There is definitely a much greater sense of personality with the Persona 5 protagonist than the previous 2 (with 3 being the most like a blank slate).
It is very disconcerting, though it has been somewhat hinted towards before! It makes sense in context as the character we play as is essentially a reconstruction from the mind of a naive child, but getting to see actual Serph is... definitely a thing. Also, whenever I see that scene, he makes me think of Light Yagami for some reason!
Okay, so, The Painscreek Killings! [ENDING SPOILERS FOR PAINSCREEK KILLINGS TO FOLLOW] It's billed as a game where you're in an abandoned town and have to find out who killed a certain woman, with what, and why, and get a photo of something to write a news article about it. Gameplay primarily consists of wandering the town (very slowly if you're me) exploring abandoned buildings, findings keys and codes and diaries and being able to slowly unravel exactly what was going on in this town. It's not just one death either: though you're tasked to find out about one, you learn that there are multiple, you get diaries from 3 or 4 different time periods and it's all about connecting all the events together and learning about characters. Knowing one of my great fear responses is music, I'd muted the music for the game and had something calm on in the background while I did my excellent exploration.
Anyway, at one point I had to investigate a very creepy house of somebody who had clearly angered somebody and been murdered. On the way out of the house, I saw a creepy figure across the river (the house was at the riverside) who turned to face me when I adjusted my vision slightly. I stared at them. I took a photo of them. They continued to exist creepily. I tried to decide if I could avoid ever going to that area of the game again. And I noped out of there. Nooo. This is what I looked up: I had worked out who it may be, but I wanted to see if it was going to keep on giving me freaky sightings of people. I learned what was going on with this and could cope as I then knew what places to expect them to appear and that they wouldn't actually do anything.
(Apparently there was also a point where power cuts out in a building that you're in, but fortunately for me I started exploring that building right at the place which triggers the power cut and hadn't had any lights on, so I genuinely didn't notice and just assumed the power was out the whole time. When I watched someone play the game later, there was actually a rather scary audio cue which fortunately my muting had helped me avoid, or I'd probably have noped out then.)
Anyway, without spoiling who did what, it turns out that at the end of the game, when you find one specific clue, the game without prior warning disables your save ability (it does tell you at the time), then a health bar appears and the killer appears with a weapon and tries to murder you, there are some visual cues of what to do if you run to the right places to trigger them, and you've got to run for your life from a murderer whose intent is to kill you on a very specific path. I don't do adrednaline-filled chases, especially not in my normally leisurely paced almost walking simulator. I knew there was a run button, I don't think I ever used it as I'm investigating every nook and cranny; why would I? Also, the controls are... not great, which is fine when there are no action sequences, but crummy when there is one. So it's now sat firmly in my "not finishing this game" pile.
Some people really like the end as it's surprising. Some hate it for the sudden genre change, especially people like me who would not pick up a game involving chases if they knew about it!
END PAINSCREEK KILLING SPOILERS
In reference to the original post, I've just remembered the bit after you watch the video tape in Silent Hill 2 and you just get that minute or two of music, slow pan around James and everything other than that is just still and quiet. No player agency in that part, but still something a film or book could never quite portray the same.
no subject
It is very disconcerting, though it has been somewhat hinted towards before! It makes sense in context as the character we play as is essentially a reconstruction from the mind of a naive child, but getting to see actual Serph is... definitely a thing. Also, whenever I see that scene, he makes me think of Light Yagami for some reason!
Okay, so, The Painscreek Killings! [ENDING SPOILERS FOR PAINSCREEK KILLINGS TO FOLLOW] It's billed as a game where you're in an abandoned town and have to find out who killed a certain woman, with what, and why, and get a photo of something to write a news article about it. Gameplay primarily consists of wandering the town (very slowly if you're me) exploring abandoned buildings, findings keys and codes and diaries and being able to slowly unravel exactly what was going on in this town. It's not just one death either: though you're tasked to find out about one, you learn that there are multiple, you get diaries from 3 or 4 different time periods and it's all about connecting all the events together and learning about characters. Knowing one of my great fear responses is music, I'd muted the music for the game and had something calm on in the background while I did my excellent exploration.
Anyway, at one point I had to investigate a very creepy house of somebody who had clearly angered somebody and been murdered. On the way out of the house, I saw a creepy figure across the river (the house was at the riverside) who turned to face me when I adjusted my vision slightly. I stared at them. I took a photo of them. They continued to exist creepily. I tried to decide if I could avoid ever going to that area of the game again. And I noped out of there. Nooo. This is what I looked up: I had worked out who it may be, but I wanted to see if it was going to keep on giving me freaky sightings of people. I learned what was going on with this and could cope as I then knew what places to expect them to appear and that they wouldn't actually do anything.
(Apparently there was also a point where power cuts out in a building that you're in, but fortunately for me I started exploring that building right at the place which triggers the power cut and hadn't had any lights on, so I genuinely didn't notice and just assumed the power was out the whole time. When I watched someone play the game later, there was actually a rather scary audio cue which fortunately my muting had helped me avoid, or I'd probably have noped out then.)
Anyway, without spoiling who did what, it turns out that at the end of the game, when you find one specific clue, the game without prior warning disables your save ability (it does tell you at the time), then a health bar appears and the killer appears with a weapon and tries to murder you, there are some visual cues of what to do if you run to the right places to trigger them, and you've got to run for your life from a murderer whose intent is to kill you on a very specific path. I don't do adrednaline-filled chases, especially not in my normally leisurely paced almost walking simulator. I knew there was a run button, I don't think I ever used it as I'm investigating every nook and cranny; why would I? Also, the controls are... not great, which is fine when there are no action sequences, but crummy when there is one. So it's now sat firmly in my "not finishing this game" pile.
Some people really like the end as it's surprising. Some hate it for the sudden genre change, especially people like me who would not pick up a game involving chases if they knew about it!
END PAINSCREEK KILLING SPOILERS
In reference to the original post, I've just remembered the bit after you watch the video tape in Silent Hill 2 and you just get that minute or two of music, slow pan around James and everything other than that is just still and quiet. No player agency in that part, but still something a film or book could never quite portray the same.
-timydamonkey