Completed: Persona 4

i will specify that this is the anime.... though i'm like... one dungeon away from beating the game as well.... and the two are pretty much the exact same thing....

Also looks like i've gotten through that huge queue of old reviews, this means they probably wont come daily anymore but i'll try to keep the blog active with sketches and such.

So.... my history with Persona.

Back in the olden days of highschool my friends were all abuzz with a new game that had coem out called Persona 3, when i asked them what kind of game it was all they could really say was "it's a life sim/dating game/turn based roleplaying dungeon crawler..... and it takes place over a year of ingame time... and you fight by shooting yourself in the head."

well.... naturally i called bullshit cause nothing could be that crazy... and just kind of brushed it off to the side until Persona 3 FES came out shortly after.... my friend had already bought it and after lookign at the cover and the opening song i decided.... ok why not give this a try.

first thing, i scoffed at the "80 hours of gameplay" on the back cause...
a) i just couldn't fathom the game being so long.... yes it takes place over a year but thats in game time and sometimes chunks of weeks are skipped.
b) i have a tendency to beat games quickly.


so...... 80 hours later i get to the final boss... which in and of itself takes an hour to two to beat (lets just say you'll hate tarot cards after this match) and then i get to the end which to my surprise.... after all that wasn't terribly happy.

this made my day cause i like bitter sweet or unhappy endings and Persona 4 had been announced and would be released in a bit.
Now despite the whole shoot yourself in the head thing i really liked everything about this game and i looked forward to what they would do in the next one... i probably should have played the extra game fes added known as "The answer" but it claimed to be another 30 hours and i did have other things i wanted to play..... if i ever do go back and play it i will give 3 a full review but for now just understand that i really liked it. 

SO.... persona 4 gets released and i get the preorder bonus of a little art book.

normally i would be happy about the little artbook but i made the mistake of looking through it on the way home from the game store.... this is when i spoiled the ending for myself.... that kind of sucked.

so i played it like crazy, it felt a bit faster paced then the first one cause instead of things being determined by the full moon you had to worry more about the weather which felt like it was a bit faster.... i don't think it actually is but there was more a sense of urgency.

then i got to kenji's dungeon and i kept getting one hit killed, see if Protagonist dies it' game over.... the enemies know this and target him with light and dark attacks which are both insta kills.

so.... i put down the game for a long time, last summer before i started work i went back to playing it and like i said got to the second to last dungeon...

so when the anime started playing i started telling myself "better beat the game before i watch the show.... even though i know who the big bad is"

yeah i never did....

also before i start getting to the actual review... i do own persona 1 and 2...
1 i don't understand what the hell is going on.... i will beat it eventually but it's not really fun when your in the first area and have no idea what your suppose to do.... two i'm just past the tutorial.... but then i got into the Ys and Legend of Heroes series so yeah.... i will go back to it one day... maybe.

onto the show....

we start with Protagonist who has been given a real name! Yu Narukami, he's just moved into town to stay with relatives because the plot says so.... he's only staying for one school year.
he makes some friends really quickly but these strange things start happening in town.... on days where there is fog, people who had vanished shortly before show up dead and hanged upside down.... you also find out that you have the ability to go through the television....

Unfortunately when you make it to the other world you can't see properly thanks to the fog, and your being attacked by strange shadows.
luckily you are helped out by the punniest Bear around, he gives you glasses and you find the inner strength to draw forth your first persona.

so that's the basic set up, you are able to call forth the personas so maybe you can help solve the mystery....

But you don't have to do this alone, when you bring your friends in while you search for those who have disappeared your friends end up facing their personal shadow, things that they hide deep in their heart... this ranges from things as simple as a hero complex, to things as complicated and sensitive as Gender confusion. and each one of them is handled really well... with each saved person you get a new party member

I love how the show uses things from the games like the calendar or the emoticons and of course the music. it was all just so fun and a great option in case you don't want to plug 80+ hours into a game... a really hard game at that...

so i say go watch it, it's over at Anime Network on demand online for free.

alright back to painting, i may even finish it soon at the rate i'm going~ probably not though....