Just as the title says, all of you have convinced me I need to take a break from trying to play every Final Fantasy game and pick this one up.

I'm about 5 hours in (or after the 3rd boss - however we want to say it spoiler free), and I have to say I'm hooked by the story. I am enjoying how they present the story and the gameplay - piece by piece, adding layer upon layer. I did try to explain the plot so far to a friend of mine who never heard of this game before, and the quizzical look was great.

Before anyone asks, I am playing the PS2 version (no desire to own a Vita), so I'm going old school.

Funny thing is, I totally get everyone's remarks regarding fog now, and it's often foggy in the mornings where I live. Freakin' gah!

Nice. I hope you enjoy it as much as *we* did - it's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close.

@supertuna said:

Nice. I hope you enjoy it as much as *we* did - it's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close.

We are not one, we are legion.

To the collective!

One of us! One of us! :P

(PS Welcome)

Watch out for the fog!

@madman356647 said:

Just as the title says, all of you have convinced me I need to take a break from trying to play every Final Fantasy game and pick this one up.

I'm about 5 hours in (or after the 3rd boss - however we want to say it spoiler free), and I have to say I'm hooked by the story. I am enjoying how they present the story and the gameplay - piece by piece, adding layer upon layer. I did try to explain the plot so far to a friend of mine who never heard of this game before, and the quizzical look was great.

Before anyone asks, I am playing the PS2 version (no desire to own a Vita), so I'm going old school.

Funny thing is, I totally get everyone's remarks regarding fog now, and it's often foggy in the mornings where I live. Freakin' gah!

You are ether super good at hitting the x button, or that game gets super slow later in the game. Of coarse I am playing on the vita and they did add a whole lot of days, a bunch of dungeons, and a lot of new things you can do at night, but i should finish at about 90-93 hours.

Ok, so I know it's been a while duders...life got busy buildin' them RL social links. Necroing my own thread due to the fact that it's related. No sense making a new one, right? [don't kill me Mods!]

So, I thought I'd give a progress report (still trying to maintain spoiler-free). I'm about 27 hours in now, and needless to say, I found the "series of twists" as I shall call it (aka July...). Holy freakin' gah! This game has done a great job of keeping story hook after hook moving forward, while taking its time to progress (so far, nothing feels "rushed" or forced). I will say, a lot of the diversions that come up (camping trip, etc) do a great job of 1) showing the humanity of the characters, and 2) maintaining the idea that everything is happening alongside real life...well, as real as one can get when you're jumping into TV's I guess.

Either way, I'm hooked. I've found it's becoming one of my favorite RPG's by far, and that's hard to do in my book. I can also see me wanting to do another runthrough someday, but I think that'll be a LOOOONG way off when I've forgotten the story.

And I've finally made a decision between Yukiko and Chie. In a decision that was harder to decide that what team LeBron James should play for, I chose Chie. [Yes, I know of the others, but I'd rather avoid the details now since I'm *TRYING* to avoid spoilers].

And to respond to @Dagbiker: I'm playing beginner, and I'm a quick reader. The X button and I are also well acquainted. But, I've noticed where the story progresses quickly (or feels like it does), the dungeons take the most time (namely the "go in, get to a point, bomb out, rest, and continue" routine).

Last note: the Junes jingle and theme are too gawddamn catchy!

'Til next time duders!

Just a monthly update I suppose.... no sense making a new thread.

I've hit the endgame portion (Where the infamous "hospital scene" occurs), and MAN, there's some heavy stuff going down. I've got some gripes about the end pacing, but I'll get to that somewhere where I can properly tag it. That all said, I've really enjoyed this game. As of now, I'm at 54 hours. I've NEVER played a RPG that long before (Skyrim sits at 30 for reference). Interesting part is, usually I get the "endgame blues", where I just don't want to finish the game (usually because the story peters out, or it blows it's collective load too soon), but I've been actually more driven to finish this one, like "unable to sleep at 3:30 AM so let's play some Persona" driven [aka. obsession].

That all said, this is definitely in the running for my best game of all time (currently held by FF6 - aka 3 in US). The ending will decide that for me in time. Either way, gawddamn you guys for convincing me to play this, and gawddamnit if I haven't loved every minute of it.

Once it's all said and done, I feel like actually making a blog about this game from my introverted point of view. Being introverted, it's been kinda....eye opening to see how friendships/relationships are "supposed to work" (for lack of a better term). It's gotten me thinking I guess, and in a way, it's been helping me introspect into issues I've gone through for a while, while breaking me out of an awful personal funk. Kind of silly how that kind of inspiration comes from a vidja game, huh?

The score to date: Rainy Day Beef Bowl - 7. Me - 0. I lack the diligence to master tha beef!

@madman356647: I've seen same kind of responses in /vita reddit, regarding how effective friendship / companionship theme is to the player. It's quite interesting since the game absolutely lacks any subtlety in its narration, yet these particular themes work insanely effectively because of that.

Maybe it's the high school setting? I don't know, but it's kinda glorious near the end.

Sooo... I finished it. True ending of course. And, wow has it been a ride. ~60 hours for me (on beginner...yea, I know. I'ma noobie and I suck). I ALMOST hit "Let's go again" when I got back to the title screen.

Hopefully, I'll get some time to make a blog as previously mentioned, but for now, I'm just ready to rest. Ok, maybe I'll play a lighter RPG (like Pokemon). This is pretty much a lock for one of my fave games of all time. And even more interestingly, I have you duders to thank for this one. I had no intention of looking into this franchise, but now I'm a bloody P4 fanboy. So first off, thanks all for the suggestions/comments.

As for SMT4, I'm going to just avoid that for now. 60 hours of game in 2 months (that's all it's been?!) is plenty for now. Time for the backlog! Next stop: Luigi's Mansion: Derk Muun.

Short version of a review for those on the fence: 10/10. I don't use those numbers much (like 2 other games: Super Mario World, FF6). The story is well done, and the characters are written in a way that make them feel real. They have flaws, they have issues, they react to you in various ways. Games like this don't often come along, and it hasn't had any problems with aging. It's very accessible as well, which is interesting once you look up all of the fusions/attacks/enemy types, etc. My only issues is with some of the endgame pacing (as it takes some leaps), and that the dungeons can get repetitive. However, since the dungeon issue is kind of a "backseat" thing, it can be overlooked. The best way I can describe this game is "interactive anime". For anyone who is not an anime fan, or wants more emphasis on combat over story may not be a fan of this one though (somewhat polarizing in that regard). Otherwise, this is a classic that challenges a lot of RPG conventions in good ways.

Buy a Vita and Persona 4 Golden.

You're welcome.