2024. Week VI

 Hello Internet,

Persona 3: Reload officially released on Friday, and while it was not waiting for me when I got home (as it was in my dreams).  So far, I am enjoying it, though I do have a few (very minor) complaints.  Firstly, Persona 3 FES occupies a lot of space in my brain.  Worst still, I just recently played Persona 3 Portable.  So, I have all of the old voices still stuck in my head, and from what I can tell, a lot of the dialogue is recycled.  As a result, the quality of the voice over or the cast delivering it is irrelevant to me.  My memories infect and degrade every appreciation I might have.

Secondly, from what I have gathered, Reload is built from base-game P3, not FES or Portable.  There have been improvements to mechanics and UI, but there is potential for content being missing that I am a little bit worried about.  I know for fact that FEMC and The Answer will be missing, but there I do not know if Chidori's redemption arc will be.  It was not in the base game, however, and that is...concerning.

Lastly, each Persona game is unique, even all the way back to the OG Persona.  P3 and P4 both are very aesthetically attractive games, P5 really identified itself as being a game that is just as stylish as it is substansive.  Every aspect of it screamed personality, from the soundtrack to the menues and even to the navigation of the Tokyo city streets.  Things like the beeping of voices being visualized are really unique to that game, and they have been carried over to Reload.

This is not unheard of in Persona as a franchise.  One of my favorite things about Persona is the way that each installment grows on and evolves added features from the previous installments.  It is an anthology game that is keenly aware of and constantly improving on its own formula.  That said, Reload feels less like a new iteration of P3 and more like a P5 clone with a P3 skin.  Again, this is not BAD, but it does feel a little soulless.

Part of this is the result of how much of the game is truly, genuinely built on the OG P3 base, which does concern me.  P3 comparative to all of the other games that came after it, has some...problematic moments.  Kenji forcing his affections onto his teacher to the point of her having to leave the school and find a new job? A problem.  Maiko's parents full on hitting her and the dialogue options all being some form of "well, you kind of had it coming"?  Problem.

I do not know what has or has not been changed from the OG, and I have not gotten far enough to see if those things are as egregious Reload as they were in FES, but I do know that a lot of the OG's DNA is baked into Reload.  I do not envision major overhauls to the game's many problematic Social Link (like the teacher who confesses to having a crush on you in a virtual world?), especially when I have not seen (so far) some of the better mechanics from P5 migrate into this version of the game.

All of that said: it is still, IMO, perhaps the best way to play the game.  What things I have seen so far are great.  The voice cast is dedicated if not quality, the visuals are vastly improved, and the music is less bombastic but that makes it more comfortable to inhabit the world for longer periods of time.  I will (possibly) do a longer post for it another time, but for right now: 3.5/4 Stars, pending that the changes I am hoping the game will have are there.

Thanks for reading.

RWS

P.S.

-Short Rest-

-Schedule-

1. Final Fantasy XVI

2. Final Fantasy III

3. DnD5e

4. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE: Intergrade

5. Fortnite

6. .hack//OUTBREAK

7. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD Remix

-Books-

0. Tower: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

1. SJ/One Piece 1098

-One-Punch Man Punch 196

-DC Comics: New 52 Green Arrow: The Midas Touch

-My Hero Academia 157

-Boom! Studios: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers 4—4

-Boruto: The Next Generation 47

-Marvel Comics: Ultimates Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra 4

-JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders 26 100%

-One Piece 1102+

-One-Punch Man 196+

-DC Comics: New 52 Flash: Move Forward 1—8

-My Hero Academia Vol. 18, 158—167 

-Boom! Studios: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Vol. 2, 5—8

-Boruto: Next Generation Vol.13, 48—51

-Marvel Comics: Ultimate Elektra 1—5

-JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Vol. 3, 27—40 

2. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

3. Discworld: The Color of Magic

-Games-

i. Backlog/Final Fantasy III 19hrs (Guide pg.77)

ii. PS+/Final Fantasy VII REMAKE: Intergrade 49hrs (INTERmission DLC)

iii. Backlog II/.hack//OUTBREAK

iv. Replay/Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD Remix

v. Final Fantasy XVI 58hrs

vi. Persona 3: Reload 93hrs

-Shows-

0. Towers: Ms. Marvel 100% (01/20/2024)

1. Critical Role Campaign 3 Part I, Ep. 8: "The Woodworker's Quandry"—11 (Level Up to 5) 64% (8—11)

2. Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy, Ep. 16: "For Candia, part 1"—19 79% (15—19)

3. Dragonball Ep. 59—153 38%

4. Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 701—713 0%

5. Batman: The Animated Series Ep. 132–165 48%

6. Gargoyles 113 100% (01/29/2024)

7. Young Justice 112—126 42%

8. Marvel's She-Hulk 1—9 0%

2023 Week XXXVIII.

 Hello Internet,

Just over a year ago, my daughter was diagnosed with cancer.  Around that time, I was preparing to have a new baby.  I led a DnD group, but my older brother, Jackalope, normally one of my players, had agreed to take over the group for a time.  This was planned to be later or after we had finished my campaign, but with Monkey's diagnosis, he offered to take over earlier.

A month ago, he asked me to take the game back as his work situation had changed.  I agreed, and then I started the school year.  With sickness added on, I cancelled the last game, but I cannot hide from it anymore.  This Tuesday, I am restarting my campaign with a short side quest run that may or may not be more work than the original ending.  Then, well, who knows?

It's all fun and games, but it is also more and more work.  Regardless, I am excited.  None of my players read my blog, so I can tell you some secrets.  The side quest is a prequel to the main campaign meant to reintroduce the players to the central conflict of the campaign (the rebirth of a self-proclaimed god) and also to the major players (one of the players played a warlock whose body was taken over by their patron; then with time travel shenanigans, that player's PC is back as an NPC and, unbeknownst to the players, the central antagonist).  

This campaign is meant to run approx. 3-4 roleplaying scenarios and 3-4 combats, with the final combat involving a mass combat of them entering a city as literal gods wage war in the skies above them.  Hopefully, this will explain parts of the history which they have forgotten and also reintroduce old and introduce new characters for the last leg of their journey, which I am calling the Final Act.

Meanwhile, in other news, I've been getting back into Kingdom Hearts.  I found a new You Tube channel called RegularPat that does in-depth KH breakdowns, and I am really excited about playing again.  As a result, I have some new games (I've also stopped playing Marvel's Avengers; it's deeply un-fun).

Thanks for reading,

RWS

P.S.

-Short Rest-

-Short Rest Schedule-

1. The Color of Magic/Free Play/Critical Role Campaign 3

2. Batman Vol. 4/Marvel’s Avengers/Seven Deadly Sins

3. The Emperor and I Vol. 4/DnD5e/Gargoyles

4. Fables: Animal Farm/Xenogears/Firefly

5. My Hero Academia Vol. 17/Free/Young Justice

6. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Vol. 1/Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins/Voltron: Legendary Defender

7. Book Break/Dragon Age II Athen Hawke/Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy

-Books-

0. One Piece 1087

1. Discworld/The Color of Magic reread

2. SJ/One-Punch Man Vol. 22, Punch 106: “Orochi vs. Saitama”—106 100% (5—5)

3. DC/Justice League Vol. 1: “Origins” 100% (6—6)

4. SJ/The Emperor and I Vol. 4, Ch. 36: “Emperor and the Documentary”—38 70% (15—20

5. Fables: Animal Farm 10—10 100% (5—5)

6. SJ/My Hero Academia Vol. 17, Ch. 157: “Infinite 100 Percent”—157 100% (10—10)

7. PR/Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Vol. 1/4—4 100% (5—5)

8. MF/Soul Eater Vol. 3, Ch. 9: “”—9 100% (4—4)

9. Marvel/Ultimate Spider-Man 13—13 100%

10. SJ/Boruto: The Next Generation Vol. 11, No. 40: “The Invisible Jutsu”—43 0% (1—4)

11. World of Warcraft Chronicle Vol. 2

-Games-

0. Stardew Valley

1. PS5/Spider-Man: Miles Morales 0% (0/13hrs)

2. Mass Effect: Andromeda

3. DnD/Movie

4. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (Goals)

5. Fortnite

6. Dragon Age II Athen Hawke 31% (15/48hrs)

7. Nier: Automata 0% (0/40hrs)

-Shows-

1. Critical Role Campaign 3 Part I Ep. 5: “The Threat Between the Walls”—11 (Level Up to 5) 18% (5—11)

2. Anime/Seven Deadly Sins Season 1 100% (24—24)

3. Disney+/Gargoyles Season 1 62% (9—13)

4. Rewatch/Firefly 35% (6—14)

5. HBO/Young Justice 42% (12—26)

6. Cartoons/Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 7 8% (2—13)

7. Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy 8: “Deep Bleu Sea”—19 37% (8—19)

8. Movies 13% (2—8)

-Anime/.hack//LIMINALITY “The Case of Yuki Aihara”

-Owned/Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

-Netflix.

-Disney+/Bambi

X2: X-Men United

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

-HBO/My Neighbor Totoro

-DCAU/Batman: Mask of the Phantasm