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Forums - Sony Discussion - Persona 4: The Golden Review

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theprof00 said:

Also, one last point. I don't understand how the metric for design was given a 5.
You said dungeon was 40% of the game. That would mean you gave the entire combat portion of the game a 0, or, you gave the 60% of the game a 3/10, and the dungeon a 2/10 or some distribution of which.
ie: if the dungeon is half the design, and you gave the design a 5, then you must have given the dungeon an extremely poor score.

EDIT: This is not to say the dungeon is particularly great. It's fair, at best. The combat is entertaining, the bosses are cool, and they fit in with the story and character unlocks. I must say that the dungeon significantly improves the game. While not ideal, the dungeon is a benefit, not a detriment to the game, but the scoring seems to suggest that it is. While you may argue that 0 simply means it didn't earn any points, you can't say that the game would be better without the dungeons....which logically means it must be worth something 

You know what I meant.  So what, you're going to oversimplify my comment like I'm saying specifically 40% and you never get in battle just to work in your favor?  Regardless having to go through the dungeons are a major part of t he game.  If you don't go through them, then your game ends there.  It's not like the dungeon is just some mini game you can avoid.   



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kupomogli said:
theprof00 said:

Here is my critique on your review.

What you point out as incorrect or misleading information isn't.  I stated limited amount of time, and you do.  I started off with pointing out that you have a single year in Inaba and you have a limited amount of time between events.  My explaining of social links covered pretty much all of what your reply stated.

First off, "Each day you have at most two different times to increase these statistics. so there's a lot of time management involved."  That's in the third paragraph.  "and then increasing social skills during the afternoon and evening" and that's in the second paragraph.  So that really complete negates your whole comment about time limit actually being about time. 

About social links you're stating a lot that I've already said.  In the second paragraph, "Each character in the game had a unique personality, which while going through the game you're frequently given multiple choices as to how you'd like to respond and the characters may like you more depending on your answer." this was during the second paragraph, so there's really no need to repeat myself by saying the same thing or something similar when talking about social links. 

The third paragraph talks about everything else you're listing that I didn't include.  "Social skills are different statistics like courage, knowledge, etc, where a required level might be required to take jobs, talk to people at certain times, or even choose a certain response.  It's not required, but having a high social link with multiple characters and fusing monsters will make dungeons much easier.  You can increase social links and social skills by doing different jobs, different activities, and spending the day with the characters."  I just didn't make a long list of everything you could do to increase social links and social skills.  It's to the point and it also lets the player find out what increases what.  This is a review, not a strategy guide.

I made mention of the quests in combat, but you're right.  I did not make specifically state that you could catch bugs, buy items, and do quests without wasting your afternoon or evening.  I also didn't make the comment that you could buy weapons and armor either.  See, that's where I feel common sense should take place.  I don't think I should have to tell someone something obvious.  I mean.  Do I also need to say that you waste time talking to a random NPC?   No.  It's a given.  Although catching bugs is the only thing not obvious as you'd assume it'd take up your time since it asks if you want to catch bugs, the only time where doing an activity doesn't waste time.

Last.  My review isn't to theorize the reader as a person and how they are.  I did describe everything you pointed out though and made it clear in the review that these are major aspects of the game.  The storyline would have characters like you more depending on your answer, that you could have deeper relationships with characters by doing social links, gaining more insight on their feelings and problems, etc.  And on the final paragraph, I even pointed out that the game is quite a bit more story focused than gameplay.  I didn't mention it, but it's about 60/40 more focused on story.

But that's the thing. You say thigns, but people who have played this game would be like, "that's not really how the game is though".

You don't seem to really represent the game. ie; No mention of the 100+ different personas.

"at most two different times to increase these statistics".... but that's not true, since it's often 3, with one being school activities or lunchtime.

Your explanation of time duration and S-Links really aren't ideal. You say it's not a strategy guide, but you spend a whole paragrpah on something as inconsequential as Sweep bonus. Not to mention that there are characters you cannot talk to until a a second playthrough.

It's like you spend time talking about trivialities and listing things, but don't really paint a good picture.

Here's pokemon:

You start as a random character in a town where you live. Your professor decides that you should have a pokemon, and he gives one to your brother/friend/rival too. As it turns out, there are many people who have pokemon, and they will all fight you with them. As you progress you will get some pokemon, and you will use them against other people in the game. Eventually, you can fight leaders of the city gym's to get badges. These let you do other things.

Badges are diffferent in shape. Some are round, and one is like a tear. Each one has a different color, and they go in a case that you carry around with you. The first badge is a boulder, and you can use it to show to the mayor and he'll let you go to the next area. The boulder one is brown, and is shaped kind of like a rock. There are a couple more badges too, and you can do stuff with them.

Eventually you visit all these places and fight all these people, but the fighting is kind of slow and predictable. Kind of a nuisance really. Sometimes you just want to get to the next town and you have to go through a cave to get there, and there are fights everywhere. It just drags on and on really. At the end, there is the elite four. Once you beat them you win. There is also a side-story about a villain group named team rocket.

story 8
design 4
presentation 5
balance? 7

Pokemon: 6



theprof00 said:

You don't seem to really represent the game. ie; No mention of the 100+ different personas.

"at most two different times to increase these statistics".... but that's not true, since it's often 3, with one being school activities or lunchtime.

Your explanation of time duration and S-Links really aren't ideal. You say it's not a strategy guide, but you spend a whole paragrpah on something as inconsequential as Sweep bonus. Not to mention that there are characters you cannot talk to until a a second playthrough.

It's like you spend time talking about trivialities and listing things, but don't really paint a good picture.

Your opinion is your opinion. 

There are some things I felt could be left out for the player  to learn.  For example, lunchtime activities as you're stating here.  The lunchtime activity is a bonus from making food in the evening.  Don't make food in the evening, don't get the lunchtime activity.  So yes.  It's two times a day, as lunchtime is only an extension of what you do in the evening where you delay your bonus. 

Each character only has one persona, the main character gets multiple personas which he can fuse together.  I gave the player how the gameplay plays with each persona, how fusing personas can gain extra experience for the new one, etc.  It's obvious there are a lot of different personas if while I'm explaining the shuffle time and sweep option, where you have the possibility of gaining them each battle.  The game doesn't even explain getting a sweep, to make it easier to get more cards after each battle so it was more informative than the game.

There are also things in that battle system I didn't explain because I simply forgot to mention them.  The game has five skills that state "Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage on one enemy." but gives no explanation on whether or not this specific one has low hit percentage, high critical percentage, etc.  Nothing that you can tell that a skill like single shot is better than a skill like skewer.  Doesn't state the power it has, anything.  Simply that one statement.  I didn't explain that because I forgot, but it's another cause of the games bad design.  Wouldn't have made me reduce the score even further, but it's a problem with the game. 

The above paragraph is far more important than giving detail that you sometimes can do a third activity, but only by wasting one activity during night time.  It's pointless to even reference that, it does nothing to extend the value or devalue the game itself in the review.  It's something the player can easily find out on their own, something that they're not just going to happen to miss. 

I felt that the review detailed everything that was most important while leaving out stuff that the player can find out on their own.  Not write about each and every minor detail giving the player no satisfaction on finding anything out on their own.  Don't you think people want to figure out some of the game on their own?

I'll edit the review just for you though.  I'll go add a list of activies and exactly what they pertain to.  Drinking coffee allows you to get skill cards to teach personas, going to the movies levels up your characters personas and increases a couple extra skill points additional, you can buy and change clothes, etc, etc.  I hope you realize this is sarcasm.

And my Pokemon review was much more detailed your mock review.  I'm sure you were trying to be funny putting a 6/10 overall not realizing I gave it a lower score than that.



The dungeon design is aweful imo, so I could definetly see someone rating it down a lot for it.

I forgive it a lot, and I'd give it a 9. IMO it's still good enough even though I think the dungeon parts are really really lazily designed. They're still fun because the battle system is good enough. That's my justification atleast.

I also review less harsh than kupohead, if you look at my profile My AVG is 6.5.

I justify that in that I avoid the really bad games so my AVG would go down to 5.5 if I played more of those really bad games, that I avoid.



Just started playing this game a week ago, really loving the story and characters. I'm not that far in, I think i'm only like 12 hours in but i can tell already this is an awesome game!



           Survivor Millennial vs Gen X!!

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kupomogli said:
theprof00 said:

You don't seem to really represent the game. ie; No mention of the 100+ different personas.

"at most two different times to increase these statistics".... but that's not true, since it's often 3, with one being school activities or lunchtime.

Your explanation of time duration and S-Links really aren't ideal. You say it's not a strategy guide, but you spend a whole paragrpah on something as inconsequential as Sweep bonus. Not to mention that there are characters you cannot talk to until a a second playthrough.

It's like you spend time talking about trivialities and listing things, but don't really paint a good picture.

Your opinion is your opinion. 

There are some things I felt could be left out for the player  to learn.  For example, lunchtime activities as you're stating here.  The lunchtime activity is a bonus from making food in the evening.  Don't make food in the evening, don't get the lunchtime activity.  So yes.  It's two times a day, as lunchtime is only an extension of what you do in the evening where you delay your bonus. 

Each character only has one persona, the main character gets multiple personas which he can fuse together.  I gave the player how the gameplay plays with each persona, how fusing personas can gain extra experience for the new one, etc.  It's obvious there are a lot of different personas if while I'm explaining the shuffle time and sweep option, where you have the possibility of gaining them each battle.  The game doesn't even explain getting a sweep, to make it easier to get more cards after each battle so it was more informative than the game.

There are also things in that battle system I didn't explain because I simply forgot to mention them.  The game has five skills that state "Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage on one enemy." but gives no explanation on whether or not this specific one has low hit percentage, high critical percentage, etc.  Nothing that you can tell that a skill like single shot is better than a skill like skewer.  Doesn't state the power it has, anything.  Simply that one statement.  I didn't explain that because I forgot, but it's another cause of the games bad design.  Wouldn't have made me reduce the score even further, but it's a problem with the game. 

The above paragraph is far more important than giving detail that you sometimes can do a third activity, but only by wasting one activity during night time.  It's pointless to even reference that, it does nothing to extend the value or devalue the game itself in the review.  It's something the player can easily find out on their own, something that they're not just going to happen to miss. 

I felt that the review detailed everything that was most important while leaving out stuff that the player can find out on their own.  Not write about each and every minor detail giving the player no satisfaction on finding anything out on their own.  Don't you think people want to figure out some of the game on their own?

I'll edit the review just for you though.  I'll go add a list of activies and exactly what they pertain to.  Drinking coffee allows you to get skill cards to teach personas, going to the movies levels up your characters personas and increases a couple extra skill points additional, you can buy and change clothes, etc, etc.  I hope you realize this is sarcasm.

And my Pokemon review was much more detailed your mock review.  I'm sure you were trying to be funny putting a 6/10 overall not realizing I gave it a lower score than that.

wow