I was sort getting sick of other social media sites being so unpersonal if that makes sense, twitter is on fire right now (and when is it ever not on fire to be honest) and instagram is so uncustomizable that I don't think it represents myself very well.
However, I thought it would be cool to start a tumblr blog just to talk about things or games that I like. Mostly for myself but I might refer people over here to see what I think about games sometimes, so lets see how long this project lives!
Hello everyone! Back with another "Thoughts On" post and I feel like I owe an apology to my 2 readers about my post frequency. It seems whenever I plan to make a post "shorter", it always ends up being a bigger post than I really intend for it to be (Like the Metal Gear MSX one), hence why it takes so long (and my university schedule). So! I will remedy this by talking about a game that is literally 20 minutes long.
Kirby's Dream Land is a game I have gained an appreciation of recently. Let me start by saying that I don't feel that strongly about the Gameboy/GBC library that much. There's a few games I like, Link's Awakening, The Oracle games, Pokemon, and the Megaman ones to name a few, but nothing much else. However, I am very glad to announce that Kirby's Dream Land is now part of that pantheon.
(This was hard mode by the way)
So those who have played it might be asking why? By the nature of it being the first Kirby game, it can feel a little different from the rest of the series, most notably the lack of copy abilities. And also the fact that on the very same system, there is a more in-depth and content rich sequel in Dream Land 2. Why do I like this one so much?
Well, if I had to give my own lame answer, I like it because it's different!
Kirby's Dream Land's gameplay is something you have to approach a little differently. Thanks to the lack of copy abilities you are forced to play a little reactivley rather than proactively (like waiting for the boss to drop a star, or saving an enemy to spit it out). In other Kirby games I usually find myself just always using the copy abilities over stock Kirby, so playing Dream Land was a cool twist! Not saying that one system is better than the other by the way. It's just the lack of copy abilities is what gives the game its unique gameplay flair!
Another notable thing about Dream Land is it's quick length. There's only 5 stages, each like 5 minutes each max. But I think thats another neat quality that the game has. If I ever feel like I needed to take a break fron schoolwork or something, this is a great game to just blast through and beat quickly. Its like a lunch break if it was a video game, not so shallow where you feel like you still want more, but not too much to make it feel like you had a full course meal and wasted time.
Actually there is a bit of extra content, if you beat the game and press a button combination on the title screen you get a secret hard mode, and thus takes significantly more time than the normal mode because of its difficulty if you are into that. It actually is pretty challenging (once again proving that Kirby is not always a baby game in terms if difficulty). I didn't beat hard mode, mostly cuz it kicked my ass, but it's pretty neat!
(Here's me with 1 hit-point at Green Greens, Hard mode is pretty crazy)
The game overall is just really charming and has a lot of personality. The spritework is really cute, as is with most Kirby games. Something that helps it's pretty good soundtrack, despite having like... 7 songs. I think the game is just novel to see where all these iconic elements of the Kirby games came from, Like the title cards.
To be honest, there isn't much else to say. Other than why someone would play this over something like Dream Land 2 like I mentioned earlier. Well I find that Dream Land has its own unique qualities that makes it stand out, and even though I haven't played Dream Land 2 all the way through despite me being a huge fan of Kirby, I find that it is very different and that both are worth playing. Maybe I'll play through Dream Land 2 in full and write about it, no promises though!
(see look there ARE copy abilities!)
Well, that's about all I think I have to say about Kirby's Dream Land. I guess some final closing remarks would be to play the game! It's only about 20 minutes long and it's just overall pretty quality for a Gameboy game! I know it seems like I am just repeating things thats already pretty known about this game and the Kirby franchise as a whole, but I feel as if this game is sometimes overshadowed by the games that follow it, and it shows that I think this game is just as great as the other games in the franchise. But I believe the Dream Land stands on it's own as a pretty solid Kirby game, at least I think. I've probably replayed this game a dozen times in the last week and it's consistently a great time, If you haven't tried it out and you are a Kirby fan, give it a try! You might find that it's a lot more engaging that you think!
And thats about it! More longer and in-depth posts are on it's way, I'm currently working on some posts on Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and finally Persona 4: Golden. I'm also planning to give the blog a custom theme soon so that it's not the boring default look. Until then, thank you for reading this shorter post!
Devil May Cry is always a series that has always eluded me. I always seemed like a series that I would love to death, I love Dante as a character and I was always awe-struck at the combo's that people would post online and thought it looked awesome. I bought DMC 5 on my PS5 in an attempt to get into the series, but I thought it was a little daunting to get into, and I couldn't fully get into it at the time because I was busy (I have since played it and it is fantastic as well). But recently, I was mass downloading PS2 games I was interested in for the PCSX2 emulator (as one does in their free time) and found myself thinking about DMC again, as it had a huge presence on PS2. Seeing as I had a bit of free time, I decided to get into the first DMC game in hopes that it could ease me into the rest of the series. I ended up really enjoying myself and I was glad to know that I do have in interest in the rest of the series now.
So what did I think?
As much as I enjoyed my time with the game, there were a couple of major gripes, but as for the the positives, I have a lot more of those so I want to begin with them.
Firstly, the presentation. This game oozes charm from start to finish. I was immediately hooked from the opening. I remember just being dumbfounded at the fact that Dante was able to not only survive and walk around with a giant sword in his chest, but also repel a whole motorcycle with just his guns. It was so silly and weird but also kinda cool, I knew from that moment that this series was incredible.
(usually I like to try to get my gameplay captures on my own, but DMC resets your save file to unlock hard mode, so most of my screenshots come from this long-play by "The Ladslade").
Atmosphere & Music
Going beyond the intro, the setting of the game is really cool. There something about this castle environment that I really like. Maybe because it almost feels like a horror game environment. Also maybe because it partly was in a way design to be a horror game. Supposedly, DMC was originally supposed to be Resident Evil 4, but was turned into a separate thing after the action focus felt too different from Resident Evil. I think the result of this is a very interesting dynamic between the environment and the player, where some sections feel big and scary, but you have the means of fighting back at any time and feel badass doing it, as if you were the scary one (if that makes any sense). I remember when you go back to the castle for the last third of the game and all the lights are replaced with this contrasting harsh bright white light and it made me feel pretty spooked.
Another thing that I contributes to that atmosphere is the soundtrack. The game does something I think is pretty cool, in that it's actually a pretty quiet game. Like when someone thinks of DMC nowadays I believe that one thing that comes to mind would be its soundtrack, think "Devil Trigger" or "Devils Never Cry" as popular songs that people think think of immediately when they think of DMC. However DMC 1's soundtrack contains a lot of droning atmospheric noises that fits its dark castle setting. Which I think makes it all the more cool, when enemies show up, the cool battle music starts to play which gives you that confidence to fight. "Public Battle" itself is such an exciting track, it carries all the swagger that Dante exudes and makes you feel like a badass. Of course, you are going to get your ass handed to you often because DMC is a pretty challenging game, but at least you are going to hear some jams while that happens.
Combat & Customization
One thing that I also enjoyed about DMC was it's combat. It might sound a little strange given that this is the most simplistic game when it comes to it's combat depth (maybe besides DMC 2 but I haven't played it yet). But I actually don't think thats too much to its detriment, from the lens of someone who tried to play DMC 5 previously and was intimidated by all of it's mechanics, I found DMC 1's simplicity to be great training wheels to see how the combat systems would develop to where we are today. This isn't to say that DMC 1's combat is shallow, I've seen some pretty cool DMC 1 combo videos that look very impressive. Of course there's a lot less options compared to something like DMC 5, there's only a handful of weapons and there are no other characters or style switching, but I found that in DMC 1 especially I appreciated each weapon I got more. Like half-way through the game when you unlock Ifrit, it feels like a pretty substantial side-grade that changed up the pace of the game, same thing for when you unlock Sparda. It also meant that I didn't have to choose a couple of weapons to stick with and only upgrade a few like how I handled DMC 5, I could give each weapon the same amount of care. Not to say that the variety of weapons in DMC 5 is unneeded or something dumb like that, the variety I would say is probably the best part of DMC 5, I just think it's two separate sides of the coin, where DMC 5's combat is so deep you can just get lost in the possibilities. They are just different and I think that is okay.
Alright so I've sung a lot of praises for DMC 1 but there are some major gripes I have with it, so ill start with that now.
Continues
I'm not sure how this is received in the DMC community, but I really did not enjoy the Continues/Gold Orb system much at all. For those who don't know, DMC runs on a mission based format where if you die (which is a lot), you are given the option to revive yourself using an item called a Gold Orb, which is a limited and rare item. The problem comes from what happens when you run out, because if you die without a Gold Orb, you have to restart the entire mission. This is pretty harsh in a game as hard as this, especially when its a boss mission, which could take many attempts to fully understand. It's a little frustrating to die to a boss at the end of a mission, and have to replay the entire thing again just to get another attempt at it. I can understand people who might like this, it sort of gives a similar vibe to the Dark Souls boss runback, where there is more pressure and more of a feeling of success when the winning attempt finally comes. But to me the replay's of the mission felt a little to long to be satisfying, so I ended up using save states to give myself a checkpoint before every major boss. Usually I don't like doing that in games but I just found that this is a part of the game I really would rather not go through again. I feel like even the DMC developers realized this, because I believe starting with DMC 3, they gave checkpoints before every major boss, which I feel is much better.
And finally...
The Fixed Camera
Not sure if my critique of the camera is a common complaint in the fanbase, but that's just how I feel.
This part is a little hard for me. Because I think the fixed camera in this game is both a blessing and a curse. For one, I think the fixed camera is incredible for establishing atmosphere and framing cool scenes. The areas in this game look incredible, and that is because of the fixed camera. It is definitely a remnant from it's Resident Evil roots. However, this camera, as pretty as it makes the game looks, makes combat so much worse than it really should be. This is probably the biggest knock against DMC and I totally get it. Take the last battle against the boss Nightmare. The camera is so focused on Nightmare itself that you can barely see whats going on, let alone predict it's already unpredictable attacks. There are times I remember when I was fighting enemies that were completely off screen, because the camera wants you to go down towards the screen. This resulted in times where I would get hit from places I could not see, or have me shoot at enemies and pray that I am doing something to them. It really is a huge knock against a combat system that I think otherwise is really great. The fixed camera is both the best and worst part of the game. I'm also not entirely against the usage of a fixed camera, I feel like it could be done pretty well, it's just that in DMC I don't think it works well as it could.
(Like seriously, tell me you can understand whats going on here)
Conclusion
Generally, I enjoyed Devil May Cry a lot, despite the issues I had with it. I actually think its a pretty good start for anybody getting into the series actually (like me!), this is because I feel like some of the flaws with it may strain the experience for people who are more familiar with the modern games, making it a little more unapproachable. But if you look past the problems I think it has a gripping atmosphere and pretty good combat, I definitely think it's worth a play if you are a fan of DMC, or just a fan of action games in general.
Hello everyone! Just a bit of a shorter post this time around because I take too long with these... But over the summer I ended up getting into the Metal Gear series from buying the Master Collection Vol. 1. It was always a series that really interested me and holy shit my expectations were blown away. Within the next few months of me buying the collection I beat the first three Solid games and fell in love with them. It's like there are no weak points, I think they are all contenders to be the best Metal Gear games, if not some of the best games of all time. Sons of Liberty in particular blew my mind, but those are reviews for another day. After beating Snake Eater I found that I could not stop thinking about the series, and without a lot of time to play any major game, and the difficulty to play MGS4 at the current moment (I hear RPCS3 struggles to run MGS4 without patches), I decided to get my full moneys worth of the collection and play the original MSX games. (By the way, I actually did end up playing MGS4 after MG1 by obtaining a ps3 and playing it on original hardware, it was stellar).
So what did I think?
I didn't exactly know what to expect when playing it for the first time, I am a person who can stomach an older game, so I didn't go in with the worst impressions. But I was actually impressed with how well I think the game stands up today. Of course, it has similar problems that a lot of old games have, which I'll talk about.
Progression
Like many other games of the era, there are a couple of times where I wandered around for a long time and wasn't sure where to go. Like the various times when you have to break an unmarked wall, like when you have to get the guard uniform to get into the second building. The only way you would know is by hitting it, and I didn't want to hit every single wall when I played. I've seen some arguments online that you can call the codec to get hints from your allies. On paper I think that makes sense, but in reality I don't think the codec system was all that helpful. In the Solid games for example, you could call your allies on almost every screen, and each one had a distinctive purpose, like how Campbell would always tell you where to go to get on track. In the original Metal Gear, if you call someone, there is a high chance you will get no dialogue from anybody at all. I think the most useful was Diane, because she actually said something on how to beat most bosses. Jennifer also had some dialog that felt like was worth calling her for, too bad she comes in so late into the game.
Another thing that bothered me that everyone seems to agree on is the keycard system. Not gonna hang to much on this point because everyone talks about it. But just for the record, the keycards don't "level up" like in the Solid games, rather, they are all separate items that you have to use on each individual door to see which ones open it. And it's not like the earlier keycards stop being used either, you are gonna have to try all 8 on every door. One of the doors in building 3 literally opens with the level 1 card, and that can get a bit annoying. It got to a point where I had a rhythm for checking each door and swapping.
Music
I know this is going to be very petty and nit-picky, and definitely a result of the MSX's limitations. But I kind of wish there was more music. Don't get me wrong, I actually really liked the "Theme of Tara" main theme, it's really catchy and has this last part that I'm sad doesn't get included in the remixes in the later Metal Gear games. But 70% of the time you are going to be listening to it (the other 30% is the alert theme). I also like that final escape/boss theme when you fight Big Boss.
Gameplay
I think now it's time to talk about the parts I liked about the game, which is actually the gameplay. Despite being annoyed by some elements of progression, I actually think as a whole it's not bad, just a few parts that I got lost at. I think the game's actual gameplay is really fun. It clicked when me when I realized that it sorta felt like a Zelda game where you are basically exploring a really large dungeon. I was pretty impressed with the actual, stealth action. I was worried that the game was going to be clunky with the stealth, but It was pretty fair all things considered. There are some things that could be seen as strange, like the guards being able to see only straight forward instead of the cone shape. And after playing MG2: Solid Snake for a little bit, I'm ecstatic to see that it actually got improved there. There's also the bosses, which are a bit hit or miss. But for the most part, they are pretty interesting puzzle like bosses. Obviously some highlights are the Hind D and Big Boss. Big Boss especially is really fun, as it feels really fast paced and the music really intensifies it. I suppose that the best way I could describe the bosses is also Zelda-like, in the sense that some of them are about action, and others are more puzzle like. And one last thing is that I found the hostage rescue being tied to levelling up to be pretty neat, it encouraged me to explore around the buildings
Story
The last thing that I thought was kind of neat was the story. I didn't go in with the expectation that it was on the same scale as the Solid series, but I was pleasantly surprised about the little bit of storytelling there was. The big twist of course is Big Boss's betrayal but I love how the game sprinkles hits about it near the mid-end part of the game. Some of the hostages hint at the leader of Outer Heaven and how Schneider tries to tell you before he (presumably) get taken out by Big Boss himself (at least thats how I interpreted it, like in MGS1 when Campbell gets taken out by the Secretary of Defence y'know?). But my favourite moment of the game is when you start to realize whats going on and Big Boss starts actively trying to stop you on the codec by feeding you misinformation to get killed. And especially when he was saying to abandon the mission, it was giving me MGS2 vibes and made me determined to see through to the end and find out what Big Boss was up to. And the final moment where be basically says he sent off Snake to this mission to get a newbie like him killed. It was a small but impressive story for it's time, and I could definitely see how this series would evolve to become these storytelling epics.
Conclusion
Overall I thought the game was pretty charming, It was cool to see the origin of where things began. And even though my expectations weren't as high as they were with the Solid series, I was pleasantly surprised at what the game had to offer! I'm probably going to try Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake one day because now I know the MSX games are worth playing, and I hear MG2 is actually even more quality. So who knows, maybe thats going to be another review for another day. But until then, thanks for reading!
Hi everyone, as tradition with my blog ill be going back to talking about games I like, and I've been on a bit of a FromSoftware fix lately with the release of Elden Ring: Nightreign and I want to talk about the game that got me into the souls series in the first place, the first Dark Souls. Before getting to ahead of myself, I think this game is genuinely of the greatest video games ever made and if you haven't played it yet, please do. I might be going into spoilers in this post and I don't want to ruin the magic for those who might be considering playing it, one thing I do have to say if you are interested is don't be intimidated by the "difficulty" that everyone says in in Dark Souls, It is not as bad as people make it out to be, and I (yes me! the person writing!) believe in you! So if you ever decide to try it and find that you are stuck, don't give up, neither of us want to see you go hollow. With that being said...
(My first ever playthrough, of course it was a STR build).
What did I think?
I want to start this of saying that I think Dark Souls is one of the greatest games to come out of the last few gaming generations, I think it's a game that everyone should try at least once, even if you don't beat it. However, I actually found it was a little tough to get into at first. DS1 was gifted to me by one of my good friends and I remembered being pretty reluctant to accept it because I was afraid of sinking time into something so difficult, so for a long while I just hung around the first area Undead Burg. I don't remember why but for some reason I couldn't let myself drop the game completely, there was something about it that kept dragging me back. I eventually beat the Bell Gargoyles and felt that wave of satisfaction, and I guess I decided that I wanted to explore around and I ended up finding my way to Darkroot Garden. I don't know why, but something in my head just clicked when I entered the area. It was almost melancholic, up until that point the game had been nothing but ruins and destruction, but the moment I stepped into the garden, I wanted to see more, I wanted to see what other surprises the world of Lordran had for me. This I think was the exact moment I fell in love with the game.
And I think that's the strongest part of Dark Souls...
The Atmosphere
DS1 in my opinion is one of the greatest worlds and atmospheres in any piece of media ever. From minute one the game hits you with its oppressive atmosphere, this world is dying, and you don't even need the introductory cutscene to tell you that. It's evident through areas like Undead Asylum and Undead Burg, where there was once life was now overrun with Hollow's and people barely hanging on. Something that always popped into my mind was a vivid image of people who could have lived there normally, before the world turned into the way it was. But what really sell the atmosphere for me is the moments of calm and respite you sometimes find yourself in, take the main hub area of Firelink Shrine, the only place you can really call "home". Or places like the aforementioned Darkroot Garden, where that moment of melancholy and quietness really resonated with me.
But I would be remiss not to mention one of the most iconic moments in the whole series, the reveal of Anor Londo. For the entire game there has been a massive wall towering over you, It's not really even something you think about, I just thought it was a part of the environment at first. But then after struggling through half of the game, you get grabbed and flown up by a couple of monsters to finally reveal whats over it and its this:
I remember my reaction so vividly, I was at a loss for words, breath taken almost. This pristine city, in complete repair unlike almost every area before it, baked in a golden shine in stark contrast to this games usage of cool colours (blues, purples, greens), and having it be the representative of the city of the gods. All of this just under your nose (over your nose?) behind a wall you wouldn't even think is important at first. I still think about this moment, what a way to reward your players for toughing it through everything up until that point.
The Exploration
Another major reason I think the atmosphere is so strong is the actual exploration element to the game. The biggest compliment I can give to Dark Souls is the world design. The game is made so that many of the areas loop back on itself, often creating shortcuts. It also just lets you see areas you cannot access yet so it stays in your mind. Never before has a game made me so excited to explore. I remember when I was streaming my playthrough to the friend that got me to play it in the first place, I had excitedly created a list of areas I wanted to explore for that session. I couldn't get over the sensation of seeing how each shortcut linked up with eachother, or seeing an element of a level be re-contextualized after exploring another area. They put so much care into making this into an immersive world that I can confidently say that it's probably some of the best level design ever made in a video game. This is sadly an element that I feel like was lost with every souls game afterwards. Even Elden Ring to an extent I think has worse exploration than Dark Souls 1, but that feels like an unfair comparison because one has smaller scale, more fine-tuned levels, whilst thr other is an open world, so ill move on from this topic.
The Bossfights
Of course, you can't talk about the Souls series without mentioning the masterful boss battles. Dark Souls 1 has this really great blend of having a boss seem daunting to beat while not feeling impossible, this is actually a compliment I can give the whole series. For many people, this the hook. The pure satisfaction of finally defeating that boss you were stuck on, and even returning on a second playthrough and using what you learned to destroy that same boss you had struggled with before, it's one of the best feelings I've felt in a game.
Admittedly, Dark Souls 1 doesn't always hit the mark when it cones to boss design, especially compared to its newer sequels, (Dark Souls 3 in particular is fantastic when it comes to bosses). Bosses like Pinwheel or Bed of Chaos are obvious misses, but the really quality bosses like Artorias, Bell Gargoyles, and Sif make up for the blemishes. Ornstein and Smough in particular is a great example of how to design a 2v1 situation and still make it feel fair. And of course, Gwyn is one of the most iconic and memorable final bosses in gaming, and his theme has so much emotional impact which really cemented its memorability. And since I don't know where to say this, the music is fantastic. Most of it are boss tracks but there are some incredible atmospheric tracks that deserve recognition. Search up the Duke's Archives Prison or the Nameless Song (the latter of which has actually helped me sleep).
(Ornstein and Smough pictured here)
And finally, the Difficulty
It's seems to be impossible to not bring up the games difficulty when discussing it to others. And of course, the game is difficult, and so was its predecessor Demon Souls. However, I don't think the reason why Dark Souls is so good is just because it is hard, I think is it because the atmosphere compliments the difficulty and works together to make this oppressive world feel real. And this difficulty working with the atmosphere makes those moments of triumph feel all the more rewarding. And another thing I like is that even if you find yourself at a wall, there's almost never a situation where there is only one path. A choice at the very beginning of the game is a great example of this, the choice of going to the Undead Burg, Catacombs, or New Londo. The first area of the game is Undead Burg, and it's balanced that way, however, a new player will still have the choice of going to Catacombs and New Londo even though they are balanced to be done later in the game. So if you find yourself stuck at the Catacombs or New Londo, you can go somewhere else and eventually find that Undead Burg is a much easier progression path. Another example would be in the second half of the game. Where if you don't find an area to be to appealing at that moment, you can go somewhere else, maybe even finding something that will help you when you come back, like finding the Sunlight Maggot for the Tomb of the Giants.
However, I feel like Dark Souls has gained this reputation of being a difficulty game first, as if it was the main selling point, which I really wish wasn't the case. It common to see in journalism to describe the series as being devilishly hard and even going to an extent of calling other 'hard' games as being "the Dark Souls of ___" or something along those lines. I appreciate it's difficulty being recognized but I firmly believe that Dark Souls' difficulty is not the reason its so good like what the general public seems to believe. I love Dark Souls because of how the difficulty works with the atmosphere to create an engaging experience. I feel like a lot of people are scared of Dark Souls because it is always said to be a difficult game first, and I feel like that is a shame. Dark Souls in genuinely a masterpiece, and I think that it is a must play for anyone who like video games. So thats why I want to say that even if you are intimidated by Dark Souls difficulty, please give it a try, it's not as scary as everyone says.
Conclusion
Dark Souls is great, it's one of the greatest series to come out of recent gaming. I think the original Dark Souls is a great starting point for people getting into the series. From the atmosphere, difficulty, soundtrack and world, I think this this is a game that everyone should try, at least once. Fromsoftware is one of the only video game companies in recent times to consistently produce quality and originality that helps push forward the advancement of video games, take a look at Elden Ring for example. But I think even their earlier titles exhibit that same level of quality, even nearly a decade later, and Dark Souls 1 is proof of that.
Alright so, went back to update this post because significant things have happened since I originally posted this. The first is the release of Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4, and more recently, the Undertale 10th anniversary stream. The chapter releases actually didn't do that much in confirmijg whether or not PP will be in Deltarune but in my opinion, the 10th anniversary stream nearly seals the deal. I think I should just say my current thoughts now, I don't think Penumbra Phantasm will be in Deltarune in the way we know it right now.
A major argument I had was how Toby had hid Buzinkai's "Doctor" motif inside of Hopes and Dreams, and Doctor took up a lot of Penumbra Phantasm's melodic content, so the idea was that Toby was teasing the usage of PP in Deltarune because of it. (If you want more details, the og post is under this update). However, in the 10th anniversary stream, Toby outright said that the Doctor quote in Hopes and Dreams was a tribute to Buzinkai and her death. This actually made me really happy to hear it was a tribute, it makes me love Doctor and Hopes and Dreams even more now. But now knowing this information makes a lot of the theory fall flat, Toby wasn't trying to hide anything, nor was he foreshadowing anything, he just was trying to honor the memory of Buzinkai. Doctor will certainly not make an appearance in anything else out of respect for Buzinkai, and since it's such a major part of Penumbra Phantasm's melodic content, It makes the argument for PP being in Deltarune harder to convince. Of course, I bring up that we can never put words in Toby's mouth and that most of it is just circumstantial evidence, but I think the argument for PP being in Deltarune isn't entirely shot. There is still the HOLY which is still a song that is almost directly quoted from the non-Doctor part of PP, the thematic similarities too, are still present. I've seen people create versions of Penumbra Phantasm that forgo any Homestuck related motif in the original song and replace them with Deltarune ones, esp the Dark Sactuary motif is what ive noticed, and I am a big subscriber of that idea. So, what does this mean? Well in my eyes, Penumbra Phantasm coming into Deltarune with the Doctor motif is almost none. But a different version of Penumbra Phantasm with different motifs could still be a possibility, but we will never know for certain. Do I still believe that we will get the version of PP seen in the unfinished demos and such? No. Do I think that we will see a version of PP that is completely unique to Deltarune? Absolutley, yes. Well, unfinished, finished, changed, or original, I still love Penumbra Phantasm and I hope it will be finished one day, and no matter what form it does or dosen't take ill still think its one of the best songs Toby has ever made.
Even though I don't agree with some of the points anymore, the original post will still be below the update unchanged, and is still (i hope) an interesting view of a certain rabbithole I ended up falling down and loving. I hope you like the read!
Original Post
I know this isn't exactly a game review like I usually do, but I just wanted to talk about this song that I have been obsessed with for some time now, and how it blew my mind.
Its called Penumbra Phantasm, and it was created by Toby Fox for when he was working on Homestuck, which admittedly, I have not read yet, but im planning to now after this whole thing happened.
The way I heard about the song was probably like most fandom brainrotted people like me, through Undertale/Deltarune fan content. For quite some time now people have theorized that Penumbra Phantasm might have a big motific role in Deltarune. This is because, despite its motif being in many songs, it was never fully used in Homestuck. Supposedly Toby was never satisfied with the song enough to release it, so it never did. So then people theorize that Toby will finish it for Deltarune.
At first I didn't think much of the theory, it would be cool for sure but it didn't strike out to me as particularly important.
However, just recently I started to listen to a lot of fansongs for hypothetical future Deltarune chapters on YouTube and Soundcloud. Particularly ones featuring remixes of some of Toby's old homestuck soundtracks, or just music he has created in general, things like Nightmare Knight, Saviour of the Waking World, and most importantly, Penumbra Phantasm.
There was one particular remix of Penumbra Phantasm that I really enjoyed, it was created by a channel called surreal, who creates really great Deltarune inspired songs, go check them out. Anyways, I fell in love with the composition and had it on loop for a lot of the time. (This particular remix by surreal is what I think is the best Deltarune fansong that currently exists, it's that good).
And then later I discovered the piano demo that was in the Homestuck Soundtest. And similarly, I listened to that on repeat for a long time. It sounds very melancholic, but desperate, like its a song representing the end of something grand. Sorry if that seems cheesy but thats how i feel, it gives me feelings I don't quite understand as someone who doesn't know to analyze music lol.
So thats where I stood for a bit, listening to the song considering it one of my favorite compositions, impressive for an unreleased song. However, what I did not expect is for me to fall down a rabbit hole that made me completely obsessed and 100% sure that it is going to show up in Deltarune. One day when I was on YouTube, I saw a video explaining that there was a hidden leitmotif inside the Undertale song "Hopes and Dreams", where they showcased a version of the song with no main melody, and when I heard it, my jaw dropped.
(This is the deconstruction by YT channel JamieCD, and here's the link. Listen at the 1:17 mark).
It's Penumbra Phantasm, clear as day. At first I was skeptical, I mean i've been an Undertale fan literally since the beginning, i've listened to Hopes and Dreams probably hundreds of times, this has got to be an elaborate joke. So I relistened to Hopes and Dreams again, got to the same point and...
It's there, I couldn't believe it. In case you can't hear it, try listening carefully in your right headphone, it's quiet, like he was trying to hide it. This motif has been hidden right under our nose.
And that's not even it, a more obvious excerpt that I admittedly realized much later that everyone else is that Penumbra Phantasm is also in Deltarune's "THE HOLY" and it is basically a direct excerpt at 0:20 and beyond.
Now I was fully invested in the theory that the song had to be used at some point in Deltarune, but the rabbithole descent went even further for me.
I started listening to all the unreleased instances of Penumbra Phantasm that people have found, including the one Toby did live and the unfinished midi version (although i'm not sure if that one is super official). And even the video of Toby singing the main melody of it at a convention (with a backing piano).
And then I discovered the Homestuck Volume 4 song "Doctor" created by the late Buzinkai. It is a shame she passed, she created what is now one of my favourite songs of all time. This song is the earliest appearance of a motif used in Penumbra Phantasm. This is a bit of sidetracking but, I just wanted to talk about Doctor for a bit, because I think this is one of my favourite songs on the internet, it gives me feelings I'm not really sure how to put into words, it feels very sombre, when I close my eyes, it's like it transports me to another world, it has genuinely helped me sleep sometimes. Please give it a listen. This song has actually gotten me into listening to a lot of other Homestuck songs too, its genuinley some really great music so I am really considering reading it one day, it just seems like a webcomic ill love.
There are also the actual times that Toby has alluded to or mentioned Penumbra Phantasm.
Seeming when asked about Penumbra Phantasm on tumblr, he said this:
It's a very cryptic message, but I have seen some compare this to the plot of Deltarune, which makes sense. The legend in the game has very similar wording like with the line "AT WORLDS EDGE, and BANISH THE ANGELS HEAVEN" in it, and this feels like it would fit in with the themes of Deltarune. This isn't even mentioning Toby Fox's first ever tweet on Twitter.
(Sourced from @dailytobytrivia on twitter)
This is clearly a reference to Deltarune, where the themes of reality and escapism are abundant.
And for me the smoking gun was this, a little theory that came up in my head. Most people know that Toby came up with Deltarune before Undertale when he dreamt of an ending to a game, and since then it seems like he has been determined to finish it.
(not kidding about the dream thing)
He had this dream in 2011, which is coincidentally the same year he made that twitter post. And since then, he has associated Penumbra Phantasm with thematic elements from Deltarune, which makes me believe that at some point, Toby wanted to use this song in Deltarune, but ended up using it for Homestuck, composing motifs from Doctor in the song as well, but that would never happen as Penumbra Phantasm would be unreleased. But I believe that Toby still wanted to complete a version of Penumbra Phantasm that he could be proud of, so he started hiding the motifs in Undertale and Deltarune, awating the grand final release of the true Penumbra Phantasm in Deltarune.
This almost makes it feel like the song is Toby's magnum opus, working on it for years, trying to use it and be satisfied with a final product until its absolutely perfect, which I have to agree. The buildup for this song has been made for more than a decade across multiple different series of media, there's no way this isn't going to be Toby Fox's most important song.
Now I understand this theory might have some cracks in it, like a lot of it being here-say about Toby being "unsatisfied" with the song, which admittedly I have never seen concrete proof of outside of YouTube comments and Reddit posts, or the fact that I have yet to read Homestuck, so some of my logic might go against some release dates of songs and such. But there still is the smoking guns that are the Tweet and Tumblr post and the hidden motifs in UT/DR.
What blows my mind even further is that my theory, and my rabbit hole down the Penumbra Phantasm tunnel is not only just felt by me. I've seen a lot of posts about this exact finding spree, and seeing it all connect. Now I am among the people who 100% believe that Deltarune will contain Penumbra Phantasm in some form.
(There are already 2 videos talking about the connections between Penumbra Phantasm and Deltarune in some way, go check it out.)
These discoveries made me realize, Toby has been trying to make this song for years, Hes been putting the motifs of Doctor and Penumbra Phantasm in his songs for years, even in Undertale and Deltarune. And if that anecdote about Toby being unsatisfied with this song and this potentially being his magnum opus hes trying to release to perfection, I think I start to being to like it more as an artist.
I think most of us have ambitions and dreams we want to accomplish, if we set out a goal, we want to do the very best we can do. Art is funny though because that goal is never really exactly clear, we artists will always strive to create something better than the last, and when we try to make something perfect, we never end up being satisfied. My dream is to make a webcomic that my friends and peers will enjoy, but I've always wanted it to be the very best I can make it, something I can consider the best creation I have made in my life. But in the pursuit of being perfect, I have never been satisfied with it enough to consider it good enough to show. This struggle with perfectionism is kind of why I feel like I enjoy Penumbra Phantasm so much, waiting and wanting something for something that can live up to the expectations of others. I think we all need a little confidence to reach our hopes and dreams, and ill be waiting for whenever Penumbra Phantasm is finished, because Ill know it was the result of years of effort to make something that people will love, and that's something inspiring to hold on to.
Recently my best friend decided to play through Final Fantasy VIII and it rekindled my love that I have for the game. I first beat the game around a year ago and I really enjoyed it personally. Generally in the Final Fantasy community this game is seen as pretty hit or miss, some people like it, while some people don't like it, and I'm definitely in the camp that really likes it. So I thought it would be fun to talk about why I actually think this game is pretty good. There's a lot to love about what this game did, but ill also pay attention to some problems as well don't worry. Hopefully I can convince someone that this game is actually worth playing! I first played the PC remaster that released on Steam and I think it's the best version, some people prefer the older PSX models, but I think the new ones look just as good and don't take away from the experience personally. With that being said let's get into it.
So what did I think?
Well I already said that I really enjoyed this game. But to extend on that, I didn't nearly find it as bad as people online usually say it is. What I knew before going into it was that it was a very experimental Final Fantasy, and I can totally see that. The huge debate of its quality usually comes from it's mechanics, which ill admit, can be a little flawed. But I really didn't think that it was that bad, the perfect example being the main mechanic of FF8.
Juctioning (and why it's not that bad)
For those not familiar with Final Fantasy VIII, Juctioning is the main way that your characters get stat gains, and by equipping a Guardian Force (GF), you can junction your spells to your stats and they increase.
Juctioning is one of the most controversial mechanic surrounding FF8. It can be overly confusing at times and it encourages hoarding of spells, because if you use spells, your stats are affected. Another being that it removes most character identity, basically making everyone blank slates. My solution that I came up with is to just to split up my magic stock for offense and defense, Let's say that I had Blizzaga juctioned to my magic stat while I would cast something like Flare or Thundaga. Another thing is that you don't always have to junction your strongest magic to your stats, if you want to use them then you are free to not junction them and use them offensively, take the example of flare I just gave.
Another thing is just to not worry about your stock too much, 62 Fira's juctioned to your strength stat is not going to drastically decrease if you decide to use a few of them. I found juctioning quite interesting and it forced me to think about how I wanted to use magic and what for. It also allowed for some neat customization, not as much as say, FF7 or FF6, but it still allowed me to be free with how I wanted to build every character. My Squall for example I wanted to focus on being a physical attacker because of his gunblade followups and limit breaks, so I junctioned Tornado to his strength and just firaga to his magic just in case he needed to cast some spells.
As for the characters becoming blank slates, I would argue it is not that much of a problem. I mean, Final Fantasy VII did something similar with the materia system (although that system is a lot more robust than junctioning) and it was alright there. And FF8 has their individual limit break for each character like FF7, and I think it plays a similar role in this game for distinguishing uniqueness for each character. Sometimes I would choose characters over each other just for their limit breaks, especially when I had spells like Aura.
(Irvine's limit break is one of the coolest moves like, ever)
So to put it in short, I don't think junctioning is as bad as people say, I actually really liked it because it made me think about how I was using my magic, and allowed me to still customize my party to how I like.
Guardian Forces
Another, admittedly understandable, complaint towards FF8 is the level scaling system. After all, why fight anything if you are powering up the enemies by levelling up yourself, and that there is no monetary incentive to battling either? It sounds pretty detrimental for a JRPG to not have any real gains after a fight. However, there is actually a reason you would want to fight and kill enemies, the Guardian Forces.
Guardian Forces are way more important than character level ups, because they are the main source of strength for your party. Juctioning is connected to your GF's and your GF's gain experience and level up much like your own party, which can only be gained through battling. GF's abilities too are gained by AP from winning battles. This is almost akin to Final Fantasy V's job level up system, where more often than not, the job level up is more important than the character level up.
And GF abilites is another layer of customization that you can apply to your party, with custom menu commands and even just % increases to a stat. Remember how I said I wanted squall to be a physical attacker? Well of course he would get Str+20% and +40%. And why not Auto-Haste and Mug? It would allow him to attack faster and earn some items along the way. It would be pretty hard to get these useful abilities if you just ran from every fight. To me it became a challenge of how I could become stronger than my enemy while keeping my level moderately low.
It was exciting to unlock a new GF and see what kind of abilites I could learn and apply to my battles. Another thing while i'm still on the topic of levels, sort of unrelated to GF's, is that you really don't have to worry about keeping your level super low. You can manage through the game just by fighting most of the random encounters. The game is not particularly hard, so don't worry too much about being around level 30 or 40 near the end. In fact, the Cactuar GF gives stat increases like a traditional level up, so once you get him then you are free to grind out levels to your hearts content! (like me).
The Story and Characters
The story is something that I think is actually pretty great. I know it kind of gets wild around the middle of Disc 3 to 4 but I think as a whole it was something that I really enjoyed. I particularly like Squall's development, and how he starts off as a secluded and introverted person and how he learns to appreciate his friends and the bonds he made, especially with Rinoa. I actually found Squall to be really relatable, especially as a person who had a shotty self image of himself at the time. Squalls journey actually helped me appreciate the people around me more and that's a little embarrassing to say but its true. As for the other characters they are pretty good. They aren't as good as characters seen in other FF games, but I still really enjoyed them. Two of my favourites ended up being Irvine and Selphie (if you couldn't tell by them being in every screenshot of mine), and Rinoa was a really fun contrast to Squall. I also really enjoy Seifer as a rival, it was really interesting to fight him over and over, and I ended up almost feeling pity for him. As for the story itself is pretty neat, its pretty wild but I sort of found an enjoyment from that. I think this plot is mostly focused on the characters and their relationships and less so the plot itself. I know my points about the story and character seem kind of scattered (because it's been a while since i've played the game), but I wanted to show that there was a lot worth remembering about the story, like the end of Disc 1 or the various times FMV's play while you can control things. It's very memorable.
(This scene has one of the best songs in the game by the way).
Other things that I liked
As it goes with most Final Fantasy games, the soundtrack is incredible, in fact I would say it has one of the best soundtracks in Final Fantasy period. Songs like Fishermans Horizon, Under Her Control, The Salt Flats, Premonition, and of course, The Extreme, are some of my favourite Final Fantasy songs ever. One special shoutout to Eyes on Me.
Another thing I really liked was the atmophere. It's considerably different from any FF game before it, where they were all fantasy, industrial, steampunk, etc... FF8 has a more modern feel to it which is really cool. Like there are chocobos and other fantastical elements, but at the same time you have places like Deling or more stereotypical futuristic areas like Esthar. I also just really liked exploring the world, especially when I got the Ragnarok. I won't forget when I descovered places like Cactuar Island, the Centra Ruins, and especially the Islands Closest to Hell and Heaven. I spent a lot of time on the latter grabbing the hidden draw points and grinding for levels.
And of course you have to mention THE BEST side game in any video game, Triple Triad baybee. I remember I actually did not play any Triple Triad when playing the main game but I was curious to why so many people liked it, and there went a good chunk of my hours playing this game. I liked it so much that I ended up making a different Triple Triad save. It's so simple but it requires you to be strategic and think about the multiple layers of complexity that comes from your hand, the opponents hand, the rule-set, etc... it became addicting. If you play FF8, try Triple Triad, it is pretty awesome.
Conclusion
I sort of structured this post differently than my other post, playing more defensive than I usually would. But my goal with this post was to show that there is real reason to like Final Fantasy VIII. The mechanics aren't as flawed as people say. And I remember being really confused when people said this game was one of the weaker Final Fantasy's. Beating this game gave me a sort of appreciation for underrated JRPG's and it further solidified that no matter what, I love Final Fantasy. And even if 8 weaker than some other games, what's there is still an incredible experience that I think is worth playing. So if you have put it off for whatever reason, please give it a shot, It's very underrated and deserves more recognition in my eyes. The Remaster inn my opinion is the best version, but emulating the PSX version will also give you about an equal experience though, speedup is helpful in this game, whether it's for traversal or drawing spells. Well with that being said glory to Final Fantasy and thank you for reading!
In my last post I said I was going to write about SMT4 next and so this is exactly what I'm doing. I beat the game close to 2 months ago and I forced myself to wait so I didn't have any recency bias when writing this. and I was completely blown away with how much I was invested in it (Although I don't think my opinions have changed much). Theres so much I want to say but I don't want this post to be 10,000 words long... Ill try and keep it spoiler free for a bit but I will mention some things that will be spoilers, so im just gonna say right now, so spoiler warning even if it is a little minor, especially when it comes to plot, so ill put an extra warning when I might delve into spoilers at the end of my thoughts. This was my first mainline SMT game and it absolutely makes me want to explore the rest of the series. And with that being said, let's talk about it!
(Also, this post is really long, like longer than any other one that i've made, so just be prepared for that).
(Sorry I couldn't get a perfect 100 hours... it would have been perfect)
So what did I think?
Alright so im just going to go right of the bat and say this game is one of the most fun games I have ever played in recent memory. And I know recency bias is a thing and that ive said this countless times over other RPGs I just beat. But no other game was able to invest me and charm me in such a way that I would spend 100 hours of my time seeing everything that a game has to offer. Lets start out with positives (I don't even have that many negatives with the game either).
The Difficulty
I think this games difficulty balance (aside from the very beginning of the game) is perfect. I remember going into this game with people saying things like "SMT is a notoriously hard RPG series" so I sort of expected this game to be difficult at some parts. And while some parts were definitely hard, I never once felt like I needed to grind. I love how the game encourages you to experiment instead of grinding, whenever I would get stuck at a boss I wouldn't think "oh I just need to grind a bit", I would instead think "Oh I wonder if there is a demon nearby that can help" or "I wonder if I can fuse something that will give me an edge". And it was such a joy team building for specific situations.
(Censored the partner for plot reasons, this is the route where "He" fuses with the four of them in case you are wondering)
Actually speaking of Partners...
The Mechanics
I Think this game has one of the best turn-based systems I have ever seen in a JRPG. The Press-Turn system is genius, I had so much fun building my team about how much you could abuse it and milk out as much damage as possible. And I think the key element as to why this system is so smart is because you are also fighting against it, since enemies have the power to abuse it as much as you do (and they WILL abuse it). It causes you to think about your team composition, what is your team weak to? What demon will work best for this boss fight? How can I maximize damage on my end while minimizing oncoming damage? What spells will be helpful to whisper over to Flynn? Do I play more defensively or go completely burst damage? and so on. It's so simple on paper, but it kept me engaged through the 4 playthroughs and 100 hours of gameplay that I sunk in.
(I still see these cursed icons in my sleep sometimes...)
There is also the partner mechanic, which seems to be controversial among the SMT community. The reason I see is often that they are uncontrollable and will sometimes waste press turn icons because the enemy would be immune. But honestly, This didn't happen to me all that much throughout the game. Of course there is the infamous Walter casting Agi on Minotaur, but other than that I can't recall a time where it really sabotaged me me, at most it probably caused a bit of trouble and thats it, maybe a game over once.
(The only partner icon screenshot I had was Jonathan)
Of course the more controversial mechanic that everyone seems to have an opinion is smirking. And I can totally get why someone might not like it, it's completely random and can screw you over in one turn if you get unlucky with enemies. Personally, I didn't mind it, I sort of saw it in a similar way that I saw press turn, it's equally as powerful for you as it is for enemies, so you have to maximize your usage while minimize the enemies usage of it. It felt really satisfying to do extreme burst damage to enemies when you had it and I felt like I had more positive experiences with it than bad, also that sound effect when you get it when combined with the Press Turn Sounds gives me instant dopamine. But yeah, sometimes bad luck will get you, and that kind of sucks, remember to save frequently! I hear smirking is a lot better in the sequel game Apocalypse, so I'm excited whenever I get to that.
I suppose I could also talk about the non battle mechanic as well, but there is a lot less to say, they are all pretty cool. Here's a bullet list of a few things I like about them.
Demon fusion is about the same as it usually is, Although I found myself actually registering some demons so I could summon them for new cycles. I also enjoyed special fusion this time around, It was just overall fun to collect as many demons as a could.
Negotiation is nice and simple, they are pretty funny sometimes too, Way better than how games like Persona 1 and the 2 Duology handled it.
Even as a random encounters defender, I liked how all the enemies were on the overworld and that I could attack them to get an advantage beforehand, it reminded me of the Mario & Luigi RPG's.
I Love the Demon Whisper system, it made me think about what spells would be helpful in the future and how I wanted to build Flynn to my liking. I ended up with a pretty balanced skill set, with every major element, a gun skill, and debuffs.
Anyways, I think this game is extremely well crafted in terms of it being an rpg, and this is something that I noticed that Atlus just does really well, make rpg's that are engaging to play for a long time because of its mechanics.
The Atmosphere (and Soundtrack)
I feel like the word atmosphere is thrown around a lot when people talk about Atlus' games. And this is no exception. To me, SMT 4's setting was one of the things that kept me invested in this world, Wandering around a broken Tokyo and just seeing how humanity lives on in this world of struggle and endless night was so interesting. This world despite being so fantastical with the ceiling firmament, feels grounded because of how the game shows how humanity was able to adapt and the conflicts they now have, how they fight and work together and who you decide to help in your journey exploring Tokyo. I remember the first moment you enter Tokyo, I was in awe, i was already expecting it to happen beforehand but the moment still left me speechless, especially when the Tokyo Map theme started playing, that is a feeling that you can't replicate on a 2nd play through.
...Is that a spoiler? I mean it's sort of the worst kept secret about SMT 4, that the main setting is Tokyo and not the medieval Mikado, I mean it's the setting that every single mainline SMT game, and it's in the soundtrack cover, the back of the game case, and its literally teased at the beginning of the game plainly. It's not that hard to expect. If I spoiled you somehow, sorry, but also please play the game instead of reading reviews that warned you about spoilers about it beforehand...
Anyways, what contributes to this atmosphere heavily is the literal GOD TIER soundtrack that it has. I don't say it lightly when I say this is one of the greatest soundtracks ever composed for a video game. It captures the vibe the game goes for perfectly. The only way to experience this soundtrack in the best way is to play the game yourself and experience them in context, but even removed from it's context it's incredible. Battle B2 in particular is one of the greatest boss themes to ever exist period, it hypes me up every time, and I will never forget hearing it for the first time against Minotaur. Here's the songs that really stuck with me and you should give a listen to.
Main Theme
Battle A1
Battle B2
Battle A2
Tokyo Theme
Shinjuku Underground District
Black Market
Ikebukuro Underground District
Reverse Hills
Camp Ichigaya
Release
Kiyoharu
Law/Chaos Origin
Neutral Theme
Lucifer Palace
Daybreak
Goddess
Ending Theme
(These are some of my favourites but the whole soundtrack is incredible, please give it a listen.)
Characters
I'm going to try and keep this section a little shorter because I could literally talk about them all day. But I love this games main cast so much, the Samurai, Flynn, Jonathan, Walter and Isabeau (not Navarre) are all so charming and they all have such a good chemistry with each other. You can tell they really care about each other and they help you not feel alone in this otherwise foreign world. Walter and Isabeau in particular became some of my favourite Atlus characters, Walter especially, the man is just funny in most scenes he is in. (also his default standing sprite is just immensely funny to me.)
I really liked Isabeau throughout the whole game and I thought the side plot with her discovering manga was so cute. I also just related to her the most in the whole story so I was happy whenever I saw her. I can't really say more without going into spoilers but she consistently has my favourite scenes in the game. (I also think she is really cute.)
As for some of the other characters, They are also generally pretty good. Jonathan is the main character I liked the least, but I still think he has some fantastic character moments. Even some of the minor characters are great, Tayama, Sister Gabby, the Black Samurai, Nozomi, Stephen, Hikaru, and Fujiwara are some characters that I found to be really awesome, seeing them through the four playthroughs I did of the game and how they developed throughout each route made each play through memorable to me.
Some complaints(?)
Usually in these blog posts where I talk about games I start out with the negatives before the positives, but honestly I don't have many negatives to begin with. Obviously there is the one that literally everybody talks about, it's one of the main things I knew about the game before hand, Naraku's difficulty is extremely difficult especially for its placement at the very beginning of game. And it keeps going until you beat Minotaur and Medusa. Some things to make the game easier is to always save and recruit as many demons as possible, so you have some actual offensive power.
Another really small thing that I would change is to how the armour system works. I usually don't find that buying armour is really worth it especially when Macca is so scarce, and when you get a decent armor set by default, the Black Demonica, and if you had the bonus armor from the Challenge Quests, you can use those too. At the end of the game I ended up just using armor as a fashion thing, only changing when I was weak to a specific element that the enemy had.
And since I was talking about fashion and I don't really know what else to complain about without nitpicking and I don't know where to put this so... Here's my final stats after my four cycles.
(Went for a Dex/Magic build and I found that it was incredible for like everything.)
A Quick Spoiler Warning (Early Conclusion)
Alright, so usually I talk about what I thought of the story but there is no way I can talk about it without going into spoilers. So I am going to put in my conclusion right here if you don't want to get spoiled. I think Shin Megami Tensei IV is one of the greatest games you can play on the 3DS, and in extension, its one of the greatest JRPG's of all time in my opinion. I find that this game goes neglected in the grand discussion of "must-play" JRPG's, so I implore you to try it out. Don't be discouraged because people say it's hard near the beginning, it mellows out for the rest of the game, and one tip is to not be like me and try and get every ending, its a big time sink if you don't have the time to do so, I think it's still worth to play through it once just to experience it. Sadly it's not the most accessible, it's still stuck on the 3DS, so you either have to track down a physical copy, or pirate it from places like the hShop on a modded 3DS (like me), or emulate it on something like Citra emulator, however either way it's still gonna be a great time. So whether you are just a fan of JRPG's or someone who was introduced to Atlus' games because of Persona, I think it is absolutely an experience worth having. From this point there will be spoilers, so if you are checking out now, thank you for reading!
...Alright, it's time for me to talk about why I think this game's story is incredible.
The Story (Mostly Endings)
This games story absolutely blew me out of the water and I was the exact reason I was able to keep my attention for 100 hours. This game has 4 endings, and the SMT staple alignment system, which funnels you into Law, Chaos or Neutral, and the 4th ending, which I've heard be called the Nihilist or White ending (Which I will just call the White Ending from this point on). SMT4 world is undoubtedly in ruin and your choices determine the outcome in how you will "fix" that world. In any other story this is where there would a standard "good" or "bad" ending, but SMT4 is not like most stories. I can genuinely see reason for every single alignment, but it's up to you and your own morals to determine whether or not you think its "correct" or not. I'm going to briefly talk about the endings I got in order and which one is my favourite.
Nihilist/White
Near the last third of the game, a group of people called the white show you the far extremes of the outcomes of Law and Chaos, and I remember feeling this sense of hopelessness. They didn't seem like futures that I wanted to push for Tokyo, so when the White gave me the option to destroy everything, I took it. I don't exactly think I realized the impact of the decision that I made until I started destroying the reactor, and hearing Burroughs asking if this is what I really wanted. Sure, destroying the whole world would finally give it and everyone some peace. But wiping out all life didn't sit right with me. I can see why someone might see this as the definite way to stop suffering, but for me, I wanted to see if there was an outcome where people can still thrive. I think this ending is fantastic though, you could see it as a trap set up by the White, but it really is the only way to definitely stop the suffering of people, death. But like I said before, I felt extremely guilty and I knew I couldn't stop there, I had to see through this game to the end.
2. Law Ending
After the White ending, I went through again to see where it would take me, I was probably on Law the first time around anyways but I ended up on Law again. And the Law ending involves Flynn working with Jonathan, or Merkabah after he fuses himself with the Archangels. They use the Yamato Perpetual Reactor to destroy all of Tokyo, and have the eastern Kingdom of Mikado be a paradise filled with god's chosen people so they can all live under his rule and be in eternal peace, of course that involves wiping out anyone that was tainted by Tokyo's culture. I can see why people can find this appealing, but to be completely honest, this is my least favourite ending. Throughout the whole time you feel like a tool of god, you are sacrificing all of Tokyo and it's inhabitants, causing Isabeau to take her own life, and killing Walter in the form of Lucifer, just to be killed yourself because you are also tainted with Tokyo's culture. Although the chosen people will live in peace, they will never truly be free, and that just doesn't sit right with me at all. If I accepted this that mean that people would never have free will ever again, that along with the entirety of Tokyo being destroyed and the events that happened at Reverse Hills, made me wonder what the other side of the coin was like and to see if it was better.
3. Chaos Ending
This ending involves you teaming up with Walter and Hikaru, which fuse themselves into Lucifer. And the two of you storm Naraku and kill god's angels to prevent them from destroying Tokyo, and using the Yamato Perpetual Reactor to summon so many demons that it would destroy any sense of hierarchy Tokyo has so that the only thing from holding you back from your freedom is your own strength. And of course this involves killing Merkabah, who was Jonathan. Unfortunately there are still losses to be had, if you were to go with this then that means the weak will have no place in the world and they would be killed by demons (and this leads to Isabeau's suicide again), and even though the people will have freedom, there will never truly be any peace in the world. And also that even though you remove the sense of hierarchy, it is still basically replacing it from poor/rich to weak/strong. However I was more invested because of the man himself, Walter. Compared to Jonathan, he has so much more of a reason to want this outcome for the world. Flynn and Walter were born as Casualries, who are basically peasants to the Luxurors of Mikado. Walter felt like the future where peoples lives are not determined by something like their social status and instead based on their strength to be appealing to him. And this gives a sense of camaraderie between Flynn and Walter that I really enjoyed. Strangely enough, I found this ending to be more reasonable than Law. At the end of the day, people survive and life goes on, they are still free to support each other, or fight each other. However, there might not ever be a time where peace will come to Tokyo.
This is the main conflict between Law and Chaos that I really enjoy. Do you want a world where peace is guaranteed, however you are bound under the rule of a god and you will never have freedom again? Or do you want a world where you are under no rule and you are truly free do live your life, at the expense of peace. It's this conflict that really got me thinking about my decisions. I really like this ending, because compared to Law, where I just felt betrayed, I felt like in Chaos there could still be opportunity for humanity to live on and still be free. But still, I hoped that there was something else I could do to have a better outcome for Tokyo, but to be honest, I was losing hope, which is Ironic given the final ending.
4. Neutral Ending
Imagine my mindset, I have seen this world be permanently altered or even destroyed three times at this point, Almost 70+ hours deep in the game. I was starting to really believe that there was no hope for this world, we would never find a balance between Law and Chaos, and I went into Neutral with almost the same Nihilism that I did right at the beginning when I chose to end it all in the White ending. However, as cheesy as it sounds, I learned to not give up hope, and thats the whole point. In this route you finally get to side with Isabeau, a person who has died in every route until this point, and alongside her, you fight for humanity itself. Early in the game, you meet a recurring SMT staple character named Stephen who comes back after you balance your law and chaos choices, and he tells you about the Goddess of Tokyo, and the truth of why Tokyo is under Mikado, and Masakado, and asks you to revive the Goddess of Tokyo. Your final goal is to unite the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado and Tokyo, and revive Masakado to destroy the ceiling that confines Tokyo, and revive the Goddess of Tokyo (who sort of is the ceiling), to put the future of humanity in humanities hands itself. To revive Masakado, you have to literally help the people of Tokyo and help them restore hope that there is still good in the world, and then kill Lucifer and Merkahbah. It's a lot of information, but at its core, its a future where humanity is given the steering wheel, where both Law and Chaos are in balance.
In the end, Isabeau is able to transfer the residents of Mikado down to Tokyo, and the people are going to be able to live in harmony with restored hope for the future without anything holding them back. And finally, Masakado regains his power and destroys the ceiling and gives Tokyo the first ever sunlight in a very long time, Freeing the Goddess of Tokyo. Even though Walter and Jonathan are lost, and due the very nature of neutral, history will be doomed to repeat itself, but for now, humanity lives on despite everything, and I think thats really powerful.
This is not only my favourite ending in the game, I think this is one of my favourite endings in a video game as a whole. It feels so cathartic to finally see an ending where humanity perseveres and Tokyo is finally freed. It definitely feels like this is the final "true" ending that Atlus wanted to show (especially with how hard it is to actually do). I think ever since the beginning my own morality leaned me towards neutral, I always had a problem with Jonathan and some of Walters ideals, but I always agreed with Isabeau, she always cared about peoples well being, and I was so excited to see that I would finally be with her. I will never forget the scene right before the ending before Masakado destroys the firmament, where the residents of Mikado and Tokyo are just... talking, sharing their experience and excitement for finally being able to live together. And then the actual scene when the ceiling is destroyed and sunlight beams across Tokyo, it was satisfying, and I could finally leave the game feeling like humanity finally had a shot at living their best life.
"Tokyo will be restored to it's former splendor"
Overall, this story is incredible, I know I only talked about the endings but everything leading up to it is what kept me invested. This is the type of story that will stick with me for a very long time. Every ending made me feel something, regret, betrayal, sadness, fear, satisfaction, and a whole bunch of other emotions I cant put into words. And that final Neutral climax is going to stick with me even longer. There isn't many games that can keep my attention for 100 hours, but SMT4 is an exception, it's masterful.
The Real Conclusion
Shin Megami Tensei IV is a masterpiece, I think it sets a gold standard for any turn-based rpg with the press-turn combat and it's presentation as a whole. Like I said before, I feel like this game is overlooked when it comes discussion about what the greatest JRPG's are. Personally, I consider this now to be a must play for anyone who is a JRPG fan. It does so many things so well that I am confident saying that its a masterpiece. If you have read this far, I am assuming you didn't care about the spoiler warning, or have already completed the game, and to avoid my message of "please play this game" to fall on deaf ears, I implore you to try and recommend this game to people, its really underrated outside of people in the Megaten community and I think it needs more recognition. So I suppose my final messages would be to thank Atlus first for Isabeau, and then thank them for making the game. I can't wait to try out what else Atlus has to offer and thank you for reading this far, I hope you have a great one.
Hello again! Sorry it's been a while... got busy with University stuff, so lets continue where I left off, in the last few posts I talked about I was introduced into Persona through the Persona 2 Duology, and how I think they are some of my favorite JRPG's of all time now. So after I completed it I really wanted to check out Persona 1, because why not right? So let's just get right into it!
(I Used my real name, just blocked out my last name lol)
So I really loved this game, I had a really great time with it, which I sort of expected, I liked the P2 Duology a lot and I can stomach old JRPG's. A few things I would like to mention before I talk about what I thought is that I played through both routes, AND that I used a patch to restore the PSX soundtrack. Now it's not that I don't like the new soundtrack by Shoji Meguro, I think it's really good, I just wanted to play the game with the old one because I heard it was really good (and it IS REALLY GOOD but we will get into that later).
So what did I think?
So like always I'm gonna start with what I disliked first and then talk about all that I loved about it.
Exp Distribution
I Thought it was a little annoying that exp was distributed more to the characters that did the most damage, On paper it's an interesting concept, but I think all it did was raise the levels of one party member while leaving all the others were left in the dust. I found myself purposely sandbagging some characters so that there would be an even distribution. (But honestly the game is easy enough where you don't have to worry about it much).
SEBEC True Ending Requirements
I'm not going to say what the requirements are but it felt like something you just flat out need a walkthrough for, you know what I mean if you went for the route.
Difficulty Spikes near the end
I'm not sure if this is me just being trash but I found both the final bosses of the routes to be pretty difficult, if not long. My strategy basically boiled down to "have Boy with Earring and another character gun them down until they die in 30 minutes".
The Recruitable Party Members
This is moreso a problem in SEBEC but I don't think that the game makes it very clear that you can pick your extra party members. Like in SEBEC, most people are going to end up with Brown because, why would you say no to him joining unless you had knowlege that you could get other party members? In SQQ its not that bad because it literally tells you to form a party I believe.
In case you are curious:
This is the team I took for SEBEC, I actually knew you could get different party members so I chose Elly because I wanted to see how she was like before Eternal Punishment.
This is the team I took for SQQ. Basically the characters I didn't use in SEBEC + Elly (I like Elly she is cool).
Demon Negotiation (Again, Again)
Yeah, i'm talking about it for a third time. But I won't dwell on it for too long, because it's basically the same issues I had with Innocent Sin's negotiation, too many options and it sorta just feels like guesswork.
Alright, time for the things I liked:
Things I Liked!
The Soundtrack
Like I said earlier, I used a patch to put the PSX soundtrack back in and HOLY SHIT some of it is really good. Deadline is one of the best boss themes I can think of, every single dungeon has a good song. If it's not catchy, it fits the mood or vibe of the dungeons perfectly. I love the character themes a lot, I love when JRPG's give characters themes because I feel like the themes reflect the characters really well. It's such a shame Hidehito Aoki passed, this is one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard and he should have been proud.
(Correction: The soundtrack was made by multiple people and not just Aoki, but still his work on the soundtrack in amazing!!)
Here are some of the best tracks in my opinion, because I feel like it would be a disservice to not mention some of them:
-Maki's Theme
-Mark's Theme
-Reiji's Theme
-SEBEC Above Ground
-SEBEC Underground Research Lab
-City 2 Accident
-Bar Attacked by Harem Queen
-Kama Palace
-Deva-Yuga
-Pandora's Battle
-Dungeon Ice Castle
-Normal Battle
-Saeko's Theme
-Queen of the Night
-Mid-Boss (a.k.a Deadline, the best boss theme in the series)
(Thanks PSC for the names for the songs)
The Gameplay
I actually really like the gameplay, I know its a big joke to say "Persona 1 is the walk into walls simulator but i felt like people were making it out to be much worse than it actually was. Going through dungeons felt smooth once you got used to it (this was also my first dungeon crawler where it is in a first person perspective).
There is also the actual in game combat where I think its pretty alright as well! I actually like the grid system, I know some people say that "oh it's just the Final Fantasy row system" and I think it has a lot more depth to that. There were a lot of times when I had to consider characters placements for things like their guns, melee, or magic usage because different placements are better for different things.
And similar to the P2 Duology, I loved the customization of the character due to the fact they can all change their personas! I love customization in RPGs in general and I had a really fun time customizing and building each character. But I think this is further enhanced in P1 due to the fact that you can actually choose what party members you want in your party as well. Its a pretty cool way to increase replayability, and I had a fun time planning out my party to try out most of the characters in the two playthroughs that I did. (The only character I never ended up using was Reiji because I was already locked out of his unlock method when I realized, but its okay cuz I like Elly more probably).
The Story
I think the story is really good, especially SEBEC. Maki is certainly the star here, I sort of considered her the real main character for most of it. I Think the dream world and her progression as a character was really human, especially Pandora, which I don't want to spoil. Aki is also a cool recurring villain and so is Kandori. Kandori especially is badass, this is probably me being affected by his appearance in Eternal Punishment.
And not even mentioning the Snow Queen Quest. I was completely blown away by the fact how the game just has another entirely different story to it that is almost as good as SEBEC, it really makes you wonder why it was cut from the original. It has this "Cave Story has a 4th ending" vibe to it (If you know, you know) that I really vibed with. I think the concept is so cool as well, uncovering this secret that you were never even supposed to know and trying to save Ms. Saeko, and then learning her relation with the Snow Queen, I was really invested. I already really liked Yukino and this cemented her as one of my favorite characters in Persona. And I loved at the end it explained how it connects itself to SEBEC so they are both canon. The towers and what they represent are really neat as well.
Overall, I think its a solid time no matter what route you pick. Again my only gripe is getting the true ending in SEBEC is a little strange, but trust me its worth it, just put up a guide once in a while.
Guns (and how broken they are)
Okay yeah this is a strange one but hear me out, Guns are really broken, but also really fun. I liked how every character had a solid method of doing multi-hit damage, and I was a but sad how the Persona games that followed this never had this again. It was funny having a little powertrip when equipping charm bullets. But eh, it sorta balanced out by having some of the characters have pistols, or shotguns, which generally weren't great. I usually took those characters and focused them to be more magic oriented, i liked the uniqueness of each character. Not to mention how having a few great gun characters for the final bosses are basically necessary.
The Vibe
Finally, There is something about this games atmosphere that I feel like is unmatched. I talked about the atmosphere in Eternal Punishment but this is a different feeling. Thanks to the PSX music it really felt dreamlike, which is fitting due to a majority of SEBEC's setting being mostly in Maki's mind. Experiencing and exploring Maki's ideal world gave me a feeling I can't really describe, it felt "off" but also at the same time, comforting, you really have to play it to understand it (Which you should!). And then SQQ's Ice Castle has this almost oppressive vibe, seeing the school almost barely recognizable under the snow. Seeing how all the kids are living and surviving this situation, it was cool.
I Love this world map, its so awesome (And the music is so dreamy).
Conclusions
I really enjoyed my time with this game, I didn't enjoy it as much as the P2 Duology or even P4 (which I played after). But I do have a lot of respect for this game, it has a lot of good ideas and I think it executes it pretty well. Persona is such a strong series of games where even if I think this is the weakest Persona game, this is still one of the best RPGs ive played in recent memory. It was such a joy to not only see where this series started, but also just to see these characters that I fell in love with when I saw them in Eternal Punishment. And then just experiencing the story and the atmosphere is worth the playthrough alone. This is going to be a game that will stick with me for a long time, and I really do recommend it. Don't be intimidated by people saying it's "outdated" or a "walking into walls simulator" because I think it aged well. And with that I have talked about the entire original Persona Trilogy, personally I couldn't ask for a better introduction to the series, albeit a bit unorthodox. I eventually did get around to trying the newer games as well with Persona 4, which I also fell in love with.
I do plan on writing about Persona 4 and the rest of the modern games (when I finish Reload and 5), but for now I think my next post will most likely be about Shin Megami Tensei IV as I am playing that right now and spoilers, it might be one of my new favourite RPGs (coming up on my first ending I think, definitely on law, things are a little 'blasted' right now). But with that, please give Persona 1 a try, it definitely deserves to be recognized and praised. I believe it's an underrated classic.
My Thoughts on Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSP)
In my last post I talked about how I got into the Persona series starting with Innocent Sin on PSX, I also talked about how much I thought Innocent Sin was one of the best JRPG's I have played in recent memory, so I only figured that I would talk about what I thought about the next game! For my playthrough I actually chose the PSP fan translation over the PSX version. I did that because I heard that the PSP version of EP is basically completely faithful to the PSX version in terms of difficulty and menus, so I figured it would just be the definitive version to play, and I heard that the translation is fairly close to the original PSX version anyways. I played this literally the day after I completed Innocent Sin because, without going into spoilers, there's no way I could not see what happens next.
So what did I think?
I'm going to be fully transparent and say that Persona 2: Eternal Punishment has become, not only one of my favourite JRPG's, but one of my favourite games of all time. There's so much I want to talk about but just like with the Innocent Sin post, ill start with some things I disliked about the game.
The Grinding
My understanding is that this game has gained a reputation of being one of the harder, or even hardest Persona game in the series, and I sort of agree. Not that I dislike grinding, but there were some times where I had to step away from the plot and grind levels or tarot cards to get new personas for the party, and then grind the persona levels to unlock the skills. But again like in Innocent Sin, you can farm free tarot in the Air Raid Shelter to basically unlock whatever persona you want, and I spent a decent amount of time there levelling personas as well. Although honestly I was having such a good time experimenting with personas that I didn't even notice or even really care about grinding (I do that in most RPG's anyways).
Demon Negotiation (Again)
Credit where it's due, Demon negotiation is a whole lot better than in the previous two Persona games. Each character now has one specific action and most of the rest come from combining them instead of having 4 options for each character. I like this system a lot more, but I did wish it didn't matter what order you selected the characters in to determine the contact (for example, Katsuya + Ulala is different from Ulala + Katsuya). And sometimes it still felt like just guesswork without a guide. The interactions are still as fun as ever though!
Silent Maya
I'm not quite sure what the consensus of this is, if this is like a popular opinion or "hot take" but I really wish Maya wasn't a silent protagonist, or even just like had more reaction to the events around her. She was one of the coolest characters in Innocent Sin and I remember being kinda bummed out realizing she wasn't gonna speak. Although the more days I sit on it, the more I become fine with it. It's easy to believe a lot of Maya's kindness and actions because we saw it first-hand in Innocent Sin. And we still get to see her personality through her responses and contacts, so not all was lost.
(OH YEAH, I should mention that in the PSP translation I used the one that restores the original PSX english voice cast, I know they are made fun of a lot but I find that the voice acting has a lot of charm to it.)
Alright, Time for what I loved about it.
The Story
DON'T WORRY IM NOT GONNA SPOIL ANYTHING, IM JUST GOING TO GIVE MY THOUGHTS ON IT!
This games story is really good, it serves as a fantastic capstone to the original Persona trilogy, It has a huge sense of finality to it, It reminds me a lot of how Dark Souls 3 could be considered a capstone for the Trilogy, bringing in elements from all the past games to wrap it up in a nice bow. There were so many times where I was so invested I would just play for hours until I lost track of time.
Rumors are back baybee and they are as cool of a concept as ever, and they are still used in such a creative way.
And of course just seeing what happened after Innocent Sin and seeing why the world is the way it is and what happened to the characters got me hooked immediately.
I can't exactly talk about this story without going into mega spoilers for not only EP but also IS so just trust me in saying that this story is something that is worth playing two whole games for, ESPECIALLY THE ENDING. Im just going to say that this story and the ending are my favorite in the Persona series and leave it at that. Go and experience it yourself! It's good!
The ATMOSPHERE MAN
This games atmosphere is completely unmatched in my eyes. The world has a constant vibe of "theres something wrong" that I can't explain. Again it takes place in that modern setting with grounded dungeons that I found so great about Innocent Sin, but the whole world just feels different and "darker" in a way that I can't exactly describe. I think its the difference in the story telling, whilst IS was more goofy with serious undertones, It feels like EP really hones in on the dark side of Sumaru City. There's a lot more death and undergound corruption this time around, It really feels like EP is trying to tell a more adult story this time around, and I really dig it.
(If you kinda want to get the vibes, watch the original PSX intro, it's literally one of the greatest intros to a game ive ever seen and it perfectly captures the sort of vibe EP is going for).
Another thing that I think contributes to the atmosphere is that incredible soundtrack. Just like with Innocent Sin, I was excited to go to the next dungeon every single time to see what kind of music would play, and some of those Eternal Punishment versions of the Innocent Sin songs are really good as well. Some of the standout tracks are Aoba Park, Smile Hirasaka, The Round Sun, and ESPECIALLY Monado Mondala, one of the best tracks in the series. The battle theme and boss theme too are incredible.
The Characters
This party has got to be one of my favourite parties i've ever seen in a JRPG. I know everyone already talks about how this game has an all adult cast as opposed to the other Persona games, but I don't think that's the only reason why they are great.
They all have such good chemistry with each other and as a person who was turning into an adult playing this game, I feel like I related to a lot of the characters internal struggles. Their stories felt real and I ended up seeing myself in a lot of these characters, especially Katsuya, as I am an older brother myself, I relate to him trying to build a good relation with his brother. I Related to Ulala's inferiority complex more than id like to admit, Baofu's story and motivations are really interesting as well and his dynamic with Katsuya, an officer of the law working with a wiretapper for the greater good, and his cynicism feels realistic given his experiences.
However the character I related to and like the most was Tatsuya himself. Tatsuya's struggle to find out how to be a responsible adult and how to make amends for things he has done wrong is something I feel is done realistically, Tatsuya tries to do things that he thinks an adult would do, and it's this kind of coming of age story that I think is relatable to me specifically. And unfortunately I can't say all the reasons why I like Tatsuya without going into spoilers, but all I will conclude on is that Tatsuya is my favourite Persona character of all time and he, and the rest of the cast gave me hope that going into adult life wouldn't be as scary as I initially thought it would be.
I Love this cast so much, I don't even think I said everything I wanted to but I think the main takeaway should be that this is my favorite party in all of Persona and their stories still stick in my head to this day.
(You might notice I left out two characters, because spoilers sorta, but to let it be known, I picked the man).
The Gameplay
Okay, I have been rambling on for a while now so Ill try not to make this a full university length essay. The gameplay is about the same as Innocent Sin, which I praised for being fast and fluid in battles and having really great customization options that I really appreciated such as being able to switch personas on the fly. its just my love for it has intensified because I was more used to the mechanics this time around and I was excited to go into this game thinking how I was going to build each character. It was a fun time, if you want a more in-depth explination of what I thought of the gameplay you can check the post I made about Innocent Sin on my blog (no pressure though).
One thing a really appreciated in the PSP remake is how they ditched the Innocent Sin PSP menu and recreated the PSX menus for Eternal Punishment PSP. So that fluid and nice menu from IS PSX is back and makes its so that I think EP PSP is the definitive version of the game.
Conclusions
Even though I feel like I've written so much about why I like Eternal Punishment, I feel like I haven't given a definitive reason why it's my favourite Persona game. And I think if I had to sum it up quickly, its that the world of the original Persona Trilogy is so well developed and well written that I couldn't help but get sucked into it. And Eternal Punishment was the one that that gave me an experience that I wish I could have over and over again, the world, the music, the characters, the story, even the charming sprite graphics, it all worked together to give me an unforgettable experience. I haven't even mentioned everything I love, I purposely left out things I already said in my Innocent Sin post like how much I love fusion spells or the whole customization thing. And I didn't even talk about Tatsuya's Scenario either. which is also incredibly good.
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is great. It's a shame that the earlier Persona games aren't widely available on modern platforms because I believe that Eternal Punishment is something really special.
My final thoughts are for whoever is reading this and somehow hasn't played through the duology yet to at least give it a shot. I kept my thoughts on the game as spoiler free as possible so please give it some love. And like I said in my Innocent Sin thoughts, you might find a new JRPG that you will love and will stick with you for a long time, just like I have.
I Think my introduction to the Persona series is quite unique compared to other people. Like many I heard about the series from the modern trilogy (3, 4, 5), The first Persona game I had tried was 4 when Golden was released on Steam, but I never completed it at the time.
(I since have completed 4 by the way, I thought it was fantastic!)
However for whatever reason Persona came back onto my radar around early this year right off the heels of me completing Final Fantasy VIII for the first time, gaining a new appreciation for underrated JRPG's. That's when I thought to myself "why does everyone talk about Persona's 3, 4 and 5, But not 1 or 2?" So I did a little digging and found that the Persona 2 Duology had developed a sort of "cult classic" feel to it and that it had one of the best stories in the whole Megaten franchise. (I can't attest to that as I have only delved into the Persona side of the series as of now, but the rest of the series is now on my list of things to complete). I also learnt that the PSP version of Innocent Sin botched the difficulty of the original PSX version, so that's why I decided to play through the PSX version as my first Persona game.
So what did I think?
Overall I thought it was fantastic! However I have some problems with it. So let's start with that.
Demon Negotiation
This was one of the things I was most excited about going into the game, and I think it does a good job at showcasing the characters personality. However the amount of options that the game gives you is overwhelming and makes you feel like you are just guessing when you are not using a guide for contacts, which is what I ended up doing because I got too frustrated with contacting.
(4 options per character, including pairing them up... oh man...)
However I found ways of working around it. If I ever wanted Tarot cards I would end up going to the Abandoned Factory, making a contract with a demon, and then farm Free Tarot from them to use them on whatever personas I wanted. I also ended up using the Prime and Ultimate personas often as they were pretty good while not requiring any fusing.
Overall Slowness
There were many times in the game when I thought that the game felt sluggish. One of them involves the encounter rate. Now listen, I'm a little crazy and I would say I love random encounters in JRPG's and I don't even care about high encounter rates, which this game notoriously has (even though I don't think its that bad), but in the PSX version there is this noticeable pause between getting the encounter and the game putting you into the transition, which threw me off a couple times, but I got used to it. What really bothered me was the lack of a minimap in the PSX version, which as a first time Megaten-er, gave me a sort of hard time. Very often I would have to pull up the map, which took a second or so, but it got annoying quick. What I find particularly confusing in hindsight was that the previous game, Revelations: Persona, had a minimap, so I think its a bit strange that they decided that they didn't need one for the sequel.
(This was also one of those things that was fixed in the PSP version, but I think the PSX version is still worth playing over it, but thats a discussion for another time).
There are also moments in the game that I felt dragged a little bit. Like around the middle of the game after Aoba Park where you go to defuse the bombs around Sumaru in places like Smile Hirasaka and GOLD that I didn't find super interesting. Or places like Xibalba where it just feels like its going on forever. It felt like I was just going through the motions.
Aaaand thats about all the problems I had with it.
"Wait that's all that you had problems with?"
Yup! I think this is one of my favorite RPG's that I have played in recent memory. It's time to talk about what I loved.
The Setting
This is something I think the original Persona trilogy does extremely well, These games have some of my favorite dungeons in any RPG i've ever played, especially the Persona 2 Duology. It reminds me a lot of the MOTHER series in the way that the dungeons are (mostly) grounded in reality with the obvious exceptions. Like one moment you are running around the club and the next you are trying to save kids in an Aerospace Museum. Then you are running up Mt. Katasumuri in the deep forest. Or you are exploring the aforementioned Abandoned Factory with some of the most kickass music ever heard in a video game. Sumaru City as a whole is one of my favorite settings in a videogame.
The Music and Tone
The music in this game is incredible, 'nuff said. Every dungeon I entered I was excited to hear what banger was about to come on and I was treated almost every single time. Sometimes the music is a jamfest like with the Abandoned Factory or Smile Hirasaka. Or sometimes is melancholic and sombre like Mt. Iwato or Aoba Park.
I think the music represents the tone/atmosphere of the game incredibly well. Dark, but with plenty of cool or humorous moments to not make it completely depressing.
Now I don't think that the story of Innocent Sin is the "darkest best story in the whole francise" as many try and sell it to be. But they would be correct in the fact that Innocent Sin definitely has Dark or Sad undertones that make it one of the most emotionally investing stories. Oh I should probably talk about what I thought of the story...
The Story
It's really good, like it was one of the main driving forces as to why I wanted to complete the game. I won't go into spoilers here but all I will say is that I loved the way the game balanced out the serious stuff with a lot of humorous things. The concept of rumors becoming real is such a cool idea and I think they knocked it out of the park, starting with relatively small stuff like "I heard this ramen shop sells weapons", and having it escalate to something being a whole threat to the world, made it really investing.
The characters too, are fantastic. They all feel like family and I couldn't help but care about each and every single one of them. They all have such great chemistry and I loved having them as the party.
One character I really fell in love with was Tatsuya himself, because unlike other silent protagonists like him, he feels like an actual persona and not someone you are just supposed to self-insert yourself into. He has his own personality and past, you learn throughout the story how much he cares about his friends and his determination to protect them all, evident through how he carries his zippo lighter everywhere, which I wont mention the lore significance of. And all of this is not even including his involment in Eternal Punishment where he really gets his time to shine, but this review isn't about Eternal Punishment so lets leave it at that.
Eikichi is a lovable guy and I love his personality (and his weapon is badass too), same with Lisa where I felt her whole romance with Tatsuya was done very well in that it dosen't get in the way of her main personality, I really liked her chemistry with Eikichi.
Maya is a person who I really ended up caring for and I love how she acted as the big sister or leader of the group often, Without going into too much detail, this group really loves Maya and that connection is something I really enjoyed and it made me care about Maya a lot as well.
I also want to use this opportunity to talk about something that I think the Original Persona Trilogy does that's cool in hindsight. They all feel really connected, it's really cool how Yukino from Persona 1 is just a party member again and you get to see how she grew, and just being able to see the P1 cast around Sumaru and how they are doing in life. It makes the world feel lived in, and like every game and the stories in them matter. And that world building is something that I feel like is sadly lacking in the later entries.
Overall this game is worth playing for the characters and story alone.
CUSTOMIZATION!!!!
This will be the last thing I talk about to keep things a little short but I'm just going to say that the customization in this game is some of the most fun things about it.
The fact that everybody can change their personas is MASSIVE and SO MUCH FUN.
I often found myself thinking "OH! If i fuse that guy I could do THAT fusion spell, or I could get THAT spell that would be really good"
And the fact that they can swap personas ON THE FLY gives me a customization rush that I haven't felt since playing with Final Fantasy VI's Espers or Final Fantasy V's Jobs.
I could swap a character from being a healer to damage dealer or debuffer and there was no limit to how I could do it. It was fantastic.
And Im gonna use this oppertunity to talk about the combat because in the PSX version I find that it's really smooth and fun to do once you get the hang of it.
And Fusion Spells are such a cool mechanic, it reminds me a lot of the Dual and Triple Tech's in Chrono Trigger and I was all for it!
And of course, shoutouts to Nova Kaiser being one of the coolest spells in and RPG, its so satisfying to use.
Conclusions
I love this game, and I couldn't think of a better way to be introduced to the series. After I beat Innocent Sin I immediatley went and beat Eternal Punishment, and then Persona 1 right after that.
The Original Trilogy is something that I think deserves to be remembered and praised, as they are magnificent games that I think unfortunatley are not as accessable to a general audience.
But I implore to whoever cared enough to read this to give it a shot.
I do think that the PSX version of Innocent Sin is the best because the PSP's botched difficulty is not the only problem I have with the port. The menus feel awful to go through, and I feel like Atlus knew that too and fixed it with Eternal Punishment PSP and made it more like the PSX menus. But at the end of the day IS PSP has a better translation, more quality of life, new bonus content and remastered music which is also pretty good, so whatever version you prefer is the best version.
So Please give Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and the rest of the Original Trilogy a shot, you might find a gem and a new incredible JRPG that you never knew you would like just like I have.
