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03-29-24 10:33 AM

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Thread
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ZanderShadowbane
02-22-18 11:57 PM
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endings
03-12-18 07:54 PM
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And so it begins

 
Game's Ratings
Overall
Graphics
Sound
Addictiveness
Depth
Story
Difficulty
Average User Score
9.1
8
9
4
8
8
3
8
8
9
4
8
8
3

02-22-18 11:57 PM
ZanderShadowbane is Offline
| ID: 1352170 | 1852 Words

Level: 16


POSTS: 41/44
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Likes: 2  Dislikes: 0
     The first game of a series usually has a special place in our hearts, from Super Mario Bros, the original genesis Sonic, Final Fantasy 1, and other such games may be outdone by latter games in the series, but we love the original for what it brought to the table.  But this does not seem to be the case for Persona.  You've probably heard about the Persona series, it's got about 5 games and a ton of spin offs.  It's a popular RPG game series with most of the attention put on 3, 4, and 5.  However, with all the attention these games get you never really hear anything about the original.  So today we will be looking at the one that started it all.  But before I start I'll tell you what I know about the series:  Nothing.  I've never played a Persona game in my life, and have never even seen anything from a Persona game, so I'm going into this as a blank slate.  I will be talking about this game as a stand alone and will not compare it to any of the future games.

     Graphics (8):  This game has very nice graphics, from the detailed sprite work in battles to the creative appearance to the dungeons.  The enemies and persona's have interesting designs to them.  Instead of just having a single enemy sprite that doesn't move, or having a sprite with minor animation, this game has very lively enemies.  Not only that, but the enemies and personas have unique animations for many of their skills, that's something you never really see in Turn Based RPG's.  The dungeon design is interesting, each level has a radically different look to it.  There's also a strange guy who keeps showing up through the game and tells you what's going on.  They animate his cutscenes in 3d but they always look a bit weird and unnatural, but like the happy mask salesman from Majora's Mask I'm not sure whether or not it's intentional.  The thing that's holding me back from a 10 is that despite the attention to detail this game shows, the people in the over-world are surprisingly lackluster.  They're just being simple cone shapes that basically work as arrows saying "You are here".  Also the menu's user interface is a bit difficult especially when trying to go through your items.

     Sound (9):  The music to this game is. . . Interesting.  From the creepy music to some of the levels, to the orchestral music of the Velvet Room, to the hilarious music from the rat boss.  The music is always unique although it can be weird at times too.  Whenever you move in dungeons you make footsteps which especially early on helps add an edge to exploring the dungeons.  While in combat when you attack you'll yell out a line from your list of lines, which alters depending on what kind of action you're doing.  If you're using a persona skill your character will end up yelling lines like, "Take this", "You're dead", or "Die" which is hilarious if your using a healing skill on an ally.  The game music does have times where it's a bit lackluster, but things like the Velvet Room really do make up for it in my opinion.

     Addictiveness (4):  Now we get into the big problem with this game.  This game has a lot of things going for it, with unique abilities, multiple endings, various choices, a lot of possible Persona's you can craft.  However the problem is that the game is too big.  It gets crushed under it's own weight.  It took me over 100 hours to finish the game, and because of that I burned myself out beating the game, and so it will be a while before I'll consider coming back to this game.

     Story (8):  You know it's going to be a unique game when it starts with a quote from Soshi and ends with a quote from Descartes.  Now, normally when a game starts with a philosophical quote you know it's going to be rather pretentious, but with this game I really don't think that's the case.  This game is more psychological in nature having many things relate to the psyche, but they don't go too far into this so it doesn't feel forced.  The game's psychological aspects are much like Earthbound modern aspects, working more as a theme that surrounds the game and helps separate it from the many generic fantasy RPG's out there.

     I can't tell you much about the story, one part because of spoilers, and another because it took me several months to beat this game I'm not sure I can remember everything that happened in the beginning of the game.  So all I'll mention is that the story was interesting, always moving forward and pushing you on, and the plot twists were built up nicely and were rather interesting.

     As for the characters if you're anything like me you'll probably think to yourself while being introduced to them "Oh, I'm going to hate everyone in this, aren't I."  And I was surprised to find out the answer to that was no.  the characters began to grow on me as I played through the game and I go to like them all (Even if it took me over half the game to begin to warm up to Brad.)

     Depth (8):  This is a long game.  Like I said earlier I spent over 100 hours trying to finish it.  Mind you that was with the in game timer that only goes up to 99:59.  I probably spent even more time trying to complete it because I was also using save-states.  In all fairness, this game is probably best played on an emulator because of the save-state function.  It's not like you'll be using save-states to help deal with the high difficulty like with some of the classic NES games, rather just for quick saving.  The game has very long maze like levels, and it takes a while to navigate your way through it.  Combine that with the sparse save points and it takes a bit of investment to beat this game.  It's not like you can play this game with 15 minute sessions, you need to dedicate time to beat it.

     There's also some interesting things you can do with your personas.  You make your persona's by combining Spell Cards you get from enemies and sometimes items as well.  You do this in the special area called the Velvet Room, which looks like it came straight out of Soul Eater, complete with piano, and strange little guy.  There's about 100 persona's you can make, each of whom have there own stats, abilities, and resistances.  Persona's augment the character they're attached to by boosting their stats, giving them resistances and weaknesses, and all the abilities are used through them.  There's a lot of little mechanics to making a persona, but I can't tell you much about them because the game never explains them.

     The Japanese version of this game actually has an additional side-quest involving a dungeon that I hear takes about 16 hours to complete but it was removed from this version.  If it had been left in I would probably rate this a 9.

      Difficulty (3):  The game really isn't very hard as much as it's tedious, I managed to beat it without any of the super special end game personas, mostly because I wasn't high level enough to equip them.  Now mind you this version is actually easier than the Japanese version, as this one has a lower encounter rate and enemies have lower health.  Now while the game isn't hard, don't think that means the enemies are pushovers.  This game is more of a survival run, as you have to make your way through long levels without healing points.

     There are several mechanics you can use to help you fight, the game has a formation system that allows you to move characters around, this is very important because each weapon has it's own range.  You also can have up to 3 persona's on each character and you can change which one is active at the cost of a turn.  I however never really used either of these tactics.  The tactic that was the most useful used a very interesting mechanic that the game has:  Negotiation.  You can negotiate with most enemies (With the exception of Bosses, and SS type enemies).  Each character has 4 actions, each of their actions has different effects on each enemy.  While one enemy may respond to flattery another may get angry.  And yes, this game did flirting with monsters about 19 years before Undertale, and in my opinion it did it better.  As you negotiate you can do things like inflict status effects on enemies, cause them to leave, give you items, or if you mange to fill up their interest you can get them to give you their spell card.  However, if you do it wrong and make them angry they can inflict status effects on you or even get a free turn in.  Once you start negotiations you can't stop and have to keep doing it until you get some result.  Enemies might also ask you a question or ask for an item.  Depending on your answer you'll alter how the negotiation will go with that action.  There's a bit of risk vs reword with negotiating, and with proper negotiation you can get tough enemies to leave, cut the enemies in half, and even avoid fighting altogether.  Because your energy regenerates a bit between fights you can use this to keep your energy high, combine this with a cheap persona with a healing skill and you can maintain decent levels of health.

     Overall (8):  All and all this was an interesting game, the combat was interesting especially with the negotiation system, the story was unique, and I loved the detail they put in the graphics.  The game has some things holding it back, like the long levels later on, and the inventory needs reworked.  The game is defiantly better on an emulator because you don't have to deal with the save point issue as well.  I spent several months trying to beat this game and I consider it worth the work I put into it.  While it will be a while before I even consider coming back to this game, I am not adverse to the idea of trying again.  I'm surprised no one ever talks about this game, because even with it's faults it is an all around solid game.  While it's defiantly not for the casual gamer, if you're a hardcore gamer that loves RPG's I would recommend this game.

     This game is like a rough sketch, it looks a bit weird in areas and the proportions are a little off, but even so you can tell it has a lot of potential.  With a bit of refinement it could easily become something incredible; and considering where the series is at this point I'd say that it's safe to say it achieved that.
     The first game of a series usually has a special place in our hearts, from Super Mario Bros, the original genesis Sonic, Final Fantasy 1, and other such games may be outdone by latter games in the series, but we love the original for what it brought to the table.  But this does not seem to be the case for Persona.  You've probably heard about the Persona series, it's got about 5 games and a ton of spin offs.  It's a popular RPG game series with most of the attention put on 3, 4, and 5.  However, with all the attention these games get you never really hear anything about the original.  So today we will be looking at the one that started it all.  But before I start I'll tell you what I know about the series:  Nothing.  I've never played a Persona game in my life, and have never even seen anything from a Persona game, so I'm going into this as a blank slate.  I will be talking about this game as a stand alone and will not compare it to any of the future games.

     Graphics (8):  This game has very nice graphics, from the detailed sprite work in battles to the creative appearance to the dungeons.  The enemies and persona's have interesting designs to them.  Instead of just having a single enemy sprite that doesn't move, or having a sprite with minor animation, this game has very lively enemies.  Not only that, but the enemies and personas have unique animations for many of their skills, that's something you never really see in Turn Based RPG's.  The dungeon design is interesting, each level has a radically different look to it.  There's also a strange guy who keeps showing up through the game and tells you what's going on.  They animate his cutscenes in 3d but they always look a bit weird and unnatural, but like the happy mask salesman from Majora's Mask I'm not sure whether or not it's intentional.  The thing that's holding me back from a 10 is that despite the attention to detail this game shows, the people in the over-world are surprisingly lackluster.  They're just being simple cone shapes that basically work as arrows saying "You are here".  Also the menu's user interface is a bit difficult especially when trying to go through your items.

     Sound (9):  The music to this game is. . . Interesting.  From the creepy music to some of the levels, to the orchestral music of the Velvet Room, to the hilarious music from the rat boss.  The music is always unique although it can be weird at times too.  Whenever you move in dungeons you make footsteps which especially early on helps add an edge to exploring the dungeons.  While in combat when you attack you'll yell out a line from your list of lines, which alters depending on what kind of action you're doing.  If you're using a persona skill your character will end up yelling lines like, "Take this", "You're dead", or "Die" which is hilarious if your using a healing skill on an ally.  The game music does have times where it's a bit lackluster, but things like the Velvet Room really do make up for it in my opinion.

     Addictiveness (4):  Now we get into the big problem with this game.  This game has a lot of things going for it, with unique abilities, multiple endings, various choices, a lot of possible Persona's you can craft.  However the problem is that the game is too big.  It gets crushed under it's own weight.  It took me over 100 hours to finish the game, and because of that I burned myself out beating the game, and so it will be a while before I'll consider coming back to this game.

     Story (8):  You know it's going to be a unique game when it starts with a quote from Soshi and ends with a quote from Descartes.  Now, normally when a game starts with a philosophical quote you know it's going to be rather pretentious, but with this game I really don't think that's the case.  This game is more psychological in nature having many things relate to the psyche, but they don't go too far into this so it doesn't feel forced.  The game's psychological aspects are much like Earthbound modern aspects, working more as a theme that surrounds the game and helps separate it from the many generic fantasy RPG's out there.

     I can't tell you much about the story, one part because of spoilers, and another because it took me several months to beat this game I'm not sure I can remember everything that happened in the beginning of the game.  So all I'll mention is that the story was interesting, always moving forward and pushing you on, and the plot twists were built up nicely and were rather interesting.

     As for the characters if you're anything like me you'll probably think to yourself while being introduced to them "Oh, I'm going to hate everyone in this, aren't I."  And I was surprised to find out the answer to that was no.  the characters began to grow on me as I played through the game and I go to like them all (Even if it took me over half the game to begin to warm up to Brad.)

     Depth (8):  This is a long game.  Like I said earlier I spent over 100 hours trying to finish it.  Mind you that was with the in game timer that only goes up to 99:59.  I probably spent even more time trying to complete it because I was also using save-states.  In all fairness, this game is probably best played on an emulator because of the save-state function.  It's not like you'll be using save-states to help deal with the high difficulty like with some of the classic NES games, rather just for quick saving.  The game has very long maze like levels, and it takes a while to navigate your way through it.  Combine that with the sparse save points and it takes a bit of investment to beat this game.  It's not like you can play this game with 15 minute sessions, you need to dedicate time to beat it.

     There's also some interesting things you can do with your personas.  You make your persona's by combining Spell Cards you get from enemies and sometimes items as well.  You do this in the special area called the Velvet Room, which looks like it came straight out of Soul Eater, complete with piano, and strange little guy.  There's about 100 persona's you can make, each of whom have there own stats, abilities, and resistances.  Persona's augment the character they're attached to by boosting their stats, giving them resistances and weaknesses, and all the abilities are used through them.  There's a lot of little mechanics to making a persona, but I can't tell you much about them because the game never explains them.

     The Japanese version of this game actually has an additional side-quest involving a dungeon that I hear takes about 16 hours to complete but it was removed from this version.  If it had been left in I would probably rate this a 9.

      Difficulty (3):  The game really isn't very hard as much as it's tedious, I managed to beat it without any of the super special end game personas, mostly because I wasn't high level enough to equip them.  Now mind you this version is actually easier than the Japanese version, as this one has a lower encounter rate and enemies have lower health.  Now while the game isn't hard, don't think that means the enemies are pushovers.  This game is more of a survival run, as you have to make your way through long levels without healing points.

     There are several mechanics you can use to help you fight, the game has a formation system that allows you to move characters around, this is very important because each weapon has it's own range.  You also can have up to 3 persona's on each character and you can change which one is active at the cost of a turn.  I however never really used either of these tactics.  The tactic that was the most useful used a very interesting mechanic that the game has:  Negotiation.  You can negotiate with most enemies (With the exception of Bosses, and SS type enemies).  Each character has 4 actions, each of their actions has different effects on each enemy.  While one enemy may respond to flattery another may get angry.  And yes, this game did flirting with monsters about 19 years before Undertale, and in my opinion it did it better.  As you negotiate you can do things like inflict status effects on enemies, cause them to leave, give you items, or if you mange to fill up their interest you can get them to give you their spell card.  However, if you do it wrong and make them angry they can inflict status effects on you or even get a free turn in.  Once you start negotiations you can't stop and have to keep doing it until you get some result.  Enemies might also ask you a question or ask for an item.  Depending on your answer you'll alter how the negotiation will go with that action.  There's a bit of risk vs reword with negotiating, and with proper negotiation you can get tough enemies to leave, cut the enemies in half, and even avoid fighting altogether.  Because your energy regenerates a bit between fights you can use this to keep your energy high, combine this with a cheap persona with a healing skill and you can maintain decent levels of health.

     Overall (8):  All and all this was an interesting game, the combat was interesting especially with the negotiation system, the story was unique, and I loved the detail they put in the graphics.  The game has some things holding it back, like the long levels later on, and the inventory needs reworked.  The game is defiantly better on an emulator because you don't have to deal with the save point issue as well.  I spent several months trying to beat this game and I consider it worth the work I put into it.  While it will be a while before I even consider coming back to this game, I am not adverse to the idea of trying again.  I'm surprised no one ever talks about this game, because even with it's faults it is an all around solid game.  While it's defiantly not for the casual gamer, if you're a hardcore gamer that loves RPG's I would recommend this game.

     This game is like a rough sketch, it looks a bit weird in areas and the proportions are a little off, but even so you can tell it has a lot of potential.  With a bit of refinement it could easily become something incredible; and considering where the series is at this point I'd say that it's safe to say it achieved that.
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(edited by ZanderShadowbane on 02-23-18 12:33 AM)     Post Rating: 2   Liked By: endings, no 8120,

03-12-18 07:54 PM
endings is Offline
| ID: 1352469 | 27 Words

endings
Level: 58


POSTS: 777/828
POST EXP: 193055
LVL EXP: 1504214
CP: 19834.2
VIZ: 1243384

Likes: 0  Dislikes: 0
Good job here. Persona 1 was a very different RPG, and its easy to see how it stood out enough to get a fanbase and  have sequels.
Good job here. Persona 1 was a very different RPG, and its easy to see how it stood out enough to get a fanbase and  have sequels.
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Registered: 04-30-13
Last Post: 254 days
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