• As part of the relaunch of Skullheart, ALL previous threads have been archived. You can find them at the bottom of the forum in the Archives (2021) section. The archives are locked, so please use the new forum sections to create new discussion threads.

Shin Megami Tensei and Persona

So just the way animation is handled and now the SNS thing really makes me feel like Catherine was a test in multiple ways, this is basically an expanded version of that system.

That isn't too big of a problem to me usually but sometimes it makes me feel like my actions don't have any consequence.
The theme of the game is fighting against the chains of society, you might not necessarily have a main antagonist reacting to your actions, but you'd be changing the world.
 
The theme of the game is fighting against the chains of society, you might not necessarily have a main antagonist reacting to your actions, but you'd be changing the world.
But when does the game end? When you feel like you've cleaned the world of bad people, which really isn't possible? When you get over wanting to steal, which isn't really climactic? Without a central conflict or trying to accomplish a goal, there isn't really anything to separate parts of the game with each other. I know this isn't going to be the case, but I just find it weird they don't explain more about the story.
 
tumblr_nv50g2FoOz1si48w3o1_1280.jpg


IS THAT SOME DEMON NEGOTIATION
 
Even if demon negotiations were back, I think Atlus has learned their lesson and knows they were fucking stupid before. They're probably more tolerable now.
 
But when does the game end? When you feel like you've cleaned the world of bad people, which really isn't possible? When you get over wanting to steal, which isn't really climactic? Without a central conflict or trying to accomplish a goal, there isn't really anything to separate parts of the game with each other
They can just make it like Persona 3 where all the negative subconscious or whatever of society makes bad shit happen at at the end some sort of boss shows up to represent this so you can realize the power of friendship and hope blah blah.

but I just find it weird they don't explain more about the story.
I prefer this. Honestly I kind of don't want to know any more about the game until it's out.

IS THAT SOME DEMON NEGOTIATION
Really, really hoping so.
 
It wasn't before, there is no way it would be now.
yes
yes it was detrimental.
it was SUPER detrimental to getting any personas the last time it was used (Persona 1 and 2)
because negotiations gave you demons you couldnt use, or they gave you a certain amount of cards.
and I've given my reasons for why I hated the demon negotiations in the first 2 games.

because any game in this universe that isn't an SMT game that uses demon negotiations that I've played it is garbage IMO.
I hate working for these ingredients that I can't even use to make shit until WAY later, or slogging through just to get to the end.
if demon negotiations are in, I'd like it to be just to get items, or to end the battle.
I've given my two cents for why I don't like demon negotiations in persona before, and i don't feel like getting into it now.

Well I mean they're all pointin' guns at him.

Not really a negotiation so much it is kidnapping.
thank you Jebus.
 
Last edited:
a solid "not offensive to my being"
Which is more than can be said for some members of the main game.

What other original characters are there even? I only remember Labrys, Sho and the death kids or whatever from Q.
 
I don't know, Golden is supposed to be the "definitive" version, so I wouldn't really call her a spin off character. Just a bad one.

I will defend Q, including Zen and Rei. S'a great game and probably the best spinoff.
I was listing spin off characters I could think of, not ones I considered poor. I haven't played Q, I haven't looked into Q, I have no opinion on Q, other than that he should be in SFV eventually.
 
PQ is basically a less compelling Persona 1 with Etrian gameplay
so you know, it's solid enough
 
I will defend Q, including Zen and Rei. S'a great game and probably the best spinoff.
Sir, I could make a very detailed and technical response as to why Q is bad. I don't want to fill this thread with my giant walls of text on the matter, but if you're willing to defend it, I'm more than happy to destroy all your arguements on the matter.

If it wasn't obvious, I think the game's kinda trash. Not the worst ever, but not worth anyone's time.
 
Sir, I could make a very detailed and technical response as to why Q is bad. I don't want to fill this thread with my giant walls of text on the matter, but if you're willing to defend it, I'm more than happy to destroy all your arguements on the matter.

If it wasn't obvious, I think the game's kinda trash. Not the worst ever, but not worth anyone's time.

BMRuvE9.png


no u

I'm thinking about getting Q as someone who has just gotten into persona what's so bad about it?

NOTHING IT'S A GOOD GAME AND FUN AND GOOD AND GOOD FUN.
 
PQ is good if you enjoy the gameplay more than story and character interactions.

mainly because all of the characters are more heavy on the basic tropes that they inquire: Teddie is girl crazy, Kanji is manly man who likes cute things, Chie with meat, etc etc, so you don't get more complex stuff that you would in the mainline games.
I need to get back into it, but it is fun and enjoyable.
 
I'm thinking about getting Q as someone who has just gotten into persona what's so bad about it?
I can't speak to quality but it's more of an Etrian game and you should also not play it until having finished both P3 and P4.
 
PQ is good if you enjoy the gameplay more than story and character interactions.

mainly because all of the characters are more heavy on the basic tropes that they inquire: Teddie is girl crazy, Kanji is manly man who likes cute things, Chie with meat, etc etc, so you don't get more complex stuff that you would in the mainline games.
I need to get back into it, but it is fun and enjoyable.

I disagree. It's not as heavy and more lighthearted than PQ's sister games, but it is definitely not insincere. There are great moments, and it takes advantage of having these characters come together greatly. There's this sweet bit with Ken and Yosuke in the second dungeon, as they've both recently lost someone dear to them respectively, with a GORGEOUS remix of Memories of the School from P3 playing.
 
I can't speak to quality but it's more of an Etrian game and you should also not play it until having finished both P3 and P4.
yeah, this can get into a bit of spoiler territory.
 
I disagree. It's not as heavy and more lighthearted than PQ's sister games, but it is definitely not insincere. There are great moments, and it takes advantage of having these characters come together greatly. There's this sweet bit with Ken and Yosuke in the second dungeon, as they've both recently lost someone dear to them respectively, with a GORGEOUS remix of Memories of the School from P3 playing.
oh no, i mean more along the lines of characters themselves.

like, you're probably not gonna get deep stuff like Kanji's sexuality issues, Chie's superiority complex, Junpei's inferiority complex, etc etc, but you can still have a good story in terms of plot and characters involved in the plot.
 
I'm more of a fan of the story and characters in persona games. From what I've seen on YouTube the banter seems like persona 4.
 
Q is trash. here's why:

Where to start? It destroyed some of the cast! Akihiko is a shadow of the self he was in Persona 4 Arena, and nothing like how he was in P3. It really detracts from the fact that Shinjiro is actually around to interact as this version of Akihiko drags him off half the time without giving him too much time to shine.

The game's comedy consists very little on its own merits. The P3 cast tends to actually interact and make jokes, but the P4 cast is almost 100% composed of references and inside jokes, even ones that make no sense. Teddie, Junpei, and Yosuke take up most of the game and form most of the comedy. They overuse every joke they can, from deadpan Yukiko to all the Rei food jokes.

The dungeons are great, I have nothing against them or their design.

THE COMBAT IS TRASH. They attempted to blend persona and Etrian gameplay. The persona elements? mostly left to RNG. Downs? Random. All out attacks? Random. One-Mores? Gone. Replaced with Boost mode which makes your next skill cost nothing. The more ppl with Boost mode the higher the chance of an all-out. But still, a bit portion of your strategy goes right out the window. Your goal changes from setting up downs and getting extra turns to hoping you get downs and abusing broken systems to get fights to end quickly. Stuff like Sleep and insta kills are somehow more broken here than in past Persona games. However, the persona system is interesting if not flawed.

Your party is compose of 5 characters split into 2 rows of up to 3. This is fine. Your characters have their base personas which get up to 4 skills that upgrade througout the game. You can equip sub-personas that give white HP and MP, which is only applied at the start of battles, giving you possibly infinite HP and MP. These also give you your extra skills. You can spend a ridiculous amount of effort to turn them into skill cards to permanently give your personas certain skills, but its set based on persona.

HOWEVER. On that end, you have to pay to get this done, AND have your persona above a certain level. Keep in mind that your personas level up separate the character and their main persona. AND THEY LEVEL UP AT A NOTICEABLY SLOWER RATE! The problem this creates is that you have to do a LOT OF GRINDING. In addition, you have to manage 16 characters and keep them up to level. It's not a requirement, but the game will badger you at certain moments if you aren't trying to keep everyone useful. This creates a problem with grinding to get not only money to get enough money to keep ppl equiped (the games gives you barely enough to keep one team setup), but also keep your party at a sound range and get your personas up to a level where you can sacrifice them to get skill cards.

Additionally, you may not want to sacrifice or even fuse up your personas! Guess what? YOU GET 16 SLOTS! THAT'S THE SAME NUMBER OF PARTY MEMBERS YOU GET! So you get no extra slots for use for fodder or for extras to get via dungeons. This creates a problem for late game where you have personas set aside for certain party setups, creating a space problem. There not even an option to store your personas anywhere like in 2. Couple this with a distinctly thin lineup of personas and you have an issue. The persona lineup you get and the fusion system are piss-poor.

There are not enough personas per level area to satisfy strategic needs or act as fusion fodder to fuse up persona strategies. Since you have to manage 16 chars and 16 slots, this creates a large conflict of who to sacrifice for what. I often found myself struggling for space and deciding to fuse away key personas because they were so underleveled. Add in that the system reverts to pre-SMT IV where only certain skills can be pulled up and its random and based on persona compatibility, and the system is punishingly limited. It's almost as if this was designed with you only having one character who switched personas in mind tbh. At least in the Devil Survivor games you get 24 slots, which is more than the party members you'll have in most situations and you can switch them out on the fly. Plus in that game you can fuse up the skills you want and buy demons in addition to fusing them. Here you have to rely on fusing them.

Lastly, it also retains the problems of the Etrian games. The menus are really backwards at times and don't effectively display all the info you need. They could be streamlined so much more than they are. It's not a huge ending issue, but its enough of one that its noticable coupled with all the other issues the game has here.

I will say the story is ok and some of the comedy is good. But for the most part the game just annoyed me and felt frustratingly designed. It tried way to hard to mash the two series togethor and failed utterly imo.

There's my thoughts on it all. IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL!
 
Found Q mediocre, but that is because I judged it comparing to other first person dungeon crawlers I played. If it hadn't got that established P3/P4 coat of paint it honestly wouldn't have got as much attention as it did.
 
I prefer this. Honestly I kind of don't want to know any more about the game until it's out.
Some stories are just better this way.

Ray Bradbury's Frost and Fire is my favorite sci-fi/fantasy short story, but I absolutely recommend that nobody looks up what it's even about before jumping in. You need to take it all in and experience it in one sitting. The way the world and story unfolds is (one of many) reasons it's so damn good.

Keep the magic strong.
 
Some stories are just better this way.
And I think it really applies to these games, going in knowing everything (ESPECIALLY in P4's case) would be terrible. Hell, that can be said for any Megaten game.

I really need to get around to that one, used to binge Bradbury as a kid.
 
Atlus Japan put up a new trailer for a SMT4 GOTY-style edition. Can't link it because mobile. Includes all the DLC and is coming out in Japan on the 8th.
 
Back
Top