A Persona Blowout! http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/08/31/persona_developments/ Some more details from related articles at the site (details more or less from Famitsu I think): Persona 4 is one of my favorite games of all-time[/Kanye], so definitely looking forward to the Vita version (I was actually getting the urge to replay it recently). If you haven't played it, stop and either get the PS2 version or make plans to buy a Vita and this game. Now. The Persona fighting game will probably be the first fighting game I get for the PS3...and I'm sure it will be glorious (Arc System Works are pretty good, right?). A bit sad that Persona 5 is still a long ways away, but I'm sure it will be awesome when it is released. Sounds like they're taking their time to make sure the quality of the game matches (or exceeds) previous entries. And it will probably still be released before Versus XIII. New engine is a bit surprising. Figured they'd reuse what they had for Catherine...though it is Gamebyro (yuck...even though it worked well enough in that game).
I'm too lazy to rehost the images, but Famitsu has some images online: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201109/01049308.html http://www.famitsu.com/news/201109/01049309.html Famitsu has weird hotlinking issues, so if you get an error, you probably should copy and paste those links into the address bar of your browser. Could also hit enter in the address bar after getting the 403 Forbidden error too IIRC. Looks like 10(ish?) characters for the fighting game. Little low, but guessing they'll add more. edit: Need to see this in the fighting game: <iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6QWkxBkcGP4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It's a JRPG, probably the freshest one in recent years. The series is a bit unique in that it has modern day settings and Asian occult themes rather than traditional western fantasy or sci-fi.
What Dei said. Probably the best RPG (or...um...game) I've played since the PS1 era. Excellent storytelling (P4 is a murder mystery), great presentation, deep and innovative gameplay, etc. And they somehow integrated a "dating sim" into a dungeon crawler, and did it well (I guess P3 did this first, though P4 expanded on it). I kind of felt weird about it first, but it definitely works in the game. Gameplay includes some "modern" design decisions that are sometimes absent from other games (new game+, no random battles, player dialogue choices, etc.). I don't know why I didn't notice that Teddie is dressed a bit like Bison (I think that was the intention anyway?). Also, people are noticing some similarities between Marie, and the Velvet Room (mostly symbols on her outfit). Possible connection there, which could be interesting. Not really related to this news, but since fans of SMT/Atlus will likely be reading this, I thought I'd link to a NeoGAF thread about Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=442489 This was a SS/PS1 game which never made it to the US AFAIK (think Sony might have rejected it?). The good news is that some people are working on a translation patch (or um hack?) for the PS1 version. Apparently somewhat close. Might want to follow that thread (or that website) if you want to keep up with that. I might create a thread at that time, but in case I forget... Looks like the poster used Photobucket to host all the images unfortunately, so a lot of them have exceeded their bandwidth. It is/was a good thread about the game.
I wouldn't hope on more than 15 or so characters. When arc released the first blazblue there was only 12 fighters. But the good thing is that every character played completely different from each other, no character rehashes. It's hard to imagine a fighting game that could be focused on summoning, but arc is a company with a unique enough perspective that could do it. I was really hoping for some p5 goodness to leak through. But rpgs are thriving so well on portables that a p4p was inevitable.
Yeah, 15ish was more or less what I was thinking (though hoping for maybe 20ish). I figured maybe 10 for the arcade release, maybe a couple more for console release (depending on timing I guess), then add some more characters for DLC after release (I'm sure Atlus fans will gladly pay for some new characters, e.g., Demi-Fiend). Would be nice to throw in entire P3 + P4 casts, plus maybe characters from other games, but then I guess you'd run into some of the problems you alluded to.
And as bad as the wait for P5 will be, guess it is better than the wait for a new, console SMT (ala Nocturne). I love me some Persona, so I don't care either way...although I would love seeing a new entry in that series (or DDS...or whatever weird RPG universes Atlus could come up with). But good games do take time, especially when you're a small company that can't easily just spend $10+ million on a game (all these remakes/ports/spin-offs are probably funding P5).
Well, unless my Japanese make a quantum leap soon, I don't think I need to be worrying about getting a Vita or either game for a while. At least hopefully with Vita's release, they'll actually start porting games to the west again without worrying about pirates and stuff. This game is fairly standard for Japanese gamers, although it does sort of mix two popular genres together. Now the fact that this game actually sold decently in the US is what makes it weird.
Oh it has been cracked, a long time ago too I believe. Although Sony has gotten better. PS3 I believe took a long time to crack. But cracked it has. There's no popular game console today that hasn't been cracked.
I was going to say that I wonder if the Vita will have some of the "online pass" stuff lots of games are doing now...but then remembered PSP is already doing it. Guess the push for DD on Vita might help with piracy some, though yeah, it will probably be cracked at some point. Though I don't think Atlus USA will pass up a chance to bring over any of games developed by Atlus Japan (well...assuming they're not rejected by SCEA anyway). Pleasantly surprised at them bringing over the remakes/ports for Persona 1, Persona 2 IS, etc.
The PSP3000s with old firmware, maybe, but the ones with newer firmware are still secure, I believe. Can PS3s play backups now? I remember reading that it was cracked but Sony patched it through a firmware update. Mandatory firmware updates have turned the tables.
You have absolutely no idea how fast the hacking community keeps up with official firmwares. I bought a PSP1000 a long time ago, not because of games(PSP had horrible games back then) but as a mobile PSX player for all my old playstation games. And I've since kept upgrading the custom firmwares route rather than official firmware for my PSP games. I don't know exactly how everything works, since I play very few PSP games in general. But I did buy Valkyria Chronicles 3 recently and realized my old firmware was out of date. So I checked. Apparently, what they do is patch the game so that it bypasses the firmware check. New games doesn't require new firmware to play. It's just like a password check. So you mask it to make it seem like your firmware is up to date, and the game can be played normally. Perhaps someone who knows this stuff more can elaborate. As for PS3, look up multiman if you want the details. I don't know about new firmwares Sony came up with, because I only played pirated games when I first bought the system(yay for more income to buy legit games!) so recently I haven't played backups.
Some updates today. P4U site was updated: http://p-atlus.jp/p4u/ Lots of screens for both games: http://www.andriasang.com/e/galleries/2011/09/08/persona_4_golden_screens/ http://www.andriasang.com/e/galleries/2011/09/08/persona_4_ultimate_screens/ P4 Vita seems to have some nice visual upgrades over the original. P4U will be playable at TGS (as well as the AM show).
Do you like Persona 4 better than Persona 3? Just curious, because I played 3 obsessively, but there were lots of little things about Persona 4 that ticked me off, and I stopped playing fairly early into the game. None of those things were huge, but when put together they were a big deal for me. To give a list: 1) Both games wanted to limit your time in a dungeon on any single day. P3 accomplished this by making you "tired" if you stay too long, while P4 did it by making it difficult/expensive to restore your MP. The P4 method annoyed me to no end, and was probably the biggest issue I had, since it basically forced you to conserve MP as much as possible, all while the whole combat system is built around exploiting elemental weaknesses. The only problem with P3 was that you never got any warning before being "tired" so you just had to guess. What they should have done was provided warning messages shortly before the status hit, and it would've been fine. 2) Inability to "scan" enemies. I can see why they did this, but rather than be more challenging, it just makes it annoying to try to hit every monster with everything to see what works and what doesn't. 3) Decrease of physical attacks from 3 damage types to 1. 4) Enemy dodging (as in, avoiding battles). In P3 it can be difficult but it's doable... in P4 it's almost impossible. 5) Dungeon camera. P3 had bland-looking dungeon designs, but the camera was functional. In P4, they went for slightly more elaborate dungeons, but with a pretty god-awful camera. And I don't think the stages even looked all that much better. 6) A plethora of aesthetic issues. I didn't like that Igor went from a huge room to cramped limousine. I didn't like that the menus went from a cool blue to an irritatingly bright yellow. I prefer the "Dark Hour" to jumping into TVs as a concept. I was also very sad that they lost the element of people shooting themselves in the head with evokers to activate personae... I just loved the whole symbolism and aesthetic of that. I could go on. But you get the idea. FYI, on my first playthrough of P3:FES I logged over 140 hours. I got started on but didn't finish playthrough 2. I then recently bought the PSP version and spent another 140+ hours going through the female storyline. Other than the lack of a 3D environment for the non-dungeon overworld (which I did sorely miss), it was an even better game than FES with all the improvements they made. P3 is definitely on my short list of favorite games ever. I've started going back through the PSP version again, but have switched back to the male character this time (should be a cakewalk considering I beat the reaper on playthrough 1, and even managed to score an omnipotent orb from Messiah on just my third attempt... talk about lucky). Anyway, I look forward to your response.
One 1 and 4, since these are gameplay issues that I guess are potentially fixable. 1. You do realize you can go to the game world more than once, right? You replenish MP after resting. And you can start from the same level you got the last time you went in. The only reason why you'd be so bent out of shape for MP is if you're trying to maximize social links and social stats on your first playthrough. Well, if you're aiming for that, then it's true that P4 is much more difficult than P3 because you can't go at night. With that said, here are some pointers. a. There are a couple of sodas soda(can't remember the exact name but you can try them and reload) that you can buy that restores some MP. You can buy like 5 per week of each kind. If you religiously do this, your MP problems become much lessened. It should be enough to get you through the 1st/2nd dungeons without too many problems. b. Also, starting in the 2nd dungeon in terms of levels, you can get a persona with Invigorate. That really saved me the first time I played. Again, I can't remember exact one but try some fusions and you'll find it. c. MP problems become a lot less of a deal as the game goes on. Especially if you religiously level up Hermit social link. There's also a trick to get Victory Cry(same effects as in P3) mid-way through the game that you can use to solve all MP issues. If you ever bother to replay the game, I can give you the steps for it. This method can also get you some otherwise very late game skills so it's quite cheap and somewhat break-breaking. 4. The change I believe is mainly to prevent almost 100% preempts. Enemies size and their "radar" is based on level differences. You have almost no chance of running away from enemies at similar levels than you. But you can run through earlier dungeons without fear of getting into battles. I don't know why you just want to skip battles. Because your levels would be too low for bosses anyway if you can't even dodge the random encounters. This was true in P3 too for the most part.
