Personaaaa

[Bebpo]

I've been playing the PSP "remake" of Persona all day and it's pretty hot. 

The game is fast as hell.  Between 60fps dungeon with 10x speed run button & lower encounter rate and then battles which let you turn animations on/off with the start button at anytime and have ALL kinds of auto actions (Auto - Repeat last set of non-auto command input; Auto - all physical attacks; Auto - all gun attacks; Auto - setup each character individually), you blow through the game FAST.  I saw some youtube video of where I'm at and their game clock was like 10 hours and I'm like 4 hours.  No load times also help.

The music is totally redone in the style of Persona 3/4.  Everything from the world map, to the locations, to the shops, to the battles have their own unique jpopy vocal music and it works real nice.  The icons for items in shops and when acquired in dungeons are the P3/P4 yellow icons for sword/shirt/key item/etc...

The new world map is nice looking although I can't seem to find a video of the old map on youtube >_<  From what I read on the faqs it seems like it was a pain to get around on the old map and took a while to move from one location to the next.  The map here is like SMT3 but on 9x9 screen city size with lots of buildings to go into.  You can run on the map holding X like you can run in dungeons holding X and you can run in the 2d parts holding X so you can get around fairly quickly.

There are now save spots EVERYWHERE.  Like every 5-10 mins you will hit a save spot.  It's kind of ridiculous but good for handheld gaming I guess.  You can also quit and save at anytime and it'll erase the save when you load it back.  There's also 3 difficulty levels and playing on normal it started off super easy, but when I got to the first real long ass dungeon with traps and all I started having to take it off auto until I knew what I was doing.

Being that this is my first time playing the original Persona, one thing I think is stupid and don't like is that when you finally convince an enemy to give you their spellcard (which seems far more difficult than any other Megaten game I've played) you can't actually use them.  Instead you have to wait until you go to the velvet room and then make a persona out of 2 enemy cards and then equip it.  Just seems inconvenient.  Also since this is my first Megaten where you equip GUNS as well as your sword I don't really see the point to them yet.  They have good range, but they do pitiful damage.

All in all, they did a good job making the original Persona that is totally old and unplayable today...fresh and playable and about on par with most modern psp/ds rpgs.  The game does some interesting things like how you have to position your characters on a grid and attacks have various hit ranges.  But otoh, the art is a little funky, the persona system is a little unfriendly, and there's very little story.

Hopefully they're planning on doing Persona 2 IS and EP next.  Because while Persona 1 seems like a decent little dungeon crawler, Persona 2 is the awesome rpg that would be nice to play with a fresh gui, better framerate, no load times, and all new vocal music.
 

[Akala]

On one hand, I'd love to play the OG Persona sped up, uncut, and portable.

On the other hand, I think something along the lines of P3/P4 is very doable on the PSP, and I'd much prefer that.

[Bebpo]

DON'T DO IT

game doesn't hold up at all.  Only people who like it are nostalgia-enjoying fans of the original.  Gameplay balance is really bad and not much plot.  I got past the halfway twist, but never finished it.  Was boring and not fun after a while.


Wait for P4P or just play P4 on PS2.  Or you could play FES Episode Aegis, but you won't be able to give commands to your party members.

[Ichirou]

Yeah, I picked up Persona Portable and didn't get very far in it at all.  It's just too primitive compared to P3 and P4.

[Third]

Fuck, I thought this thread was about a new Persona.  :'(

But yeah, Persona rules. I've only played 3 and 4 though. I'm going to have a massive meltdown if Persona 5 becomes a handheld game.

[magus]

Persona 2 part 2 is the only good persona game and if you disagree you are wrong

[Third]

I  can't play Persona 2. It looks really bad. Too bad. I'd rather wait for Persona 5.

[Great Rumbler]

A local Gamestop has Persona Portable for $18. I've been thinking about getting, but I haven't yet. Maybe I will eventually.

[Don Flamenco]

the first two persona games always sound like a good idea, but then I start them, play an hour, and realize how outdated they are. Which is a shame because I really want to like Persona 2. 

I hope Atlus does more PSP ports.  P4P and Nocturne please!!!   (Nocturne might be a bit too much for the PSP.)

[Himu]

Persona 2 IS and EP in one umd plz

[magus]

the first two persona games always sound like a good idea, but then I start them, play an hour, and realize how outdated they are. Which is a shame because I really want to like Persona 2. 

I hope Atlus does more PSP ports.  P4P and Nocturne please!!!   (Nocturne might be a bit too much for the PSP.)

what you mean for outdated? if i have a problem with persona 2 it's the distinguished mentally-challenged ranking up system which rewards you for leaving your system idle,and the piss easy random battle which are won as soon as you learn the tidal wave combo

[bork]

More Bebpo RPG flip-flopping going on.   

I am still planning on getting Persona 3 Portable next month.  Is that going to be a good game for someone who generally dislikes JRPGs?  I thought Persona 1 was fun waaaaaaaaaaaay back then and liked Persona 2, although it was hard as hell for me and I never got very far.

[Don Flamenco]

the first two persona games always sound like a good idea, but then I start them, play an hour, and realize how outdated they are. Which is a shame because I really want to like Persona 2. 

I hope Atlus does more PSP ports.  P4P and Nocturne please!!!   (Nocturne might be a bit too much for the PSP.)

what you mean for outdated? if i have a problem with persona 2 it's the distinguished mentally-challenged ranking up system which rewards you for leaving your system idle,and the piss easy random battle which are won as soon as you learn the tidal wave combo

It just feels all clunky and the early battles are annoying. 

[magus]

More Bebpo RPG flip-flopping going on.   

I am still planning on getting Persona 3 Portable next month.  Is that going to be a good game for someone who generally dislikes JRPGs?  I thought Persona 1 was fun waaaaaaaaaaaay back then and liked Persona 2, although it was hard as hell for me and I never got very far.

i personaly don't like the game much but i seems to be in the minority...
anyway basicaly it works like this,you have a schedule which is divided in days and nights

on day you attend school and after school you can decide to hang out with various character,to every character is associated a tarot arcana like the chariot,the lovers... everytime you hang out with a character you increase that character s.link level... the higher your s.link the stronger the demons associated to that tarot become...
so for example all of the angel demon are of the justice arcana... by hanging with the person related to the justice arcana,you'll make stronger angel demons

s.link are just conversation between characters that are unrelated to the plot and usualy have their own sub-plots,most of the time the game gives you a choice about what to say and if you say the right thing the s.link will go quicker and you will need to hang out with that character less times to reach the next s.link level
s.link character varies wildly between them altough every female character wants to jump on your bone no matter what (unless they changed it,since they did change this in persona 4)

night it's the time for dungeon crawl,the dungeon is just a big tower that is randomly generated and there isn't much to say about it,fights are turn based and works under a system called "one more"
basicaly if you hit a monster with his weakness,that monster will get "downed" and your turn won't end (since you get "one more" turn) attacking a "downed" monster twice has no effect but if you down every monster,you get the chance to pull off an attack that includes the whole party,this attack is EXTREMELY powerfull and will often ends the fight,in fact it's incredibly rare for a monster to even gets a single turn in,as long as you have a full array of elemental spells and know what weakness you need to exploit,which is the main thing that piss me off regarding the game,certain floors have a boss and certain floor are unaccesible until the plot advance,in turn this mean that there will be time where you can't do more dungeon crawling and are forced to continue with your s.links only because the plot is catching up

so how does the plot advance? each time a day passes you get closer to a full moon and when it's a full moon you are forced into a fight with a special tarot arcana based boss,these aren't stronger than the bosses inside the tower but some can get tricky and you can't save right before them which means that if you die,you are forced to go trough all the pre-boss fight dialogue again... quite annoying

and uh... that's the gist of it,you can fuse demon to create new one but that's basicaly a standard for every megami tensei related game

1) talk to people to raise your s.link level
2) crawl into the dungeon
3) go to 1 until it's full moon
4) defeat the full moon boss
5) go to 1

 

[bork]

More Bebpo RPG flip-flopping going on.   

I am still planning on getting Persona 3 Portable next month.  Is that going to be a good game for someone who generally dislikes JRPGs?  I thought Persona 1 was fun waaaaaaaaaaaay back then and liked Persona 2, although it was hard as hell for me and I never got very far.

P3P is awesome anyway you look at it. It was my first Persona and there were a bunch of reasons I enjoyed it so much:
- awesome soundtrack
- pretending to be a student again (good times)
- interesting story
- interesting battles, apart from bosses

I'm actually tempted to get Personaaaa because I've read reviews that say it has good music, but I guess I could just as well check out the music online.

Oh yeah, and now when I read the thread title I end up singing it to the Daytona theme instead

What stopped me from getting Personaaaaaaaaa let's go away~ away it came out was in fact some of the changed music.  I think it was demi who posted some videos showing the changes.  The new battle music sounds so annoying.

[Bebpo]

The new music is the best part of the PSP version!
But you have to love P3/P4 style to feel the same way.

Anyhow, whether you like P3/P4/P5 depends on if
A.  You like anime
B.  You like dungeon crawling

Because that's essentially what the games are.  I like both so good times! 

[bork]

Ordered Persona 3 Portable; it will be here tomorrow.

I already have the game on my PSP now (it runs with the latest Prometheus CFW update) and just started it.  I like everything so far, although only being able to save at your dorm sucks.  There should be a quicksave option in all the school-dialogue sequences.

What is the difference between the PSP version and the console version?  Is it the way you navigate the non-dungeon areas?  I like that it cuts out running around environments and just lets you go right for whatever you can interact with on each screen.  Reminds me of Ace Attorney, only they show you what you can touch.

[iconoclast]

I was just about to bump this and say it's out.

I'm going to start it in a few minutes. I'm not sure the exact differences, but like you said the city is all menu driven now, and the only time you get to control your character is when you're in the dungeon? They cut out 'The Answer' portion from FES too... which is good imo, for story reasons. And the anime cutscenes got cut. They were pretty badly drawn and animated in the original game, but it's still lame.

I'm going to start this on the Maniac mode once it's done loading onto my PSP. On paper, the higher difficulties in the SMT games have always looked horribly and lazily designed to me, so I've always just stuck with normal mode. So it will be interesting to see how this goes.

[magus]

Ordered Persona 3 Portable; it will be here tomorrow.

I already have the game on my PSP now (it runs with the latest Prometheus CFW update) and just started it.  I like everything so far, although only being able to save at your dorm sucks.  There should be a quicksave option in all the school-dialogue sequences.

What is the difference between the PSP version and the console version?  Is it the way you navigate the non-dungeon areas?  I like that it cuts out running around environments and just lets you go right for whatever you can interact with on each screen.  Reminds me of Ace Attorney, only they show you what you can touch.

yea that's one of the change
other change include the ability to play as a female MC and (somewhat spoilerish)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

there is some extra event to tie the game to persona 4

[close]

[bork]

Played through the first dungeon.  I like it! 

Does this have the extra content from FES too?

[brob]

Just bought a PSP go. the minute I took it out of the box and touched it I felt cheated. Feels like it was not only put together, but designed by some drunk ten year old in china. It's charging right now (on it's absurdly short AC wire), will hit up some 'merkin PSN points later and DL P3P which was the straw that broke it for me.

Is it possible to get custom firmware on a Go? Like, GBA emulators and whatnot?

[Bulleta©™®]

Played through the first dungeon.  I like it! 

Does this have the extra content from FES too?

Doesn't have "The Answer", but probably has the stuff in the main scenario added in FES.

[brob]

supposedly it has the dungeon from "the answer" but not the story. That's the word on the e-streets anyway.

[Rman]

Just bought a PSP go. the minute I took it out of the box and touched it I felt cheated. Feels like it was not only put together, but designed by some drunk ten year old in china. It's charging right now (on it's absurdly short AC wire), will hit up some 'merkin PSN points later and DL P3P which was the straw that broke it for me.

Is it possible to get custom firmware on a Go? Like, GBA emulators and whatnot?

Not custom firmware, but there are emus out for it.

[brob]

Mostly interested in GBA emulation since Mother 3 plays like shit on my laptop for some reason.

Also, switching profiles on a psp is a huge pain in the behind. Plus I tried to buy some points from a web site and there was a transaction problem so I have to wait for them to resolve it before I can buy P3P.

Nothing is going my way today. ;_;

[iconoclast]

Damn, the female MC has a different battle theme. I'll miss you Mass Destruction :'(

[Bebpo]

Just bought a PSP go. the minute I took it out of the box and touched it I felt cheated. Feels like it was not only put together, but designed by some drunk ten year old in china. It's charging right now (on it's absurdly short AC wire), will hit up some 'merkin PSN points later and DL P3P which was the straw that broke it for me.

Is it possible to get custom firmware on a Go? Like, GBA emulators and whatnot?

whyyyyyyyyy

Kingdom Hearts BBS won't get a PSN release, so PSP Go users can't play it.

[Don Flamenco]

ooooohhhh yeah, duh nuh nuh nuh, duh nuh nuh nuh!


i miss hearing the japanese guy rap with the "black guy voice" filter put over his vocals.   

[Bulleta©™®]

supposedly it has the dungeon from "the answer" but not the story. That's the word on the e-streets anyway.

Well, that's what I get for not having played the game but only read stuff a long time ago. 

[iconoclast]

The floor 10 boss is kind of a bitch. He's only weak to one move from one of my personas, he's strong against all elemental attacks, and he can use all 4 elemental spells. Even when defending with Junpei and Yukari I get hit for 50+.

He killed me twice so I used my bead chain on my third attempt and took him out. Wasteful

Oh and this 'Time' song is awesome. Meguro-sama

[bork]

supposedly it has the dungeon from "the answer" but not the story. That's the word on the e-streets anyway.

Well, that's what I get for not having played the game but only read stuff a long time ago. 

I asked on NeoGAF and was -of course- directed to the OP -silly me for asking a question- which says:

The Hall of Doors, a brand new optional dungeon outside of Tartarus for you to explore. Well, okay, it’s actually just the content from FES’ epilogue, The Answer, without the mediocre story to motivate you into playing it.. Still, it’s kind of cool, I guess!

So that answers that.  Guess if I wind up playing all the way through this game I will skip FES and go right to Persona 4, but I'd rather wait and see if a PSP version (or 3DS, perhaps?) gets announced.  Although the collector in me wants to buy FES now just for the hell of it. 

This game would be great on the iPhone/iTouch, too.

[Smooth Groove]

Gave the freeware a try but I'm not sure if I'm gonna buy it now.  The SNES cutscenes are and I hate games that don't even let you walk around.  It's why I'm not fond of most JRPGS on the DS.  

[bork]

Gave the freeware a try but I'm not sure if I'm gonna buy it now.  The SNES cutscenes are and I hate games that don't even let you walk around.  It's why I'm not fond of most JRPGS on the DS.  

It suits the game as a portable title, IMO.  Instead of wasting time running around you can just go right to wherever you want.  But if that's what you want to do, play the PS2 version.

[Bulleta©™®]

supposedly it has the dungeon from "the answer" but not the story. That's the word on the e-streets anyway.

Well, that's what I get for not having played the game but only read stuff a long time ago. 

I asked on NeoGAF and was -of course- directed to the OP -silly me for asking a question- which says:

The Hall of Doors, a brand new optional dungeon outside of Tartarus for you to explore. Well, okay, it’s actually just the content from FES’ epilogue, The Answer, without the mediocre story to motivate you into playing it.. Still, it’s kind of cool, I guess!

So that answers that.  Guess if I wind up playing all the way through this game I will skip FES and go right to Persona 4, but I'd rather wait and see if a PSP version (or 3DS, perhaps?) gets announced.  Although the collector in me wants to buy FES now just for the hell of it. 

This game would be great on the iPhone/iTouch, too.

Well, you could play the normal part of the game on PSP, then the Answer on PS2.  Most people really hate The Answer though..I had fun both times I went through it.  Maybe I'm a sucker for dungeon crawlers if I can figure out how to play them.  Have fun either way!

[iconoclast]

Yeah I vastly prefer being able to walk around the environments. I guess they have to make some concessions for handhelds though.

I'm up to floor 14 now and I think that's where I'll call it on this Tartarus run. The boss there completely rapes Yukari (his mazio hits her for 240 if she's not guarding... which is over 2x my max health) so I'm going to need to do some fusing to even make it possible. Going to make Ara Mitama and Omoikane once I get the hierophant s.link and hope for the best.

^ I liked the gameplay a lot in The Answer. The new dungeons and bosses were a lot of fun. I just hated the completely unnecessary story which cheapened the ending to the original game.

[Bulleta©™®]

Yeah I just fast forward the talking stuff after the first time, give me the meat of the game.

[Ichirou]

The meat of the game is the s-links

YUKA-TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN

[Himu]

But slinks are a huge part of the game

[Ichirou]

But slinks are a huge part of the game

Himu knows what's up.  My brother.

[Himu]

jrpg of forever

[Ichirou]

Persona 3

[Himu]

Persona 3

so fun.

one more day please

[Joe Molotov]

Hersona 3

[Smooth Groove]

30 mins into the game and there was still nothing but cut-scenes and semi-interactive dialogue.  Lame.  I'll give it another hr to impress and that's it. 

[Bebpo]

30 mins into the game and there was still nothing but cut-scenes and semi-interactive dialogue.  Lame.  I'll give it another hr to impress and that's it. 

Both P3 & P4 have longassssss intros.  I hear it's shorter in P3P form, but in the original it was like 90 mins before you got to play. 
Strange Journey is the same thing.  60 mins of talking heads until you are in a dungeon. 

Yet once the games start, they're mainly gameplay so the first few hours are a terrible representation of the games as a whole.

[brob]

my funds finally cleared and I am now downloading it, 145 minutes to go!

... So slow.

[ch1nchilla]

If a certain someone doesn't PSN this I'm gonna have to step in with (gasp) MY OWN FUNDS and buy P3P because it's one of the only reasons I bought a PSP go in the first place. For the record, I agree with Brobzoid on the go build quality.

[bork]

Smooth, I know what you mean...just hang in there and you'll FINALLY get to the dungeon.

There seems to be so much stuff you can once the game opens up.  Do I want to get a part-time job?  Will doing that affect my being able to enter the dungeon on that day?

[Himu]

when is the part time job? if it's a job in your room, no. Oh right, only p4 has day time part time jobs.

If you do a job at night, you can go to the dungeon.

jrpg of forever

[iconoclast]

Smooth, I know what you mean...just hang in there and you'll FINALLY get to the dungeon.

There seems to be so much stuff you can once the game opens up.  Do I want to get a part-time job?  Will doing that affect my being able to enter the dungeon on that day?

You don't have to attend the job every day, you can just go whenever you want. All it does is increase your stats and give you some money. I think you can still go to Tartarus if you work there during the day time, but usually it's best to spend time doing something else during the day (like a social link) and then after you return to the dorm, you can go back to the mall and work. It's a good alternative to studying. You can spend time at the game center too, the quiz game gives a big boost in knowledge.

[Damian79]

30 mins into the game and there was still nothing but cut-scenes and semi-interactive dialogue.  Lame.  I'll give it another hr to impress and that's it. 

Both P3 & P4 have longassssss intros.  I hear it's shorter in P3P form, but in the original it was like 90 mins before you got to play. 
Strange Journey is the same thing.  60 mins of talking heads until you are in a dungeon. 

Yet once the games start, they're mainly gameplay so the first few hours are a terrible representation of the games as a whole.

Since when does strange journey take 60 minutes ot go into a dungeon?  It was like 15 minutes last i remember.

[Himu]

It does take about 30-40 minutes in SJ.

[Damian79]

Do you people actually read the intros?  I just mash the a button through them.  Waste of time reading that shit.

[Bebpo]

well the story tends to actually be good (for a videogame) in these titles, so yeah it's kind of worth reading!

[Himu]

Do you people actually read the intros?  I just mash the a button through them.  Waste of time reading that shit.

uhhh smt stories own

i don't see how you people skip through story sections the first time you play these games. I mean, sure, if it's horrible. but doing it without giving it a chance seems like throwing money down the drain. I just can't play a game like SJ and start crawlin' for no good reason. I want to know why I'm crawlin'. Adds to the cohesiveness of the product.

And I'm by no means a games are art, story > gameplay homo either

[Damian79]

So what makes this game good?  I couldnt sit through the intros in P1 and P2 on the ps1.   Unskippable dialogue is the bane of rpg's these days.  Can you skip though dialogues in this?

Bebpo i play RPG's for customisation and phat loot these days, does this game have that?  Please explain.

[Damian79]

I guess i am different to you guys.  I dont play games for story.  I dont even read books for story with the exception of Song of Ice and Fire by Gearge RR Martin.

[Himu]

You can auto skip dialogue, but dialogue is tied into the gameplay. Rpgs are a story-based genre either, if you just want fat loot, why not just play a dialbo clone like titan quest or something until diablo 3 comes out?

Persona 3 doesn't really have loot. It's not about loot. It does, however, have fusion, customization, fun battle system, options and planning a schedule. Its formula is addicting in a "one more day" sense.

[Ichirou]

Damian, the game is several years old.  Look up some reviews, for chrissakes.

[Himu]

I guess i am different to you guys.  I dont play games for story.  I dont even read books for story with the exception of Song of Ice and Fire by Gearge RR Martin.

I don't play games for story either. But skipping a piece of the game the first time you play it seems pretty silly imo. You pay 35-40  or more for a product and you choose to skip a giant portion of the content? Why? Sounds like rpgs ain't your genre.