I'm actually pretty hyped for Final. It looks like a return to form in character design for them. Less school student looking and more apocalyptic.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39SuZbvv9vY

The PV. Looking good.

 

Hearing that Navarre is going to be in it brings back some memories, particularly how out of Jonathan and Walter I almost always felt like siding with Walter, really feel that Jonathan wasn't all too persuasive a character whereas Walter was very charismatic in a sense.

 

With P5 coming out thought I'd rebump this for some discussion. Reviews have been coming in and so far are full of praise, hoping the series does really well on release.

Anyone grabbing the game on release day/pre-ordered already?

 

Haven't ordered it yet, though I should probably get on that if I want to get it when it releases.

 

Haven't pre-ordered, but I'll get it on launch day. The positive reviews and response from fans is certainly promising.

 

Strange Journey being Remade for the 3DS + Additional Content/Route.

As probably the game with the best storyline it'll be interesting to see what changes they make to the combat etc; apparently it'll be fully voiced too which'll be awesome.

 

I've gotten my hands on Persona 5 a couple of days early. Fuck real life schoolwork, I've got fantasy schoolwork to do.

Opinions so far, after 5 hours and making it to what seems like right before the boss of the first dungeon.

This game is really stylish. Sure, there's the menus and so on, but the game just looks really good. It's also a lot darker. You see a suicide attempt. It's fantastically fucked.

Gameplay is general Persona 3/4 fare, with some improvements and some changes I've yet to really judge - the gun system is interesting, though I'll see where it goes. I thought at first the demon recruitment would be a chore, since you have to go for an All-Out Attack first, but it's fine so far. SP management's a lot more important than it's been in the other games - nowhere I've found sell Soul Drops or the like, and I've quit exploring twice already just to refill MP.

 

From what I've seen so far on the Japanese Let's Plays, Persona 5 has better gameplay than Persona 3 and 4 but the story is either equal or slightly weaker than its predecessor. The actual fighting is great, the aesthetic amazing, and the characters themselves are pretty darn good. The downside is it apparently ends faster than P4.

All in all can't wait to get my hands on them.

 

Shin Megami Tensei 5 announced. Switch exclusive so far, will probably remain that way. Looks like I'm getting another console, lads.

 

Watched the live stream, was so hyped once it started.

They're interviewing the Director for Famitsu in a couple of days so we'll get more information on it when the Magazine comes out on the 26th.

 

Mixed feelings about this. SMT is great, having to buy a new console to play it is not. Wish they'd also release it on the PS4, but that isn't likely to happen.

 

I mean it wasn't going to be on the 3DS forever. Sucks that Atlus seems to not like going multiplatform (no Nintendo platforms for Persona and no Sony/PC platforms for SMT) though.

 

Yeah, I was looking at it more from the angle of 'I wish this weren't Nintendo-exclusive' rather than wanting them to stay on 3DS. Don't think they could do much better than IV/Apocalypse on that platform anyway.

 

Strange Journey Redux out tomorrow for Australia and already in the US. Anyone picked it up yet?

 

I've gotten it, cleared one ending (Chaos+) and am planning on doing both Law+ and Neutral+. Maybe one of the original endings inbetween, I'm unsure if you need to have beaten one of the original endings for two more demons to unlock or they're on every NG+.

Anyway, quick summary of my thoughts:

Spoiler

The new content is fairly optional, and fairly well put together, IMO. If you had reservations about Alex, she only really appears in half of that optional content. If you clear the optional new dungeon, of which more and more floors are unlocked throughout the game, she presents you with a choice of original ending or new ending. You have to fight her if you pick the first and get a new boss and minidungeon if you pick the latter. That same dungeon lso unlocks several good new demons for special fusion, so there's that.

There's also a bunch of other improvements to the original SJ. No more size limit for sub-apps, I think the co-op system got reworked, and everything looks prettier in general. I've heard complaints about the character design update but meh. There's also a subapp that tells you where teleporters head to, which is incredibly handy for Eridanus etc. NG+ also lets you keep your level, etc. There's no real DLC to speak of, in the sense that it just makes grinding go way faster, apparently.

Downside: achievements were removed. No more crabwalking cheevo, which is enormously sad.

So tl;dr if you've never played original SJ this is definitely worth picking up, and even if you have it's definitely worth considering.

 

The opening to PQ2 came out yesterday, and it's glorious. Storyboarder's Ishihama inspirations are very funny in light of Ishihama being P5 anime's director (and handling its first op).

 

Looks nice, but as an Etrian Odyssey fan I'm still leery after being burned super hard by PQ1 and as a Persona fan I'm worried about everyone being even more one note than they were in PQ1.

 

If they can tone down the memes, keep the characters more to their original tone, fix the combat so that magic isn't completely outclassed by physical skills, and tune up the difficulty a bit - maybe allow for AI to be a little smarter and target weaknesses instead of just pumping up stats so things take longer to kill and hit harder - and we could have a really solid game. I enjoy the games from both series, but I felt like PQ1 doesnt really stand out compared to any of them. I had fun breaking the battle system and playing through both routes, but i've never felt like playing it again.