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Fall 2011 Anime First Impressions: Persona 4 The Animation
Persona 4 The Animation
Plot Synopsis: Yu Narukami is moving to a new town called Inaba to live with his uncle for the next year while his parents are away working. Inaba seems like a peaceful rural town, but a recent murder has shaken the town, and the mysterious nature of the case has left police with no leads. Yu makes new friends quickly at his new school, and soon learns about the Midnight Channel, which is supposed to show a person their soulmate if they look at their TV exactly at midnight during the rain. When Yu tries this he finds himself with the ability to enter his TV screen, though his new friends don’t believe him when he tries to tell them. Yu shows off this ability in the electronics department when he and his surprised friends stumble and go all the way through, landing in some new mysterious world. The group isn’t given long to figure out what’s going on before several strange creatures attack them, and u discovers another ability, the ability to summon a “Persona” to fight for him.
Thoughts: The only anime that matters this season is finally here, and all signs point to it being pretty good. This adaptation manages to move through the game’s story at a brisk pace, getting through most of the opening part of the game in a single episode. A few things are skipped over, changed and shortened, but this allowed the episode to have a proper climax instead of making us wait until the next episode to actually see a persona. Of course, this brisk pace also makes certain characters seem completely irrelevant to what’s going on. Yukiko, Nanako, and Dojima aren’t really given proper introductions and are just kind of there. Yu also suffers from not really having a personality, which largely stems from him originally being a silent protagonist incapable of really displaying a personality. While he does talk, he’s not exactly a chatty fellow, only chiming in on conversations from time to time.
The series also has so many nods at the original game that it borders on pandering. The opening credits are done in the style of the in-game menus, the eyecatch features social stats screen, it uses the calender transitions, all but maybe two songs used in the episode are taken directly from the game, and Nanako sings the Junes theme for absolutely no reason. The opening credits and the songs are fine. Those are subtle winks, things the fans will like that don’t stick out. The eyecatch is just weird and the calendar transitions are going to get annoying when a dozen or more start showing up in every episode. Nanako singing the Junes theme had absolutely no reason to be in the episode. Most of the stuff from the Dojima residence was removed so she just ends up singing it and leaving, providing no context as to why she did it. Anyone not familiar with the game isn’t really going to get what they just saw.
The art and animation in the series are certainly improvements over the animated scenes from the game. Characters aren’t long and lanky, and more detail is put into their designs. This format also lends itself better to some of the more comedic elements of Persona 4 than the in-game scenes did. Yosuke flails around more when he’s about to piss his pants, Chie actually visibly reacts when Yosuke is about to whip it out in front of her and piss in a corner, and so on. Animation just lends itself better to things like this and allows the comedy to flow more properly than it originally could.
Persona 4 The Animation is easily the best thing airing this season, a claim I am most assuredly qualified to make after watching only 4 shows.
Score: 4/5
Persona 4 is being simulcast on The Anime Network
Atlus USA announces Devil Survivor 2, King of Fighters XIII
While everyone else was dancing on stage like idiots, staring at blurry 3D gameplay footage, and having Mr. Caffeine shout about how awesome Ubisoft is, Atlus USA quietly announced via their newsletter two new games they would be releasing. The first is Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2, sequel to the 2009 strategy RPG. The story revolves around a group of teenagers who find a website that is supposed to show people’s deaths. When they look at it, they’re shocked to see their own deaths on screen. The group must use what they see on the website to prevent their own deaths, and save the lives of others. Atlus USA will be releasing the game on the Nintendo DS in 2012.
The other game Atlus announced is King of Fighters XIII. This is the latest in what is clearly a long line of fighting games, and that’s about all the newsletter says about it, aside from a few snippets about the gameplay. The game will be released on both the XBox 360 and PS3 this coming Holiday season.
A look at the Shin Megami Tensei franchise
Something I like to do fairly often is break out of my old PS2 and play some older games. Well, that’s kind of a lie. I never have to “break out” my PS2, because it’s pretty much always hooked up unless I need to hook something else up to the TV. The reason for this is simply because there are more games I want to play for the PS2 than any of my current generation consoles. One particular franchise that keeps me playing my PS2 is Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei. In fact, Nocturne is the game currently keeping me tethered to my PS2.
The recent news that Atlus USA will be bringing the PSP port of Persona 2 to North America has made me particularly happy. Of any SMT games I’ve played, the Persona series has been my favourite. Since I started with Persona 3, I didn’t really have a chance to play the first two games, but with these PSP ports I can. With this latest announcement, it seems like a good enough time to detail my journey through this franchise.
There will probably be massive spoilers for some of these games.
Top 10 Greatest RPGs – #3 – Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 was one game that took me a very long time to get into. When I initially tried it, I was almost immediately turned off by how different it was. It wasn’t until much later that I decided to give it another chance and try to get used to the differences. I did, and today, Persona 3 is my third all-time favorite RPG.
In fact, I already wrote a lengthy review of this game. So, go ahead and check that out if you’d like. Or, you can continue reading this post, which will basically be a summary of said review.
Persona 3 takes place in the real world. You’re a high school student, and you’ve recently moved into a new town. Shortly after arriving, you are awoken from sleep one night when a monster appears on the dorm’s rooftop. The monster is soon revealed to be a “shadow” – a mysterious creature that only appears during the Dark Hour. The Dark Hour is a “hidden 25th hour” than only a certain few people can experience. In addition to the shadows that appear, the world itself has an eerie green glow to it during this hour. On top of that, the nearby school transforms into a gigantic tower that reaches toward the heavens, known as Tartarus. You and your friends decide that the answers behind the meaning of the shadows, and the Dark Hour must be hidden inside Tartarus. Through the course of a story that spans across several months, your team periodically enters the elusive tower to unlock the meaning behind these mysteries.
Game Review: Shin Megami Tensei – Persona 4
After being positively blown away by Persona 3, I didn’t waste any time in starting up the next game in the series, Persona 4. 105 hours later, my expectations were exceeded, and I was more than satisfied.
STORY
Just like most RPG series, the Persona games aren’t directly tied to each other. Persona 4 is a story independent of that of Persona 3, although there are some references and vague connections.
You play as an unnamed character who has just moved to the small town of Inaba. Shortly after moving there, you hear rumors of a strange TV program that comes on at midnight when it rains. In addition, a series of mysterious murders have been occurring in town. It’s up to you to unravel the mystery behind these murders, and to determine what connection these may have to the TV program.
While the story doesn’t really pick up until near the end of the game, it is still very well paced, and constantly introduces new characters and subplots to keep your attention focused. Unfortunately, the story is not without its faults, as some parts could eventually start to feel very repetitive.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is almost identical to that of its predecessor, and that’s not a bad thing at all. There are many enhancements, however. Persona 4 corrects many balance issues that Persona 3 had, both in developing Social Links and in the battle system. Instead of having to raise three characteristic stats (Academics, Charm, and Courage), you now have five (Intelligence, Diligence, Courage, Understanding, and Expression). Although this may seem like more work, the game presents more opportunities in which you can raise these stats, so they go up faster. Talking to people, reading books, answering questions in class, paticipating in activities, and many other things will all affect how these stats grow. These stats are necessary in order to develop your Social Links, which are the relationships you form with the people you meet. Saying different things to different people will affect your Social Link with them, which in turn indirectly affects your performance in battle.
When it comes time to do battle, the gameplay becomes much more linear. There is no enormous tower to climb this time. Instead, you are now presented with a series of different dungeons that you must progress through in order. Each dungeon has its own unique style and its own story behind it.
Persona 4 continues the tradition of a turn-based battle system, but with major improvements. All of the balance issues I mentioned in my Persona 3 review are nearly non-existent, making the game much less frustrating. Unfortunately, not all of the annoyances are gone. If your character falls in battle, you’re done. Even if your allies are still standing and have full health, it’s game over. Because of this, perhaps the most useful item in the game is the Goho-M, which allows you to immediately return to the entrance of a dungeon, where you can heal up and save your game. Upon reentering the dungeon, the game is kind enough to let you resume at the floor you left off at, shaving off a load of time and effort you would have to put into retracing your footsteps.
Enemies have different weaknesses that you can exploit to gain a large advantage in battle. But only through trial and error (or through the use of a handy strategy guide) can you discover these weaknesses. There is no free scanning; you simply have to try different spells on different enemies and pray for the best. Fortunately, once you discover an enemy’s weakness, the game will remember it for you. Exploiting these weaknesses is the key to victory, but it’s not always so easy. Some enemies have no weakness at all. Many times you will encounter a combination of different types of enemies, all with different weaknesses. When this happens, those handy “attack all” spells aren’t so handy anymore.
The gameplay of Persona 4 is a very well thought out and executed formula that works. There’s no need to worry about which path is the “correct path,” as the game offers plenty of leeway to prevent you from reaching a standstill. As long as you spend your time doing something, you’ll be fine.
VISUALS & SOUND
Persona games like to do everything their own way. The stories & gameplay are both very unique, and the music is no exception. Instead of employing the use of the traditional fantasy RPG style classical tunes, Persona 4 has J-Pop. That’s right, J-Pop. And it’s awesome. Initially, one may think this kind of music is very unfitting for an RPG, but it actually works quite well. The entire soundtrack is a masterpiece of both vocal tunes and the instrumentals.
The graphics & visuals are very impressive. Some of my friends have, at first sight, even thought it was a PS3 game. That’s how impressive the graphics are. The character art is more anime-styled this time around, which I personally like much more.
OVERALL
A spectacular game from a spectacular series. Fresh presentation, gameplay, and story make this game an absolute winner. If you’ve never played it before, you’re missing out on a lot. So, do yourself a favor and pick it up. You won’t regret it one bit.
Also, this.
