of him. Toya (my Yu) is steady, direct and thoughtful, and he takes his responsibilities seriously, although he does also spend hours playing with cats on the street and flirt with Yosuke at every opportunity. And I'm still getting to know Kosuke, but so far he's coming across as, er, clueless and eager to please, bless him.

Comments

[pict]

This entry is so cute! I hope the game grows on you more; the gameplay is much less grand than later games and the characters have more immediate conflict, which - honestly, I love turning the necessity of their supernatural mission into a team dynamic over the course of months. But it does translate into a game that’s less friendly from the outside.

And yes, Kazushi > Kenji.

Maybe we're all werewolves.

Yup. You cracked it.

[rionaleonhart]

Ooh, I do love people gradually growing to care for each other after being thrown together by necessity! (An aspect I enjoy in many Final Fantasy games, particularly Final Fantasy XIII, where some of the party members outright loathe others at the start. I was going to say 'loathe each other', but no; they hate Snow, who loves everyone.) I suppose I just wasn't braced to go straight from two games of 'you're all friends! hooray!' to 'hey, loser, we're fighting monsters; you can hold a sword, right?'

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure about this condition thing. SP conservation is already enough of an issue when I'm dungeon crawling; I don't want to have to worry about whether my party members are tired on top of that!

You'll be glad to know that this is more of a problem at the beginning and becomes less noticeable later on! At least going to the entrance of Tartarus is free SP heal so it's not as much of a barrier as in later (previous?) games.

Oh, little combat tip for you and it's the only one I'll give: make sure you're always using analyse. In P4 and P5 it may not be an option you use very much, but it's really important in P3 as it helps out the AI (the AI won't "cheat" and know what things are weak to/reflect etc, it will only get that information if you analyse).

I've taken a quick dislike to Kenji (it's possible this is a completely unfair 'you're not Yosuke >:(' reaction)

It is perfectly acceptable to dislike Kenji. (My opinion to Kenji is sort of like your opinion to Mishima.)

(Very confusing that, having spent a couple of months talking about Yosuke and Kanji, I'm now talking about Kosuke and Kenji. I realise a significant proportion of this is my own fault, given that it was my decision to name the protagonist Kosuke.)

You're not even done with the confusingly similar names to other Persona games portion yet. :P

This game hasn't clicked with me as swiftly and completely as its successors, perhaps because I haven't fallen in love with any of the characters yet.

I think this is fairly normal. I referred to P3 having quite a different party dynamic to the previous games. It always feels less "BFFs forever!!" for me and more "people who wouldn't necessarily have much to do with eachother brought together by a common cause". There's a certain element of that in the later games too, but I think you really feel it in P3, especially at the beginning. I like that it has a different feel as many of the Persona games have similar elements which is great, but it's also nice to have those differences.

I think part of it is also the social link situation: your first social links in 4 and 5 are party members so you get a really strong impression early on. Here you have no social links with party members right now so it's a much slower burn getting to know them as that responsibility for developing the characters is hefted onto the main plot so the pacing is different.

I'm glad you like Yukari! My favourite girl when I played was definitely Mitsuru, though.

I caught myself smiling on my date with Elizabeth. What a wonderful weirdo. She's having a great time.

I didn't care too much about Margaret in P4 entirely because she wasn't Elizabeth. I'm sorry, Margaret, but Elizabeth has set my bar very high!

It's interesting to see the characterisation impressions the Persona protagonists give me, given that they don't really speak for themselves.

Yes! You kind of develop a personality for them, but they do feel like very different characters which I think is really cool. Shin Megami Tensei games (from which Persona is an offshoot) often go with the silent protagonist model, so they're used to playing with it. They do some very interesting playing with the idea in Digital Devil Saga, across the 2 games as a whole.

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

At least going to the entrance of Tartarus is free SP heal

I am enjoying this! I'm feeling much more able to use my SP freely.

Thank you for the tip!

I'm sort of impressed that I've come across a Persona character you dislike.

I like that it has a different feel

It's definitely interesting that this game starts out with all your teammates knowing about Shadows and the other world already; it makes for a very different opening!

Here you have no social links with party members right now

This is a really good point. (I'm itching to get to know Yukari better!)

I was expecting Elizabeth to be similar to Margaret, who never particularly interested me, and I was taken aback by how much fun Elizabeth is.

[lassarina]

KENJI DON'T ASK OUT YOUR TEACHER for real though

Fun fact: the Hermit S.Link is sprinkled with little Persona 2 references! :) I didn't know that the first time and I still haven't played both halves of P2, but it's charming to me.

[rionaleonhart]

She mentioned she'd named us after game characters; I was wondering whether it was a reference to an earlier Persona game! That's very cute.