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[PSP] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

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[PSP] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Unread postby ken » 26 Oct 2009 02:02

(Hey Icy. I'm a long time lurker and admirer of the site, and I've finally decided to throw myself into the brutally honest community that is the forum. Below is my first real stab at a game review--I'm currently a high school student, and have, as of late, found my growth as a writer to be something nearing nonexistent. I hope to improve to the level of being able to actually, you know, write a competent review, and am looking forward to criticisms and suggestions from both you and the community. Also: The intro. paragraph was initially an overly-general and pointless attempt at depth, or something. I spared us both the trouble).

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Rating: **

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is a localization redux of the 1996 Japanese Playstation game Megami Ibunroku: Persona. Owing to both the recent success of Playstation 2 releases Persona 3 and Persona 4, and the snafu ridden original localization (in which, among a litany of unfortunate decisions, a character was blackfaced and given a fittingly stereotypical vocabulary in an effort to make the game more appealing to an American audience), the newly staffed Atlus USA gave the game a proper, and—for what it’s worth-- culturally sensitive, treatment.

The events of Persona are both hectic and bizarre. Within minutes of the opening, demons overrun the city of Tokyo, a friend mysteriously recovers from a life threatening illness, side characters die in awkward bouts of melodrama, and the playable group awakens to the power of “persona”—borrowing a bit superficially from the writings of Carl Jung, personae are explained as the mask needed to face the troubles of the world made manifest (though, for as much as this matters in the context of the story, they could be called anything). *

Battles initially occur in urban locales-turned-dungeons--multi-floor mazes seen through a first person perspective. The unfortunate aging of the graphics are especially jarring here, as nearly unchanging, poorly detailed patterned floors and walls become the scenery anywhere from several minutes to several hours.

Battles occur at random. The spacing between these encounters, keeping with RPG tradition, is anything but generous, which, oddly enough, often allows for the clearing of a dungeon with minimal additional grinding--though the player is often met with a stark increase in enemy level when starting the next dungeon--a false, and disappointing, sense of having escaped the grind.

As with most RPGs, fights are fairly straightforward and mindless at introduction, but soon become convoluted battles of attrition. Boasting a total of 14 negative status ailments, (a great deal of which cause characters to lose multiple turns, chunks of health, or both), it is not that uncommon a scenario to find the whole of the party unable to act, leaving the player to view either a certain, and lengthy, death, or, if sufficiently overleveled, a scenario concluding with a member or two barely holding on.

Such situations are, understandably, frustrating. Particularly telling of any game is whether a death feels deserved or contrived, and, conversely, whether winning brings about a sense of satisfaction in the player. It is a failing of the game, in both loss and victory, that play feels mechanical—that little strategy, little thought, needs to be implemented by the player.

This contrivance is most evident in an oft-touted feature of the game—the Contact system. Rather than battle enemies, players are given the choice of ‘contacting’ them—communicating with a limited set of commands (including ‘Dance’ and ‘Insult’--this is a perfectly classy affair). Demons are given a handful of vague traits (ex. Haughty, joyful, snappish), and players are left to decipher which set of commands will pique the demon’s Interest level for a substantive reward(as opposed to making the enemy Happy, Angry, or Sad).

Perhaps, if there were some level of sense or consistency in this system, it would work. As is, nearly all commands will make Demons either Angry or Happy, and what seemingly at-random combination of commands eventually raises Interest levels is in no way guaranteed to raise the Interest level when used later (it may, in fact, make them angry!), rendering the Contact system a guessing game—more annoyance than interesting, or necessary, addition.

Worse still is that the purpose of this system--the gaining of Spell Cards used to create additional personas--hardly needs to be used for an unsettlingly large portion of the game. In the first 12 hours of play, I made a total of one Persona. One. In all situations preceding, victory was won with the default set of personas, using largely the same sets of commands. It is no surprise, then, that the game comes with an 'auto' (repeat) function--it needs it. It is a mockery, really--evidence that play requires leveling more than thought, mindless repetition more than involvement.

Persona is a perfectly competent game—but so utterly devoid of charm, consistency, characterization, or strategical depth, (all things needed to sufficiently justify the playing of a dozens-hour JRPG) though, that the game fails to set itself apart from other RPGs in any positive way. If anything, this remake serves as a reminder of the merit of later games in the series—games that manage to be unique, challenging, and enjoyable, a combination that this game just doesn’t get right.


*-eh. Is this paragraph too summary/list driven? =/
ken
 
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Unread postby icycalm » 26 Oct 2009 14:02

I'll read it later, but in the meantime let me ask you to read this:

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/ports_and_compilations/

Bottom line is that the only things I want to read about in a review of the PSP remake of Persona is in what ways it differs from the original, and whether or not these differences are for the worse or for the better. Anything else, I am afraid, is entirely off-topic...

That is not to say that an off-topic review of Persona PSP would automatically be entirely useless. But it will always be inferior to a review of the original game and a genuine review of the port/remake TAKEN TOGETHER, which is why I can't publish it on the site -- though I might still link it from the game's thread and advise peopel to read it.
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Re: [PSP] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Unread postby icycalm » 26 Oct 2009 19:30

Okay, I read it.

All references to "RPGs" in the text should be changed to "JRPGs". Have you even read any my articles? After such a massive blunder, I wouldn't have bothered reading your review if I had found it on any other site.

As for the rest. It is certainly a well-written review. But good writing is the very last thing a genuine game fan looks for in a game review.

ken wrote:I'm currently a high school student, and have, as of late, found my growth as a writer to be something nearing nonexistent. I hope to improve to the level of being able to actually, you know, write a competent review


Right here is your problem. You do not seem to understand that a competent review has basically nothing to do with "good writing" or with someone's "growth as a writer", any more than a good car review or physics problem solution have to do with good writing. Game reviews are HIGHLY SPECIALIZED PIECES OF WRITING. They are not fucking poetry. A Hemingway or a Stendhal would write more terrible game reviews than even the gamefaqs crowd. In order to write good game reviews you have to know a lot about games. And this, for young people especially, is a very difficult proposition.

ken wrote:Persona is a perfectly competent game


lol, yeah. It's a nice idea to end a review with a sentence that completely contradicts everything you had written before it.

ken wrote:but so utterly devoid of characterization


Artfag comment. You are not fooling anyone. I can smell this shit from across the planet.

ken wrote:*-eh. Is this paragraph too summary/list driven?


More artfag nonsense. As if lists were a bad thing.

ken wrote:If anything, this remake serves as a reminder of the merit of later games in the series—games that manage to be unique, challenging, and enjoyable, a combination that this game just doesn’t get right.


Judging from the review of Persona 3 posted in this forum, this comment makes you seem like an animu kid. Not to mention the fagotry of your entirely insubstantial commentary -- "unique", "enjoyable", blahblahblah. Zero reasoning. Zero expertise. Zero analysis. Zero, zero, zero.

The rest of the review, in terms of analysis, seems passable (I say "seems" because I haven't played the game). The last paragraph, however, betrays everything.
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Unread postby ken » 26 Oct 2009 22:14

Thanks for the reply. This honesty is why I came here.
I suppose I'm too stuck on the patterns I've seen before (including resorting to being an apologist). I'll work on breaking free from them.
As for the most important trait of a game reviewer (knowledge of the subject), I definitely, and, as you pointed out, obviously, have a long way to go. Hopefully, I can get to the point where my reviews aren't lol worthy, and offer some degree of insight that an average joe (me at the moment =[ ) couldn't yield.
And about referring to the game as an RPG--I have no excuse. I've read a great deal of your articles, and knew better.
(I must take issue with the animu comment, though. C'mon, Icy, there's low, and then there's low).
Thanks again.
ken
 
Joined: 25 Oct 2009 22:03
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Unread postby icycalm » 27 Oct 2009 01:16

And now you suddenly forgot how to separate your writing into paragraphs.

What a waste of time this was. Goodbye.


P.S. And there was nothing low about my animu kid comment. That's what you clearly are. And if you were not you would have responded by countering my reasoning, not protesting the insult. And moreover, just to be clear, for anyone else reading this: there is NEVER anything "low" about my criticisms -- quite the opposite in fact. There is nothing "higher" than my criticisms. Everyone simply ends up getting exactly what they deserve.
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