Persona Persona Persona

The other night, there was all sorts of Persona announcements and it was a pretty great time unless you were actually watching it as it was happening.  Because that was a nerve-wracking experience, I'm told, what with Atlus trolling the shit out of everyone.  On a molecular level.  Which is...admittedly fun to experience after-the-fact as a sort of educational bit of how to endlessly torture someone in the span of the hours the actual event covered during the announcement parts.  Regardless, the important part is the games that they revealed in the event and not so much the means with which they did so.  Even if it was just...just hilarious and fantastic on some schadenfreude-laced level.

Probably the second-most high-profile announcement of the night was that of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth which will release on the 3DS in June of 2014.  Details were scarce at the time of announcement, but we've since learned a few more bits about it.  First, there was a trailer (linked to the page, not the video itself) that showed off a good bit of the gameplay alongside some words in the actual page itself that seemed to suggest, yes, the SEES Team from Persona 3 and the Investigation Team from Persona 4 will be crossing over, but not in some sort of free-for-all.  Which...is kind of weird to say when the actual video shows Yu, Yosuke, Mitsurugi, Yukari and Aigis in the same All-Out Attack, but they basically mean for story purposes.  Which is precisely the wrong way to approach a cross-over game, but, hell, what do I know, I suppose.  Not like I wanted Brosuke and Junpei to brofist and thus uncreate the universe through a Bro-Singularity or anything awesome like that.

Of course, there were even more details meted out since then, but they're fairly sparse in what's actually being revealed.  The game takes place in Persona 4's school though there seems to be a Persona 3 Tartarus theme to it since there's a clock tower that just sort of appears out of nowhere and is rumored to usher in the death of all who hear it ring.  You know, normal stuff.  Of course, it also seems like there will be Day/Night sections to the game, as the page mentions school events as things that will happen that allow the P3 cast and P4 cast to have some limited interaction.  Honestly, that means that it really just sounds like Persona 3 at Persona 4's location with both teams....which is fine by me.  The same dudes on Persona Team seem to be handling the game as well, though perhaps not in their usual roles.  Still, Shoji Meguro will be producing the soundtrack which means it's going to be awesome.  Certainly something to look out for.

Probably the most....special announcement of the night was that of Persona 4: Dancing All Night for the Playstation Vita.  If you were wondering just what would come of the recent buyout of Index by Sega Sammy, well, here's the first proper product of it.  Dingo, the developers of the Hatsune Miku:  Project Diva games are the folks behind this, so if you bought either of the versions of the game that Sega decided to localize over, you know, any fucking other game at all, then you'll know exactly what you're looking into here.  From what I can tell, there's only Yu Narakami, Rise Kujikawa and a new character who has a Megidoloan Cute smile and a name I can't quite parse nor do I care to google for because ehhhhhhhhh.

I'm not really sure what I think about this game.  I see the 3DS getting what essentially looks like a proper Persona game that's a cross-over of P3 and 4, albeit with an unpleasant art style for me, and then I see the Vita getting...a rhythm game.  A rhythm game that only pulls from Persona 4 in music, and only has three announced characters that might not actually get more characters.  I'm hoping there's going to be more to the game than what we've seen, but I'm just not seeing -how-, and that coupled with the knowledge that it'll still release at full price (as in likely $40) just seems to drag my potential mirth for the game to below sea levels.  Especially since it's all but dashed my dreams of seeing Kanji do a righteous step to Mass Destruction.  That's right.  Tell me you don't want to fucking experience that now so I can call you a goddamn liar.

Persona 4:  The Ultimax Suplex Hold (I don't know either) is getting the highly-expected Playstation 3 port next year to match the Arcade release of it.  Uncle Dojima's partner Adachi was revealed as one of the new fighters in it, alongside Yukari and Junpei who were announced months back.  That's...uh...

Yeah, that's about that.

So really, there were some assorted announcements and they ranged from pretty interesting to "okay", but overall it wa-

Oh, right, there was one other thing announced.  Some little thing that you might not even really care about called Persona 5.

Persona 5 was announced for the Playstation 3 and will release sometime in "Winter" 2014 in Japan, which most likely means Winter Quarter which is...you know, the tail-end of the year.  Which means we probably won't see it on American shores until 2015 and what part of 2015 is very much up for debate.  After the other announcements, I'm sure you can guess, but there aren't very many details out there about the game except for a few tidbits released later.  Tidbits that are, apparently, the only ones we'll see during 2013 which is kind of disappointing, but it only further serves to feed the hype-machine which is...what they want, after all.

Like Persona 3 and 4, Persona 5 will take place in a high school setting, though the theme of the game is a bit different.  Instead of facing the miserable truths of the universe ala Persona 3 and facing the miserable truths of oneself ala Persona 4, Persona 5 will be about 'being restrained by modern society' and the breaking of those bonds.  They also claim that it's going to have a different 'mood', but it'll still be familiar and reassuring for the fans.  Which...I cannot even really fathom what it's going to mean.  Between Persona 3's sometimes-overly-depressive narrative and Persona 4's always-upbeat-even-though-we're-tracking-a-serial-killer tone, they've covered a rather wide swath of moods, but I suppose there's still ground to be broken, though just where it is, I'm not sure.

So basically there was just so much Persona announced which is good for us fans, since, well, more Persona is always a good thing.  Just what titles we'll end up seeing in the west and when are up for debate, but the big one is definitely coming over so that's what matters.  Still...the wait is going to be painful.

I can pretty much just list a bunch of Persona 3 songs that I want Persona 4 characters to dance to, goddamnit Sega

My Games of 2012, Part 2

Tonight's group of games is where things started to get a little dicey and where the surprises really started.  If there's any section of my list where I imagine the games could be shuffled about and still be representative of my overall opinion, this could probably be it since I like all these games....in a sense, but at the very least, I liked them all -more- than the previous group, if only just a little in the case of a couple of them.  Again, that's all that really matters for this kind of list in the end, but still, I do feel a little wonky with the places some of these have ended up.  Oh well, it's not like I won't make it painfully obvious which of those are the ones.  Still, enough stalling, let's just get to the numbers and get this one knocked out.

15.  Retro City Rampage

I'll admit, when I played Retro City Rampage the first time, I spent hours just enjoying the hell out of it and loving it for what it was, or rather, what it was trying to be.  I told myself, told you folks that it was just too awesome for words, because I simply couldn't find the appropriate ones.  Admittedly in the months since I played it, my opinion has simmered quite a bit, thanks in no small part to the absolute awful final boss/section and the rather tedious and annoying task of mopping up the last collectibles in the game that, in all honesty, are really hard to find.  Not to mention a certain trophy that has all sorts of hidden flags that are -not- what it says on the tin, turning a rather simple matter into something entirely different, much harder to accomplish, which borders on "Why should I even bother?" territory.  Ultimately, that sort of thing just gets in the way of my fun, detours it and unfortunately just takes the rest of the game down with it.

Not that it isn't a really wonderful little game, if only for the nine billion references to gaming and pop culture, classic and modern, that have been packed into it.  It's just that, yes, the fun does eventually run out when there's nothing else to do because, ultimately, the city that Retro City Rampage takes place in is built on references.  Once you've seen them, they become less "Oh wow, that's awesome" and just blend into the scenery, which leaves it to be simply a place that you navigate on the way to your next objective.  Hence, when there's -not- a next objective..there's little reason for you to make one for yourself.  To its credit, it's very much like classic games in that sense, which, I mean, the game was definitely going for a classic game feel.  You can only conquer those worlds once and then do it again and again if you wish, but there's no incentive to remain once you've planted your flag, so to speak.

14.  Ragnarok Odyssey

I admit, when I first saw Ragnarok Odyssey, I wasn't expressly seeing it for what it was, and was instead looking at it like it was something else that I wanted.  What I -want- is another Phantasy Star Portable experience, but Sega has been a little too busy with the doing jack shit in America thing to comply.  At first glance, RO seemed like it would fill that need quite capably - after all, it's about entering zones, taking down mobs and getting loot, what's the difference, right?  Well, unfortunately the difference is there in a way that I can't quantify and while I ended up liking Ragnarok Odyssey for what it was, it just wasn't what I wanted in the end.  It doesn't help that the difficulty turns from an uphill climb to a sheer cliff-face in the latter chapters which is what ultimately put me off the game, but really, there was just a little more to it than that.

Part of RO's charm, and yet part of its short-comings is the way it handles your character and the specific customization of it.  You can buy new outfits, you can change the hair style and this and that after the fact and eventually, you can even change jobs.  You don't -have- to start a new character to find out what a Cleric is like - just switch to the Cleric Job and go do a couple missions, bam, Cleric experience garnered.  If anything, though, that more or less highlights the fact that you -don't- really have that much to say in exactly what your character can be, because your character is flexible enough to be anything decently.  It all boils down to your playstyle in a sense, which is admirable, but again that just sort of negates the replayability and such of the game since if you don't like being a Mage, there's no -reason- to because you will not get better at it.  

It's nothing like other games where you spend hours playing one style because it's what your character needs, then switching to another character so you can see what it's like on the other side of things.  That individuality might seem unimportant, but ultimately it's one of the factors that brought me down on the game.  Of course, that only brought me down after playing into it for eight or so chapters, spending hours on extraneous missions and just straight-up going back to older bosses and murdering the shit out of them only to prove that I could.  Which is to say there's some definite fun to be had with the game - I had it - and it's well worth a look if you're into the type of thing it's offering.  Still, I'm hoping for something more and I'll openly applaud the first damn company that gives me the Phantasy Star Portable experience because I friggin' need it.

13.  Persona 4 Arena

I am not a fighting game person, despite my love for punching dudes in video games.  The allure is that, in most cases, you are exponentially more badass than the dude whom you are punching and that gap in skill allows you to skillfully display that.  Which is fun.  And every now and then, you get that opponent that is -as- badass as you and it's a challenge, but at the same time, it's fun because you're getting to put your badassery to the test.  It's a welcome change in pace every now and then.  Nothing to be repeated over and over, however.  To me, that's what fighting games are - going against an equal with the goal of punching them a whole bunch.  In these occasions, I find my skills lacking more often than not and I don't really find it all that fun to 'train' within the confines of fighting games to then get better at it when I could just pop in Yakuza and suplex a guy across a steel divider and just enjoy that.

Still, I allow myself the occasional dalliance outside of my comfort zone here and there if the draw is right and fresh off my Persona 4 Golden playthrough, I was admittedly looking towards Persona 4 Arena, if only because I am told it is at least somewhat canon and, well, I really dug P4's canon.  Then the stars aligned and the price dropped to $20 the day before I was going to head into GameStop and they just happened to have a copy.  It was providence, pure and simple, so who am I to argue?  Perhaps thankfully, I went in with the same expectations as any fighting game and as such, I wasn't disappointed with my brief dips into it here and there.  It is definitely interesting from all sides, and it is also definitely entertaining, even if it is a fighting game to the core.  Perhaps because it has the lovely Arc System Works people behind it who excel at making wonderful looking fighting games, which this is no slouch at either.

I haven't played P4A a whole lot, but I've played it enough to appreciate it for what it is, I believe and I will certainly be dipping back into it sooner rather than later.  I like it, I honestly do, but I would like it a whole lot more if I knew just what in the blue hell I was doing.  I played through all 67 or however many tutorials there were (which, admittedly were single things like a single tutorial about crouching, a single tutorial about blocking, etc.) and all that information just went in one ear and out the other.  When I am put down in a match with a (computer) enemy (hahaha, noooooo, no online for me, no thanks) I just do things and eventually I win, but it's not skillfully, it's not with mastery of the system, it's just because I hit a lot of buttons that did a lot of stuff.  I hope to figure it out as I play, but I guess if that'll carry me through everyone's story modes, I'll take it.

12.  LittleBigPlanet Karting

Much like fighting games, I just don't do racing games a whole lot, but I did have to make an exception for LittleBigPlanet Karting for the simple fact that it's friggin' LittleBigPlanet Karting.  My opinion of it hasn't changed much since I last talked about it, but that is to say I haven't really played it much since the last time I talked about it.  I've been thinking about it, but I just haven't yet gotten behind the cardboard steering wheel once more, namely because I've been scrambling to put my playtime into other games so that I could judge them as well.  I still say that, for as weird and out-of-sorts as the mash-up of LittleBigPlanet and a Kart Racer is, it's also a perfect fit in a sense because, well, that is the strength of LittleBigPlanet.  It's meant to be anything and everything you could want it to be, which is why the other iterations of the series have been so popular, or at least so striking with a certain group of people.

In the end, however, I think LittleBigPlanet Karting is a good enough idea to be good, but probably not a good enough idea to substantiate an entire game.  I've only been to two different planets in the story, but if previous games are any indicator, there will only be about five or six in total, so I've seen quite a bit already.  If, perhaps, Karting was simply a level choice for a grander, larger LittleBigPlanet game, that would have been the best course of action, though I understand the scope for that is quite large, almost absurdly so.  So what we're left with is a good idea that goes on a little too long, even if it does take every opportunity to give you ideas that it's not just a racing game.  In all reality, it's -not- just a racing game, but it is, of course, -mostly- one, which does not differentiate itself enough.  Still, it's charming and it's fun enough and I should say I'm better at driving games than fighting games, so I'm not quite as hard pressed to find my own enjoyment with them.  Not much, though.

11.  Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation

You would think that, after just reviewing it recently, I would be sick of talking about AssLib by now.  You would also be right in that.  It hasn't even been a full week since I posted that up and I've even been playing it -still-, trying to mop up the miscellany because the Platinum trophy is behind a wall of tedium, not one of impossibility, so I want to get it and be done with it, that I might return to the world of Persona 4 or some other Vita game, just so I am not playing Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation anymore.  So, if you will allow me to be so lazy, allow me to take an except from the review to leave you with here:

Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation is not a perfect game, much like no Assassin's Creed game is a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination.  The upside is that Liberation is just as flawed as the previous titles, not more, which means if you enjoyed them, you will probably have quite a bit of fun with this.  The story itself is fairly short and not terribly involved with the rest of the overarching story, but in many ways, that's probably a good thing all told.  The draw here is pretty simple - more Assassin's Creed, but wherever you could want to play it at, and that's a very good thing since it does work much the same as the previous titles.  If you're looking for something Action-y to throw into your Vita for a while, AssLib is a fine choice that likely won't leave you feeling disappointed.

So there's that.  Nothing but the Top 10 left and already you've seen some games that might've just been heavy hitters for my list, or might've been considered so, given how much I've talked (or haven't talked) about them.  Still, if you've been keeping up with Kupowered, you'll probably be able to figure out which games are still yet to be revealed, and I'm sure you can understand that it was goddamn hard to actually rank the games that are remaining.  So yes, it's all uphill from here and it's going to be rough going to actually explain my reasoning for why some of the games are where they are.  That is a problem for another night, however, likely tomorrow night.  For tonight, I just have some music and some writing (elsewhere) on my mind.

It Was a Good Day

Happy Chie is Happy.

I didn't do much today.  Well, really, I did, but in the sort of grand scheme of things, what I did wasn't really a lot, but it was pretty fulfilling nonetheless.  I went out and bought myself a few things including a copy of Taken 2 on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo, Persona 4 Arena (because it's $20 at GameStop currently...or at least, it was at my GameStop), Dark Souls and topped it all off with a nice $25 pre-order of Metal Gear Rising:  REVENGEANCE's Collector's Edition, since I made it before the cut-off, thankfully.  Then I came home and eschewed my purchases for the comfort (relatively speaking) of Sorcery, which I played for the majority of the day and did, indeed, end up beating.  I'll save some words for a potential review, but suffice to say that it was good.  Really good.  Like....surprisingly good.  A bit short, but I am very, very happy with the end-product and it's a shame that there will literally be nothing else from that unless the heavens open and the stars align in the proper way.

Speaking on Reviews, I was halfway through one for Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation when my mind just sort of went blank and I had to put it aside for the night.  Hopefully I'll be able to bang through the other half of it tonight and get that up.  I don't mean to get all review-heavy all of a sudden, despite appearances (having just done one for FFXIII-2 recently, this one and talking of doing one for Sorcery as well), but you just go with what works, I suppose, and that is really working for now.  Don't expect it to be a thing that starts something, but enjoy it while it lasts since that is totally an indeterminate amount of time between now and a few months from now probably as I power through a few games in rapid succession.  Hopefully.  Or I'll spend like, two weeks straight playing Demon's Souls and then jump into Dark Souls.  Because I am apparently a masochist or something.

Speaking of Dark Souls, there was a little story to tell about it, I suppose.  I didn't think too much of it, but in retelling the tale to a few people, it seemed a bit more of a thing to them than I assumed it might've been.  So, at GameStop after perusing their selection for a good few minutes, I picked out my bounty - a new copy of Persona 4 Arena and a used copy of Dark Souls because, hey, it didn't come with a code or anything that I know of and I saved a couple bucks because of it.  The girl working the register, fairly cute, engaged me by being positive about my pick of P4A and asking me if I'd bought Golden on the Vita.  After assuring her that I have it and beat it last week, she nodded and mentioned that she wasn't too far into it, but her Personae were all up to level 30 which isn't bad to be sure.  We chatted a little bit more before she turned her attention to Dark Souls, hesitating for just a moment before looking over at me past the rim of her glasses.

"Just so you know, you can always bring Dark Souls back if it's not your type of game," she warned.  I chuckled and waved it off.  "Yeah, I know it's rough.  I've been playing Demon's Souls recently."  "Dark Souls is harder."  "I know, but I've got a friend who has been bothering me to pick it up and she is fairly relentless."  She nodded and shrugged a bit with a smile.  "Fair enough.  I just personally found myself ripping my hair out playing it and that's not why I play games at all."  I smirked; it's a common sentiment, one that I was well acquainted with.  "Yeah, when I played Demon's Souls the first time, I was of the same opinion, just sort of raging at the whole thing.  But when you keep at it, eventually it clicks and it becomes a finesse thing and when it works, it's amazing....it's just the getting it to work part that's a problem."  To that, she laughed.  And we chatted a bit more before I asked about REVENGEANCE's Limited Edition and got that pre-order taken care of.  Then I paid and I left with a few kind words because I'm just nice like that.

I didn't think anything of it and truly I still don't, but when I told that story to a couple people, they flipped.  "You made her laugh?"  "What, yeah.  I make people laugh sometimes.  It happens."  "Nah, not like that."  Apparently, I was flirting, according to these people.  You...would think that this is something I would realize/consider before anyone else.  In other news, I know some weird people, it seems.  Fairly weird.  Weird people with weird ideas.  Since I was just being nice and sharing enthusiasm.  Still, no matter the outcome and the intent, it was an amusing story to me and it helped elevate the day from pretty good to good overall.  And because of that, I just wanted to share tonight because it's not always about the games, but rather sometimes it's about getting the games and the amusing stories that come with that activity.  Overall, as I said, it was a good day, no real issues aside from my arms being sore from working out and moving things yesterday, but such is the way of things and flicking my wrist and such a billion times playing Sorcery probably didn't help with that.  Worth it, regardless.