What Did We Play Yesterday?

Continuing to enjoy the slice-of-life aspects of Persona 4, though I don't always remember to take screenshots. Sometimes, I have trouble working on certain social links. For instance, I've been trying to find a way to hang out with Yukiko because her bond is the lowest, but man it's not happening. I've unlocked the shrine now, so if all else fails I can get a charm. I like how the relationship with the Dojimas is playing out, too.

The kids have figured out a local tough-guy biker named Kanji is the next target. Kanji has been acting suspiciously and having secret conversations with mysterious young man, with strong hints Kanji is gay or bi-questioning. Kanji gets dragged into the TV, and we're tasked with grilling the locals to get clues about his personality.

Decided to try something different. I've always been curious about Alwa's Awakening due to the awesome graphics. I knew going into this one there are complaints about the level design, difficulty spikes, and backtracking, and the movement is definitely floaty. There is also a tedious and boring intro, which I ended up skipping, but this is one of the many "sure I'll try that" freebies I picked up from Epic Games and I enjoyed playing around with it.

I'm enjoying the social aspects of the game, and happy to have Yukiko back.

Very much not liking the dungeons. I returned to the TV when my friends suggested it, and fought my way through the castle again, beat the shadow there, then fought aaallll the way back down. The levels randomize again, so you have to find your way through. I didn't realize I could use an item to leave, so I was hating life by the end of it. Evidently this was an extra task I didn't have to do, so I'll avoid that in the future.

...But I reaaaaally don't want to keep slogging through these dungeons. :(

I'm enjoying the chill daytime schedule. I try to prioritize hanging out with friends, and I've been focusing on the athletes recently. I also did my first fusion yay. I'm gonna venture back into the TV soon so if I need or want to leave, I still have a day or two before the fog.

During the day segments, you can spend time with your friends to build up your social links or you can do stat-raising activities. Then... it's dungeon time! And unfortunately, the dungeons are boring as shit. They're procedurally generated levels with apparently no visual variety, the loot is crappy, and the whole setup appears to be a mechanism for grinding to get stats high enough to fight bosses.

I started out exploring the whole dungeon, but soon realized there was no point, and it was better to search for staircases and ascend as quickly as possible. The boss of this dungeon had a cool design, but getting there was tedious even on easy mode, so I can only imagine how grindy it would have felt on normal difficulty.

I also found persona acquisition a bit underwhelming. In the SMT game I played, you had to haggle with demons to get them to join, but in Persona 4 you can pick up persona cards during what's called Shuffle Time, which is a randomly-triggered post game bonus where you can acquire cards that include abilities, personas, healing, and chances to get bonus cards. I like Shuffle Time, but I wish there were other ways to recruit personas.

I'm a little on the fence at this stage, but now I know the dungeon crawling isn't rewarding so I'll focus on the social links and see how it goes.

I've recruited a third (the situation with Shadow Chie really escalated) and enjoyed my first dungeon. Now the game opens up, and you have to decide how to plan your days. If you don't rescue the latest victim in time, it's game over. I have no idea what to do so I'm just gonna wing it.

The main character figures out he can travel into televisions, and he can take his classmates with him. Doing so sends them to a strange world with a weird bear (not pictured) where dopplegangers called Shadows roam. In this game, characters fight with the aid of Personas, which are personality constructs that function similarly to the demons in the SMT games. The main character's first persona Izanagi manifests here, as does Yosuke's.

So far, I've only had a couple of battles. A big aspect of battle is exploiting an enemy's weakness to gain an extra turn. The game has mostly been story and rolling through the day calendar. The dialogue is a bit long-winded and sometimes odd, but I'm rolling with it.

After poking at a few of the SMT games and reading about how they're designed and QOL issues, I decided to try the more recent games and work my way backwards, if so inclined. I'm starting with Persona 4: Golden, which centers around a small town murder mystery.

This game has 5 difficulty levels and I chose the easiest one on the assumption this game has a lot of turn-based battles and I'd rather breeze through those. So far, the gameplay has been more like a visual novel. The protagonist (who has no default name) is switching to a school in a small town to live with his uncle, who is a detective. Right now, I'm slowly meeting the students and getting the town's vibe. The game has a day structure like a VN.

Decided to poke at some of the other SMT games, including the first game on PSX. No hand-holding here. They drop you into a new world and expect you to figure it out. The room-to-room navigation can be a little disorienting, but the overall weirdness appeals.