Help Me Find This JRPG

[OverWilliam]

Ok, so I have been looking for this JRPG (I think it's a JRPG, anyway...) for a while now, and havn't had any success. I once remember seeing a gameplay clip as part of a game review (I think on X-play or somewhere), but I have since forgotten the game's name and cannot seem to find it anywhere (this has been a while ago, so all the details are lost). The one scene that I remember is a Male 'Summoner' type pulling out a Pistol, putting it to his head, pulling the trigger, and out the other side there is a shower of white flower petals and a small fairy that has been summoned. Does this ring a bell to anyone?

[Drascin]

Gun to forehead sounds like Persona 3. Maybe they were summoning a Pixie.

[tonberrian]

Sounds like Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.

[Terraoblivion]

That is definitely Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3. The shower petals would be shards of glass and the fairy thing does seem like pixie. If so you should get it, it's a great game. It was this game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vup6OS0BJuU&feature=related), right?

[Eakin]

Persona 3 for sure. If you go looking for it you might want to make sure you get Persona 3: FES instead of "vanilla" Persona 3, it's got a good deal more content.

[tonberrian]

Or wait for Persona 3 Portable with the option for a female MC.

Which seems to be closer to a remake than a port, judging from Gamefaqs.

[Emperor Ing]

a game where you summon things by shooting yourself in the head?

http://ghostisland.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/lolwut.jpg
...seriously.

[Terraoblivion]

It's not an actual gun, Randomizer. The fact that it is gun-shaped is just another bit of pretentious symbolism, makes the game stand out and look stylish.

[Dairun Cates]

By the way, I highly recommend you get Persona 3: FES. It's the original game with an extra add-on story centered around Aigis.

[Rogue 7]

I'm playing Persona 4 as I type this. It's actually a much better game than 3, if you ask me, and does away with the whole "gun to the forehead" thing, while improving just about everything else. Saying that, Persona 3's still a very good game, and highly recommended.

Now, the odd thing about it (besides the whole gun thing), is that half your time is spent in a traditional dungeon grind (though it's only one big dungeon, called Tartarus) and the other half is a pseudo-dating sim where you hang out with various characters and listen to their problems. As a result, the monsters in your head get stronger. The characters are great, the story is compelling, and the dungeoncrawling is fun (if difficult at times). An excellent game.

Also make sure you get FES, as it comes with a bonus quest that's an extra 30 hours of gameplay essentially for free, as well as some upgrades to the main quest.

[/Personawhore]

[Mewtarthio]

you hang out with various characters and listen to their problems. As a result, the monsters in your head get stronger.

What? You're some sort of schizophrenic psychologist who unleashes his delusions onto the real world by literally opening his mind? Or am I misinterpreting something? Are you really just a schizophrenic psychic vampire? :smallconfused:

[tyckspoon]

What? You're some sort of schizophrenic psychologist who unleashes his delusions onto the real world by literally opening his mind?

That's actually pretty close, although very little of the summoning happens in the 'real' world.

[Rogue 7]

What? You're some sort of schizophrenic psychologist who unleashes his delusions onto the real world by literally opening his mind? Or am I misinterpreting something? Are you really just a schizophrenic psychic vampire? :smallconfused:

They never really justify it in either game. Igor (the dude who does the fusions of various Personas) just up and tells you "make good friends and these suckers will get a lot stronger". Each person you hang out with is tied to a specific Major Arcana of the tarot deck (You're the fool (0) and you can hang out with Magician, Priestess, Death, The Tower, etc...) It's got something to do with the overarching Freudian (for 3) and Jungian (for 4) motifs, but I've never taken a psychology class in my life, so I can't really tell you more than that.

[Terraoblivion]

The entire Persona series has Jungian motives. The Persona and the Shadow are two of the central aspects of Jungian psycho analysis for example.

[Zevox]

a game where you summon things by shooting yourself in the head?

http://ghostisland.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/lolwut.jpg
...seriously.


What? You're some sort of schizophrenic psychologist who unleashes his delusions onto the real world by literally opening his mind? Or am I misinterpreting something? Are you really just a schizophrenic psychic vampire? :smallconfused:
There are some psychological allusions to it (that I didn't quite get), to be sure. Persona 4 is more specific on what Personas actually are, though whether its definition carries over to P3 or not, I'm not sure. Essentially, in Persona 4, within each person is a "shadow" of themselves, which represents things about them that they've repressed and really, really don't want to admit are even there - they often come across as the polar opposite of the person in question when you meet them. By facing them and coming to terms with the fact that those things are a part of them, those shadows becomes a persona, an embodiment of that individual's psyche (they often take the forms of mythological figures which share aspects in common with the character in question) which they can call upon to grant them various powers.

In P3, the characters don't seem to have to go through any specific process to acquire their Personas, there are just a handful of people that simply have them (and others that... well, that'd be spoilers).

To summon them, in P3 they use a device called an Evoker, which looks like a gun, but really just causes a mild psychological jolt in order to bring forth the Persona from the individual's mind. In P4, once the Personas have been acquired, the characters summon them simply by smashing a tarot card containing them.

As near as I can recall, though, they can only call upon their Personas in specific places, not in the real world. In P3, this is during the Dark Hour, a 25th hour of every day that begins at the stroke of midnight, and which most people do not experience (they are protected in coffins during it and completely unaware of it - only those who have Personas are not imprisoned in the coffins and thus experience the Dark Hour). In P4, this is in the world that the protagonists find within televisions (this comes to make a lot more sense than it sounds like once you've gone through the game, trust me - I'd mention why, but P4 is in no small part a mystery game, and the question of what exactly the "TV world" is is a part of that mystery, so it's kind of big spoilers).

Zevox