Persona 3 Portable Review

"I can sense death!"

When I fell for Persona, as described in my last review, the plan was very simple; I was going to play through Golden and when the time came, move on to Persona 5: The game I had waited nearly 5 years for. But plans are plans and reality is something else entirely and when the time came I had to really confront the situation and ask myself: do I really want to play through Persona 5 and have 3 waiting for me, or play through Persona 3 and have 5 waiting for me? It really sounds like a matter of basic numericals but some more matter did play into my decision. Keeping lightly to promotional material I dove into both games and and actually found the basic described premise of Persona 3 more intriguing. "What if I told you there was a hidden hour between one day and the next called the Dark Hour"? Who doesn't want to know what that's all about? And after Persona 4 absolutely wowed me with it's use of thematic symbolism and pathos- what was there to lose?

One sacrifice of my schedule later and I could delve into one of the most contentious ports that ATLUS has put out yet. Contentious why? Perhaps due to the fact that the company decided the best version of the game to port to PC was going to be Persona 3 'Portable'; the version created for PSP. What's the problem there then? Well, as the Playstation Portable was such an archaic piece of hardware, the port for Persona 3 on that platform had to give up a lot of it's more taxing systems in order to run smoothly. Namely; the open world. That's right, no navigating the world as you come to love the town you exist in- everything is navigated through menus and selection across screen grabs of what these backgrounds would have looked like if they were rendered. That also means all in-engine cutscenes, anything that would have 3D models, including all impactful scenes and SL link meetings, are conducted on background slides with nothing but the text box to inform you about any events happening in the scene.

Now if that sounds frustrating, I actually think it's a little worse than that. I actually think this kills the impact of some of the coolest reading scenes in the game. Especially coupled with the fact that, increadibly, ATLUS couldn't even fit the anime cutscenes on the game disk either! That means iconic moments, such as the very first moment the protagonist is forced to confront the monstrous 'Shadows' is performed entirely in somewhat flat text descriptions with the impassioned VO and music layered on top like this is a lazy-man's VN. Without seeing my character physically interacting in the world I'm a little robbed of my place within it and personally I struggled to connect with the members of the SEES team of Persona 3 quite as staunchly as I did the defenders of Inaba from Persona 4. Although the port is only a part of the issue, we'll get there...

But what Persona 3 Portable does have which makes it an interesting idea for a port, is the playable female protagonist who changes the course of the plot in subtle ways, with certain new characters that only she can meet and interact with. Think of it as an alternative storyline. But then also simultaneously dash that idea, because I believe one of the side games literally features a moment where she and the male protagonist cross paths so... alternate universe? Portable also comes with a plethora of features that have become series standard, such as the ability to directly control your teammates and- wait, you couldn't control your teammates in the original? That's- wow, yeah I can see why ATLUS didn't want to 

expose anyone to that sort of torment...

However, it is kind of disappointing that ATLUS did the bare minimum of making this port functional on PCs. Certainly remixing the open world elements of the original into this modern day port would be a decent bit of work on their end... but it would at least be the definitive way to experience this storyline. Whatsmore, Persona 3 Portable doesn't feature the epilogue chapter that the first rerelease of the game, Persona 3 FES, does; leaving the ending feeling weird and incomplete. Because it absolutely is. I had my creeping suspicions about what the end was alluding to, and it sucks that I had to read a synopsis to confirm I was totally right- which in turn makes the ending feel entirely hollow for it's bizarre (feels like there's more story here) conclusion. Although... I'm not that upset. Which is probably the worst part of it all. If Persona 4 had this sort of problem I would be devastated. I loved the characters so much that not being able to experience every nook and cranny of their story would feel like a dagger right in my heart, but for Persona 3... the blood just doesn't run that thick.

Persona 3 presents the mystery of a secret hour known as the 'Dark Hour' perceptible only to those with 'the potential'. (Persona summoning potential, obviously) Taking one quick look at the concept of 'the Dark Hour' pretty much lays the key theme of this game out for all to see- All normal citizens metamorphize into coffins, totally oblivious to the events of the mysterious hour, all operating systems stand still, and the game's central school morphs into a giant tower known as 'Tartarus': The mythological Greek land of the dead. (Or the most grim part of it, to be specific.) And if all that wasn't obvious enough, protagonists of Persona 3 can't just summon their Personas like Jojo cast members, they have to force it out of their bodies by using an 'Evoker' (which is essentially a gun) and shooting it out of themselves. Typically by putting the gun to their head and blasting the Persona out. Everytime they need to summon it. (It's amazing how quickly you become desensitized to watching high school kids shoot themselves in the head. Hmm... I don't like that sentence I just wrote. But it's the thought that Persona 3 leaves me with.)

Rounding back on that 'Tartarus', that there lies the central dungeon at the heart of the Persona 3 mystery and the grinding spot you'll be forcing your way through during the length of the story. Every month an 'operation' will demand your immediate attention, but those only serve as significant story bumps that unlock the next character, and section of Tartarus. You'll be coming back to this place (thankfully the only place that Persona 3 Portable managed to render in intact 3D) throughout the entire school year to pump up levels, fight dozens of painful minibosses and shoring yourself up for the unknowable threat of the next storyline boss. To that end I actually think the concept of Tartarus is actually quite clever. A testing ground in which if your party is capable of reaching the cut-off barrier to the next section, they'll definitely be strong enough to face the next story boss the game will throw your way. I'm not sure if I like that idea more than the unlocked themed dungeons that Persona 4 had, but I certainly am sure that I like the execution less.

Because, my god does Tartarus get repetitive! Even as the enemies become tougher and more varied and the environments change, the music is always the same. You can change it for a bit manually, but everytime you re-enter those tracks will reset. And grinding is robbed of some of it's mindless pleasure thanks to the 'Elizabeth Requests' (Which can be 'Theodore Requests' if you pick the female protagonist) that task you to do a plethora of mindless tasks, many of which is grinding random drop-rates up and down Tartarus for rare item drops, really rare golden hand enemies, or rare drops from annoying sparse enemy types. (Persona 4 had the same sort of quests, but at least they were a little rarer. Elizabeth dishes them out like she's your damn shift manager!) And there's also the 'Shuffle Time' system for winning fights with 'pile on' attacks- which presents annoying minigames instead of just letting you select the bonus arcana card you want. Overall, Tartarus is a bit of a pain. Not in any overwhelmingly offensive way, but with a procession of small cuts that add up into a bit of a bad gash after a time.

I can only thank the lucky stars that Persona 3 Portable is freely of the frankly garish 'Tiredness system' which plagued the original game. With that, characters would have a chance of becoming 'tired' after every battle depending on what level they were; with a 'tired' debuff effecting everything from hit-rate, to damage output to received healing. It essentially made you a vegetable. And the only way to recover? To leave Tartarus, sacrificing a day, and then spend the next day sleeping in bed, sacrificing two days. Totally horrific! In P3P, Tiredness only hits after you've left Tartarus, or if you allow a teammate to die and don't revive them before leaving the floor. Much more concussive to endgame grinding. The original system sounds like a genuine crime against RPG humanity.

Oh, and did I mention the Grim Reaper? Making his debut in the land of the dead, the Reaper serves as your incentive not to stick around any floor of Tartarus for too long; as in, more than 10 minutes. (Although there are some ways to summon him early.) The Grim Reaper will bee-line his way to you and attack you with a moveset and life bar strong enough to make end-game veterans blush. He is chaos incarnate, but the fact that facing him requires 10 minute waiting intervals is perhaps the biggest slap the Persona franchise has handed my thus far. Nothing is worse, in gaming, than wasting time for no gain. I have no idea how Persona 5 is going to handle it's Reaper iteration, but good god I hope some sort of lesson was learned because this is not how it's done!

Much as with the Persona subseries of Shin Megami Tensei as a whole, Persona 3 immerses it's players with a cast of high school classmates, the main cast of which are also secret members of SEES; a organisation dedicated to learning the secret truth of the Dark Hour and eliminating the shadows who roam the streets feeding on the emotions of the unwitting during that static hour and leaving them afflicted with unbreakable 'apathy syndrome'. (A little 'blunt force' with that metaphor, but okay.) It's a bit more 'secret agent task force' than the group of friends who teamed up in Persona 4, and the 3 cast were mostly around before you even showed up, making the protagonist feel like more of a tag-along than a central figure. (A feeling I don't think the narrative ever really successfully shakes.)

That being said, I think the main cast themselves are yet again a great and interesting lot. Mitsuru is the senpai of the team, a rich girl heiress raised under the weight of the responsibility of being the face of a prestigious organisation and struggling to relate with her classmates consequentially. Yukari is the popular girl with deep ties to the Dark Hour that she uses as both her strength and clings to as her weakness. And Junpei is your typical 'school friend' character who is revealed to be a little overshadowed and searching for purpose in a way that makes him latch onto being a Persona user with all of his might. Again, there are a whole cast of characters who I don't want to spoil, but I cannot move on without mentioning the best main character, Aigis, who's exploration into humanity and the purpose of life may not be groundbreaking but it's perhaps the most heartfelt growth you experience due to it's central importance to the narrative. Even if some of the emotional highs make actually no sense which slightly ruins them in my lens. (I appreciate the idea of what it represents- but how can she just start crying on a whim? That- she doesn't have- Argh!)

I think the real problem with this cast of characters comes from the slightly peculiar way that Persona 3 handles it's social links, firstly every main character can be interacted with to build a relationship, but only if you max out one of the related attribute skills, which is a considerable time investment which could have been spent, you know, actually getting to know the people you're risking life and limb alongside! You literally fight to the death alongside Yukari and you're telling me she's so worried about her 'image' that she won't even hang out with you after school unless you are 'charming' enough to talk her into it? But that's only the issue of getting the S-Link to begin with, then there's the contents themselves...

In typical Persona fashion, you slowly become closer with those around you by getting to know them and ranking up your social link. The higher the rank, the deeper into their soul you'll peer until they've bared all and you've had an effect in shaping who they are- bonding the two of you for life. But Persona 3 has a particularly... 2007 approach to it's writing. For one; both protagonists, male and female, are incapable of forming relationships with cast mates of the same gender. Meaning that even though characters like Junpei are positioned to be 'friend' characters to the male protagonist, he can't actually hang out enough with him to get to know the guy, so he only ever really feels like an acquaintance. This is because every single social link is written under the impression that you, the protagonist, are actively trying to romance the related character. Which is... problematic.

Why is that problematic? Well, remember that the cast of Persona 3 is made up of several male and female characters- meaning that if you want to rank up your Social Links- a necessary step to unlocking the top Personas of the related Arcana trees which is vial for the endgame- you need to start building a harem and romance everything with a heartbeat. There's even a 'cheating system' built into the game where one girl who's grown attached to you will become angry if you go a certain amount of days not talking to her or speak to another girl instead- as if the developers knew what a bizarre approach this was to take and committed anyway. Of course, the female protagonist alone posses the ability to form platonic bonds- but the male can't help himself- he just attaches to any girl who'll have him. (I guess there's something relatable there.)

This has the knock on effect of tainting the writing of these S-links. Because whereas the top ranks are usually dedicated to some epiphany moment wherein the associated character gradually connects with their inner self and is somewhat transformed- but with the approach that Persona 3 takes those higher tiers are instead dedicated to each character revealing their affection towards you which- I've got to be honest, I'm not even sure why they start feeling that way to begin with. The Persona 3 protagonist is not the leader guiding SEES, he's doesn't take much of an active role in main narrative events, a lot of key character conversations take place when he isn't even present, and without being able to see his presence in the world (Thanks Portable!) it kind of feels like you're just a heavy hitter wildcard who has the ability to change their Persona and that's the only point of interest about you. Until the final act, of course, but what draws people to you before that?

The side cast S-links of Persona 3 are pretty interesting as well, from a terminally ill young boy struggling to find purpose, to a young grade-school girl trapped in a sad home circumstance that she is frustrating powerless to effect. The drunk Monk who replaced his heart with alcohol, the sporty kid who places achievement and momentary prestige above long-term health and the best friend (who honestly seems closer to the protagonist than Junpei, as sad as that is) who's only real struggle in life in his indomitable teacher crush and his delusional tendencies which feed that doomed 'relationship'. They and the others are all solidly written and fun to get to know, with poignant apotheosis moments attached at the maxing of their S-links- which is what I would have hoped for from the main cast. The only character I flat-out didn't like was the Gourmet King- I found him and his story just stupid. Oh, and Vincent from 'Catherine' shows up in a wild cameo. And 'Margaret' from Persona 4. Both games that came out several years after Persona 3, which is pretty cool. Discovering the history of Persona backwards is really providing a lot of Easter eggs I would have otherwise brushed right by.

One point of the gameplay that I will commend Persona 3 on without 'backhanding' the compliment are the bosses. That is, the main game bosses. They're all increadibly creative, not just in their 'arcana related' design but the way you have to use your team to defeat them despite party weaknesses or enemy strengths. A stand-out has to be 'Fortune', and the weird 'roulette wheel' game you have to play simultaneously whilst fighting him and 'Strength'. And I think the final encounter is drawn out but rewarding if you get to the point of mastery enough to be able to trade those blows. I far over levelled for her (I thought I was going to beat the mega bosses, but the various S-link requirements to even get close made me realise that I needed to just new game + it if I really wanted to go that route.) and that fight still ran on for ages before I could get the upper hand. And then there are the side bosses.

Your progress up Tartarus is impeded by certain 'side bosses' who count as 'skill check' walls that if you can beat prove your team is strong enough to face the equivalent story event coming up, like I discussed. However these bosses aren't particularly interesting, mostly just bigger versions of level enemies whom (thanks to the way that 'analysis' works in Persona 3) you can't strategize for without annoying trial and error in the moment. (Unless you memorise what Arcana is typically weak to what, but even that is an imperfect system- these side bosses play by their own rules nearer to the top.) I understand their purpose and I've already praised it as worthwhile game design- but good god why did there have to be so many? I think I had to kill somewhere close to twenty five just to climb up Tartarus, and they were never more than a groan-inducing necessity to progression that rarely felt fun to face. Which seems to be the same for point a lot with this game, doesn't it? Great idea, curious execution. Not always bad, but definitely curious.

 

As I 'subtly' implied earlier without spelling it out; death and the way we choose to confront it and it's inevitability is a key theme to Persona 3; as is the way way we choose how to live our lives and the value we find in those days alive. Persona 3, once again, does a fantastic job exploring these themes in a manner that unravels naturally and thus has a chance to settle and ferment in the heart, as well as abruptly in it's climax through a confrontation which wields allegory like a club. I actually really like this approach that imbues it's message and stands proud alongside it, it helps make the heavily symbolic design of the game feel satisfying and worthwhile by the end. Although Persona 3's narrative doesn't slide into place quite as neatly as 4's did in its final moments. With some extended reading it seems like an FES port would have done a much better job tying up those loose ends, and I'm not even talking about that direct loose end at the final moments of the game. (To be fair, that scene was just blatant enough that I was more questioning if the allegory was supposed to be literal. Which FES reveals it very much was.) Alas, P3P has left me a little unsatisfied in some of the most nagging places. 

Once again the music is just brilliant, featuring a lot more harsh musical genres with a lot more atmospheric and more aggressive tracks than 4. (Or maybe I just noticed 3's more because Tartarus has that single repetitive soundtrack it keeps reverting to.) The living world themes are all great too, if slightly more 'of their decade' than 4's soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, they're not like '2000's pop rock' level, but you can recognise the environment they spawned from. I particularly took notice of the garbled English in this game's soundtrack, which I recently heard rumours of is intentional throughout the Persona franchise in order to create solid sounding music tracks with lyrics that a Japanese audience wouldn't understand and read too much into, and which an English audience might hear, but be unable to decipher unless they literally looked up the lyrics. Which is a pretty cool premise if true. Oh, and once again the final theme of the game which plays during the credits, Kimi no Kioku, just absolutely slaps. God, I love that they always save their best material for the credits, I can't wait to see what Persona 5 has in store! Oh, and the male singer who sometimes appears in the tracks is 'Lotus Juice' whom I instantly recognised as the voice behind 'Overdrive' from Jojo Battle Tendency. This time the reference is unintentional because this game was released years before the Anime for Jojo was even conceptualised, but I love that extra bit of connective tissue between two of my favourite franchises.

Summary

My summation may come as a bit of a shock, because reading through my thoughts you may have come to the conclusion that I didn't like my time with Persona 3; but you would be absolutely wrong. I compare my experience to the unmatched heights of Persona 4, and all my gripes are reasons why this game doesn't hit that same apex. But even then, shooting for the top still lands this game high. I think the story is great, the writing is solid, the soundtrack is fantastic, the combat is surprisingly nearly as good as a modern JRPG. The issues I've expressed are not, in any way, game ruining- and if anything each one are feasible fixes that a prospective upcoming remake could iron out. Persona 3 Portable would not be, in my opinion, the ideal way to play this game. Even with the unique Female protagonist, which is a cool addition, Persona 3 FES is literally more canon. Persona 4 had dialogue directly referencing FES content- we should have gotten a port of that game. Still, being able to experience Persona 3 is some fashion has granted me a chance to play a game which many consider formative to their person, and though Persona 3 didn't resonate with me on that level (which is the level Persona 4 hit me at, by the way) I can totally understand why, in it's best form, this game might have done just that. Ultimately, I'm going to give Persona 3 Portable a A- Grade on my arbitrary ranking system, still solidly landing greatness but not quite reaching my fresh-hold for a truly legendary title.  That being said, I absolutely recommend the game- it's a fantastic JRPG in every sense of the word and a great place to start your exploration into the world of Shin Megami Tensei if that's a direction you want to pursue. Honestly, it's a testament to how good this game was that even though it left me dissatisfied- it also has left me increadibly eager to try that apparent remake ATLUS is cooking up knowing that a few modern changes in direction (and perhaps an extended epilogue that stretches the story just a bit past FES's conclusion) could easily make this game every bit as near-perfect as Persona 4. Once again, the Persona franchise does not disappoint. 

Disability in gameplay

 Gotta hand it to them...

As we consume and tell stories, the chief most goal is to open up to new worlds and experiences in a manner not so dissimilar to 'soul nurturing'; wherein the more our spirits are fed with new experiences- the richer we become as people. Discovering new approaches towards the way we see fundamentals of the world, being placed into the head of someone who's perspective we might never have seriously considered in the past, all fundamentals of successful impactful storytelling. Gaming can go a step further in many of these regards, allowing some aspect of the reality of the experience to become the gameplay features of the artwork, allowing experiences to play out in some small fashion for the players. Learning exactly how to exploit and build upon this is what makes Game Design such an endlessly challenging passion to lean into.

Disability is a basic and immutable part of life for a good chunk of people in the modern world, those who experience the everyday hustle and bustle and their lives from a different angle as their disabilities necessitate. It's a unique experience and way to live life that can be difficult, or even impossible, for anyone of different circumstances to really relate to; and capturing that experience, even within the space of a giant production video game, is probably too much of a tall order. However, disability, and the way we approach it, can make for interesting topics of consideration when it comes to building game mechanics. Sometimes reimagining basic gameplay systems we take for granted just for the sake of viewing them from a different lens, thus transforming an otherwise basic experience into something else entirely.

One such game, which got absolutely snubbed during the game awards and I will never forgive Geoff Keighley for it, is 'The Vale: Shadow of the Crown'. A standard named fantasy adventure guff about a young warrior woman having to survive in hostile lands, with the twist being that she was born with blindness. To encapsulate this, the game features very little visual information whatsoever, and conveys most of the game through 3D audio, performances and description. Most background images are swirling dark portraits infused with tiny specks of light whilst the player envisions the world they are traversing through their mind's eye. Of course it goes without saying that the game is fully blind accessible, and that it reimagines a lot of what we think we know about RPG games in order to establish it's premise.

Learning to anticipate the closeness of enemies by the sound of their grunts and charging screams, navigating through the brush by following the chirping of birds and the rustle of leaves, picking out calling voices in the market by homing in on the sounds of their barkers calling in customers. And, of course, inventory management without seeing an inventory. It truly does throw all the fundamentals on it's head by design and presents what would be rather standard as something else entirely. Whatsmore, the reliance on sound only elevates the level of audio immersion almost immeasurably. Intelligent sound engineering and solid vocal performances can connect with the other senses in an intangible manner, invoking otherwise static feelings and emotions as though rendered to hyper-realism by some giant AA A studio. (An igneous and unique experience that does a whole lot more for accessibility than poxxy 'Forza Motorsport' did; Geoff!)

But disability doesn't always have to be about what you make the player experience, sometimes it can be as simple as adding a character to Spiderman Miles Morales who happens to be deaf and communicates with American Sign Language. But if we wanna talk about deaf people, well... I'm going to have to bring up the real deaf game. Who remembers 'Quiet Man'? No! Don't go hiding yourself from the cringe of it all! Quiet Man was a game that was less interested about conveying experience of a man with deafness as it was about trying a unique gimmick to pump up the potential sales of a mediocre action fighter using a narrative device the developers couldn't even commit to for longer than a couple months.

Yes, 'Quiet Man' tells the story of a super hero level Deaf Man who beats up people in a live action cutscene narrative wherein the developers just pulled all sound in post. It's not like they shot the scenes to be understood without sound; they shot actual scenes with dialogue, they just muffled it and figured the 'mystery' of trying to piece together what the hell was even going on would make up for the crappy gameplay. Then, after an arbitrary timer ticked down, they just released a 'patch' that threw back in the sound so the already nonsensical narrative could make a tiny bit more sense. Kinda. Not really. The supernatural twist still comes out of nowhere and the game is altogether written as though by several arguing acid heads having a really crappy trip.

And of course we can hardly talk about disabilities in gaming with mentioning the countless limb deprived characters who populate the industry. Venom Snake from MGS V who replaced his hand with a bionic metal rocket fist- Billie Lurk from Dishonoured who boasts a dark magic whale-bone prosthetic, Sekiro from the game of the same name who has a special replacement arm that can be fitted with special attacks. At some point 'missing an arm' becomes more of a fashion statement than an actual liability. Heck, most gameplay protagonists just end up replacing the arm with something much cooler anyway! The protagonist of Hi-Fi Rush and all of his friends are missing a limb somewhere, just because. At least Johnny Silverhand's limb is a reminder of his service in the Corporate Wars, the first significant life jolt which spiralled him down the path of bitterness and 'f the system' rebellion. 

So yeah, certainly more could be done with the concept of disability in the world of gaming- heck, we're yet to receive a single game starring anyone in a wheelchair that I can think of, and I bet there's some really interesting gameplay scenario's that could be worked around that. (Which don't just involve tackling stairs, I mean. I'm talking actually interesting ideas- like a detective story with limited mobility or something!) But already some cool ideas have been broached (I love the way that games take the 'missing limb' trope and regularly turn it into a cool upgrade rather than an impediment) some arguably horrific examples (Deaf Oedipus Complex discount Leon Kennedy wasn't my favourite.) and some genuinely incredible ideas that deserve vindication. (Give 'The Vale' that award Geoff Keighley, you coward!) I'm excited to think about the future potential scenarios!

Nintendo are scary

 Nintendo is Weird

Nintendo is supposed to be the happiest place on earth... wait- actually that doesn't sound right... Well, Nintendo is supposed to be a bastion of childlike mirth and innocence at the very least. A repertoire of creative love-imbued high-polish games that bring people together in party mechanics or excite the mind with wild adventures that travel to the highest peaks of imagination. They're a soft edged company in the perception of their appearance, catering always for that underserved sector of the gaming industry who tend to be younger or less violent and dramatic than the Xbox and Playstation fans of the world. And you might be forgiven for believing that perception reflected somewhat on the company behind the mask- but of course you would be dead wrong for making such an assumption. Because Nintendo are no meek-mannered gentle uncles- they're tyrannical monsters.

Surviving at the height they have for as long as they have, you would expect a children's game company like Nintendo to have hardened just that little bit- but every now and then, when Nintendo stirs from the throne-like a lion at the head of it's pride, we catch the glint of their razor sharp claws and gulp like bound and primed gazelle's caught in the crosshairs of the midday sun. And make no mistake, we, as consumers, customers and fans; are the prey to Nintendo's fury. Just because people out there love and revere the works of the big N, does not mean those people are any more significant in the cold yellow eyes. In fact, given their conduct, I'd think it much more likely that Nintendo find themselves actively disgusted by those who become attached to their products; as though the wisps of unrequited love are themselves deeply revolted by the heartless stone guardians of the Nintendo pantheon.

I mean afterall, we're still living in an age where Nintendo will, on a dime, randomly lash out at content creators on Youtube for making videos about their games in a manner not exactly in line with how they wish. I'm not talking about trailer reuploads or 'OST Compilations', (even if Nintendo have a painfully bad track record of compiling those OSTs in their own time) I'm talking about the actual fans who build Nintendo loving communities. Just the other day we heard about a Youtuber who had all their Zelda content struck off their channel in the lead-up to the release of 'Tears of the Kingdom'- seemingly a reaction to the fact he occasionally hosted some harmless looks at rudimentary 'Breath of the Wild' mods- that itself being akin to the most heinous sin for Nintendo.

Not so long ago we heard another story in a similar vein, where Nintendo's irrational fear of anyone playing a Nintendo game in a way not explicitly expected by the team reared up in a bizarre fashion. Two hosts of a Nintendo internet fan show, officially licenced by the team, proposed a Nuzlocke challenge Pokémon series for views and were nearly defenestrated from the building for their hubris. Nuzlocke, a simple challenge without any modifications whatsoever where players simply eject every knocked-out Pokémon from their party instead of reviving them, (with some other flavour rules thrown in their for extra challenge) poses no threat to Nintendo or the sanctity of their published software- but it does demonstrate some form of love for Nintendo products- which I guess upper management over there interprets as an act of war.

Speedrunning is another side of gaming culture that Nintendo would kill in a fire if they legally could. Again, Speedrunners don't actually change anything about the games they play- they don't edit the gamefiles most of the times- they just race each other to complete games as quickly as possible. Of course, Speedrunning does, by it's very nature, lead to the discovery and exploitation of glitches which breaks Nintendo's number one rule: 'Don't have fun in ways we didn't explicitly intend'! I also expect that Nintendo get bothered whenever they see an industry that makes any sort of monetary gain for playing games that they published without them ever seeing a hint of that income- even though Speedrunners can hardly pay to sustain themselves off the odd glitch bounty here and there. But Nintendo aren't exactly nuanced, now are they?                                                                                                                                                                                             

And then there's the tournament scene. Super Smash Bros. has been holding home-grown tournaments for as long as the game franchise has been breathing, and Nintendo have been spitting fire on them ever since. Despite the oodles of passion that goes into making every Smash Bros. packed with layers upon layers of intricacies and heighted skill ceilings to master; in Nintendo's eyes these are party games and any effort to create a competitive community is a direct violation of their moralistic code. And if you think I'm exaggerating- just take a look at all the events over the years that Nintendo have directly attempted to supress or even shut down; with the latest example nearly tearing apart the hard-built competitive circuit that fans, entirely independent of Nintendo's help, built entirely out of their love for the game being played. Wow, what vast threats to the brand.

Which brings us to those that really do irk Nintendo; such as those hackers who were discovered doing the terrible crime of jail-breaking Nintendo Switches and selling those consoles on. They made a pretty penny, and paid with it with their entire life. (Pretty much) The ringleader of this collective was served a 40 month prison sentence which, upon completing, is going to be merely the start of a lifelong servitude as a wage slave of Nintendo as this man will surrender 20% of his revenue to the big N until he dies. If they got their way, Nintendo would have probably had the man tarred and feathered before being set on fire. This is the true face of the friendly plumber company and it's cadre of family-first party games. They are tyrannical, they are vicious, and they are vindictive.

Time and time again the very draconian efforts of the Nintendo company have either creeped out fans or squashed the growth of dedicated communities altogether, and still we run to them because there are no alternatives. Here's one; stop indulging them! But that'll never happen. Unless the entire company falls from grace as completely as Ubisoft regularly does, (god forbid) we'll always be putting up with a long line of downright antagonisms against their community with impunity; because that's the power of being at the top. Who could have possible guessed that their history being forever tied with the gambling profiting of Japanese organised crime, the Yakuza, would still be colouring the 'family friendly' video game company to this very day! Actually... I guess that makes sense from that perspective, doesn't it?

Persona 4 Golden Review

This shadow world!

Many years ago a very innocent and untainted version of me was browsing about the internet, gauging whatever it was that caught his interest and looking far afield to do it. That young boy browsed the foreign speaking corners of Youtube, the bizarre pseudo cultist communities of the tilted sector of the web and, as it inevitably always comes back to for me, game trailers. I'm always watching game trailers. The artistry of what they represent and how they do so has always enamoured me, I'm a marketing obsessive; you can probably tell as much from how often I write about it here on the blog. But that day, which couldn't have been too far into 2016, I found something unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It was a trailer for the latest entry in a franchise I had never even heard of in my entire life. It was colourful, animated and musically jazzy and some dormant switch flipped in my head. I was searching for something to capture my attention and I stumbled into a steel-tooth bear trap- I was instantly obsessed- with Persona 5.

Of course, as an Xbox owner I was doomed to disappointment, because ATLUS and Sony have a blood pact which cannot be forsaken and the Persona games were a Sony exclusive with no intention to ever go elsewhere. I waited patiently for any news to change on the Xbox front, then when I got a half decent gaming PC I waited patiently there too. Eventually I actually just gave up hope and jumped to play the game anyway that I could. I almost considered starting a Playstation account when I heard that Persona 5 was going to be streamable to PC through the Sony service for a limited time, and I actually did try to emulate it when that file did the rounds. (My PC wasn't nearly strong enough to run it, however.) Around about this time ATLUS had to issue a plea for people not to play the emulation, to which my refrain echoed the crowd's: "Let me pay money for it, and I absolutely will!"

So overwhelming was my hot obsession with Persona 5 that every E3 event that so much as teased at the Phantom Thieves and Joker got my heart pounding. When Joker snuck into a showcase, only to end up being the new Smash Bros. character, I pingponged about the five stages of grief in a rollercoaster to hell. And ATLUS kept doing those teases, year after year, event after event, with the only indication of their ever possibly being a port maybe being a much-hidden email survey they randomly spat out asking if PC ports of their old titles would be something anyone was interested in. A sentiment I, and many others, had been shouting from the rooftops (and Twitter) for years at that point! But at least it came to something eventually...

Because lo it did happen, that one lowly E3 a few years back, with the buildup of actually nothing, ATLUS announced a increadibly imminent port of their beloved Persona title... Persona 4 Golden. (And so the tumbleweeds passed.) This news certainly affected me. I sat there, stone faced, with an odd twitch in my left cheek, for a few minutes after the show finished. We had waited patiently for 5, and we were getting 4... wow. Now of course I had heard good things about 4 in the many months where I religiously stayed glued to every single piece of Persona news that I could, but that wasn't the game which won my heart in a single teaser. I held out all these years for 5! But... logic stirred. I figured... this is ATLUS testing the waters, right? Just like RGG did with Yakuza 0. If Persona 4 Golden's port does well... heck, why wouldn't they move onto 5? And that was literally my only reason for biting that bullet and picking up Persona 4 Golden Steam port the exact day it launched and playing the thing. It was my second choice friend-of-a-friend I was tolerating under the hope of getting closer to the real belle of the ball. Like a real sleaze ball, I was playing Persona 4 for it's younger sibling. It took me maybe 90 minutes to fall in love.

If we were ever to take the Japanese media's concept of 'Nichijou' and translate it into gaming; we'd probably get... well we'd get The Sims, wouldn't we? But if we were to try and mix in the actual aspects of a JRPG with the more tame concepts of the 'slice of life' genre, then we'd get a game like Persona; a title which mixes the mundane with the extraordinary thematic and logistic all under a practised precision that had made it's style of game almost a sub-genre in of itself. It is quite the unordinary style of game that even I, having followed Persona 5 extensively and hearing it's many features, didn't quite understand until I sat down and played 4 to see it in action. But I'll try anyway to explain how this game lays itself out to give you a solid grasp of why it makes for such a unique RPG experience.

Essentially how Persona works is like this: you are presented with a single calendar year in order to complete the game, solve whatever mystery is at the centre of the plot and wrap up all storylines you are involved with. And by that metric you are in charge of the day-to-day, week-to-week actions of the player character in that pursuit. Every Persona game starts with the main character signing a contract with the Velvet room to take responsibility for their actions, and that contract is more to the player than the avatar they play as. You are being told to take care of how you choose to spend each day in the two activity blocks you typically get- one for midday and one for evening. (As your mornings are typically taken up by attending school.)

This is the 'slice of life' aspect of the game, as your protagonist navigates the world, in the case of Persona 4: the sleepy small town of Inaba, and splits up their time between building relationships (or Social links) with their friends, earning some Yen and working on their own skills through part time jobs and side activities, working through side quests, conducting minigames, studying for upcoming tests. All the rigors of daily life like that. Oh, and finding the time to break off into the Shadow world in order to fight shadowy manifestations of the darkest aspects of the human psyche in order to save impending victims of a violent serial killer who is plaguing the town. Yeah, you really do be living that ordinary small-town life.

Persona is almost a balancing act between it's time management daily life portions and it's more traditional JRPG dungeon delving aspects which blossom out as the game progresses in kind. You have your typical RPG foils, elemental weaknesses, accessories and weapons, usable items, but mixed in deftly to work with the routine of the game world. At first it can seem like totally different worlds, planning out your week around people's schedules and then delving headfirst into a seemingly time-free dungeon delving adventure- but the more familiar you become the more it will become apparent that the JRPG side of this game is just the main side activity that you need to be making time for, whether to grind for items or to complete a new dungeon that opened up this month and needs to be conquered before a certain date or else someone's life is lost. Which is where the true beauty of the Persona formula is unlocked.

It comes down to the titular 'Persona's themselves, which are essentially spiritual manifestations of will, or ego, that act almost exactly like a Stand from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. (Not unintentionally either. Jojo was an inspiration for Persona.) The player character and his party summon these Persona's to cast spells and are beholden to the elemental weakness and strengths of their respective Persona- with the protagonist being the only one capable of taking on multiple Personas and switching between them at will, making them the switch-up point-man party member organising the more static entities around them. You'll pick up new Persona's by winning fights or fusing weaker one's together to make a stronger one, and level them up by grinding to give them new skills or buff up their stats (which become your stats when you 'activate' them for your round) and change your role on the fly to suit the situation. Maybe you'll be the main damage dealer for one fight and the support wizard for another- this is pretty much where the higher strategy of the Persona gameplay lies.

And all that relationship building and time management you do outside of the RPG space- known as the 'Shadow World'? Well, that ties into the pursuit of improving your Personas. Every Persona has a certain Arcana (based on tarot symbology) which translates to a character with whom you can build a social link with in the physical world. The stronger that link is made and the deeper the connection you've established, the stronger the boost is whenever you fuse together a Persona of that corresponding Arcana- shooting their starting level and saving several hours of perspective grinding. And in turn, keeping a Persona of the corresponding Arcana in your 'mind bank' whilst interacting with that corresponding person in the physical world will rank up your social link with them faster. You an see how the cyclical relationship between game systems works already.

Now with how I've described the gameplay systems you'll have noticed my allusion to 'building relationships' and fighting 'manifestations of human darkness'; which has probably clued you in to some of the themes bubbling at the heart of Persona. Indeed, the concept of 'Personas' within psychology is central to the premise of Persona, such to the point where Golden features several side-content lessons on the teachings of Carl Jung to help familiarize the audience with what they're playing around with. One of the key most themes of the game that is brought up again and again is facing yourself and conquering your own darkness, instead of ignoring and rejecting it, thus making that part of your strength. As with any psychological plotpoint it's a very easy theme to make feel juvenile and condescending, but the intellectual maturity with which Persona is written, and the complexity of the characters who are tied into these plotpoints, makes the content poignant and worthy.

Persona 4 particularly had another obsession with the dual concepts of lies and mystery, and how they tie into personal psychology. Even when 'facing yourself' the question of the inner truth and the 'truth' constructed in the mind of others clashes in a manner that becomes increasingly relevant to the narrative as it progresses. In fact, in a turn of events that truly ascends past many fantasy worlds I've played through, the themes of Persona games take paramount importance in the formation of the plot such that practically every decision in design ties back to reinforcing their moralities and themes that the creator's intend to propagate- solidifying the importance of every aspect of the game design. I've rarely ever played a game so fiercely loyal to it's themes, and coming out of the game understanding why everything happened as well as what it all meant proved to be so much more satisfying to digest in those final moments.

And of course, the theme of love is a reoccurring aspect in Persona 4's character. Love for family and friends and love for yourself. Whether that be demonstrated in what people are willing to sacrifice for each other, or what they're willing to compromise on for themselves, as well as how characters are able to reach a point of acceptance with themselves. A more strong take on the way that theme exists in Part 4 of Jojo, funnily enough. Even the name of this rerelease, Persona 4 Golden, seems eerily remenisent to the name of the final arc in Part 4; and the title attributed to the heroes upon the conclusion of that Part, 'The Golden Heart of Morioh'. And that might just be because in many ways, Persona 4 is an unbranded video game adaptation of Jojo part 4. (But I'll touch more on that later.)

Music is another huge part of the Persona franchise and I'm so happy to say that Persona 4's is increadibly apt and intelligently conceived. Persona 4's suite focuses on J-pop with a sprinkle of Rock thrown in there, which reflects the bright and playful nature of the world of Inaba, as well as touching on the darkness and weirdness hiding under the surface of the innocent countryside town. That juxtaposition between the outside image and the inner truth blurs and blends in the genres and tracks to create a perfectly positioned OST that I could, and have, listen to for hours. And, of course, some particular tracks feature vocals that can make the heart swell and lyrics that spark the inner emotions of the situation and people around you. Quite simply, I adored Persona 4's soundtrack. Even more so for the decision to create a musical bookend with the song 'Nevermore', which is a lyrical reprise of the menu theme so players hear the same song at the beginning of their journey and the end.

The story depicts you, a big city teenage boy, through his transfer down to the sleepy countryside town of Inaba to live with your Uncle and cousin for a year whilst your parents are busy abroad for work. Once there the curiosities of small town life unravel, from the peaceable daytime streets to inexplicable supernatural myths that always seem to travel in tight knit communities like that. One such myth, known as the 'Midnight Channel', proclaims to present an image of one's true soulmate on the black glass screen of a turned off TV screen on days when it rains at midnight. Giving it a shot yourself shouldn't be too dangerous, right? Only that turns out to be the gateway into a world of metaphysical allegory wrapped in a game of cat and mouse against a serial killer and the forces of mistruth and disillusionment themselves. 

As with any Persona game, the real heart of the game is set in the building of relationships with those residents of Inaba, each on their own journey's in life just waiting to be nudged along by getting to know you for a few months. Persona 4 presents an affable team of characters to serve as fellow investigators for the Inaba murders and budding close friends, and the narrative performs vast feats of storytelling to ensure that both factors are presented to be as important as the other. As you are, a team of teenagers trying to solve the mystery of a serial killer, it would have been easy for the story to lose that innocent simplicity of youthful life, or sacrifice the intense drama of a murder mystery, but with the length of a JRPG to take advantage and a working formulaic gameplay loop- the game simply excels. Though building individual relationships with each member of the main cast, and the various side characters around Inaba, is left entirely to the discretion (and time management skills) of the player, you'll feel the head of a close family by the end of the narrative whether you wish to or bitterly fight it every step of the way. You can't keep the love out forever!

That gameplay loop is based around the progression of the days, where every couple of months a new character will be introduced into the story during your daily school life, only to be captured and placed within the shadow world at some point. From there it's up to the player to prepare and mount a rescue in the days left before the next bout of rain, because the day after that rainfall is when the fog sets in...and  the kidnapped person will be found dead through inexplicable means. Keeping to this fairly strict formula allows the player to settle into a rhythm of play where they know roughly where the story beats will be and plan out their routine for the month accordingly. Grind out stats in the days that a new character starts to enter the fray, build up those more abstract social links in the free days after saving someone, organise stat boosts with the right jobs to maximize gains. Eventually you enter into that kind of 'Stardew Valley' state, where the weekly plan is itself a satisfying loop to build, only with the backbone of a strong unfolding mystery dipped in poignant ruminations on the nature of growing up and discovering oneself.

Actually rescuing the endangered involves travelling into this 'Shadow World' I've been talking about, through sacrificing one of your evenings to enter through a magic TV screen, and conquering a dungeon thematically themed around the inner emotional turmoil of the prospective victim. Yes, this means level-design storytelling, ear-worm musical themes for each zone and revelatory confrontations once you grind through every randomly shifting floor to the top. Honestly, some of the most fun can be had just witnessing the allegorical design motifs of these boss designs and how they pertain to the psyche of the person they've been projected from. For example; the martial arts loving tomboy Chie, who shuns from her dark thoughts regarding her inferiority complex next to her more popular best friend Yukiko, sees her 'Shadow' manifest in a boss that is a leather-bound dominatrix perched cross-legged above a seat made out of stacked schoolmates struggling to keep her up. It's demented and abrasive, but oh so creative and fun! (For the record: 'Kusumi-no-Okami' is my absolute favourite. Such evocative and symbolic designs just makes my shrivelled little heart swoon.)

Near the later months of the game the story slips out of it's routine as the mystery unravels and events enter into a more traditional 'life threatening' stance for a typical JRPG narrative. However, Persona never falls for the pitfalls of your traditional fantasy narrative- the world is never just in peril because that sounds like a big stake to hold over the plot's neck. There's significance, narratively, behind every development, even if it's not obvious at first. In fact, it's quite easy to go right from the apparent climax of the game straight to the end and settle with the basic understanding of events that occurred and be relatively happy- but go that step further for the 'True Ending' (which thankfully is a really straightforward process of simply investigating a little bit more when everything feels almost wrapped up) and you'll find the true motivations blossom out beautifully. I seriously recommend everyone to experience the true ending- it's satisfaction personified.

Of course, we are talking about Persona 4 Golden here (stylised as 'Persona 4: The Golden' in Japan) which means there's another face to the story. Golden adds some new elements to the game, most notably a new character in Marie and a new unlockable ending- the bad end where you literally join forces with the game's initial villain. Marie is a girl without memory who exists in Persona 4's transitory nexus of activity which has a unique incarnation in every entry of Persona: The Velvet Room. (In this game it's the back seat of a moving limo travelling through the fog of the Shadow World searching for a destination- representing the protagonist's journey to travel through the fog of mystery and discover the truth.) When I first saw her, I presumed Marie to be this narrative's version of Reimi from Jojo, given the plethora of similarities between Persona 4 and Jojo Part 4. And sure, there are undeniable similarities, but I'm glad to confirm that Marie is so much more integral to the narrative.

Getting to know Marie, by maxing out her Social link, doesn't change the course of the narrative but rather deepens it with an extra layer of understanding, and presents an entire new chapter to the game that fits in right before the final chapter wherein lies the true ending, presenting an extremely unique dungeon with it's own mechanic, (Albeit, an intensely annoying mechanic) and a brilliant boss encounter that serves more as a playable narrative climax rather than a traditional slog fest battle, but is still engaging to beat. Ultimately, Marie exists to provide an extra bit of depth to the true ending, elucidating a bit more about motive and making that final dungeon just that little bit more personal to you. She fits in increadibly well to the already presented narrative, and though her story doesn't change the course of the game in anyway, I think her place is too perfect to cut out now that she's here. Golden is simply the way to experience this narrative, without doubt.

Of course, I've spoken so much about the cast of Persona, it's only fair I touch on them before wrapping up. No, I just really want to talk about this group of characters I came to really love and cherish across the course of Persona 4 and whom I know I'll be thinking back on fondly for years to come. Yosuke is perhaps the most typical, another big city transfer who fills the best friend role as anyone might expect, but with his own actual character depth thrown on top because ATLUS don't do anything by half measures. Chie and Yukiko make up the rest of the main crew, both girls who grew up together as friends despite their distinctions. Yukiko is like the gentle winter rose of the school, heiress to the iconic Inaba Inn, ladylike and meek- Chie is a tomboy, sporty yet clumsy, fiercely protective of her friends. Each of these characters get the chance to bear their souls out and grow throughout the narrative until they're totally different people by the end. There are others to meet, but labelling them out would be something of a spoiler because discovering your party is half the fun of any RPG.

And the main cast aren't the only people you'll come to really get to know if you take the time. There are dozens of citizens you brush past during your brief year in Inaba, and you can spend some afternoons building social links getting to know them as well. The troubled head Nurse working in the local hospital, the club actress who escapes further into her roles than anyone around her, the gruff police detective uncle and his mature but quietly-lonely daughter and maybe even the goofy partner of that police detective who feels like he deserves something more out of life than his lot. And of course, though I loathe to think of her as a 'side character' she isn't technically a member of the main party so she is, by definition, 'side': Marie. The tsundere fish-out-of-water hybrid, discovering Inaba just like you, only with a more alien perspective as she's also searching for her memories and purpose. Only odd seemingly involuntary poems penned by her hint at her inner truths. (As you can likely tell; Marie is my favourite of the side characters.)

In Conclusion

What can I really say except that 'Persona 4 Golden' was originally meant to be my consolation prize and ended up becoming one of my favourite video games of all time. I adored the characters, the world, the narrative, the themes, the music, the heart and the soul of this game. It didn't make me cry, but it did make me gasp and whimper and cheer- and it wormed it's way into the warmth of my heart's nostalgia already. I only beat it a week ago! 'Persona 4 Golden' feels like more than a game. It feels like a sensation crystallised into an interactive form. The sensation of sleepy summer holidays, scrapping your knees in the dirt at the park, breathing in that intoxicating irreverence of unblemished youth. I felt much the same way about 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Dimond is Unbreakable', but whereas I think that part of the story captured a tincture of that world- Persona 4 encapsulated it. As a JRPG it's beautifully balanced and engaging. As a simulator it's sweet, poignant and moving. As a product it is a complete work of art, brilliant enough to be an example to others. I've given myself time to digest it, played another Persona game in the meantime to expand my horizons, (3 Portable) and though I've had my hang-ups here and there (particularly with the punishment of the hardest difficulty. But I brought that on myself anyway.) I struggle to think of any genuine flaws of this game. 'Persona 4 Golden' is a masterpiece, plain as day. As such I'm about duty bound to award it with my first ever 'S Grade', as a simple testament to it's genre. I came in expecting an idle fancy, and came away totally in love. Games like this make me happy to be obsessed with this industry of gaming- and stories like this make me just that little bit more hopeful to get up in the morning and face this Shadow World.