Beyond Co-Op Reviews: January 09 - Fallout 3, Persona 4, Prince of Persia and More!
Review System(s): XBox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, PC, Nintendo DS
PS2
Do you like Japanese RPGs? Do you like Scooby-Doo? Have you ever wished you were a Japanese teenager? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, boy do I have the game for you! The world of Persona 4 centers around a group of teenagers trying to solve a series of mysterious disappearances and murders in their rural Japanese town. What sets Persona apart from other standard JRPGs is the fact that you live out every day of the main character's life, day by day.
On any given day, you might attend class, explore a dungeon, go fishing, go on a date, show up to soccer practice, or even plan a day trip with your family. Hanging out with different people regularly helps boost your stats or in some cases, allows you to form a strong bond with a character, called an S-Link. S-Links determine your ability to use/create summoned Personas, which are the proxies by which your characters' abilities are determined. The dungeon crawling is fairly straightforward, as you're given a set amount of game days to defeat all of the content, but the battles are a rarity in modern JRPGs: they're tough but fair, and ultimately very rewarding. The action is fast-paced and rewards exploration of the battle mechanics in creative ways.
The absolute best part of Persona 4, however, is the stellar localization that Atlus USA has given the title. The game takes place in Japan, and such things as honorifics are not censored in favor of "dumbing down" the content for a non-Japanese audience. If nothing else, through playing this game you'll gain a much deeper insight into some aspects of Japanese culture, and the quirky, likeable characters will entertain you for the 60-80 hours of goodness contained within.
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Its really freaky to explore more of the information stored in the computer terminals that survived such as what was going down at Vault 87 and such.
It may not compare to the great old school rpgs (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 2 and 3 US numbers) but it still is a quality that is all its own.
Likewise, if you powered through FO3 in 20 hours and stuck to the main line quest, you wouldn't learn much about the story, but Bethesda made a world that's *alive* -- every town has a back story that's unique. Individual characters don't get hours and hours of development, but there's little details you pick up in conversation.
In short, it's not the same "class" of game as a classic JRPG. They didn't take a little novel and wrap a game around it, letting you play out the fighty bits (not that there's anything wrong with that!); they fleshed out a world, and the world *is* the story.
Good to see someone got was I was pointing at through my rambling hehe.
I haven't played PoP yet, but everybody's been saying it's way too short and way too easy. I still plan to buy it eventually (maybe after the effects of the Great Holiday Flood have worn off a bit) but it's certainly no Fallout.
Fallout 3 just lacked a certain something. It was good, but it was far from being a must buy. As seen here, people got bored with it fairly easily.
This is just one of those different strokes kind of things everyone has their opinion, and Fallout3 I can agree is not for everyone.
I have put it down but only because alot of great coop/multiplayer games have come out and I generally would rather play coop with my wife then here her complain when I play F3 solo lol.
Total Comments: 9
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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on Playstation 3
Call of Duty: World at War on Wii
AI War on PC
Castle Crashers on Xbox Live Arcade
Pixel Junk Monsters on Playstation Network
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I am just shocked that this got a silver statue.
While yes, seeing things explode is fun, but good gosh after the 2nd time does anyone else find it getting old?
Not to mention, I cannot see how Elder Scrolls and this game are called RPGs.
None of these games created characters with more depth than a block of soap.
While yes I do own this game. I haven't touched it since Left 4 Dead came out.
They have improved on some elements, but the core concept of any RPG is story and presentation. Sun glaring at you and bodies exploding are not examples of good presentation.
By presentation, I mean character. People you meet who seem like people. Games like Gears 2 and Halo have better characterization than any Bethesda game I've seen.
The only reason, why I brought the game was the fact that I realized I spent 40-odd hours walking around. Which is fun.
Forget the horribly, disfigured thing in the corner crying while rocking back and forth. That's what call a "story".
Grab your trusted rifle, pick a direction and go explore!
I am a explorer and this game, though indirectly, really lets me explore.