kupomogli said:
Aren't reviews based off ones opinion on the game? So everything is based on taste. I hardly criticized social links in the review. I just made a comment that during those points the games pacing is worse, but I also had a paragraph where I criticized the quest system and the dungeon design. Maybe I should have been much harsher with how I worded it to make it clear, but seems pretty obvious what I meant. I don't have to make a big deal about something to get my point across. "When in the tv world, all dungeons are randomized. They'll have different backgrounds, different music, and some of the treasure boxes that require keys will rarely give some unique weapons or armor for that area, but the problem with them is that the dungeons all consist of around 10 small floors with each and every dungeon pretty much the exact same randomized layout. It's basically your average rogue like dungeon without all the unique items scattered around on the floor. Worse, there are the large amount of quests you receive requiring you to go back through the dungeons to acquire an item from a specific enemy which may be on the first few floors or might be on the last few floors. Those quests are only available after you first finish the dungeon and while you may have fought the enemy that you get the quest item from, the enemy won't drop that item until the quest is available." While I didn't say this specifically in the review, as I thought how I wrote it was sufficient, the dungeon design was poor and made being in the tv world extremely boring. As great as all the story and combat is in the game, and as good as the time management aspect of the game is, the game has issues. Not going to completely overlook one aspect of the game. Dungeon design isn't insignificant. It's a fairly large part of the game and as poor as it, is it's a major issue. You can ignore it all you want, but it does degrade the game. As I've said in a previous comment if the game was completely story based and there were no dungeons, sort of like a visual novel, then the game would get a higher score, but it's not. Deal with it. |
I guess my comment offended you. I apologise, I can be a bit too blunt sometimes (It was late and i was posting from my Vita, so its not practical to go into a long dissertation).
My point on the original post is the way you try to blame pacing on the social links is one of taste because anyone going to play a JRPG that doesnt enjoy character development and story and just wants to fight in dungeons... well... is someone that doesnt enjoy JRPG's very much, or just loves grinding. Character development and the social links are what makes Persona special. The pace at wich you go into dungeons can be set by the player aswell.
As for the dungeon design, they are random, but the dungeons art changes with each one. The dungeons are also not long enough that they become a nuisance to go through (have you even played Persona 3? That is alot worse). The ramdomised aspect keep the dungeons unpredictable and every floor exciting as you want to uncover all of it and get the hidden treasure or one of those golden hands that gives alot of experience and gold. Not all floors are ramdomised though. If you were on the habit of properly clearing them, you wouldnt come across issues like a missing key, not that they were difficult to figure out.
Despite all this though, do those 2 small criticisms really stop anyone from enjoying the game? I also get the distinct feel you were trying your best to speed through the game and skip as much content as possible to rush to the end. Are they really worth 2.25 points in a scale of 10? I would hate to see what most games that came out this gen would get from you.
I will grant you my criticism to the game, that in no way would affect the score staying above 9. A day passes when you go into the dungeons, this interrupts the micro management of the social links max leveling and incentivates you to go into a dungeon as little times as possible and get everything done at once. This is still one of preference though. You can still get the best ending by only maximising 3 social links, if memory serves me right. That isnt too difficult. Thinking about it, maybe the imediacy of the main plot is what made you feel like the social links were ruining your pace.
I will also grant you that the bonus dungeons, wich casts away your progress and uses its own mechanics to navigate, was perhaps a bit cumbersome. But, i wonder if you even experienced that.
