[razym]

Hah... hahhaa... oh wow. Uh... yeah actually it is.



That's just a surface assessment. It's got some neat game concepts in it and the characters actually develop some personality.

Persona 3 was voted one of the best PS2 RPGs ever. That says a lot for a system that's had 10 years worth of games. It was so popular they did a rerelease with over 40% more stuff, called FES. P4 was released more recently, which is a seperate game altogether.

The games themselves indeed have some good concepts, and the characters aren't flat. The ending for FES is quite good, too, if you ever get that far. In the end, it's not much different from most JRPGS, but this one is also a life simulator in that you not only build your stats in a dungeon, but also out of one too.

Persona 4 is the new one that was released a few months ago. It was rated just as high as FES. It takes everything that people had gripes in FES and redoes the game, this time with another story and an alternative universe. It's just as good, if not better, though those creepy japs do make creepy games. This is a murder mystery, kind of like P1 and P2, but it's pretty well done in the end.

Both games happen to look cheesy, but they are quite dark (as all Shin Megami Tensei games are) and actually tackle different problems seen in Japan today. Suicide is a growing problem in Japan, so I guess they are combining the Shin Megami Tensei demon and apocolypse themes with the typical high school life sim shctick, so you don't just dungeon crawl all day and get bored. P4 deals with media culture and its effect on society, something I would see in a sociology or anthropology class. Pretty deep, right?

Granted, Yahtzee and his gang of cohorts will always find flaws in ANY game. These games were great, though. Definitely top notch through and through, even though people may disagree. Even Yahtzee could find huge flaws in a game like Shadow of the Colossus, or make fun of the ending in Star Ocean: Til the Ends of Time (I liked it )

Oh well. Yahtzee doesn't really review old PS2 games anyways. He's missing out

This post has been edited by razym: 05 May 2009 - 12:11 AM

[Gobbler]

Suicide is a growing problem in Japan

Nothing of that sort, it's more like the national sport.

[Game Over]

Hah... hahhaa... oh wow. Uh... yeah actually it is.



That's just a surface assessment. It's got some neat game concepts in it and the characters actually develop some personality.

For some unexplainable reason, the image made me dizzy.

And I know what you mean by "personality". Sex, depresion and suicide?
[sarcasm]sounds great![/sarcasm]

Oh, well. I have lost sympathy for Japan and it's culture anyway. Might as well watch it on youtube.

[nihilistic sacrasm]If I was a comedian, I would've made a sketch about a charity that gave one-time-use revolvers to depressed teenagers in Japan. That would be a great idea. Not only will you stir some controversy, but you'll also decrease the national GDP, helping out the economy aswell [/nihilistic sarcasm]

Yeah, don't laugh.

This post has been edited by Game Over: 05 May 2009 - 09:09 AM

[nanaya]

I don't see why anyone would want to try and convince him that a genre he doesn't like is good. The man just doesn't like the same things you like. Does it bother you that much? It shouldn't change the way you feel about the genre.

I'm as weaboo as you could get but you don't see my whining about everything everyone says that is anti-anime. I love it, they don't. That doesn't make me dislike anyone who dislikes it and it definately does not make me want to change their minds. If they don't like then I want them to stay away.

I honestly really don't want him to review Persona 3. If you ask me why I will be honest. It's my favorite game of all time. I can handle different opinions and negative reviews but what is the point? It is a game some people LOVE and some do not. Why review a game just to bash it when you know others love it? It makes no sense for him to review it and it makes no sense for any of us to want him to review it. Unless you hate the game and want him to make another review about how he dislikes JRPGs.

Although, on the other side of things, I think a lot of you anti-JRPG people are ridiculous. Yahtzee included. You complain about them being cliche and overusing the same things over and over again. I say the same exact thing of other genres. I'm so sick of the "hardcore" shooter "Gears of Resistance: Halozone 2 -RETRIBUTION-" type of games. Racing games tend to do nothing original for the most part. Seriously, every genre is littered with titles that follow nothing but things set by games before it.

JRPGs have some original titles, Persona 3 included. So the "cliche, all the same" argument is BS. Since it's just video games in general that are like that. If you make it wider (like some of you have) and say ANYTHING from Japan sucks then you are just being stupid and arrogant for the sake of being stupid and arrogant.

All of this aside, Persona 3 isn't going to change ANYONE's mind if they already dislike Japanese things like JRPGs and anime. If I had to pick one for someone like Yahtzee to play, I would go earlier in the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Yeah, I'm suggesting Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Nocturne is such a beastly game. Hard as hell, too. That game definately shows how turn-based should be done.

This post has been edited by nanaya: 20 May 2009 - 04:25 PM

[Ocelot]

I'd say he try out the new UFC game since it's different than any other fighting game out there.

[Thaluikhain]

Although, on the other side of things, I think a lot of you anti-JRPG people are ridiculous. Yahtzee included. You complain about them being cliche and overusing the same things over and over again. I say the same exact thing of other genres. I'm so sick of the "hardcore" shooter "Gears of Resistance: Halozone 2 -RETRIBUTION-" type of games. Racing games tend to do nothing original for the most part. Seriously, every genre is littered with titles that follow nothing but things set by games before it.

So it's alright for people to point out the tired cliches of various genres, as long as they leave JRPGs along?

[David-kyo]

I'm afraid JRPG-s are, for the most part, indeed riddled with clichéd, uninteresting plotlines that pretend to be grandiose, stupid and weird (not in the good way) characters, no freedom whatsoever, boring grinding, etc. and I stand by my opinion even if it makes you a saaaaad panda.

[HackSlacka]

Rrrright, as if you really could do that in any computer game. That's what Pen & Paper is for.

But please tell me if I'm wrong there, I'd like to see those "good" RPGs, seriously.

All I can think of is stuff like Fallout, Oblivion, Albion, Stalker and other games where you always end up as "the hero" and never really have that much of a choice. Conversations can usually be played through in good, evil or neutral mode, but ultimately your actions don't really affect anything important. Freedom of choice boils down to "do the quest or don't" and "befriend these guys or don't".

I resent that.

The original Fallouts (1 and 2 that is.) Were awesome in that they allowed you to be a complete douchebag, a goody-twoshoes hero or a neutral dude. And also the neutrality wasn't the standard be good half the time and bad the other, it had actual neutral dialog choices for almost every quest.
Also it had mutants, robots, drugs, whores and really huge guns that melted people (albeit in a 1998 isometric rpg kind of way.)

And that, my friend, is awesome.

[Ghello]

I'm playing Persona 4, its actually tons better then I thought it to be, characters are surprisingly not cliche, story is not forced as some epic journey (I'm not trying to save the world, could change later) there's different difficulties, the boss battles take lots of strategy. Still, there is grinding, but not MMO standards.

There isn't a lot of freedom though, so this won't change WRPGers minds but I liked Planescape and Final Fantasy VIII so this is just a good game for me.

[Game Over]

I'd say he try out the new UFC game since it's different than any other fighting game out there.

New ones look good. Plenty of gay jokes to be had.

[nanaya]

So it's alright for people to point out the tired cliches of various genres, as long as they leave JRPGs along?

I'm afraid JRPG-s are, for the most part, indeed riddled with clichéd, uninteresting plotlines that pretend to be grandiose, stupid and weird (not in the good way) characters, no freedom whatsoever, boring grinding, etc. and I stand by my opinion even if it makes you a saaaaad panda.

Yeah so both of you completely missed my point. Congrats, you took one snippet of a post and ignored the rest of it.

I'm not saying most JRPGs are not cliche. I'm saying it's ridiculous to constantly bash JRPGs for being generally cliche and following the same patterns when EVERY OTHER GENRE does the same thing. So it all comes down to personal taste.

[Thaluikhain]

Congrats

Thank you.

On the subject of missing points...no, that's a little unfair. You might well just have decided that Yahtzee (and others) thinking JRPGs as cliched was terribly unfair, without bothering to see what he thought about various other genres such as survival horror, MMORPGs, FPS (especially ones with marines, betrayal, and browness) and the gaming industry in general.

Don'r expect to be taken too seriously either way.

This post has been edited by Thaluikhain: 28 May 2009 - 10:33 AM

[David-kyo]

Also, it is true, there are recurring trends in Western genres indeed, with the main difference being that they DON'T SUCK BALLS and aren't so obnoxiously annoying and boring. Thank you.

This post has been edited by David-kyo: 28 May 2009 - 12:47 PM

[Spann]

Well, I think that might be a new recruit scared away.

Personally? I sometimes quite enjoy the overused characters and story ideas in various genres, there's a certain sense of familiarity to it.

Every main character in a JRPG will be a gender-bending teen who doesn't speak. Characters in point 'n' click games will either be hopelessly cool or hopelessly inept. Every FPS is brown and so macho there's testosterone streaming out of each of it's pores. Yes, each of these all have their exceptions, but that's exactly what they are. As I remember, YZ quite liked Zack and Wiki; that was released on a console he doesn't like, and is so cutesy it's almost unbearable. However, it's nothing like any other puzzle/point and click game in the world, and as a result he enjoyed it. I think it's fair to say that finding a single game that will make the big Y enjoy an entire genre is impossible: I own and drive a Peugeot 106, doesn't mean I like every other small car or every other Peugeot there is.

[Game Over]

I would only suggest racing games.

Preferably the Driver series.



Now that you gurus are claiming to be all knowing, would anyone highly reccomend the Fallout series?