What's So Great About This Persona Thing Anyways?
 

Now, about a year ago, a friend of mine showed me this game called Persona... something.

Now - most of you know who I am by now. A whiny, sensitive Weebo. That being said, any game in which you shoot yourself in the head is a little off-putting. I don't wanna go down any road like "What about players who see this and think it's okay to shoot themselves in the head," or anything like that - and it seems like an okay-ish sort of a game. (Though not my cup of tea) And an original concept does help to break the monotony of everyday gaming.... it's just... what is it about shooting yourself in the head?

Persona 3 Boss Battle: Shooting Yourself In The Head 101

Oh, and comic:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20070806.jpg

It's symbolic to the high suicide rate among teens in Japan, or so I heard. I...I don't actually really like Persona 3 so much, mostly because you require a lot of scheduling to be able to do nearly anything. Everything else is great, but that makes me feel constantly having to rush things.

What Ryong said, it's partly symbolic of Japan's big problems with teen suicide and it's also meant to be symbolism in the game, the guns are fake, their purpose is to trick the character's mind into activating the Persona through symbolism. The symbolism of the guns is the destruction of the self so your mask(the persona) can take over, I think. It's explained early in the game but it's been a long time since I played the start.


The truly amazing thing is how quickly you get used to it, I mean after the first half hour it was just another casting animation, then I was a little uncomfortable when Ken started doing it(cause he's like 10) but I got used to that as well. It helped that Ken was really annoying.

Burn My Dread is an overrated piece of shit song.

There, I said it.

Sorry to disappoint you Seil, but you are like the complete opposite of a weeaboo. And I know of weeaboos.

Nocturne is my favorite SMT game, I mean don't get me wrong... the Persona games are great, they are just so damn depressing.

Another thing I hate about about any SMT game is that they all use the same monsters, but every monster will have different vulnerabilities in every game.

For real though, if you have some spare time and cash... play Persona 3. You'll probably, like it. Just don't try to do everything at once, go with the flow the first time through the game and then on your second time through it becomes much more feasible to max all the relationships without tearing out your hair.

It also helps a TON if you rent it first and keep a save file from the original around and buy FES. You'll be able to instantly transport all your stat points for Charm, Courage, and Academics to your new FES file, as well as some Social Link stuff, IIRC, which takes a ton of stress off of building them and can net you decent items and other stuff.

Past that, I was a little freaked out when I walked in on Phantom playing it and saw him casting. Then came the MC's turn and he did a dual cast and I was like "HOLY SHIT DID YOU JUST KILL YOURSELF!?!" Started my own file and it wore off on me, but the dual cast bothered me for a little while.

Past that, there are actual REAL guns in the game. Evokers essentially are really loud cap guns that cause the people enough stress to make their Persona manifest, much the same way people take on roles when a real-life situation occurs.



The game is chock-full of symbolism, right down to how the worlds are presented. The music is also good, and that's coming from someone who generally doesn't listen to music, much less music of that type. It fits the atmosphere well and is well-constructed.

The game also has bits of humor scattered throughout it, as well as a PG-13 shower scene I frankly could have done without, but has a pretty good story overall so far as I played.

My only real complaint is that I got burned out trying to do all the errands for Elizabeth before the time on them ran out. The limited number of days really puts the squeeze on things if you're going for 100% completion.

Otherwise, battle is damn good, the characters are damn good, there's a lot of flexibility in the system, and I'd rate it as definitely being worth a look.

The characters all have believeable goals and arcs and are well written. The plot itself is fairly straightforward once you wrap your head around it. (Even if not all the questions are answered.) But that doesn't stop it from being a very good plot that makes you examine your own ideas and philosophies.

The battles can be fun and easy if you are set up properly, excepting some very tough bosses.

I actually LIKE the finite time scale and time management aspects. If that sort of thing isn't your cuppa, steer clear though as it's pretty important if you want to do everything.

Note: I've only beaten the main campaign and have barely started the epilogue campaign that is included in the FES edition.

The Wandering God

I think it has more to do with the game's central theme, which is overcoming fear. Note that one of the first scenes in the game is the bitchy girl (I forget her name. Mitsuru is the only one for me. Stay away from Mitsuru.) being too scared to use it. The main character's willingness to bring out his Persona is why he was initially chosen to lead.

Aside from the acceptance of death, it could represent a spiritual crossing over into the more mystical world of the Dark Hour, or the afterlife, or the subconscious, or all kinds of places.

For just listening to it, it's mediocre. However, it made a really awesome song for the battle it was used in.

No, actually, I'm pretty sure the makers went on record saying it was symbolic of high teen suicide rates, which is pretty clear when looking at the intro. Yukari has what looks very much like a gun, she has the water running, which is common during suicide either to provide white noise or to drown oneself in the bathtub or wash away the blood or numerous other things, and it's not even the Dark Hour, meaning she wouldn't be able to summon her Persona anyway. It's further confused by her pointing it at the MC, although this could be read as a bluff with later knowledge. It still doesn't explain why Mitsuru stops her, other than a possible fear of summoning the MC's Persona prematurely.

The entire scene is set up to make it look like she's trying to commit suicide and can't stomach it. She has nothing to gain from shooting her Evoker, other than maybe saying she actually did it for the first time, as the first indication of her using it is in the battle cinema and the spell she casts seems weak to the point of uselessness and is dramatically dissimilar from anything used in-game. Io doesn't even appear when she does it. Her in-game animation continues to show a lot of hesitation, which is a direct contrast to the seeming willingness of many of the other characters.

Also, when looking at the characters, themselves, one could argue that all of them have valid motivations for actual suicide, at least as far as I got. They all have had major losses in life, or hide dark secrets, or shoulder a lot of guilt. The only one I'd really consider happy is Junpei, and even his clowning around could be read as compensation for underlying deficiencies, as he shows a lot of anger at not being chosen to lead and exhibits self-worth issues.

And Persona 4 doesn't even have all the gun stuff.


Whether it's due to a shift in symbolism, or response to all the flipping out about it... well, I'll leave that for the intarwebs to decide.