The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So I finally, FINALLY got in my copy of Persona 4, and I have been playing it COMPLETELY non-stop. It has not disappointed whatsoever. I’ll give you some first impressions, eh? Without being too spoiler-y.

First off, I love, love the characters. In Persona 3, everyone was kind of depressed or stressed, and the tone was, for the most part, almost completely serious. In this game, though there are important events going on and, you know, fate is on the character’s shoulders, they’re still high schoolers. They crack jokes. They hang out and talk about all kinds of stupid shit just like I did back in the day. They are much, much more entertaining to watch.
Not that there was anything wrong with the Persona 3 characters? But it was an extremely rare occasion where they would let loose and have fun. It was an ever-constant focus on “we need to deal with Tartarus.” Just the basic structure of how the dungeons work inside the TV makes there be more opportunity for fun.

Secondly, I enjoy the modifications to the combat quite a bit. I like that all my characters can still run on their own the majority of the time, because that makes the combat go super-quick, which was one of the things I loved about Persona 3. However, being able to take control during bosses is kind of a godsend, and makes them significantly easier, which is a very good thing. I mean, I picked Beginner, because I mostly wanted the story and experience of the game, not the challenge, and I’m still having a little trouble in combats here and there. It’s a hard game, you know? Having that extra control during times when I especially need it really helps. The rest of the modifications seem to more be balancing issues, but I don’t really find any problem with them.

Thirdly, and perhaps, in my opinion, most importantly, I LOVE the new Social Links. The Social Links in Persona 3 seemed like little isolated pockets, completely disconnected from the story that you had to seek out. Here, almost every single Social Link is tied right into the story. They’re your family, and every single one of your party members. It just makes complete sense that you’d have these strong bonds that affect things with people you are truly close to, and not some random shop owner you visit every day, and I love it. I also like the fact that raising Social Links with your party gives them additional moves in battle. It’s a nice and logical touch. Basically, in Persona 3, I was happy just to pick a few favorite Social Links and work on them. In this game, I really want to work on them ALL, because they’re all characters I’ve already gotten to know through other things and I like them. Plus, you know, one of them is a fox. Heh.

Anyway, I’m going to keep playing away at this game until Christmas, I assume, but damn, it is really great, and if you like the MegaTen stuff at all, you should really pick this up for your PS2 at some point. Seriously.