gtotheunit91 said:
Don’t forget about Persona 3 and 4 in just a couple of months Although it doesn’t sound like you had the best experience lol |
I was actually quite enjoying the game for probably like 80-90 hours or so, but then the game just kept going and going, and so by the end I was really just desperate for it to be over. There was a long stretch where I was engaged with the story, (most of) the characters, and I wanted to try and collect all the different Personas...but yea, then it really started to drag towards the end.
It got to a point where I knew exactly where the overarching story was going, and the plot "twists" were super predictable. Plus, the characters had kinda worn out their charm for me at that point as well, cus even for some of their better moments, and growth, they still ultimately come across as fairly one note in dialogue. So because of that, you reach a certain point with them where you can really just skip all their dialogue and still known pretty much exactly what they said, and if it requires a response, you know exactly what they wanna hear (which usually boils down nonstop affirmation and praise). There's very little nuance to be found in the dialogue.
It doesn't help either that the game is very poorly paced. Because you're trying to maximize your schedule, you're always either doing a whole lot of combat and palace progression for long stretches, or a whole lot of social activities for long stretches. Perhaps the game would feel less long if these elements were more elegantly interwoven in such a way that both sides of the game continued to feel fresh for over 100 hours, but alas, this is not the case. By the end, both sides suffer.
It's also got the whole GTAIV thing going on, where your cousin, or some other person would randomly call you and wanna go bowling or whatever. Only here, it's well over a dozen people constantly hitting up your phone non-stop to come do shit with them...and when they're not hitting you up to spend time with them, they're doing it to rehash some dialogue pertinent to story topics that were just covered like 5 minutes ago in person. In fact, the game very much makes a habit of rehashing pretty much everything at least 3 times or more, and constantly has characters acting surprised over things they should already know. I started summarily skipping all group texts in this game less than halfway in, because that's pretty much all they are.
I don't wanna sound like I'm shitting on the game too much, cus I did have a fun time with it more often than I didn't, but I also don't remember getting so frustrated with a game in a while. Nor being so elated once I'd finally finished it. Maybe the best game that I never wanna play again?
I think there's a lot of really cool ideas here, and a good framework around which to build a much better game. Less black and white writing. More character choice/agency. Tighter pacing. More gameplay relevant interaction between Metaverse and regular world. Shorter, more focused main story, and split off some palaces for larger sidequests/optional objectives that can feed into alternate endings.
