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TheMinxTail
2010-07-10, 04:21 PM
Hey, don't know if this is quite the right place since these forums usully use tabletops like DnD, but Persona 3 is a JRPG, so there is some Roleplaying to it. I suppose if there is absolute revolt against this discussion's placement, I could move it later. That aside, give me one paragraph of self intro and I'll get to the main topic. Or just skip the next paragraph as it is probably lengthy. Oh, and I'm a swift typer and this is a new keyboard that I'm not quite used to yet, so please excuse the constant mispelling of 'the' and such.

Okay, so I played Persona 4 a few months back and felt it was, without exaggeration or even the faded memory of its competition, the greatest game I've ever played, possibly ever made, possibly in the space-time continuum. I know when it coems to lengthy RPGs, your starting position makes all the difference, and for me I was a little depressed. Not seriously or anything, but just uninspired (not a good mood for an aspiring author to have for months at a time). Then I played it and found myself rejuvenated and actually wanting, for the first time in my life, to go out and make my own circle of friends, having finally been made to truly understand and appreciate the nature of teh human soul. I don't know, I guess I'm just a pessimist, and it broke me out of my rut. I mean, I spend most days philosophising, and that single 70 hour experience was enough to shatter the entire loner-section of my theories, and then some! Hell, near the end I jsut didn't paly the game for a while purely because I ddin't want the damn thing to end! And the whole way through, I was jsut wondering 'why couldn't my high school life be that awesome'? Hell , I'm now enfused enough to make a trilogy (or quadrilogy?) of fantasy novels. In fact, I have resolved to never play teh game again in the foreseeable future. If I did, with my memory, I would come to memorise every aspect of teh game and normalise it, robbing it of everything taht made it so good. I'm saving it for a rainy day to break me out of a similar rut, like, if my house burns down. (But then, won't my copy be burned? And with how hard tehy are to find in Britain.... *Shoots self*)

And with taht set of brackets, we are brought to th butt of every joke in Persona 4, the Evoker. And teh transition into teh discussion of the game itself, for that matter. I looked online after 4 sand found enough people who said, perhaps with the rose-tint glasses of memory in some cases, that Persona 3 was, while different, about as good as, or in some bold places, outright better than Persona 4. So, I borrowed my friend's copy of FES for a while, played it for maybe two hours (when last I played, I killed the first miniboss on floor 4[?]). The stupid menu system and such made the trasition from 4 to 3 a bit jarring, a problem which I hear is addressed in teh Portable release, on the day in North America on the very eve of my 18th birthday. I ordered the game, though seeing as it is a cross-Atlantic delivery, understandably it is still in the post. As I said, I'm not taht far, so please no spoilers. I considered not even borrowing FES for the taster run, because I found taht some of my greatest experiences are blind leaps - going into a game without reading reviews or synopsis or such and just letting the material speak for itself, as I did my best to do in Persona 4.

Well anyway, to spark a debate just to kick of the discussions, which is superior for you, Persona 4 or 3?I'm not offended by fanboyism as some people I've seen in teh likes of Final Fantasy forums are, and the pride one takes their game of choice, as I understand that Persoan 4 fille d aspecific niche for my.... PERSONAlity. (Hey, it's not as bad as Teddie's dialogue - I maintain that Teddie was the disfiguring mole on the face of the beautiful maiden of Persona 4, redeemed only by the cunning use of make up to disguise him as a mere 'beauty spot'.) Well anyway, to spark a debate just to kick of the discussions, which is superior for you, Persona 4, Persona 3 (w or w/o FES), or Persona 3 Portable?

(I have an annoying little sister who admits that while Persona 4 may well be the game that is likewise catered to everything she has ever loved in RPGs, she refuses to play it on the grounds that teh main character is a bot, so perhaps her answer is obvious with teh addition of teh femMC in Portable.)

The Glyphstone
2010-07-10, 04:23 PM
This probably belongs in Gaming (Other), our non-tabletop gaming subforum.

ScionoftheVoid
2010-07-10, 04:24 PM
Try Gaming (Other), it's usually the place to go for videogames. I advise you to check other possibly appropriate places before posting, if you never see something in one place that seems like it should be there that's probably because it is more appropriate somewhere else.

TheMinxTail
2010-07-10, 04:27 PM
Oh, and before I forget, does anyone happen to know how long it will take my delivery to arrive? The delivery details are, to quote the ebay page, USPS Prioity Mail International Flat Rate Envelope, a delivery cost I spent 16 goddamn dollars on (redeemed only by teh fairly low price of the item itself), and is from America to Scotland, bought on July 7th. It's the tenth now, and I don't think teh post office is open tomorrow, so maybe next week...?

TheMinxTail
2010-07-10, 04:30 PM
Try Gaming (Other), it's usually the place to go for videogames. I advise you to check other possibly appropriate places before posting, if you never see something in one place that seems like it should be there that's probably because it is more appropriate somewhere else.

I have no idea how to change categories. Tell you what, if it's that disruptive to the time-space continuum, if we get longer than two pages or I have ten posts outright complaining about this post's placement, I will erase or move it. That, or I could turn it into a discussion of tabletop games. I'm totally, like, smart and stuff.

Okay, uh.... what conversions would one have to make to d20 Modern for it to work with a Persona or Shin Megami Tensei game?

KillianHawkeye
2010-07-11, 01:00 AM
PM a mod to have it moved.

Yukitsu
2010-07-11, 10:16 AM
Despite similarities, the stories and messages are too different to really compare. As for game play, I liked P4s a little better when dealing with levels, but preferred P3 against bosses. However, P3 on the portable uses the P4 combat system, so you won't be comparing those.

I liked the characters in both, there were definitely strengths and weaknesses to the characters in each. P3 I found to be a bit slower in terms of talking to NPCs, but I found the side quests needed in P4 to be more irritating, to the point that some of them I needed a guidebook for.

The elemental affinities made more sense in P3 than P4, but since they were never visually obvious anyway, you were alway still best off trying until you got it right. However, Rise's inability to scan when compared to Fuuka scanning really gets annoying at times.

P4's true ending is way better than P3 FES's true ending.