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Official Persona 3 JP thread (omg)
- Thread starter U5230
- Start date
There's nothing being emulated. Persona 3 is totally different gameplay-wise from Persona 1 and 2. Persona 3 -is- a dating/school community simulation mixed with a pure dungeon crawler. That encompasses the entire game. Completely. And it's mother****ing awesome. 
Scenario, setting and writing-wise though, it's 150% Persona.
Scenario, setting and writing-wise though, it's 150% Persona.
The "dating sim" is unfortunately ignored and mocked by people that have never played them. In reality, a well designed Japanese "dating sim" or more often "school life sim" is simply a much more refined and focus subset of a RPG without battles. Here's what Persona 3's school life sim part is like:
You have a schedule of days, you go to school, and there are various events on certain days while you're free to explore around and talk to people after school. You're free to pick who to hang out with after school each day and by hanging out with certain people you increase your community rank with them while forwarding the subplot involving that community.
Each of these little communities revolve around either a school activity or a person, and they each have their own little stories that pan out as you interact. There are often dialogue branches and based on your replies they will either get happier, sadder or madder. The dating sim parts are naturally part of the game as it is a mixed gender high school and there are both boys and girls you can hang out with. Hang out with certain girls enough and you can get them to like you.
You have a schedule of days, you go to school, and there are various events on certain days while you're free to explore around and talk to people after school. You're free to pick who to hang out with after school each day and by hanging out with certain people you increase your community rank with them while forwarding the subplot involving that community.
Each of these little communities revolve around either a school activity or a person, and they each have their own little stories that pan out as you interact. There are often dialogue branches and based on your replies they will either get happier, sadder or madder. The dating sim parts are naturally part of the game as it is a mixed gender high school and there are both boys and girls you can hang out with. Hang out with certain girls enough and you can get them to like you.
Holy SHIT! The game almost gave me a HEART ATTACK! :lol
So it's a nice night of the NEW moon (which means NO moon!) and I took it as a sign of good luck to do some dungeon crawling at night. I made sure I was well rested the night before, and even took a trip to the toilet to attain the "FEELING GREAT!" booster for myself. All is well planned.
I climb up a few floors, attained some new weapons and loot. Decided to teleport back to the entrance to save. Repeated this a few times and completed one of the two quests I have outstanding. Then I went back, crawled a little further, got the items to complete the next quest. I looked for a teleporter, didn't find one. So I went up to the next floor. Fought some enemies, got some great experience, gained two new Persona, leveled up twice.
Went up another floor. Oh shit, it's a floor with MANY enemies! No biggie, I can handle them all! So I take my time scouting out the floor, getting all the chests, killing enemies. After several more battles I realized I was wearing myself thin, the only healer character in my party was out of SP and I was running low myself. Didn't want to use items, so I started evading enemies looking for the teleporter to return to the entrance.
So it was that I found the stairs up instead of a teleporter, and I did not want to take it so I ran pass it. An enemy followed me and placed itself between myself, a dead end and the stairs. Oh well. I guess I'll make a run for the stairs and hope for a teleporter on the next floor. But I really didn't want to fight the enemy, so I was kinda trying to out-manuvere it without letting it run into me. I ran back and forth for awhile, then I started hearing this weird sound.
*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*
What was that?! Anyway I decide to try moving back into the dead end corner and running out again hoping the enemy has forgotten about me and I'll head up the stairs.
*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*
As I turn back to the corridor with the enemy, just behind the enemy I see a HUGE ****ING SHINIGAMI IN CHAINS AND SHIT MOVING QUICKLY IN MY DIRECTION!
*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*
OH SWEET JESUS I'M DOOMED!
I made a MAD dash INTO the enemy I was previously avoiding, go totally ****ed up at a disadvantage, realized that I was fighting with only 3 characters since I guess the Shinigami managed to engage the fourth character before I made it into this encounter! ****! But eventually... I SURVIVED! Being a God fearing man, I'm not going to give up this excellent chance, so the second I got out of the encounter I hammered the triangle button to get into the menu, and used one of the elusive items to teleport back to the entrance. WHEW!
Yeah, holy hell that was the scariest dungeon crawling experience I've had in a LONG time in any game. :lol
So it's a nice night of the NEW moon (which means NO moon!) and I took it as a sign of good luck to do some dungeon crawling at night. I made sure I was well rested the night before, and even took a trip to the toilet to attain the "FEELING GREAT!" booster for myself. All is well planned.
I climb up a few floors, attained some new weapons and loot. Decided to teleport back to the entrance to save. Repeated this a few times and completed one of the two quests I have outstanding. Then I went back, crawled a little further, got the items to complete the next quest. I looked for a teleporter, didn't find one. So I went up to the next floor. Fought some enemies, got some great experience, gained two new Persona, leveled up twice.
Went up another floor. Oh shit, it's a floor with MANY enemies! No biggie, I can handle them all! So I take my time scouting out the floor, getting all the chests, killing enemies. After several more battles I realized I was wearing myself thin, the only healer character in my party was out of SP and I was running low myself. Didn't want to use items, so I started evading enemies looking for the teleporter to return to the entrance.
So it was that I found the stairs up instead of a teleporter, and I did not want to take it so I ran pass it. An enemy followed me and placed itself between myself, a dead end and the stairs. Oh well. I guess I'll make a run for the stairs and hope for a teleporter on the next floor. But I really didn't want to fight the enemy, so I was kinda trying to out-manuvere it without letting it run into me. I ran back and forth for awhile, then I started hearing this weird sound.
*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*
What was that?! Anyway I decide to try moving back into the dead end corner and running out again hoping the enemy has forgotten about me and I'll head up the stairs.
*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*
As I turn back to the corridor with the enemy, just behind the enemy I see a HUGE ****ING SHINIGAMI IN CHAINS AND SHIT MOVING QUICKLY IN MY DIRECTION!
*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*
OH SWEET JESUS I'M DOOMED!
I made a MAD dash INTO the enemy I was previously avoiding, go totally ****ed up at a disadvantage, realized that I was fighting with only 3 characters since I guess the Shinigami managed to engage the fourth character before I made it into this encounter! ****! But eventually... I SURVIVED! Being a God fearing man, I'm not going to give up this excellent chance, so the second I got out of the encounter I hammered the triangle button to get into the menu, and used one of the elusive items to teleport back to the entrance. WHEW!
Yeah, holy hell that was the scariest dungeon crawling experience I've had in a LONG time in any game. :lol
Greenpanda
Banned
man, this game sounds awesome. can't wait for the English ver
I think people looking forward to this need to realize the commitment they must be willing to give in order to play Persona 3.
See to play Persona 3, you must be willing to sacrifice not only your social life, but all other games that come out within 2-3 months of the US release.
Persona 3 is what looks to be about 100-130 hours long. Yet at the same time it's not the type of 100 hours that you can blow through in a few weeks, the pacing really doesn't allow that. The pacing also doesn't allow you to play other games. You may try, but then when you go back to P3 it will eat you for leaving it.
It's because of this that I don't even think P3 can be rated on a 1/10 scale compared to other games. Rather I think P3 must be rated by taking into consideration all the other things you could do in 2-3 months of your life.
For instance, is Persona 3 better than sex? The answer to that is no. It's a great game, but sadly no. Is Persona 3 better than a drunken night of Table Tennis with friends? That's debatable as well. So because of this, at the end of the 130 hour game length, I think Persona 3 will have to take a lower score than the game would have if it did not require 2-3 months of one's life. Sure it's non-stop greatness, but you could take a class on ancient Egypt and have date your fellow hot-ancient-Egypt-curious-classmate all within the same time period and one is likely more exciting and fulfilling than the other.
So in 2007...be prepared.
See to play Persona 3, you must be willing to sacrifice not only your social life, but all other games that come out within 2-3 months of the US release.
Persona 3 is what looks to be about 100-130 hours long. Yet at the same time it's not the type of 100 hours that you can blow through in a few weeks, the pacing really doesn't allow that. The pacing also doesn't allow you to play other games. You may try, but then when you go back to P3 it will eat you for leaving it.
It's because of this that I don't even think P3 can be rated on a 1/10 scale compared to other games. Rather I think P3 must be rated by taking into consideration all the other things you could do in 2-3 months of your life.
For instance, is Persona 3 better than sex? The answer to that is no. It's a great game, but sadly no. Is Persona 3 better than a drunken night of Table Tennis with friends? That's debatable as well. So because of this, at the end of the 130 hour game length, I think Persona 3 will have to take a lower score than the game would have if it did not require 2-3 months of one's life. Sure it's non-stop greatness, but you could take a class on ancient Egypt and have date your fellow hot-ancient-Egypt-curious-classmate all within the same time period and one is likely more exciting and fulfilling than the other.
So in 2007...be prepared.
Bebpo said:
Thats a... unique way to look at it.
Personally, everything youve just said makes me want the game more. You are describing total immersion... thats something I havent felt in a video game in a very long time.
~ Thanks for all the impressions guys. I honestly had no idea the game would be so radically different from the past Persona titles (though, it still appears to be carrying the Persona tradition of strong character development... just in a different way). Everything sounds wonderful.
Error2k4 said:so wait... the game is going to get low scores because it's too long?
No, it's going to get low scores because it's a dating sim.
I've been nursing a terrible headache all day and can't play Persona 3. I've just been cuddling in my bed playing Tengai Makyou 4th Apocalypse on my PSP.
Himuro said:
No exaggeration.
Neither duckroll, nor Trin, nor myself will finish the game under 90 hours. Most likely we will all finish ~100-110. This is just playing the game the way most normal people would play it.
I'm 30 hours in and 1/3rd through the game. AFAIK duck is around 45(?) hours in and nearing the 50% mark.
The game is 12 months/365 days right? Well each month takes about 8-10 hours at normal play...so now you can see where 100+ hours comes from.
It's definitely the longest game I've ever played.
Did DQVII's length hurt it?
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Making Dating Sim gameplay not suck; is there anything R&D1 can't do? How is it every time I learn something new about this game I manage to get more hyped! Viva la Atlus! :lol
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Bebpo said:
I'm a LITTLE ahead of duck, and I'm at 52 hours. I'm trying to be more efficient about how I go about months (instead of going to Tartaros every other day, I'm going infrequently, and making each trip more meaningful). Hopefully this will make my trip to the end faster.
Honestly, I love the game, but I think 100 hours is totally overkill, length wise.
Avalon said:
Nocturne took me about 50 (pre-maniax, so maybe add 10 hours).
The thing is that it's not a 100 hour epic rpg. P3 probably has the same amount of plot/dungeons/bosses as a 40-50 hour rpg, but because of the way it's setup it takes 100 hours to go through it. It's mainly a pacing issue. The game is great, but it's just longer than it should be for those of us with full-time jobs.
It's the perfect game for young kids whose parents only buy them 1 game a year for their birthday though. If I had a kid I'd just buy him/her P3 and save a lot of money by not having to give him/her money for going outside and doing things
Greenpanda
Banned
Aww, I like long games. I get my money's worth and I don't have to keep learning new systems!
Plus, I dunno. Somehow I just like get the chance to get really attached to the characters/party over a long period of time.
Plus, I dunno. Somehow I just like get the chance to get really attached to the characters/party over a long period of time.
I have never found length to be an issue, a good game is a good game (though this might be because I dont mind a plot being spread thin or convoluted).
I agree with Greenpanda, a game like this really seems to stress building a relationship with your party members.
I think I'll manage. At best I can play maybe two or so hours before going to bed since I also work full-time and go to school most days. I only have one day off, but if this game is as addictive as people are saying I know what I'll be doing when it comes out.
I agree with Greenpanda, a game like this really seems to stress building a relationship with your party members.
I think I'll manage. At best I can play maybe two or so hours before going to bed since I also work full-time and go to school most days. I only have one day off, but if this game is as addictive as people are saying I know what I'll be doing when it comes out.
You can count me in as another one of the RPG playing Jgaffers (albiet I don't post as much as the others)
Anyways, I agree with Bebpo, it's going to take a while. Do to work and what not, i'm only at around 21 hours, but I'm actually still at 6/7 right now
The games pace just doesn't conclude to the rush to a new area, fight a new boss, blah blah blah. it's truly a set pace, and you can't rush the days at times. This can be seen as a good point and a bad point though. I've sat for two weeks, going to school, the cafe, and just studying. A good game, but I'm hoping I can beat it before FF3 drops. Although, like bebpo says, you can take your ds and psp with you, so I guess I don't have to worry eh.
That said, I am enjoying it, and I've had 2 or 3 hours pass without realizing it yet. I'm really liking the sim elements, and am aching over if I want to date chihiro or yukari at this point. i wonder if I can just play them all
Anyways, I agree with Bebpo, it's going to take a while. Do to work and what not, i'm only at around 21 hours, but I'm actually still at 6/7 right now
because going the night before the full moon means no one gets tired, so I've just waited a month and now I'm doing nothing but dungeon crawling, and have been for the last four hours
The games pace just doesn't conclude to the rush to a new area, fight a new boss, blah blah blah. it's truly a set pace, and you can't rush the days at times. This can be seen as a good point and a bad point though. I've sat for two weeks, going to school, the cafe, and just studying. A good game, but I'm hoping I can beat it before FF3 drops. Although, like bebpo says, you can take your ds and psp with you, so I guess I don't have to worry eh.
That said, I am enjoying it, and I've had 2 or 3 hours pass without realizing it yet. I'm really liking the sim elements, and am aching over if I want to date chihiro or yukari at this point. i wonder if I can just play them all
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Greenpanda said:
Well, when you`re like me, and you have 5 other games shouting your name, you tend to complain about a game`s length. I buy a ton of games per month usually, so 100 hours just adds games to my backlog (which is already gigantic).
Avalon said:
If you advance the community you will advance the relationship. No choice. This would've been annoying if the game only let you date one girl but it's seeming to me that you can just be a pimp dating 5 girls at once and the game recommends you do so.
Lain said:
I got the 1st press but I never even realized it was 1st press because the stickers are meh. Disc1 is just the main art of the main character and Disc2 is just Yukari art. Both are just the pictures from the status screen.
Avalon said:
Yeah I take back what I said...****!
See I had 3 of my girls at rank 5 and the game was happy, but I got the 4th to rank 5 and now it tells me if I hang out with the other 3, then #4 will be pissed. >_< Arghh, now how will I max all my communities before the game ends!!?
Reverse community only happens if person A calls and asks to hang out on sunday/holiday and you say YES. Then person B calls and you cancel with person A, this will piss off person A and they will go into reverse community where your rank will go down each time you see them unless you make up with them. I only got it once and I reset right afterwards so I don't know how you go about fixing them.
But since I like girl #4 the least, I guess I'll be finding out soon when I go back to dating #1-3!
Avalon said:Ah, I see thanks for the info.
So, would you say eventually would have to really pick and choose what Arcana(s) to excel at? It really seems like the further you go, the harder it is to keep everyone pleased.
Yeah, in fact I just looked at my communities and my magician one is REVERSED for no apparent reason whatsoever. I'm guessing because I was concentrating on other ones it reversed because I was ignoring him for a few months? I dunno and it doesn't fix in a day like duckroll said. It's been reversed for a week and the guy hasn't appeared to talk to so I'm not sure what I can do to fix it atm.
IMO this is the best way to max all communities.
--Max every community to level 5 unless you get a warning that being with others will lower it. I choose level 5 because it will get +3 levels on every Persona you make, which is just enough to get all the good spells.
--Then one at a time max the ones you like. Once maxed you can't "unmax" a community so if you do 1 girl at a time you should be safe. Same with the guys.
I reallly think you should be able to max all the communities. I'm around 70/80% in the game now I it's going to be really close but I think I can do it.
Bebpo said:
This is the way my friend explained it to me (her Japanese isn't the best, but she gets by)...
You get into Reverse Community by missing a meeting or cheating on a person who you are in a serious relationship with. You can fix it a few times by talking to them. They will forgive you and probably ask you a question (answer correctly and everything is good I imagine). After those few times, you are screwed basicly if you get a Reverse Community.