Persona 4 first impressions

So the Persona 4 videos on here made me want to check the game out for myself. Got a US import (us Europeans are so screwed), and have been playing for the past 3 hours. Which puts me right past the point where the actual game bit starts ;-P

I really, really like the way this game looks. The menus are super crazy sharp, the transitions, everything is just pure class. It's funny to be wowed by menus i guess, but it says a lot about how cheap a frontend games can get away with these days. Anything beyond a vertical or horizontal column of options on a dimmed background seems to be too much effort. Weirdly, i thought it was fun just to open the system menu in P4 and watch the transitions (colored bars layering to form the UI).

Frankly, as passè as it is to compare .jp games to western games in terms of visual fidelity, i think it's pretty obvious that japan have the artform nailed as far as 2d goes. No wonder they're sticking to that; They're sickeningly good at it, down to such subtle things as color palette selection. It really puts the visual oomph of games like Gears 2 in a different light, if not just a different perspective. It's engineers versus artists all over again.

Going to savor this one. It's a great game to chill out with over a cup of tea after making my thumbs bleed at SF4 or repeatedly overheating my laptop with Dawn of war 2.

So the Persona 4 videos on here made me want to check the game out for myself. Got a US import (us Europeans are so screwed), and have been playing for the past 3 hours. Which puts me right past the point where the actual game bit starts ;-P

I really, really like the way this game looks. The menus are super crazy sharp, the transitions, everything is just pure class. It's funny to be wowed by menus i guess, but it says a lot about how cheap a frontend games can get away with these days. Anything beyond a vertical or horizontal column of options on a dimmed background seems to be too much effort. Weirdly, i thought it was fun just to open the system menu in P4 and watch the transitions (colored bars layering to form the UI).

Frankly, as passè as it is to compare .jp games to western games in terms of visual fidelity, i think it's pretty obvious that japan have the artform nailed as far as 2d goes. No wonder they're sticking to that; They're sickeningly good at it, down to such subtle things as color palette selection. It really puts the visual oomph of games like Gears 2 in a different light, if not just a different perspective. It's engineers versus artists all over again.

Going to savor this one. It's a great game to chill out with over a cup of tea after making my thumbs bleed at SF4 or repeatedly overheating my laptop with Dawn of war 2.