I don't really think it's harsh at all, I gave it a really good whack - I wouldn't play many games up to the 15 hour mark when I'm not really enjoying them.

I do need to give it another try and go into the experience without the expectations, but I still think those are fair comments.

Plot is plot; characterization is characterization. Doing s-links about someone getting into the swim team or going for ramen with someone lonely gives me empathy and can help me like those characters; but it doesn't help at all with the overall plot which is something to do with a big tower and I'm guessing the moon is the bad guy because it all happens at night, lol.

And no, I'm not a fan of randomly generated dungeons at all.

If you have the game, nothing lost in trying. I played P3P before P4. I liked P3 but i loved P4. I think it's pretty easy to figure out if you will like it pretty fast. The game grips "you" immediatly. If you are a couple of hours in and you don't feel invested it isnt for you. Though i can't imagine how anyone wouldn't enjoy it.

The combat and the social links are not vastly different, but the plot and pacing are much better imo.

Another noteworthy difference is that the PSP version of P3 was very much presented as a visual novel, where locations outside of dungeons were simply backdrops. The Playstation 2 version of the game wasn't like that and persona 4 golden isn't aswell. you get to traverse the environments, even if they aren't big or anything. But, it helps with immersion.

This is one of huge critisism of the franchise as a whole, it was huge negative on me, I understand your concerns as I shared them with the franchise. Given Persona 5 really does address so many of my issues. P4Golden starts addressed them as well, but I totally get your reasoning. Dungeon crawlers are hard to deal with at times, and they do take you away from the game at hand, however I think the franchise has enough strengths to try. 

Im back doods
OT: I personally really like randomly generated dungeons, always gives it a new fresh feeling for me, then again I like dungeon crawlers in general, so that's probably why I don't have much of an issue with the persona series. Also, plenty of good stuff in them, great characters and development through S.L., gorgeous music, fun turn-based gameplay,etc. Usually when I start any SMT game, I can't put it down lol.

So, Valkyria Revolution and Tokyo Xanadu release in a couple of days. I've already beaten Xanadu but I want to support the localization so I might get it next month.

For now, I have 3 games to pick from : Valkyria, Revolution Cagulla Effect and God wars... I was going to get Cagulla after some back and forth till I saw the Ps blog mentioning Valkyria lol. I guess I'll wait to see people's impressions of valkyria (I played the demo it was pretty meh)

You misunderstand me. I just think it's harsh because I disagree, not because you didn't give it enough time.

and if you dislike randomly generated dungeons, then that probably knocks out several dozen games then. Lots of "rogue-like" games in the past couple years.

Your just an attention seeker. There's no LoD news here!!!

Correct. It's part of the reason I've never rated Rogue Legacy, among other things.

I can tolerate randomly-generated dungeons. I enjoyed Neon Chrome, for example. But in general, I just find them make for a repetitive, boring experience after a while. 

This week in musings from UK chart:

2		1			DRIVE GIRLS	TAMSOFT	RISING STAR GAMES	RISING STAR GAMES
1		2			GOD WARS: FUTURE PAST	KADOKAWA GAMES	NIS AMERICA	NIS AMERICA

Drive Girls outlegs God Wars.

4		3			NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED	CRITERION GAMES	EA GAMES	ELECTRONIC ARTS
7		4			MINECRAFT: PLAYSTATION EDITION	4J STUDIOS	SONY COMPUTER ENT.	SONY COMPUTER ENT.

NFS is having a resurgence.

-		13			SUPERBEAT XONIC	NURIJOY	RISING STAR GAMES	RISING STAR GAMES
-		14			CRIMINAL GIRLS 2: PARTY FAVORS	NIPPON ICHI	NIS AMERICA	NIS AMERICA
-		15			SWORD ART ONLINE: HOLLOW REALIZATION	AQURIA	BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT	BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT

All the niche stuff is back.

So, I finished an article looking at 10 classic PS1/PSP games that I'm gutted are missing from PSN:

https://kresnik258gaming.wordpress.com/2017/06/26/10-classic-playstation-titles-which-are-missing-from-the-vita-store/

Any you really wish were up there?

Also, Muv-Luv Vita update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/muvluv/muv-luv-a-pretty-sweet-visual-novel-series/posts/1914280

"Muv-Luv Trilogy PS Vita version won't be canceled!

We're aware many people have been waiting for the PS Vita games, while we cannot give any definite date yet, we can reassure everyone that Degica will always support the PS Vita! We already have released cool games, and more to come :)

1. DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours - http://press.degigames.com/sheet.php?p=dariusburst_chronicle_saviours

2. Nurse Love Addiction - a visual novel we've just released last Thursday!

https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/nurse-love-addiction/cid=UP1056-PCSE01004_00-NURSELOVEADDUS00

http://press.degigames.com/sheet.php?p=nurse_love_addiction

The majority of our PS Vita backers pledged for the physical rewards with a PC digital, so delivering the physical rewards as soon as possible is our top priority. We'll immediately resume porting to PS Vita once Muv-Luv Alternative PC version is completed."