iv. 信じようキミの笑顔ぼくらの絆を

[tenderfeeling]

I'VE BEEN MEANING TO WRITE THIS AS LIKE 3 SEPARATE ENTRIES FOR THE PAST WEEK. WHATEVER

i played jackbox with my friend group a while ago and it was funnnn!! some people weren't able to join so we're probably going to do it again soon :P
here's some highlights:

i've also been going through persona 4 (...again....) (....for the 5th time....) with a friend, and ohhh my god i forgot how much i loved this game. the cast, the story, the social links, the goddamn design!!! it's all so, so epic and beautiful and the SOUNDTRACK!!!!!!!! ahhh okay i'll probably write something more cohesive about p4 at some point. i just really like it. and i've also been getting into shuadashu because of fujos on bsky but that's neither here nor there

finally - i'm on escargot!! i'm using WLM2009, feel free to leave a comment if you want me to give you my handle :D

Comments

[porcelainlamb]

Lol, at those screenshots - the manager one is my fav haha (￣ω￣)! Oooo I've always wanted to get into the persona series but never knew which games to play first. They look pretty fun, and I love turn-based RPG stuff; so maybe I should check them out at some point. I would love to add you on escargot; mine is: xt0rmentedxx@escargot.chat :]

[tenderfeeling]

(￣y▽,￣)╭ i'd love to give a rundown on which to start with...

it really depends on what you're looking to get out of a JRPG ^{(though I don't think I'd ever suggest anyone start with Megami Ibunroku Persona/Revelations: Persona despite being the first in the franchise because... it's.... rough.)}, if you're more into the tokimemo style, friend-sim aspect of the game, 3-5 are equally good places to start with.

Not spoiling too much, 3 is about the inevitability of death (goffik energies yonder, and I say that affectionately) but how your life can still be worth living and enjoying despite that - it's still a little clumsy with its focus on bonds (I'd say the P3 cast feels the least personally close to each other), but it tries, and it does a damn good job of everything else it does. I would suggest experiencing it as either Persona 3 FES for the PS2 or Persona 3 Portable for the PSP and PC! Portable is nice because you get to play as the Female Protagonist with a lot of new dialogue & almost entirely different social links, and FES has a new sort-of-epilogue story in the form of The Answer focusing on Aegis! P3 also has three animated movies following the story of the game that I think are absolutely worth watching.

4 is a murder mystery taking place in the sleepy riverside town of Inaba - my sibling refers to it as the Scooby Doo of Persona and I honestly can't really find a better way to describe it. It's bright and poppy, but it doesn't shy away from getting real when it has to - and it throws some really fun supernatural plot at you in the middle! The plot twists are really well executed and I'd even say you can enjoy it if you're already spoiled on who the 'killer' is. Personally has my favorite cast of characters in the modern franchise losing only to 2. I'd recommend playing the Golden port version (PS Vita and PC), only because you get a lot of quality of life features and a really good social link that isn't present in the original (Adachi's). I'd warn for homophobic jokes when Kanji rolls around, and all around.. clumsy handling of Naoto's character arc (Mulan style, but with an oddly controlling/infantilizing tone to the way their gender is treated). Has two single-season (one 12-episode, one 25-episode IIRC) slice-of-life anime adaptations that serve as very good supplemental material. 3&4 are loosely connected through the fighting game spinoff Persona 4 Arena! Good story mode, if you're uninterested in the genre there are plenty of story mode videos you can go through that play through the story for each character - not a must though.

Persona 5 is the one I have the least to say about, not because it's bad but just because I haven't really come back to it as often as the other games in the series. You're a teenage boy sent to Tokyo after you were framed for assault and forced to transfer schools - this one focuses a lot on governmental corruption and generally follows a theme of righting wrongs by adults in power (be those parents, CEOs, political figures, extortioners, et cetera). Very 2015, and once again I say that affectionately. Extremely stylish! I recommend playing the Royal version of the game, once again due to a lot of extra content (including two entirely new Palaces, and this time I actually really like the ATLUS Port Girl™ they put in it!), and a sequel hack-and-slash spinoff with Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers. Other P5 spinoffs are hit-or-miss, I don't particularly care for them but YMMV! Anime adaptation is ..bad, but the Proof of Justice OVA is a must-watch post-game.

That's it for newsona.. but if you're more into isometric, classic-er JRPGs, you should for sure play Persona 2. It's my favorite out of the entire franchise and it's a duology! Innocent Sin is chronologically the first, and it follows Tatsuya Suou and his friend group as they unveil the 'why' of how rumors are suddenly becoming real and something that happened 10 years ago they seem to have forgotten. Eternal Punishment is a direct sequel that takes place in an alternate reality, and it follows Maya Amano as she does her own investigating into rumors and why she seems to remember things that no one else does - no one else but one other person, that is. No adaptations for this one, but a very fun Drama CD available on YouTube (as are other Drama CDs for the rest of the series! All of them are pretty great and I'd recommend giving them a listen as supplemental material for the games).

^{They're not super easy to find online, but if you need I have .isos for both IS and EP on the PSP, the latter already pre-patched with a lovely fan-made translation patch for EP by sayucchin. So just HMU if you need it! >:)}

SORRY, THIS GOT REALLY REALLY LONG. I'VE BEEN SUUUPER INTO THE FRANCHISE FOR FOREVER NOW AND I ALWAYS GET REALLY EXCITED WHEN I CAN TALK ABOUT IT.
i'll add you!! i'm sukebancho@escargot.chat! :D