If Meiling rejects me, of course. And she won’t. My serenade to a goddess, my love letter to Persona 4.
MASSIVE SPOILER IMAGE Oh Nami If only you were more playable…
Before I start I would like to say this: You will not see a single serious screencap of Persona in this post. Not because P4 doesn’t pack serious scenes, which it has in spades, but because I was so enthralled by these scenes that I completely forgot about the screencap button.
Quick, titillating, colorful, seemingly pointless; the very first lead-in of P4 is not only character revelation, but a perfect summary of our time. This game knows what it’s doing.
“Often times, things do not get the attention they deserve.” Probably a statement we can all agree with. Siome things simply deserve more than a cult following, no? looking at it at face value though, what is the amount of attention they deserve? It’s all too subjective a quantity.
Got her eyes on the goods already, I see
I’ll get to the point: I look at Persona comparatively. Everybody knows Final Fantasy. Much less know Shin Megami Tensei Persona. And looking at the nature of both series’ most recent game, that’s a real shame.
Pertaining nature, the OP gives one a very good scope of the visual style. Also, check out the lyrics of the song, ‘Pursuing My True Self’, by Akasaka Blitz. It’s not engrish for once, and actually chock full of meaning.
Plot is what defines JRPGs, but execution often decides their ranking, how they stack up to others of its kind. Persona is critically acclaimed, but what really makes something as zany as Persona work? In the day one’s at school, and after school one’s at school in Persona.
That’s right.
I have that effect on people.
That sounds disastrous. Also, if one had to describe the premise in six words, it would be ‘the characters can go into TVs’ – which doesn’t exactly sound like the makings of an enthralling epic.
You’ll replay the game and be absolutely stunned about how the tiniest event a hundred game hours ago was foreshadowing. Chekhov’s gun? Try bazooka.
But remember, execution. To elaborate: you, the protagonist moves to the quiet countryside city-town of Inaba, which becomes the stage of a series of mysterious murders when you arrive.
This is not in fact one of those murders.
I question the heroicness of our hero.
At the center of all this is the Midnight Channel, a rumored, midnight airing TV program that in fact shows the people that would be murdered. You also discover you can enter that TV world, into which somebody is throwing victims, victims that soon after reappear in the real world, hung and dead. Your friends at first do not believe your fantastic claims, but all is affirmed when an accident causes all of you to fall into the other world.
Your gang finds out that people thrown into this world face a repressed version of themselves, a warped manifestation of their darkest inner thoughts that they didn’t want people to know of, or were never even aware of themselves.
Should they deny the existence of this being, which of course happens, it becomes a Shadow – an enormous monster that is more often than not very symbolic.
Supremacist-masked dominatrix sitting atop three quivering female students. Represents Chie’s desires to maintain a stranglehold on Yukiko, due to jealousies of her femininity and the desire to be important. Can’t get much more symbolic than that.
Unfortunately for it, Ningyo Bigdaddy plus boss fight
equals one dead boss.
You discover that you yourself have the power to utilize Personae; ‘facades with which to face life’s hardships’ (essentially, spiritual Pokemon that even learn moves at certain levels and forget them when you have too many).
With this power, and knowing full well that the police wouldn’t believe a word you say, you set out those facing to their own shadows before they’re killed by their darker halves. Those you save face their fears and gain Personae of their own, and as your posse grows in size you unravel a much deeper ploy, several stages in depth, each darker than the last…
Thou hath gained the power of the Kuso Miso Persona…
Something along those lines. Trust me, it’s hard to summarize Persona without alluding to RPG clichés – Persona is something you have to experience, not have summarized for you.
I can’t resist this golden opportunity to address what Roger Ebert once said: that video games cannot, and never will be, art. Sadly the games Ebert saw as exemplary and arrived to his conclusion with grossly misrepresent the entire culture. Even the term ‘video games’ is more representative of the age of the Atari 2600, where entities in games were small clumps of pixels and directives were often singular and simple. Would not ‘Fabricated Epic Reality Role Simulation’ be much more suitable a label for something of Persona’s scale?
From its dungeon themes to even its mundane school settings, P4 has some pretty/excellent level designs.
What I find amazing is the depth of plot Persona 4 manages to create with its sixty odd hours of story. The overlaying story involves an intricate plot that encompasses the entire city, but interspersed between are smaller stories involving the lives of those in your posse – the stories of everyone around you overcoming their life problems, and what role you play as the entire city’s savior in aiding them. It’s reminisce of the days of Valkyrie Profile; where there existed a main worldly plot, but where the warriors you recruited had their own touching, personal side stories.
It’s this depth and exploration of the time’s human nature, that examination of the listlessness and complexes of today’s youth that make Persona a very intuitive game. What other excellent works of our time do such a thing? Jerzy Kosinski’s Being There, perhaps? How can we call such a piece art and not do the same for Persona? It’s simply a different medium, with a different presentation; it tells of humanity’s truisms and shortcomings all the same. The person speaking against Ebert says that video games are an evolving art form in its primitive stages, like early-human cave art – frankly, that’s just stupid. Video games can be art, and they are art now. Coming to these conclusions with such ridiculous, unrepresentative titles like ‘Waco Resurrection’. Of course it doesn’t exceed the level of ‘chicken scratches’ Ebert, that game is at best not completely offensive!
Yes, Persona is to an extent a ‘choose your relationships and outcome’ game. Ebert says a multitude of routes devalues each one, and that ‘I believe art is created by an artist. If you change it, you become the artist. Would “Romeo and Juliet” have been better with a different ending? <…> Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices’ (a very witty article, actually). Ebert infers the classical era of ‘art’ – romantic, but I daresay, conservative. Would it be entirely wrong to say that artists in the past never pursued an interactive route because they did not have the means to do so? Romeo and Juliet couldn’t have been a point-and-click adventure and involve the discreet relationship of the actors and the audience at the same time. But reacting to the audience’s input apparatus, Persona can. Both aim to entertain. Both even include contemporary sexual innuendo of their time. Romeo and Juliet is art, yet Persona isn’t?
Is it not slightly narrow a view to write off audience interaction entirely? Is it not all too narrow a view to exemplify one’s judgment with such games as ‘Waco Resurrection’?
Ebert’s does back his argument with some well-written points and thorough thinking, but choosing Waco Resurrection to back his point was just a very, very bad idea.
NINGYO PREDATOR MODE
But enough of beating on somebody who won’t fight back. I in turn feel that I’m horribly misrepresenting P4 with these screencaps, but hey, all in the spirit of Baden Baden Lily. As you’ve seen, Persona has very clever writing, adapted quite skillfully to a North American release. However, it’s not all that self-conscious; as Hiimdaisy’s strip shows us, when it comes down to the bare bones Persona’s antics are pretty silly. But that’s when its excellent execution comes in and really allows the player to suspend her disbelief.
I warned you~
Persona has that relatable, contemporary logic in its themes of magic that I enjoy so much. Characters react to the fantasy elements in the game just as modern youths would – with disbelief, and much attempts at logical deductions. Your friends will suitably freak the first time you fall into the TV world, and throughout the entire story you arduously piece together what small clues you get until your gang finally gets to the root of the murders – you feel as if you matter, as if you’re really solving the puzzle with your comrades, and quote the spoonyone, as if you’re really saving people.
Part visual novel, part RPG, part dungeon crawler, part interactive mystery; P4 is sure to show you something you’ve never seen before.
Some peoples’ repressed problems are far from subtle.
Don’t ask.
But hey, it’s something you need to experience, right? Check it out; you haven’t gamed before you’ve played Persona 4.
I’m sorry, I just had to.
Ningyo
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May 20th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
What’s with the dimensions of the screencaps? >.>
It’s like a square. It’s so .. . *shiver*
Anyways, I believe anything can be art. Even a bottle cap could be art if represented properly. There’s a reason why there are paintings of pretty much everything in this world. That’s because anything can be art. It’s all up to the viewer.
May 20th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
I have been really wanting to play a persona game for some time now. I tried looking around for copies of P3 but my local gamestop didn’t have any. Persona 4 came out and I really wanted to get it but didn’t have money at the time. And now I just don’t know if I have the time for what 60+hour rpg, but oh how much I wish I did.
May 20th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
“Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art?”
Honestly, that is the best point in that entire article. The question of “What is art” is the second most painful question to (attempt to) answer (first being “What is truth”). I agree with many of Ebert’s points, yet the linked article seems to be more concerned with debunking his opponent rather than give an definitive answer to this video game debate. The label “art” is so impossibly vague and constantly shifting that trying to forcibly brand video games as art is just a really, really silly idea. Art is much like language — both are shaped by subtle forces of of the world and its societies. Their changes are not dictated by the words or opinions of the few.
The definition of “art” in the age we live in is not ready to incorporate video games, and perhaps it won’t be for a very long time (or even never). In any case, legitimacy is not going to be won through angry comments/emails aimed at Ebert, so these fans might as well be content with their entertainment as it is.
As for my personal thoughts on the matter… Modern and postmodern art has been noticeably segregated from the masses. They’re often meant to be inaccessible, abstract, and require a level of learning to appreciate. In the current artistic atmosphere, it’s no wonder why mass-produced and easily accessible commodity like video games are given the cold shoulder. This brings up the question of whether mass-produced figures are art or not… Gah, I bet we would be better off without the word “art” altogether.
May 21st, 2010 at 12:53 am
Art is in the eye of the beholder. The whole video game is/isn’t art debate is in and of itself proof of that. I’m inclined to believe that it isn’t necessary to discuss it further as all sides of the debate have been repeated and exhausted with no conclusion.
I don’t think however, as Chag states “We would be better off without the word “art” altogether. It is a mere word that we’ve used to categorized things with and helps us in identifying our social being, whether we like it or not. It’s not so much the word, but the behavior of us that is concern here, I suppose.
I find your select screenshots very amusing. It makes me wonder if the localization team intentionally used these choice phrases for our enjoyment. Considering the general plot of the Persona series, it’s not an unfathomable guess. Of course, your commentary brings it to a whole new level of context as well. ;)
I do like the style of Persona 4. It’s very slick. It does remind me of Cowboy Bebop mixed with an iPod commercial though. When I first saw one of the segments with the text “loading” flying across the screen, I had thought it was as a loading screen. That would be an epic loading screen.
May 21st, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Ningyo Bigdaddy…..AWESOME.
May 22nd, 2010 at 3:31 am
I am guilty of knowing FF but not Persona, though I don’t play either. Still, love the OP sequence. It looks really cool; that girl with glasses and a fan seems very interesting.
Anyways, I really liked that part about art as an interactive medium. That’s a neat idea. Some visual novels certainly do pack a lot of literary punch.
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:18 am
Oh, you. We all know you loved (Yin) Izanami than this one.
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I simply love this game. Music, humour, storyline, everything is amusingly great.
And how come you look completely the same as my character?! COPYCAT!
I’m watching the dub video and I’m rofling hard right now XD
Btw. I really wanted to kill Nanako.
Btw.2. Because of Izanagi having elect. attacks I kept thinking that in Darker than Black Hei was Izanagi o.o
Btw.3. Thanks for reminding me of Persona 4, now excuse me, going to play it again..
May 24th, 2010 at 9:31 am
>_< Now you're making me want to get a PS2 and play the game…. but at least Persona 3 for PSP will be coming out shortly so I definitely will try that out for it's awesome "shoot head for massive damage/ability" style battle system! LOL
May 25th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
@nish
Lol, it is a PS2 game, so no HD resolution. Recall back in a day when all televisions and monitors were square :p
And well, that’s the gist of it, and what I think as well. To his defense though Ebert does put up some pretty good arguments, and tries to expand past that, with how no game has yet to be called on a societal scale ‘art’, as literary works or even movies are called.
@crazydave
I just went straight for P4, seeing as how their stories are more or less independent of one another. You really should give it a shot, it’s probably not going for much on Ebay. *whisper*That or just emulate it*whisper*
And you really don’t have to take it all at once, right? I’m going through it intensely slowly right now as well. Everyone’s got those IRL things to attend to.
@Chag
Well, I’m not setting out to force it to be seen as art; nothing involving altering one’s perception of what it really is. Simply, I look at its very nature and see something no less than Romeo and Juliet. They’re so similar in spirit that I can’t call one art without calling the other the same – Ebert paints with too wide a brush, a non-gamer making a very general statement.
The notion of a gamer having to prove that her game is art makes it sound like she’s fighting for a childish lost cause, as if she’s trying to justify some primitive sense of taste. I’m not advocating for that. Simply, I can’t see Persona as anything but art, in every definition of it. what isn’t art shouldn’t be dressed up to be, but conversely, what is should not cause one to vehemently shake one’s head and turn away, no? I’m calling Persona’s lack of acknowledgement in the ride side of this debate not an inadequacy of taste, but an inadequacy of vision.
Well, I’m pelting Ebert with insults, but I really do like his reviews. Really intuitive guy, at times.
When you put it that way, it almost sounds like the difference between aristocratic art and plebeians calling their entertainment art – perhaps all too true, and too uncomfortable for me to think about.
And well, I think that’s all too important a word for us to throw away, despite its ambiguity, or even its controversiality. Debate spurs cultural development, after all. It’s for the same reason we don’t discard the word ‘romanticized’, despite its countless, ambiguous or even butchered interpretations.
@radiant
As with all other such sensitive matters, my friend. Very anal divulgences. Let’s talk Persona, the dish on the table, right? But yes, we definitely need that word. Culture would be pretty dead without it. Man, imagine how we would have developed.
They definitely did so for the humor of it, yes, and I must say they translated most of the jokes over fairly well. You’re actually asked some grammar questions in school, and they’ve (suitably) replaced them all with English grammar questions.
My one regret is having a commentary that totally contrasts the screencaps. I really totally forgot to take screencaps during the serious, brooding moments I keep making reference to >.<
Cowboy Bebop + iPod commercial… Though an initially uncomfortable mishmash, and actually quite true about the OP, further thought dictates that it’s no bad thing. Mm.
@Glo
But of course. I spent a good twenty minutes coming up with that name.
@Yi
Ahaha, then it’s all good.
Well, I don’t do FF justice by saying that. It does have some very good titles. Just don’t start with the newest ones.
Thought you might be interested in Yukiko, but I don’t know why. Perhaps because she suits your refined tastes :p?
That they certainly do. I believe once one incorporates visual novels, there is absolutely no argument that ‘games’ are ‘art’. But really, they’re basically books when it comes to an argument of taste.
@Shance
Curses, I’ve been seen through.
@Velore
Riiiiiiiiigght? Finally, somebody who shares my enthusiasm.
Are you named something as epic as Ningyo Bigdaddy though? You know I bring order to that house. Or even the entire city. Nanako doesn’t need her normal daddy, when BIGGER DADDY is around.
I’m yet to have ever gotten Izanagi-no-Okami; don’t much enjoy replays. Epic stories should only occur once in my mind.
GJ. HF.
@martin
You know what, do that exactly. P4 totally justifies getting a new system just for it. Besides, PS2’s are kinda cheap now, and it still packs a very good collection of classics.
*whisper*or just emulate it*whisper*
P3 for PSP allows one to play as the female, right? I suppose I’ve no problem with that as long as the male is still playable, or some h*wt Yuri action is a viable route.
May 26th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I was surprised myself to find out after one year of a break from P4 that my character’s name is: LORD VADER. It’s quite cute when they call me LORD-kun.
May 27th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Haha no obligatory Planetarian plug in your reply?
May 29th, 2010 at 3:56 am
Oh… this is the game I bought a few months ago. I still haven’t played it yet… I wasn’t sure if I should be reading this, lol. That daughter has a good eye… I really should get some of my gaming going again >_<
How would you react if Ebert replied on your comments?
I'm telling Meiling…
May 31st, 2010 at 2:12 pm
@Velore
Wow, IMAGINE Seta Souji went down the dark side? With ‘Nami-chan? Cuz that’d be hot.
@Yi
I think I opted not to, because that would’ve been too predictable :p
@rob
Oh yeah, you did get it a few months ago! You mean to tell you me you still haven’t touched it at all D:<? Duuuuuuudee…
Hmm, good question. I don’t know, I don’t think my head is capable of computing that possibility at all. Maybe write him an essay to reply? I didn’t really focus too much on his argument here; I did say a lot, but if you really had to get into this debate one could write on forever. Guess I’ll make a proper post of it in that kind of situation.
I really would rather he not do that, though. Ebert has better things to do.
Rob, I (roughly) know where you live. Don’t push it.
June 17th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Tim… Come and get me :P