Entry 076: "Revelations: Persona" Pt. 6

Dear Internet,

                I attempted to try and find some playthrough video for a specific boss encounter for "Revelations: Persona" today.  Now, the information regarding this game is already close to zip considering that I am playing through the original localized version rather than the portable re-translation remake for the Playstation Portable.  If you try for a web search for game guides for this game you will only find about three online texts.  One of these guides actually only goes as far as about my day four to five of playing this game.  Another one is for the remake, and the last has a walkthrough that has so little information concerning the bosses that it makes them come across as being relatively easy.  Perhaps this is because of what I realized today.

                I eventually found a video that I was looking for.  Viewing it, I realized that my characters were five to ten levels lower than what they should be.  That can be a huge gap in this game, especially considering that my lowest character, Mark, is eight levels lower than my highest, Brad.  It all comes back to the way the game handles the experience levels that makes the game somewhat broken.  A character levels up with either how much damage they do or how helpful they are in the battle.  One character seemed to get some experience for buffing the others, but the majority of the experience is because of damage dealt.  If the character does not deal damage but lives to the end of the battle, they get a set minimum.  If they die before being useful and stay dead, they get nothing.  If they earn some but then die, they still get what they earn.  The problem arises as when there is a character that is considerably faster than the rest.  He or she will get off a great attack that can wipe off all the enemies at once.  That character gets all the experience and leaves the rest in the dust.  If this continues for a while, that one character is far ahead of the rest.  To combat this problem, you can make that one character just defend for a few matches and allow the rest of the team to get in a few attacks.  But this creates a new problem, or at least for me it does.  What happens is that without that one character dealing heavy damage, the rest must fend off monsters that they are now poorly suited for because of the level gap.  It is possible to do and make the rest level up to meet that one character, but at that point, the game is a grindfest, which the game proudly boasts.  

                The game is centered on the concept of grinding.  The fact that the localized version is changed so that there are less enemy encounters and those encounters earn more experience points is just the starting point of why this game is a grindfest.  It means that if I had played the game in the original format, I would probably have taken twice as long as I have already done so.  On top of that is the lack of dungeon save points.  If one truly feared about losing all their hard earned work from going through the dungeon, one would backtrack out and find a savespot.  This would mean going through most dungeons at least twice.  One can make the encounters less difficult by forcing the monsters to flee by first gaining their Spell Cards, but getting those Spell Cards are already a grind because one has to play Russian Roulette to get them.  Grinding should not be the point of a game.  Anyone can grind in a game.  All it takes is lots of time and patience to do rather than planning things ahead of time and understanding the game mechanics.  There are only two acceptable camps when it comes to grinding.  The first is what I already described because the player is admitting to his lack of understanding the way the game wants to be played.  There is no shame for doing so as long as the player realizes that they are banging their head against a wall to get through a segment.  The other acceptable reason, and the one least questionable on, is that the gameplay is actually fun and enjoyable.  The player is grinding not for some little token or for experience but because the game is a thrill to play.  "Persona" is not this by a long shot, especially since grinding is an almost mandatory aspect of the game.

                I want to address the way the dungeon is presented to the player for a minute.  I have already said how the dungeon crawling is presented in a first person view.  This is almost pointless considering that I spend about 95% of the time looking at the mini map to figure out where I want to go.  There is pretty much no point in even looking at what the dungeon looks like because it is just repeated walls for the most part.  I have finally come across a second time where he game decides to put something to switch on and off.  The game was also generous in putting a pressure-plate puzzle for the player to solve.  All in all, it feels like a whole waste of potential since for the majority of the game, the player does not even have to look where he is going.  I wanted to like the art direction because of how well it tries to create different looking dungeons.  But despite this, one rat maze is the same as another.  I am especially torn with the game's Xanadu castle level and its use of Mesopotamian art styles.

                I am probably going to be forced to grind in this game in the coming days.  Am I being forced to grind because I am too good and can get through a dungeon with enough ease until I hit the boss?  Maybe.  This is just the kind of game that would punish the player for not grinding periodically.

That is a three level jump for my character after defeating a boss.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

Entry 075: "Revelations: Persona" Pt. 5

Dear Internet,

                There really does not need much to be said about today, but I am sure I will find something to say and a long way to say it.  For starters, I can say that the game continues to press my anxiety about save spots.  Today the game had a two hour long break between available saves.  It took me about an hour to get to the bottom of a dungeon, and another hour to get out.  Somewhere in the middle of all that was a boss battle.  And "Persona" is still throwing handicap bosses at the player.  One boss that I came across today forced the player to start off with two of the team members at a third of their max health.  A bigger kicker would have been if I had a different fifth member.  Then I would have had to start the match with that member at reduced health.  In most games, this kind of thing would not faze me, and even this time around it only took me a single turn to heal everyone back to full health.  What makes me irritable is how the game throws these kind of handicap matches at the player after they have spent an hour or so going through a dungeon and leveled up considerably with not even the courtesy of putting a save spot near the dungeon boss.  This kind of game is trying to encourage preparedness by creating a hurdle that the player is supposed to overcome.  The problem is that unless you know what the hurdle could be, you will be walking into a brick wall that is designed to make you lose large stretches of playtime to make the overall length of the game longer.  Playing the exact same thing over because the game decided to throw a screwball at you is not the same as being thrown three screwballs and striking out.  Having the save spots so far apart is like missing a screwball and being out for the whole baseball game, including the half of the innings where you play the field.  The ante is just too high to make this enjoyable from its challenge.  

Three separate saves, all one after the other at the nearest opportunity.

                Shall I tell about how the characters in the story are about as dumb as bricks?  Even the smart one is dumb.  Right before the main character loses the plot item, the one smart character is shown to have doubts about something.  When the item is lost he exclaims something along the lines of "I knew this would happen."  If he was worried about a trap, why did he not warn the rest about his fears?  At least he is called out about his, but he replies with the excuse that the group had no choice but to lose the item to advance to the villain.  Maybe there was another way or option, but now they cannot discuss anything because Mr. Smartypants decided on his own to let the group continue despite seeing a hole in the plan.  This is like having that one guy in the team who sits on the sidelines for the majority of the project, only to voice himself when it is too late to fix the situation.  It would not be as bad if the rest of the group did not take his response as an apology rather than the excuse it is.

                Let me see, what else?  Well, I have finally decided to delve into the item store and buy new equipment for my team members.  I already said how the menu gives next to no information when buying.  When trying to figure out what I needed, I accidentally bought three pairs of glove that only one member could equip.  Despite my reluctance to even go near the store and instead hoard my cash, the game requires that the player periodically obtain good equipment to be able to fight the monsters.  This in upon itself is a good thing because item management is a key skill for RPGs.  The fact that the menu is so messed up is what makes the game problematic.  For example, the game has the option of automatically selecting the best equipment for the characters.  The problem is that it only equips based on a single stat, not the full stats for the possible equipment.  This led to a time when the game kept saying that a scalpel was better than a spear because their attack stat was the same, but the spear had more positive stats on top of that that would obviously make it a better item.  However, there are some good things about how the game handles the different weapons.  Not all weapons are just made to be a simple replacement for a lower weapon.  I have come across a spear that while it is not as strong as another weapon I have, I will stick with it because of its added benefit.  It attacks with a guaranteed seven strikes compared to the slightly better weapon that only strikes once.  If the player relies too heavily on the "Best Equip" option, they will find themselves giving up the opportunity to deal a nearly guaranteed 140+ damage when they will instead be delivering about 80.  This variety of equipment and a requirement of the player to optimize their weaponry and armor is something that I think the game did right.  The problem is just with its presentation.  When looking at the equipped weapon, the game does not display its stats unless you are looking at it when unequipped.  Even then, the game throws numbers at the player with little description.  It took me a while to figure out that the third number meant how many multiple hits per attack.

                Should I discuss the optional boss at the end of the Haunted Mansion?  The one where the game asks you if you want to fight it because of a weird certain circumstance?  The one where the game asks you to make a decision to fight a monster that may or may not be evil?  The one where you have no concrete proof either one way or another about the truth?  The one where if you decide to fight it, you can jeopardize the ending of the story?  The one where if you fight it, you have to do so with one less member?  The one where the repercussion of fighting it and finding out you picked wrong is to either reset the game back to an earlier save that will cost you a half an hour of time or to go forward to an already waiting wall in the story?  Well, I do not feel like it right now.  Maybe later.

                And there you have it, Internet.  A whole lot about the very little I wanted to talk about for the day.  I will leave you with the perhaps my favorite image of the day short of the game's Batman film quote.

At least the bosses give great experience points.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

"Revelations: Persona" Announcement

Dear Internet,

          I will not be streaming "Revelations: Persona" today due to technical difficulties.  Please expect this to be the same situation for the rest of the review of the game unless I state otherwise.

Yours in digital,
BeepBoop

"Entry 073: "Revelations: Persona" Pt. 4

Dear Internet,

                It is now day four of "Revelations: Persona."  Has it overstayed its welcome?  Not yet, but it runs a fine line constantly.  It has both feet on the line right now, but it teeters constantly between being either boring or frustrating.  On one hand is the threat of being boring because the minor enemies can be easy to the point where the player just needs to spam the strongest attacks to wipe out the opposition.  The only time when the minor enemies are not being monster fodder is when the player first comes across a new one.  After beating an enemy, the player gains the ability to see the complete stats for that monster, with strengths and weaknesses being shown.  After that, the player can look up the info instantly before issuing orders.  While this is a nice mechanic that I am grateful for, the problem is that when it comes to the smaller enemies, they are not all that enjoyable to beat.  I am on pins and needles when fighting them the first time, never using a very strong technique for fear of it being reflected back on me.  After that, it is less about trying to work a system than it is to responding to prompts.  If the monster has a weakness to fire, you use fire if you can.  If you have no fire option, you just go back to hitting the wall with your head.  Both options are viable.

                The opposite side is the frustrating aspect.  I have already mentioned how every time an enemy appears, one has to slow down the game to a crawl to prevent using the wrong attack on an unknown enemy.  This I do not mind too much since using caution is a staple of this kind of game.  What makes the game frustrating are the bosses and how they are handled.  The player will typically faces against a dungeon boss having played twenty minutes plus since the last save.  Unlike games that are smart enough to put save spots right before the dungeon boss, "Persona" chooses to make the player slog through a maze and then face a boss with the consequence of losing being the loss of a substantial loss of time.  I have already detailed my exploits with RoboRat.  Today, the game decided to do a double screw to the player.  The first came with the worst dungeon so far, being the Harem Queen dungeon.  It is a headache of immense proportions.  The dungeon is filled with mandatory pitfalls that drop the player down the floor beneath.  There is also an elevator that the player has to use to make matters more difficult.  It probably would have taken me two to three hours to navigate the maze if I had not consulted a guide, but I will get to that in a minute.  Once you finally get to the bottom of the maze, the game throws you back to the top and makes you do it again.  I guess the second time is supposed to be easier or something, but it only adds useless filler to the game.  When you get to the dungeon boss a second time, you have to then fight it with only two of your five members.  All your best laid plans are then thrown out the door because of this.  Luckily, I was able to switch up my main attacker as the healer and the healer as the main attacker.  Otherwise, that would have been another twenty minutes down the drain.  After that, the game decides to not throw you out to the start of the dungeon like nearly every other dungeon, but that is only a minor annoyance.

This is what happens when the correct action just makes more handicaps for the player.

                The next big annoyance is then made from forcing the player to travel to a location, only to learn that they must backtrack across town and through a dungeon.  When the player gets the plot item, they must then retrace their steps to the first location, but that is for tomorrow.  This pretty much sums up a lot about "Persona."  The game has a lot of backtracking that only adds filler to a game that should not take so long to play.  On top of that is the bare bones information that is given to the player.  You should never take a day break while playing this game because you will most likely forget what you were doing.  You will have next to no help in being reminded about where you should be going.  It is because of games like this that later games started to utilize "synopsis" items in the menu to remind the player what they should be doing.  Giving only a single line about the next objective does not encourage the player to pay attention if the rest of the dialog is drivel filled teenage drama.  I am looking straight at the Harem Queen side-plot when I say this.  What makes it extra annoying is how these side-plots seem to be shoveled in like they were implanted at the last second.  A character is introduced in a split second and then a dungeon or side-pot is introduced to capitalize upon it despite it being a clear deviation away from the central plot.  Did the Harem Queen have anything to do with Guido, the currently primary antagonist?  No, it was a three hour detour to showcase a monkey-paw plot about the girl in the black dress.

                All this add up to the fine line I was mentioning before.  I also mentioned about a guide, and I should address this before getting much farther.  This game requires a guide.  There is no way around this fact.  Unless you are reading a guide to determine the best course of action, you will spend hours painlessly going in circles.  This game came out in a time where games had to maximize the amount of time that a player could pour into the game.  It was not uncommon for games to take a hundred hours or more to get through.  The problem with those hundred or more hours was that most of that time was useless empty of content and made up of grinding and getting lost.  Unless the game is constantly throwing interesting content at the player, it is just the same thing over and over ad nauseam.  "Persona" is a game that I might have taken twice as long to get through to get at this point.  This is not even mentioning the instances that I know about where the player can give the wrong answer to a question and lock themselves into a bad end.  If the player does not have a guide to let them know this, they can get caught only having a save from after they make this game ending decision.  When they realize that they have no pre-decision save, they will be forced to start the whole game over.  If that is not artificial lengthening, I do not know what it.  This is not a game that encourages another play through to see the other possibilities.  This is a game that can force a forty plus replay because the player made a wrong decision, which is understandable considering nearly every decision made prior has had no real consequences and is usually badly translated.   

An example of the translation job.

                I will stop there for today, Internet.  We shall see how tomorrow is.  And it looks like I have officially passed the 1000 view now.  I guess that is worth a celebration.  Time to break open the good bottle of water.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

Entry 073: "Revelations: Persona" Pt. 3

Dear Internet,

                I am not so small that I cannot admit when I am wrong.  It would behoove me to say that my observation is inaccurate when it is such.  During today's five or so hours of "revelations: Persona," I came across a number of things that contradict my previous letters to you.  Some of them flat out make me rescind a criticism, while others only alter the criticism a minor amount.  

                For starters, one of the big things I did not like was the exclusion of a world map to navigate the overworld.  I said this because opening up the menu and navigating to the "Map" option would yield nothing.  However, there is indeed a world map included in the game.  It is even fully labeled.  To bring it up I had to use one of the trigger buttons.  Sadly, since I have to play the game without any included manual, I am relying solely upon the instructions included in the game.  The game does not tell you that you have the ability to look at a map, so I am assuming that the instruction manual explicitly stated as such.  If the instruction manual does not say as such, then the criticism against the game stands just as firm as when I said it.  However, the fact that the game does nothing to let the player know about such a feature at any part of the game is still a strike against it.  

At least I leveled up quite a bit by wandering an hour around and around.

                Then there is the game mechanic where the player recruits the demons to join the player.  I mistakenly used the term "soul cards" throughout the previous entry.  The correct term is "Spell Card."  Either way, the game still handles interacting with the demons as being awkward and unreliable.  One moment dancing is pleasing to the demon.  In the next moment, the same demon thinks you are mocking it by dancing.  Only after grinding for these cards can the player begin to get a feel for what would be a successful interaction.  By spending a little time grinding today, I was able to find a few things that the game does right concerning this mechanic.  The foremost is the various interactions that the demons respond with.  Until they begin to repeat, which is not occurring too much right now, each demon has a rather individual personality.  What makes it entertaining is their reactions to your prompts.  When one of my male characters begins to hit on another male demon, the demon will reply with a rather timid response wondering if the player character is sane or just plain weird.  Some of the responses can be downright funny and sometimes worth exploring the various interactions.  The best thing about the mechanic that I discovered today was that trying to interact with demons whose spell cards you already have in your possession flee upon being talked to.  On top of that, they will sometimes give the player a bonus item.  The reason that I like this feature is that when the player is spending time to grind for cards, they can clear away the monsters that they do not need for the battle.  If an interaction goes sour and the demon is enraged, the player is only then forced to battle the one monster type that he failed to interact instead of having to fight all the monsters in the battle.  It is important to remember that when an interaction goes sour, the player can lose a whole turn because of it or get a status effect.  Being able to clear away the unneeded monsters lowers the ante that the player is forced to make.

                I am not sure if I mentioned money yet, Internet.  At the end of a battle that the player won by defeating the enemy through fighting, instead of talking to the demons, money is awarded.  Sometimes demons will ask for some cash.  The player can give it to them to placate the monsters.  Other than that, I am more than ten hours in, and I have just finally found a store to buy things to spend the three grand that I have accumulated.  The problem is that when I go to buy equipment for my characters, the store has no way of informing me as to whether or not the equipment will be better or worse than my equipped items.  This means that I am buying blind and cannot know if the item I am buying is better or worse without writing all the information down to determine the truth.  I would have to write down all the stats for the equipment I currently have and cross reference that with the items in the store.  It gets worse because not all items can be equipped to all the characters.  Some characters can only wield certain weapons.  Again, I am buying rather blind and cannot seem to find vital information about the items until I have already bought the equipment.  Because of this, I am sticking to whatever I pick up along the way.

                There are a few things that I liked about today's playthrough.  RoboRat, the cause of my forty-five minute loss of time, apparently chose not to use "Nuke" on me.  I am not sure if this is because I mixed p my equipped Persona or because I was able to kill it before it got a chance.  Since I had a much easier time against the mechanical rodent, I was able to enjoy the background music that played while the battle was fought.  The game has a nice selection of music so far, at least when it decides to try.  Short of the hospital's creepy screaming track, the dungeons are echoing hallways where footsteps sound like a cross between cymbals and clogs.  The Velvet Room song and those that play in the stores do a great job of creating a unique setting within the game.

Now this is satisfying.

                So there you have it, Internet, a few rescinded criticisms, a few new ones, and a dash of praise to make it all bittersweet.  The story is still rather hollow and more than a bit uninteresting.  The fact that it continues to progress now that I make use of different Personas is about the all that makes me continue to play.  The game is still handing me more Persona combinations that I am unable to use than those that I can, which makes the game annoying rather than difficult.  Let us hope tomorrow is a bit more fun.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop