What Did We Play Yesterday?

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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. :(

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.

The TV went in an unexpected direction, but honestly I was just glad the scenery changes. This dungeon unfortunately was as tedious as the previous one, but I slogged through 10 floors and helped Kanji face his shadow. As I mentioned before, Yosuke has been my BFF up to this point and I was angling for a romance if possible, but I'm not a fan of how frankly weird he is about Kanji's queerness and I'm assuming that's a pretty big indicator he's not romanceable. I read that there are 8 romanceable characters and 23 social links total, so I've got a way to go before I even meet everyone.

Kanji is fast becoming my favorite.

One issue I'm having with the easy mode is I am able to finish a dungeon during one visit and don't have to grind, which is good because I hate the dungeons, but it's bad for pacing because I have days and days and days where all I'm doing is socializing or choosing activities that boost stats, to the point I want SOMETHING to shake up the game flow but obviously not the terrible dungeons.

The translation seems kinda iffy, sometimes I'll be presented 3 dialogue options and feel I'm somehow missing something, or a character will react in a really unexpected way to a response that I thought was fairly innocuous. That aspect is starting to wear a bit.

Still hanging out with these idiots.

I fell off the video game wagon for a bit but I'm getting into it again. Played some Persona 4, which is primarily socializing and stat building as I wait for the next kidnapping.

The kids have a camping trip with bad curry and tent hijinks, and the stage is set for the next victim, Rise, an idol who we saw waaaay back at the beginning of the game in a commercial. I took a moment to upgrade Kanji's equipment and fuse some personas.