First entry X-posted to P4 forum and personal GB blog.
So I've just started Persona 4 (in Japanese) and since I am psyched about it, I decided to write a regular blog chronicling my adventure for the next month up until the American release date (Dec 9th). I will release minor spoilers/ plot elements at the start, but if there are major spoilers, I will leave it out. Basically it will be a "first impressions" type of deal. Since I probably will not get too far you don't need to worry. I will be translating selected words as I go. Since I've had a long-standing goal of making a video game Japanese language guide, I may just save most of the vocab it for that and/or start uploading it to my webspace. Anyways, off I go.
Ok, so the game starts out with another cool hip-hop beat song with animation. Crap... I forgot about Japanese games where you have to use the Circle button for accept and X for cancel. I'm sure this will mess me up later at some crucial moment, lol. Anyways, it's got a cool hiragana -> katakana/kanji convertor for the name. I haven't seen this in a video game before. Unfortunately I only get three characters for first and last name, so I'm going with a made up last name: Joe Natsuhi (joe ナツヒ） as in 夏日. Anyways it's not that important. The main character (you) looks a lot like the one from Persona 3, but a bit younger looking (read: softer face).
So you start out talking with Igor (from P3) again. And man does his voice sound different than in the English Persona 3. All crazy sounding like a mythical old guy in Japan might sound. And there's a girl that looks like an old Elizabeth, but turns out she's Margaret. She's got the sophisticated Japanese lady accent. Doesn't really suit her. Igor is really polite and tells you about some crazy stuff. Of course he looks at your fate and finds it "very interesting" 興味深い. Hmm.. can't be too good.
So your character is a transfer student and you're going to meet your new parents. Well your host father and his daughter anyway. The family's name is Dojima (堂島）. The daughter is probably 6 years old and named Nanako (菜々子）. On the way home, we stop at the gas stand and you meet another high schooler who works there. He tells you that you should get a job at the gas stand. At home, the dad gets called into work and you find out that he's a detective. You watch TV while finishing dinner. The game is really focused on television. Even in the intro movie, there's a bunch of shots of a TV news cast. I really don't see how a lot of these cut scenes are going to translate to the American version since I doubt anyone can relate to this stuff. It will be interesting if they keep everything or not.
Ok, finally freedom to explore the house. You save at the calendar. It looks like instead of the Full Moon, this game focuses on the weather. So everyday is rainy, cloudy, or sunny.. and you can check this on the TV. The only other options in the house are checking the fridge and making a 弁当 (boxed lunch). So I check the weather, and go upstairs to my room. Nothing very interesting, and the game says I'm tired... so I'll sleep until the next day. School is tomorrow.
I don't know why anyone would buy new from gamestop... and also why anyone would preorder. You know games like never sell out at a real store like target.
I was playing through the Arcade mode on normal with Xianghua and had a really tough time with the Apprentice (the second last enemy), but had no problem with Algol or whoever was after him. I felt like the A.I. was really strong for his character, or that his attacks are too fast or something. I'm certainly not the best player out there, but it took me like 25 mins to beat him, yet only one or two matches for all the others.
Anyone else feel this way, or was I just having a bad match?
Something you can use against him, though: when he uses "force" moves a lot and you block it, he kind of gets stunned or dazed.
(ps. I haven't played as him or against human as him yet)
I was having a lot of fun online yesterday night. Was being matched up against equal or better talent most of the time. Even against the button mashers, I had some close matches... just have to get good enough to defend against it. Vertical attacks are easy.. just move out of the way. Only 1 spammer in my 5 or so matches.
Anyways, I couldn't join other people's games, so I just created a session and it matches up quick and easy.
ps. this was on "ranked matches"... i couldn't find anyone playing unranked
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