The Alan Parsona 4 Project
Having a Schizophrenic discourse with Persona 4 in the absence in the knowledge of the existence of RPGs.
Here you are, a Nameless Person Antagonist sent to his uncle's for a year because both of his Parents are working overseas. Along the way you are given the ability to be an empty shell, by way of old coot in a space limo, and faced with the realization that it's probably going to be up to you to face a trivial situation and overcome it, by way of jumping into a TV.
It's a story that's been told for years, just not like this. The Games of The Shin Megami Tensei Series have always had a certain charm to them, for being games that have nothing to do with the Stereotypical rule of RPGs. In most SMT games you are faced with a lots of Obscure Mature tones and Dungeons of what it must be like to have Lucifer hitting it's Menstrual cycle.
I'm not going to pretend that I know anything about the Persona series, Because like Most people (assuming) I was introduced Via hilarious Antics of an Endurance Run on a Website with a name as fitting as it's own community. But That's where it started, It whistled at me, grabbed me by the tie, pulled me in and force fed me A Reality of what it would be like if I was playing the game, only I actually wasn't.
So what the hell am I talking about again?
Persona 4 is part Role Playing Game, Part Dating Sim, Part nancy Drew and the Funky Bunch. Although I don't think it's fair to call it a dating sim, because you can pretty much Date everyone and show your strict Christian Upbringing by only going as far as Hugging. Which is Odd for a Game that Has no Problem Wheeling it's Penis around on a Golden Chariot.
But You go to High School, And instead of hanging out With your friends watching TV and eating snacks, you (Like I guess I already mentioned) Jump into the TV and Kill things to Stop Murders.
It's a Coming of Age Story really, as you Face shadows to Help discover what kind of person you secretly were this whole time.
But this is where shit hits the fan, because there is two ways you can play this. You can either play the game the way you want to play it. Or, because the game has multiple endings, and SMT games are notorious for probably having some kind of difficulty in some way shape or form, you Are encouraged by Peers to have your hand held the entire time so you can get the True 'nuff ending.
By all means Necessary, if you want to, I would suggest it, But Don't go around telling people that you're playing the Game, because a lot of people will tell you that you're playing it wrong, Because RPGs is a Serious Business, and Persona 4 happens to be one of those games Where's shits going to have to get real if you want to do it "right", Otherwise, You Shave Time off your life because of a few Moral choices, The Episode About Knocking over what you just built for yourself or Getting on with the next season.