Fifteen Hours In Review: Persona 4

They should really call this game Atlus Shrugged because holy shit is this game a fucking slog.  Fifteen Hours in, and I'm only in the second dungeon, which is apparently the hardest one in the game which also makes me concerned about things.  That isn't to say that I didn't get obliterated when I ran into the guys that cast group attack magic which apparently guarantees an extra turn now, but now that I know they're just like every other non-weak enemy and weak to ailments, it'll be a pushover.

The gameplay is better, sure.  It's nice being able to know that my teammates aren't going to do something hilariously boneheaded that will cost me a boss battle.  A better equip screen, sure.  Not having to choose between experience and gold in after battle card games?  I don't know I kind of liked that man.  Everything changed in Persona 4 seems like a reaction based on perceived issues in Persona 3, but some of those issues were charming in their clunkiness.

Most perplexing to me is the method at which dungeoning is done.  As you go into the MYSTERIOUS TV WORLD in the afternoon, now you have to choose between doing some dungeons or talking to random wanks so your mythical duck warrior will be a little stronger when you fuse him.  This is a direct inversion of Persona 3, where only a few night social links were neglected if you quested nightly.  It's not really a big deal since I'm clearing these supposedly hard dungeons in 2 days, but it's still weird and awkward.  Likewise to the new system of not automatically refilling your magic power when you return to the central hub, but instead forcing you to suddenly remember that Persona has physical attacks and pay a fox whose fees...will lower throughout the game?

As mentioned above, the difficulty curve just perplexes me.  Persona 3 took it pretty easy at first, with the first hard boss arriving after two in-game months of relative ease.  Persona 4 kicked my ass almost immediately, but it wasn't so much due to game difficulty as just not having enough ways to fight back.  So here I am at the first dungeon boss, with a design basically designed to kill you a few times, having to mash the circle button for three minutes each time because of course there is not a skip button during this fucking boss dialogue.  Of course you might counter that the Full Moon bosses of Persona 3 had the same endless dialogue preamble, but WHO DIES TO THE FULL MOON BOSSES.

But all these things would just be nitpicks, mere bitching if I could just get into this game.

The biggest hindrance is probably the plot, or rather how the game handles the plot.  Persona 3 wasn't Shakespeare (or hell, even good by anime terms), but at least it presented a strange mystery quickly and propelled you into it.  Persona 4 seems convinced that you, the player, are not fully understanding of any plot point unless it is repeated a dozen times in VOICE ACTED CUTSCENES.  Even now, I'm getting HM WHY ARE THEY PUTTING PEOPLE IN THE TV AWFULLY STRANGE discussions lasting for ten minutes.  I realize that judging by fanmade creative content the vast majority of people playing this game are 12-year-olds, but I think even they understand things at this point.

Also adding to my malaise is the way the game handles deadlines.  Maybe I'm just some adult baby, but I liked the certainty of the moon system in Persona 3.  Roughly 30 days to clear the new dungeon block, cool.  Now I have no idea how much time I really have to rescue people or even when they're going to be captured unless I push away my dysfunctional uncle's daughter away from her quiz show to look at the weather.  It's like the game is desperate to remove any urgency from my playing, which would be fine if I wasn't playing something billed as an anime murder mystery.

I hate all the characters.  Granted, I hated almost everyone in Persona 3, but at least there I got Koromaru and Elizabeth (also, point of order, the persona fighting game coming out better have one of those two in the roster or I will be so het up).  The closest personality to acceptable is New Junpei, if just that the game writers ratcheted up Old Junpei's closet issues a hundredfold.

So it's really bad news that Nocturne finally went on sale, because holy shit I've only played an hour and I'm already fighting stuff and things aren't being explained to be in excruciating detail.  Fuck this game.