Hey, everybody, it's Friday. Gotta get down on Friday. It is.
It is a mandate from here at giant bomb dot com. Welcome to
the Giant BombCast Revengeance. We have a lovely group of folks today. I
couldn't assemble a better group of people to talk about some of the games we
will be chatting about today. I'm your host, Jim choa. Giant BombCast
Revengeance is brought to you by n c XT. Joining me today, powering
up the the vultron that we are today, Turbo Sean McDowell. Yes,
empowering me is the nice Yuruba mate that I'm on now. Thanks for our
Argentinian friends. I needed this today. Our own Argentinian adjacent friend, Michael
him is here. Shit, I'll take it. Hey, listen, sometimes,
you know, growing up, most people thought I was Mexican. So
that's you know, we're the Latinos of Asia. So I'll take Argentinian.
I'll take Diego there feels, and then the Latino of Asia, of Europe,
Mike Manati. Don't give that to him. I think that's right Italian,
that's Italian's absolutely yeah. As the only actual Latino here, I'll give
it to him, sure, Mike. I mean our Argentinian friend, Christian,
loves some story about like some Italian person about to be executed, like
somewhere in like the Congo or something. That the last moment, some guy
like comes racing. It's like, wait, don't shoot him, he's not
what he's Italian. That reminds me of that of that terrible Dragon Ball super
clip when they decided to, hey, let's go make a bad guy,
but let's just call him Goku Black. Yeah. Yeah, we don't need
You can find that clip online if you just search some specific keywords. It's
things are a little different in Japan. All I'm gonna say is, don't
don't look up what's call in Japan. You don't want to know, man,
you don't want to know. I actually don't know Pokemon. I'm gonna
look at it. No, let's keep it moving. Okay, things are
different. It's a different anyways Japan. What jall? Oh, Mike,
I just need to gauge your reaction to figure this out. Yeah. I
think it's just like Sparkling. It's just it's not whitey like I thought it
might be. To be clear, the power of context, you can kind
of discern what's name is Japanese Pokemon company in Japan? Maybe maybe maybe reevaluate
something we can rename Pokemon I think right. Uh, gents, we're gonna
we're here today to talk about Persona three reload, but before we talk about
that big honkin game, anyone playing anything else? Anyone? How's everyone feeling
February? Now? Again, I'm tired, dog. I think I've spent
ninety five percent of January assigned to covering a very long RPG. Yeah,
and so I've I went from Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth straight into Persona three
reload and these are very long games. Sixty hours in Infinite Wealth review on
hit video game website GameSpot dot com and another seventy hours on P three reload
on hit video game website i GM dot com. So man, been very
impressive. Good thing there's no big j RPGs coming out in February. Oh
who's to say? Who's to say? Oh? God? Yeah, I
kind of felt that hardcore after when we got P three codes come in,
and I was like, where do I start juggling and stop playing like a
Dragon where I'm having a lot of fun to actually check out this other game
for the podcast on the website. But Mike, before we get to Persona
three, you wanted to talk about Penny's Big Breakaway. Yeah. I actually
got sent kind of a preview code for this. So this is the game
by the studio that did Sonic Mania, that really really good retro style two
D Sonic game. This is not with Sega, has nothing to do with
Sonic, but this is a three D platform that they're making now, and
it's still very Sonic adjacent in a lot of ways, Like there's a bit
of Sonic Adventure here in terms of how this feels. But I think because
it's not necessarily Sonic, they don't have the problem that a lot of the
three D Sonic games fall into, where they feel this desperate need to make
it all fast, fast, fast, because like you know, Sonic fast,
Sonic fast and being really fast and a three D platform is just very
difficult to control sometimes, so they have to, you know, they're redesigning
how those games work all the time to try to find something that works,
and they get close. I think Frontiers feels pretty good. The Boost games
can sometimes feel all right, but here it is it feels much more like
a traditional three D platformer, right, especially one of those kind of I
don't know if isommetrics away put it, but you know that kind of three
D platformer where there's like the pooled back camera something like maybe more like an
Ash Show rescue mission or chase cam, like the chase Cam kind of thing,
or even Kirby in the Forgotten Land or sack Boy like one of those.
But you do have a pretty fun moveset here. Your whole gimmick is
you have this yo yo and you can use it to attack, but you
can also use it to kind of do this swing jump wherever you are.
You can grab a ledge with it. You can also spin it up and
then roll on it like Sonic spin dash, So you have that whole thing
going right, absolutely, But the whole game just also has this really nice
kind of why two K aesthetic if you remember, just sort of the way
games looked and felt at that time, with the sort of cheery visuals and
music. So it's absolutely nailing that. I am very impressed. I think
it's super cool to see these smaller teams being able to make really cool three
D platformers. Now. It's kind of like back in the day when we
weren't getting two indy two D games, and all of a sudden we had
these indies and smaller teams stepping up to bring back those games. I think
that's it's happening a little bit already we had stuff I had in time and
whatnot. But excuse me, this is really promising. I was very impressed.
Mike. I don't know why I feel like you may be the expert
in this, but I've always been curious to go back and check out Billy
Hatcher. Oh, I know why you think I'm the expert. Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know why I feel I think three D platformers
have a certain esthetic platform with tubes on it. Team. Oh yeah,
just fine, it's fine. Yeah, you go, you go try It's
like, you know, it's a little bit of Glover. There's a little
gloverness to it. Remember Glover. Oh unfortunately, yeah, wow, thentunate
helper. Yes, exactly. I at least say unfortunately because uh, the
only my only exposure to Glover was at a Nintendo sixty four demo stall at
my local Toys r US and any and every time I timed out to go
to Toys r US. One of the employees was always hogging the machine playing
Glover. Well, you gotta love the glove. Jan Jr. Tortoise,
that's the best. When Glover was sponsoring Monday Night Raw, so Jr.
Would have to say, God, I love the glove, Yola. There
is actually a game that I I did play that is not Infinite Wealth or
Persona. I just remember. It is called It's from the same people who
made A Space for the Unbound. Oh, it is a It is a
short time loop game called Test Test Test. It's free, and it is
wild because it's it's kind of like a psychological horror that is a commentary on
on like work culture and working in corporate life and how your bosses treat you
in the workplace. So I highly recommend checking that out. It's not the
most elegant puzzle style adventure game, but I think once you start to kind
of dig it's it's also has arg elements to So I blasted through that in
about an hour hour and a half. It's free. I think it's worth
it, and I love seeing more creative games come out of Southeast Asia,
such as this Man. You know, yeah, y'all gotta check that out.
Doesn't cost anything, So support the hommies, you know, you know,
yeah, I like the space for the unvent a lot because of your
WRAQ Michael so mat test test tests, Sean, have you been playing anything
else that you can talk about or talk about well? Me being me Jay,
of course, I've been playing a lot of Tech and seven, you
know, yeah, seven, seven, eight. So I got used that
it's like when the year flips over. I'm still saying twenty twenty three,
you know it is. But like Sean, I always had an little inkling
that you were little. You had a skech of like a hipsternist to you.
So I wouldn't put it past you to play Tech and seven when hotness
knocked us, ain't in eight, so I kind of you know, I
gotta go back every once in a while. But no, Yeah, I've
been playing a lot of Tech and A. Been playing with my friends.
Me and Mike go a few rounds or whatever. We're like doing a show
together or whatever afterwards, and that game is just a freaking blast man.
We played a little bit for upf DR Day and then been talking about here
or there. The one thing that I wanted to give more time with was
the online before really talking about because everyone knows. But at this point,
the story is incredible. Arcade Quest that's just a fantastic tutorial mode, and
you got all these character stories and other little bits of single player content.
When it comes to the multiplayer, I really had to put it through itspaces
because you know, I that train for tournaments and or anything like that.
I got Big One a few months that I need to get ready for,
so I need online to be good big Yeah. You gotta get that full,
full fledged experience. And uh, it's better than I was anticipating.
Okay, but it ain't perfect. And we live in a world where like
three Fighters six is basically perfect online. And so going into tecond eight when
you have a really good connection with your opponent and you can see if it's
wired or Wi Fi because you know a lot of consoles are probably gonna be
on Wi Fi. Oh I like that. You can see that. You
can see that, yeah, because it'll be a Wi Fi indicare if it's
Wi Fi or wise, it'll be like the cell phone bars if it's wired.
And uh, if you go into Wi Fi match Man, that is
a coin flip. You never know, like it could be okay, like
maybe a little jittery but fine, or it could just be freezing every couple.
I've seen some nasty workout there with the Wi Fi players, you know
what I'm saying. And there's there's that, and then if just someone's connection
sort of shift the bed for a little bit. Like I was playing with
my buds the other night and the game just frozers and were like, what
happened? It's well, wife turned on Netflix upstairs from my buddy and I'm
like, ah, I'll do it to this game because they Yeah. So
apparently from what we've been know s us out, it has roll back and
not going it to a degree where it's like it's kicking in, but not
in the way that we wanted to to cover up those network hiccups that can
happen unexpectedly, and that's what you want. People have heard roll back neck
with flaying game fans. We just throw it out there all the time.
That's why we want because Wentz properly implement it covers up the really bad connections.
So that's like the one blemish on tech and eight. I would say
it's also getting into a lobby and playing with friends is still a little funky.
I'm willing to overlook that a little bit because you know, it's still
launch window. They're figuring some of that stuff out. We'll see what happens.
Like the bug that we had there our day jan where you can only
spectate one match and then the spectators get that's still there. So yeah,
I was playing with my friends. We had to like all have Discord streams
pulled up, and I was kind of annoying. But for the most part,
like I think these are things that can be fixed, and the infrastructures
there is just a little janky. So I think the online for this game,
it could be better, but it's it's the best that a band I
Napco fighting game has ever been at the very least, so we're getting somewhere
with it. Well, Sean, I actually want to talk to you more
about Tech and eight. What is uh, what is the FGC scene feeling
with tech and eight, Because what's the general beat on the street? They
dig it, Okay, everyone's happy, very happy, always in the street.
That's crazy. Hey, they're they're already street fighting in the streets.
Might as well do everything else, Okay, But I remember specifically the the
one EVO that I attended in person. The most hyped I got was watching
the Tech and Blocks specifically, so like, I'm especially excited, like Tech
and eight has to be at EVO this year, right, oh yeah,
yeah, well yeah, I want to go. I've never been to EVO,
and like I want to. I can drug you guys. I've said
many times on the BombCast. I have had the evil reports over the years.
Man, EVO is more fun than any convention in across the industry because
there's so much to do with. There's so much to get excited about.
It's true. And Tech and seven like last year was yeah dog, like
that game is old and it was still again it was good. It was
a little it ended pretty defensive, so we didn't have as many hype moments.
But I think back to like Combo Breaker twenty nineteen. I think it
was Tech and seven still a little fresh. Things were still a little spicy
back then, and there were moments that like the crowd was chanting. We
had like USA versus I think it was Korea a couple of times where you
know, you have those rivalries that happened because teaching such a worldwide game.
There were moments that I will never forget, like you feel an energy in
the room when like you, USA is about to get eliminated. We have
one rep left in the bracket, and everyone literally stands up and does the
spirit bomb. We all have our arms in the air, where like you
and and holler and and just dude wins, this room pops off. Like
ten thousand people jump up and down, screaming on top of their lungs.
It's the coolest fucking thing. Tecan is the most international. I think it's
like the most diverse in terms of like countries that are represented in the brackets,
because definitely like ar like King of Fighters tends to be pretty diverse too,
but arslin Ash is like representing Pakistan and all has like a bunch of
homies winning too, and like like we don't really we don't really fuck with
Filipino champ, but he was one of the best to do it for a
while and like and like, yeah, a bunch of Kareem players, Japanese
players, US of course, it's all across the board. Man Tecan is.
Tecan is probably the most exciting fighting game to go to an event for.
Yeah, and the thing is like the wild thing, you know,
we if you attend attend a convention, whether I don't know if you have
the ability to go to an E three in the past or even a packs.
There's kind of like a shutdown time, right if you're not interested in
playing like the board games or whatever. But like EVO goes for a long
time during the day, and just like even if you're just like watching a
game and not even like the big big games, but like you, when
I went with Ben Pack, I passed by two hotel rooms even on the
way back to my room cash games, going, oh yeah, money matches
out the ass, dude, Absolutely, it is insane. No snitch,
I'm not. I didn't see it. Come on, yeah, and then
the god, I just looked at the dates for EVO twenty twenty four,
and I will be on vacation during that time when Vegas. It's funny because
I will have to go to Vegas after Evo's done, like the day after
EVO, and it's you're already gonna be there. What are you talking about,
Well, I'm going to go to Japan this summer. Oh then coming
back to Disney c that's way more important. Yes, yes, uh,
Mike, Mike, my as you know, my partner is also a Disney
fan. And then she looks at me and be the adult you know that
she's a Disney adult. You now, I've been to the I've bet your
I've been to your apartment. I had dinner with y'all. I didn't get
the vibe that she was a Disney I've gone if you had known. Yeah,
I don't know about this man. Uh. There were at least like
three popcorn buckets on our bookshelf. There was any wizard hat there as well.
Michael's putting the pieces together. Is that why she warned me about now
I can't see it, and I can't I can't see it when it come
over now. But Mike, you'd get a big kick out of this.
She looks me in the eyes and goes like, I hope you know,
since I'm front of the bill for the tickets until you pay me back.
Uh, we're going to Disneyland and Disney see for two days. Absolutely the
first time I went to not even Paris, France, but the first chance
I got to go to France. I took a train for like four hours
to go to Paris to see Paris, but mostly to go to Disneyland.
Paris. So I get it in terms like like, what is the size
of Disneyland Paris in comparison to like the USA parks? Yeah, it's it's
I mean, it's similar to Disneyland in California that it's two parks. The
ones pretty small, though the kind of downtown Disney area is probably at the
same size. But then there's like a giant hotel plaza right by that that
dwarfs the hotel complex that you would get in Disneyland. So yeah, definitely
compares more to Disneyland than to disney World, which is absolutely huge. Okay,
Okay, I'll get everyone little treats and trinkets and figure out how to
send send it out. I'll so many pictures, you know what. I'll
make like a little little Disney Sea vlog just for you, Mike mine.
I would love that, love that more than anything, of course you would.
I'm just gonna whisper, like, Mike, look at this. Are
they guys like this? I would? I'd be like, you're right,
I do like that. Yeah. I'll leave enough space in the audio track
for you to chime in as well. Appreciate that. Yeah, I can't
really see your reaction to that Sinbad ride with that song. You're gonna love
it. So Sindbad is like not like the comedian Sindbad but no, yeah,
like that guy who went on adventures and stuff. Okay, like he's
only he's got an equivalent. It's like it's a small world in Disney Ce
and it has a very very catchy song. Okay, Okay, I'm hearing
from the chat that it they've gone stricter and vlogging. Don't worry, I'll
find a way. I'll always find a way to point a camera or something.
Chance. I think it's time to talk about the big game at hand.
I'm gonna play the music just because let's go, Baby, Baby Baby,
the one Persona three reload. I'm gonna say this now. I'm gonna
say I'm gonna start a conversation about Persona three now, Okay, twenty hours
in Wow, I don't like damn it, jan and I want to and
I wanted to assemble three of the three big Persona heads, uh, three
three dear friends and say that I don't I'm not what's wrong. I don't
know if you can call me a dear friend. Oh you didn't even first
I find out and the next thing. I know, Jan Ship's on,
Jan You're what isn't my religion? Right here? We don't do this in
this house. Come on, man, what's wrong? I guess I guess
I'll start it off the front. I think Persona three Reload might be my
favorite game of all time. Yeah, okay, so here's the thing.
Here's here's what I I. I need someone to talk me off if here,
because I'm twenty hours in and I think the game looks absolutely amazing.
It looks it looks gorgeous, and like my only I said this on the
BombCast earlier this week, My only introduction to the series originally is just seeing
screenshots of a PSP, so I have no frame of reference. The only
things I knew about P three was that they use the Revolver the Revokero evokre
to some of their persona, and I always thought that was metal as hell.
And then I know the baby Baby, Baby Baby song that might was
saying earlier, or the remakes Babe Babe Bybee. If you're good, you
get back attacks. Yeah, if you gotta get back shots to get the
good song, we'll get the new song. Oh okay, Actually that explains
why it's different when I okay, cool, Yeah, a different one.
It's like Royal, where you get the new song, if you get if
you get backshots normal song. If you get the normal, you don't get
an ambush. And I've heard like middle middling things on June Pey of people
either really liking him or hating the he's your first friend, come on,
he's nice to you. I'm gonna say this is up front. June pay
is the best version of that archetype because he breaks out that archetype. Right,
So we got June pey y and we're talking about I love I love
Regio. How you played PERSONA four because fucking sucks. The worst pathetic is
a pathetic loser. You know percona five guy, he gets kind of mean
and stuff. I don't know, I don't like him. Plus also the
third time we did that trope at that point it was a little tires dog
rules homophobe. I didn't know. But yes, we're talking about all the
fix in the remake. They'll be fine, all right. Well, I
mean I have hope because the Brazona team nowadays a lot more open to a
lot more open to revisiting a lot of those elements, which and that's something
they addressed in this game, right because I remember, okay, because I
remember that being a controversy in like a worry when P three R was there
was a beach scene that kind of I think it was mostly all which is
very different now. It's yeah, in the in the original one, it
was a it was a transphobic dialogue scene with all the guys. They're they're
out on the beach trying to holler at girls and ship. And then then
they have like this whole thing with a like a trans who's supposed to be
a trans character, say some transphobic ship. They revisited they rewrote that section,
but you can tell that they it's like here, let's go to let's
put the like original scene, but like it's changed the dialogue so that scene
still happens, it just plays out completely differently. So yeah, there are
things like that. And in P three reload, like I did, I
almost forgot that in three P three fests and if you play the male route
in Portable two that when you max out the social link for any of your
classmates, your female classmates, you have to date them, like they become
your girlfriend by default by maxing it out and I was like, holy shits,
Yeah one of them talks about how she was like cheated on or anything
like that, but I yah's to it, but that's not the case,
and reload you can actually be like, hey, we're like really good friends,
congrats, max ranked ten social links. So yeah, yeah, it's
like a lot. It's like a bare minimum type shit. Yeh fo getting
added to it is just very good for it. Yeah, that's that's a
big thing here, and it's actually a sticking point for me this game is
it's beautiful. For one, it's a fantastic visual overall. But for the
most part, it is pretty one to one the original Vanilla Persona three,
just with quality of life and gameplay changes from later games, specifically like the
where Persona is at with five Royal. And I think that does mean that
some of the three isms that always bug me are really still bugging me,
Like Tartaris is still boring, and I to be honest, if I didn't
have the steam deck back there to like grinding those out while watching a Twitch
stream or something, I would just be bored out of my mind during that
segments, Like yeah, they're faster than ever because of some of the quality
of life updates, but still wandering down hallways, it all look the same
for like, you know, twenty fours at time or whatever. So in
Persona three, like, the dungeon is a randomly generated thing and the gimmick
is every time you go in it gets changed again. Persona fours dungeons work
the same. It was really Percent of five was the first one where they
made the dungeons kind of hand crafted and bespoke, and they have these set
pieces and they're like five. Yeah, and there's still like an area for
randomly generated stuff in person of five, but it's not nearly as important as
those main dungeons. I think that will be a sticking point maybe to people
coming to this from Percent of five. I'm I don't mind us so much.
I'm but I'm somebody who played Persona three million right back when it came
out, so I have some affinity for that original tartar risk. I do
think there is something kind of fun about the just like the random maze element
of it and the exploration. It's very dungeon crawler like, right, and
yeah, it kind of goes back to the s MT roots a bit there.
Yeah, yeah, so I think so. My biggest problem so far
is that it just feels like I'm following the same routine and I just have
the same worries that I always have when I'm playing a Persona game of am
I maximizing my day properly? Am I? Like? Am I going to
pause the game to look up the quiz answer of the day? The answer
activity? Use the use the network function because like I always turn that off,
so maybe I'll turn out, yeah, okay, you get all the
answers straight up off that he actually, oh okay, all right, yeah,
but there's a bunch of our stuff that helps you with that too,
because now not only do you have the mini map, so you can basely
fast travels very easily. I did really enjoy that. It's a great change.
It's a game. You have text messages now, that's that's the other
big one. Yeah, because that was a big thing, especially in Persona
five. You know, obviously I have a smartphone. They pull up and
your friends are in like a group chat with you, and they'll like let
you know, hey, I'm available today. And now you got that in
three where the character buzsts out their flip phone and they got email, so
you know period appropriate and or I think because it does still take place in
two thousand and six, but that's a great way to keep track of Okay,
these people are available today. You're even on mailing lists for like the
restaurants, which pro tip you go do restaurants both eating and working in the
early game because getting two stat points and sometimes getting some cat for working.
Yeah, And I think my problem was like halfway through Persona five Royal,
I think I stopped just playing the game and I started playing it with like
a guide next to me, just so I maximize everything. That's a huge
problem, yeah, because like I just want to make sure like I'm not
missing out on anything by like a certain day or what. I get that
anxiety. And you know what you want to do is maybe find a happy
in between. And that's like to read the basic tips, and the kind
of basic tip is in the daytime, do your social links. At nighttime,
do your stat boosts, and try to prioritize, prioritize some of those
things that give you better step boots, like go into the arcade. But
I mean another part of it is a little point and it's hard to say,
hey, just don't be anxious about it, but you kind of have
to let it go a little bit and just sort of do your best.
And hey, like, no matter what, you're going to beat the game
and get the ending, and you're going to max out the social links that
you probably want to. It's not like like in the Persona for Golden Right,
if you don't max out the social link with that new character, you're
not going to get that whole extra dungeon or something like that. That was
fucked up. So that's where a lot of a lot of people in five
Royal missed the Last Palace and that whole story arc, which is like twenty
hours worth of content and some of the best shit I've ever seen in an
rpges. A lot of people miss that because they didn't do the social link
with the counselor in time, and I'm like, that's a goddamn shame.
But there's none of that in p three. If this eases you a little
bit, have you played Persona three before? Jam? No, No,
not at all. Okay, I'll say that I think Persona three has some
of the best social links in the entire series, but it also has some
of the worst. Yeah, because for everyone where you have where like I
really like that, Hey, hey, this neighborhood kid is dealing with her
parents getting a divorce and everything. I really like that one because it's like,
oh, that's something I want to have expected. But then you have
the dude who's like the king of eating or whatever, and that's all just
about it's just about a large kid eating a lot. It's like, oh,
right, that one, So that's Arkhana and this one rules. That's
such a good social link, right, Okay, go the guy is dying,
that's that's that's a sun Arcana. But like I just assumed it was
because his whole thing, his name and the menu is dying young man.
Like damn, it's a very touching story, I think. To that to
that point is that as Sean Sean and Mike had mentioned, this is this
is almost a lot of it is one to one from the original game.
So a lot of those a lot of those things that haven't aged well still
come through. And that that's because like, like the franchise has evolved so
much, especially in terms of how it incorporates a lot of those social elements
into the game. So you're gonna see a lot of like Kenji the your
first classmate who wants to chill with you that will fucking sucks, and his
social like his ass and then you'll have Yeah. So there's a lot of
hits and misses. I think like one of the the rival track team guy
is like one of the best ones too, So it's you. There are
some that you can probably pick out and be like, I actually like that
full. I don't want to I want to spend time with them, and
you don't really need to think about like, oh well, I don't upgrade
this Arkana. So when I fuse personas, they're not gonna be as strong.
It's like you'll find you'll figure it out. You'll you'll better persona.
Yeah, a few social lengths, you are going to get a good enough
persona stayble to beat the game. Yeah, and uh, to preface us
a little bit, me and jan are around the same point, like around
twenty hours, Like I just got Fuka on my team, so like,
you know, that's like a third ish the way through. So uh,
Michael, correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't think it changes later.
But uh, there are no social length perks correct, like outside of
you know, just the uh you get better fuses. There's nothing like in
Person of five you could get like when you rank up the the social lengths.
Sometimes they would have stuff that happens. That's that's how you would get
like baton pass and things like that. Yea, even beyond that, Yeah,
so certain things would change. So the so with the social link system
itself, no, but there are so One of the things that I thought
was one of the best additions and changes for Reload is that they have separate
social scenes with and social events with these characters. So yeah, so after
you get Fuka into your party, that's when they introduce like gardening, watching
TV, cooking with them, reading books. So those are ways to upgrade
your stat points. And at the same time, the more the more time
you spend with the specific character, they get stat boosts and stat perks that
go into battle. And then so with the male party members too, is
that there were no male party members social links in three and three fests and
a male round portable. But what they did to make up for that was
they added separate distinct social events with them in particular, and I think it's
really important to check your phone because they'll text you like Akiko will be like,
Hey, I'm chilling outside the station. Do you have a minute?
Do you want to kick it? Let's get some food or something. And
those aren't just like hey, I'm gonna hang out with him and maybe get
a stat boost or get an academic point or whatever. Those actually lead to
revelatory moments for those care there. And so those are scenes that are specifically
written for reload. And one of the things I mentioned in my review is
that those new scenes have like have a have a heightened quality quality because they
were written. And so when you have the contrast for old social links that
are pretty much the same as they were in the original game, and then
in twenty twenty four you have these kind of thoughtful and touching moments with with
your bros, there is there's a noticeable contrast and quality you could tell what
was newly written. But those are also the ways in which you get new
perks for like their theogy attacks and they got stat boosts and it's it's like
super helpful stuff. So I highly recommend seeking that stuff out. That's a
big new thing too, that Theorgy, which I just got a little while
ago. Yeah, they have added limit breaks to Persona, which you know,
it makes all the sense in the world. Of course, give everyone
like a flashy super attack in Persona that just yeah, of course that clicks,
and that's that's one of those layers that stuff that I think really starts
flashing this out. But I did want to address in the live chat here
there was a little confusion. It looks like people might have known because of
how we're talking about this being very faithful to the original. You can control
your teammates, to be clear, like faith a person of three portable where
that was also implemented. Yeah, any like core gameplay stuff you would expect
out of Persona nowadays, is there? So yeah, controlling your teammates,
the baton passing which is now called shift and all that stuff in addition to
the new stuff like the RTSY. But I mean go ahead, jam oh
no, No, I just didn't know that that was a thing of the
original Persona three. That sounds curia, yeah, which I mean why Persona
three rules and might always rule? Is the aesthetics, right? I mean,
I can't tell you the smile I had on my face when I was
in the school and I was hearing that song for the first time. That's
done I was like, oh my gosh, I remember, just like it's
not tough than just like a song, especially kind of like a low five
song kind of gives me goosebumps. But dude, gosh, this soundtrack is
an all time great one. And plus having like that kind of flashyar UI
elements, right, Persona five killed it with the UI and UX right,
you have more of that in here too. The game just looks so good
with things like battle transitions and some of these UI effects, even just in
dialogue right then the menus like that is so much about what makes Persona incredible
to me, it's just how incredibly good they are at aesthetics. Yeah,
and speaking of like to touch, since you touched on the music, I
think that's one of the that is part of the Persona experience, Like the
music is part of that the series storytelling. In a way I've said this
before on After Dark this week, is that the singer. Each Persona game
has a specific singer for that soundtrack. It almost feels like that singer is
a narrator for this story because when you listen to what these songs are about
and what they're saying, they're kind of telling this story of what's happening in
that game, and they have a new singer, Osumi Takahashi, who's taking
over for Yui Kawa Mura, who has a very distinct voice, and a
lot of P three diehards such as myself, were like, ah, I'm
open to the idea of having a new singer for this soundtrack, but after
like spending seventy hours of this game, like, oh no, no,
she's part of the Persona family now, like for sure, And some some
of the re recording of the old songs might be take a little take some
getting used to, just because that's how we know Persona three to be.
But the brand new tracks they recorded for Reload are some of the some of
the best Persona songs period. The nighttime theme with and lotus juices back,
who's the rapper who is on three and Q and Q two, Yeah,
he's back too, and that Foel's got some wild bars, that Fee's got
some wild bars. But his flow is like so distinct and his voice is
so distinct, and he even sings on some of these tracks too. I'm
like, oh shit, he's got pipes. Yeah. So the soundtrack,
like the new songs, especially the color of Night, which is the nighttime
theme when you're roaming around, is one of the sweetest tracks songs I've ever
heard in a Persona game. Like it. I tear up listening to that
thing, because when you listen to what that song is about, and you
have when you have finished this game, and if you know what happens in
the story of this game, and you listen to a lot of these songs,
it gives me chills. Man. And so yeah, when it's like
you need someone get your back, and you know I got your back in
the cry, imaginic crowd goes yeah, this is It's so sweet. It's
very very sweet. Even the so the opening song for the intro movie,
like, I cannot watch that ope without breaking down completely. It is the
It is the purest representation of Persona three. Like the entire story, the
entire history of Persona three is represented in that animation and in that song.
It is. It is the best op I've seen ever in a Persona game.
It is one of the best songs ever in the series Dancing though,
Three Dancing, you know what I'm saying, Like I maintained Three Dancing is
the best soundtrack. So what what do you. What do you guys think
about the new voice cast here? I thought it was very good. It's
interesting how some a lot of them, like you told me they were new
voice actors, like maybe wouldn't even know. Some of them, like Goes,
sounded like different but still really work for me. I think getting a
new voice or the chairman is really good because he always sounded weird as helped
me in the Yeah, the majority of them are sound a likes, but
Akiko is the one that kind of stands out because if you used to that
like sort of raspier voice, like this does sound a little bit. It's
not like that one guy from the from like the do It Yourself the d
I I commercials or something. I think it was Home Deep. It's not
like the Home Deeper commercial guy. To me, I googled it the first
time I heard that commercial, like, I think that's Akey from PRISONA.
But damn, I actually dedicated a whole paragraph in my review to talk about
the voice cast because I think from front to back, the casting, the
recasting for this entire game is damn near perfect. There's a lot of you
know, these voices were originally recorded in like two thousand and six when this
game first came out, and so a lot has changed, Like a lot
of those voice actors are a lot more prominent now, especially like Liam O'Brien
who does make a cameo in reload. There's just a lot of those voice
actors are in different places now and some of them are just like you would
not want to associate with. I'll say you that much, okay. And
so from front back they did a whole recasting, and I think calling them
sounded likes is doing a disservice to how they both embody the original vision of
that character and then make it their own, And especially once you start to
what's the balls gets rolling on the more dramatic story moments in this game.
As you get later and later into it, the more they kind of really
step into these roles, especially with someone like Yukari, who has a lot
of baggage with her and she expresses that a lot at certain points in the
story. Her and Mitsuru have so much drama together and the way they go
back and forth is very believable. That's another thing too, is that the
voice cast expresses these characters in very realistic ways. So when Yukari is arguing
with someone, it feels like that's coming from the heart, and someone like
Junepe who's like a goofy ass dude who says like dumb shit, like you
really believe, like, oh, he is a dumb ass, and then
when he gets serious, that dude has the biggest heart in the entire crew.
And that's across the board like something. I really like Igus's new voice
actor. The one thing I did kind of miss was having the more robotic
aspect to her voice, because I guess is the robot, but I think
like Don Bennett steps into the role to give it a little bit more emotion,
that still feels like I guess as I remember her. So yeah,
I think it's I'm super impressed because that was one of the things I was
worried about it, like, oh, I'm so attached to who these original
voices were. Let's see how they can do it. I think it's a
good idea to recast the entire thing, but let's see how they can hold
up. And one killed it, especially Fuka. Fuka is probably the most
improved character to me, Like she was cool back back back in the original
games, but now it's like I adore Fuka, Like she's one of my
favorite characters now because of Susan Young who kind of re just like it's a
complete like retake of that character. Uh, and she does an incredible job
of embodying who Fuka is. Yeah, that's awesome to hear. I saw.
I'm not that far yet. I got my code later, so I'm,
you know, earlier than than even Sean and jan Are haven't gotten Fuki
yet. But Fuka was kind of a sticking point B and the original You're
like, did they fix Fuka like that? Yeah, something about her,
I don't know. She's like a seventy year old woman and yeah, that's
what I said. Yeah, but now she's original Fuka out then she sounds
a lot like Haru from a persona five different voice actors, but it's very
similar vibe as did have Fuka vibes, not like in a terrible way,
but she had some vibes. Yeah, so they sound similar. Yeah there.
I think the voice acting in general, like Michael said, like just
things are so different with voice acting now that the quality is going to be
higher because direction is better and everything like that, Like the performances are incredible
to be clear, sound alike. When I said that, only in terms
of like they try to like think, Mike said that if you say it,
Mike said, okay, never mind. It was a completely vallid thing
to say. No, definitely, only in the sense that like they want
people who like sounded similar to the original voice actor so it won't be super
jarring. Again. Akko is like the one where it's like, oh,
that's very different. That was the first one. I was like, okay,
like if yeah, if going in you told me it was the same
voice act and had been long enough since I played one. Thought a lot
of these were the same ones where I was like, oh, they recast
some of them, and then yeah, you know, I looked it up
afterwards. I'm like, oh, no, no, they they didn't.
Yeah, it's entirely recast and they do perform just absolutely in correctly. I
mean, it's it's very you can tell. You can start telling when like
you get to someone like June Pay where I thought Jumpey Jupey does always sounded
like a tool in the originally does always sounded like the goofy dude. But
now, yeah, Jumpey has ranged now and he actually like yeah, and
they there are small changes to the story and everything like that, both to
accommodate things like the orgy and all those new, smaller new concepts that they
did add in, but also did I actually did do some comparisons. That's
why I'm a little farther behind. I stopped and did some of this stuff.
Like I looked at scenes from the original compared to reload, and there
there's a lot of just like the scene is exactly the same, the script
is exactly the same, but these new performances are just so much better that
it just drives some of these moments home so much better. And it sells
it because Persona is it's half visual novel, really, and you need if
you're gonna have it mostly fully voice acted, which a lot of this is
like I think even more so in Persona five Royal maybe, which perhaps because
a smaller game that makes sense, but it's just they did such a great
job. But I love it. I think the the part that I've gotten
hung up about in my my time with the game is, uh, everything
else and in real life is very dour. Uh. And I think where
I'm currently at with with the game is I'm just waiting for like the those
little moments and those big payoffs. But to hear everyone talking so glowingly about
it. I think it's also because it came out probably the worst time after
Like a Dragon, because Like a Dragon is such a like a dumb himbo
game of like, let's fucking do it, guys, we got it,
I love you, uh. And then like it's you know, the darker
This is the darker persona by far, like like, you know, for
deal four deals with like a murder mystery, so obviously not the lightest thing
in the world, and whimsical though it's it's yeah, it's got whimsy in
the day for sure. And then five, you know, five addresses some
serious topics, you know, like like abuse from your superiors. It is
all a big theme of five and a lot of that stuff. But three
is just I mean, all you need to see is that, you know,
the devoker is a device they put to their head that looks like they're
shueing themselves dart Yeah like hell, like Dan said, yeah, it goes
places. Yeah, okay, all right. That's that's good to know because
every time I pause the game to save and just think about whether or not
I want to keep playing I'm staring at that menu and it's like this whole
game is dripping in swag, you know, and like, Mike, you
nailed it. It does bring me back to like that kind of like Y
two k ish two thousand and six era that after like one of my sessions
with the game, I wound up going on eBay kind of looking for cool
and P three players I'm never going to use. Yeah yeah, but like
it just yeah, okay, all right, like yeah, uh, what
if I told you that Persona three has always been my comfort game? Yeah
no, no, no, it's I don't think that's odd. Yeah that
checks out. Yeah yeah, when you're in the daytime segments like I get
that because it's chill, super chill. Yeah. I've replayed. I've replayed
fest and Portable a total of four times the lively it was always like my
comfort game to go to. So playing reload though, talking about like the
darkness and like how you know you have to I guess you have to be
in a certain mood to really accept P three on its own, to it
on its term media at it's on its on its terms, because it is
it does handle a lot of things that might hit very close to some people,
and I think for me, I dedicated a lot of this to my
review. It's talking about how playing this because it's almost one to one the
same story, but it is a completely different experience for me. A lot
has changed in my life since the last time I played Persona three, so
I have a like a fresh perspective on the same exact story, and it
hits completely It hit completely different now that we're like, I know what it's
like to go through loss, I know what tragedy feels like. I know
how to handle those things. I know how how much it breaks you down
because this whole game is there's constantly people dying around you, people losing loved
ones, having to grieve, having to move on so fast from the life
and P three. Back then, it was like I felt like this intense
sadness when when something tragic happens in the story, I'm like, oh man,
that's that's so sad. I feel terrible for that character. But now
when those things happen and I see that happen in this story, I'm like,
oh no, I get it now. I know that this character who
is handling it this specific way, I know exactly how that feels it just
so powerful that back in two thousand and six they nailed it with how they
told this story and what they did with it, and it kind of in
a way, it really puts P four to shame. I hate it,
say I got a fucking P four poster in the back here. I love
that game too, But in retrospect, they hit something. They hit a
like bigger topics like life, death and how to make the most of the
time that you have left. How do you handle your life when you know
you're about to die? And I think that like the social link with Aki
Nari, who's the guy chilling and who has a terminal illness, Like,
holy shit, dude, Like I have a different perspective on that with the
health issues that I've gone through, and now I understand what he's thinking.
Back then, I'm like, oh, this is so sad. Now I'm
like, oh shit, I can learn something from this guy. And then
so as you go through this whole story, it's it's dark, there's a
lot of death around it, but I think once it starts to come around,
it's about how you make the most of your time and how to appreciate
life. I think just Howard who did the review for a game spot.
I read a review and I think she quoted the Iliad and it's one of
the most beautiful ways to summarize Persona three is that everything is more beautiful because
we are doomed. And I think that's one of the themes about the game,
is accepting the inevitability of death. So what are you going to do
in the meantime? And that's what these all these characters in their own ways
go through that whole process throughout the game. It is one of the most
mature stories, not like oh, violence and darkness, but it has grown
up in that way that stands the test of time. I call it timeless
and powerful and all these other words in my review, but I really do
feel that that way. And I think the problem is, though, you
got to get through the gameplay to see all that stuff, so I tell
you, and like all jokes aside, I totally get the reservations that people
have from a gameplay perspective, and so yeah, yeah, And for folks
confuse this to like my negative feelings on the game, it's purely from a
gameplay perspective of just navigating through Tartarus and having that anxiety when it comes to
managing social links, and now hearing from y'all that like, Okay, just
go with the ones that I'm vibing with more so than feeling like I have
to max out every single person just because I don't want to miss out on
fusions and all that jazz. Okay, Like I'll circle back to it,
and yeah, I when when I booted up the game and then they have
like a line or something about, uh, what you do with your time?
I kind of just like, oh man, I gotta go smoke a
cigarette. Smoke. It's just like, okay, all right, it's one
of the it's gonna be one of these games to use this game. Huh,
you haven't even gotten to like the good ass parts of the story jam
Like, okay, it's it's not that far off. I think if I
recall correctly, within the next ten hours, you will get to like all
of the big plot points that sort of crib the rest of the plot forward.
So yeah, we'll like you mean being around the same area we are
at. Like, basically it's silly to say about a persona game, but
it's always the case. We've basically gotten through the tutorial here. Yeah,
yeah, and like you know, that's that's also like ties back into like
a conversation We've had a lot with Backlar about like a Dragon infinite Wealth.
You know, you do have to invest a good chunk of time to get
through the tutorialization of a game. Uh And unfortunately, fortunately that's the same
case with this. I don't think Persona three would necessarily grab grubs attention as
much as I mean, you and Mike would know best, as as much
as Infinite Wealth has no no, it's not you know, it doesn't have
it doesn't have the death raating to loss so random guitar. So okay.
My question for for y'all here, like, is this a good jumping on
point for someone that has been PERSONA curious or is this kind of like a
victory lap for P three fans. It's not gonna be quite as maybe flashy
in some ways as five is. I think it's a pure PERSONA experience in
a lot of ways, also a smaller person experience, which maybe is going
to make it more prosperable. I mean, this is definitely what PERSONA is
and just you know, and from that sake and from being the newest one
and in a lot of ways. Personly three, you know, Michael's been
talking about us, it did do things better than four or five really ever
did, even with all the improvements that would come from it in a mechanics
kind of way. So yeah, I don't think there's any way you're going
to like play this one and not like it, but like, oh,
a Persona four five would really win you over. This is Persona in a
very here, very sincere form. I disagree a little bit with the sentiment.
I would say that, like if someone if the question is someone like
has never played a Persona game and they've been looking into the series, I
do think five Royal is still the best, jumping on points, despite the
fact that it's such a much longer game, you know, like on average
probably like thirty or forty hours long. It's significantly bigger. There's a lot,
there's a lot I'm trying to remember, like what what I clocked in
at at the end there, oh jeez. But I think because three is
a significantly more linear game, there's less, you know, side content,
there's you can even feel a streamlining, and the fact that they didn't change
how like the strip mall is laid out. It's still just like a wall
of stores and you like walk up to one and go in. It's not
like Percona five where you're like wandering around downtown Tokyo and stuff like that.
I still think that that five Royal is still the best jumping on point for
the series. But with P three Reload, I mean, you kind of
already know if you're gonna play it, because Persona fans, it doesn't matter
what we say here, You're gonna play it no matter what. Like game
Pass people are probably gonna check it out and download. They're into RPGs right
now games, so like you can just go check it out, and I
don't know, it's it's a stiffer person I would say, just on the
whole because of things like Tartaris. It's interesting to go back to this in
this form. I was I've been hoping for a long long time that we
would get a Persona three remake, and like when the four Golden Port and
the three Portable Port were announced, I was like, oh, that's not
what I want. But we also got the announcement three reload around the same
time, or I think it was around the same time, I don't remember.
But after yeah, it was something I look forward to. I was
hoping though that we talk about different remakes and remasters, reimaginings. In the
case of like seven remake, this is a redo. Basically, this is
like I like the team looked at the design docs the original ones, which
maybe they even did, but hypothetically it feels like they look at the design
docks for the original game and we're told we're making this game in modern day,
that we're getting everything we know about making grpgs we're going to put into
this one. But as a result, it really feels like while I was
hoping for some the type of upgrade similar to say Residi Evil two to to
remake, where it is that reimagining. It is the spirit of the old
game, the story of the old game, but the gameplay is significantly changed
to be more modern. This is more like an RI four to four remake,
where it's not a radically different game, it is just visuals are way
prettier than they've ever been, the gameplay is refined, and there are there
is that bous content, but it's like there is that a little bit of
This is kind of the game that I had in my head from back in
the day. That's because it is so similar to the original while just like
rounding off those rough edges. Yeah, I think I think, I think,
yeah, that's pretty much on point, like when trying to encapsulate,
like, oh what how much of a remake is this actually and putting you
say, look like you said as a redo, but also very much that
original design dog exists, but now with the current generation of visuals, like
that's a pretty good way to put it. And then so I think it
depends on just how much stock someone puts into those kinds of things. And
I do agree that. I think P five Royal is the one I would
always recommend as someone's first persona because I think it's best. Yeah, it's
front to back, like gameplay wise, the social stuff, the story is
trying to tell visually, music, everything like that is a that is as
close to that game is just it's a masterpiece for sure. I Vida gave
it a ten on game Spot for a goddamn reason, right, Yeah,
and it is always the one I'm going to recommend, And it's still like
a very powerful story that comes along with that. But yeah, it's and
so like if you have that, if you have room in your heart for
a persona P three reload is probably gonna click with you. If this is
your first time you have you don't know what to get into. It's probably
fifty to fifty shot. But it's also hard to just put myself in other
people's shoes because I don't know what their expectations are. Sure, I mean
I would if you're interested. I would one thousand percent say yeah, give
it a try if you're interested, especially if if you have game Pass.
But I do tell some people that to some degree, like give it a
chance, and also understand that there are aspects that are still pretty dated because
of how faithful it is to that original design. So okay, some of
that stuff does come through and I'm playing, I'm like, oh fuck,
like you know this is There are a lot of aspects of this game that
I think make it the kind of remake that I was hoping for. But
at the same time, I understand that comes with some coffee oats, Like,
yes, in some ways, it still feels like the PS two game.
Anythink, as you get later on in the story, when you start
to kind of check things off of your list and you're almost like done with
social link routes, you're done upping your stats. The original design starts to
starts to see you start to see through the design of the game and like,
ah, damn, well, I guess I'm just gonna burn time so
I can get to the next story event that does happen. And I think
that's just a product of sticking to the original a little too much. But
at the same time, like this is yeah, P three is P three
is so much more to me than that that in a way I can not
excuse them. It's still part of the critique, but they don't bother me
as much as they may have may bother other people going into this. So
okay, yeah, it's it's still the best way to play Persona three,
even if it is missing the answer from three fats, which hey, that
was bad, so we don't really miss that. But even if it's missing
the female protagonist route and everything that came along with then all the new scenes,
this is still the way that you would want to hop into this game
if you are interested, whether you're a PERSONA fan or you are you know,
so are just checking things out. Yeah, and I appreciate the route
they took for this remake. There's just something about playing Persona three again and
having it feel like that game. Because Persona three, I remember the excitement
just around that releasing, how kind of caught off guard everybody was, right,
like the third entry in the series that even a lot of you know,
JRPG fans didn't know much about, and all of a sudden it was
the kind of the hot topic, this late Yes two game that suddenly had
all this sort of style and this different vibe for a JERPG than we were
really used to ever seeing. And it, you know, it took off
from there and then slowly grew and to this point now where Persona is an
absolute juggernaut in the JRPG space. Just really cool revisiting where that all really
started here, you know. Okay, all right, all this all this
talk about P three, I'll stick with it, y'all. Start out with
a hot take. I got one over I dude, Jane. You know,
like I play big comfy chair back there for like the big story stuff
and everything like that. And then when Tartars comes up, Hey, steam
deck could before bed just try to way to fantastic game on the steam deck
right, like so good. I've been playing on my ally and it's been
very nice. It's always a problem, but yes, very well. Listen,
this is a very specific thing, but we'll say and I recommend this
for Persona games in general. If you can play this on an OLED screen,
goddamn you need to do so, because I got an old TV and
an O LED switch and a not O LAD monitor and let me tell you
it looks away hors on this. It does on either of those, so
if your's really popped. They do a lot of interesting things with like colors
and uh that comes through a lot of the personality. So yeah, I
would second that as well. We want to answer a few specific questions.
We got the game thing here totally. Yeah, I can throw these out
and I bet like more you guys can answer. But Kane hi one was
wondering if Michael can answer quick question. Is it as strict as the original
Persona three with regards to maxing out all s links or did they loosen it
up a bit? I think I can't. I can't scientifically answer this,
but it feels like I had a lot easier of a time one ranking up
my social stats because they give you so many more options to do it as
well. But also two, I just felt like I've less frequently ran into
that instance where you go up to sell when you want to hang out with
them, and then it'll say in the textbox like, hey, you're not
gonna be able to advance your rank with them, but you could still hang
out and eventually you will rank up with them. I feel like I encountered
that fewer times, so in a way, like I didn't try to min
max this when I when I reviewed the game, I just went with my
heart. I feel like I got more done. That could also be a
product of me playing this game four fucking times and just like knowing how to
go through it. But it feels like I think I maxed out my social
stats way earlier than I ever did in any of the other versions, Like
you need to get like max ranked with all three stats to start your social
link with Fuka, Yukari and Mitsuru, And I remember playing the older versions
and when Mitsuru's social link opens up, I was like, shit, I'm
still at rank five for academics. I need to be a genius to hang
out with her. And then I was like rushing to up that so I
can start that social link. But I maxed out Academics and like October and
her shit doesn't start till the end of November. So I was like,
oh, I'm already ready to hang out with Mitsuru. She wasn't ready for
me. So oh, how the tables have turned. So I do feel
like I think it's easier, but I cannot scientifically say yes, But with
my heart I will say yes. All right? How about our rules?
Here wants to know if I'm a gamer on a budget, how viable is
it to pick up the original Persona three probably meaning portable here instead, there's
no reason to This is the best version. It's on game Pass as the
cheapest way of playing peron. I will say, they don't maybe they don't
have game Pass. I mean, do you guys think that you wouldn't even
consider telling somebody to just play Persona three portable anymore? It would just be
like I would maybe just wait for a sale on this or wait a few
years on this one. I don't know why you would go back to portable
anymore. I think there's no reason too. The only thing I will say
is that you I still think there's a lot of value inportable because of the
female route. Because I've said this many times in various capacities, But the
female protagonist for Persona three Portable is probably besides Maya from Persona two. I
think she's the best Persona protagonist period because they actually give her a personality,
and they rewrite a lot almost all the social links for the female protagonists,
so you have very different conversations with the female characters throughout the entire game,
and I think it's a lot more thoughtful in that way too. And also
just like the dialogue options you get, and her design is great, and
the new music that comes along with the Female Route Importable is all fantastic,
So it's a very different perspective on the same story. But it's hard to
recommend still when something like Reload comes out, Like if you play Reload and
you're like, holy shit, I love p three with all my heart,
I want more of it, but it's done, then I would say,
hey, go play the female Route in Portable because there's some new, cool
shit that still is some of the best that the series has ever done,
and I think it's some of the best writing for a female character in the
Persona series, which has historically not been so great, and they kind of
hit a lot of great topics with some like with some sharpness in the female
route for Portable, but yeah, that's our That's ot of what's to lament
here about Reload is that, hey, it would have been really damn cool
if that was in this game and this was just the definitive version that we've
always wanted. But instead, Yeah, going back to that, any of
the content that's not in here that's importable, that's almost like supplemental reading at
this point, I think where like they're so much Arilos, so much has
done quality of life wise, it is just so much better to play than
the older versions of whether you're talking about the original, Fez, Portable,
any of them. Like this is the way to go, and it's it's
accessible, and you know, I get if you're doing other ways to place
or in older games, I get, Okay, yeah that technically is cheaper.
But on the whole likes, I'm just saying, Jeff grubs down this
podcast, so I got I got the one to bring it up. You
know, yeah, game pass fire up some stream and like it's it's pretty
accessible now. Yes, One thing is really is really funny when you mentioned
Tartars, like going back to the old Tartars is kind of miserable, like
yeah, they're later, Like yeah, they're just like mazes and mazes.
Each floor is a fucking maze, And like I noticed and reload, the
higher you ascend in Tartaris, the shorter the floors get. It's almost like
the game real like it feels like that way. There's a lot of instances
where it's like, oh, hey, those are the stairs, it's just
down the hall. Yeah. I did notice that I at least felt like
I was progressing through it a little faster because now I'm in what the forties
or whatever, I'm like, I'm just starting to Yeah, I'm starting to
cruise here. So okay, it feels like it gets a lot short,
and I think it really does get a lot shorter, whereas the opposite happens
with the old versions, where the higher you send, the more fucking complex
those a mazes get. And I'm just like, I don't know if I
could recommend that in good conscious unless you want to play on it easy.
But yeah, like we got any more questions. One more here from rad
Josh Conney just says, I want to I hear they got rid of the
condition slash stamina system. They also remove the free healing at the base of
Tartarus. Is it more like coun percent of four handles healing and resource management
in dungeons. We didn't talk about this alliot. Twilight Twilight Fragments, Yeah,
that's something that encourages you to actually do a little more exploration, which
is I think is kind of cool because in the overworld, you know,
there's all there's all these different places to explore, and even if it's a
little more shallow than say a percent of five or even a percent of four,
the game encourages you to go to all these different places that you might
not go because there's not a social ink or whatever, and to actually walk
around at least and check out all the different you know, just walk up
to it and you know, you press a yal a little bit flavor text.
But now, Twilight Fragments are just these things scatter across the ground all
throughout the overworld and when you pick them up or you get them from Elizabeth,
because you know, they want to give you some the work with as
you progress with the game. But you pick these things up and they can
do things for you when you're in Tartaris, and so One of those things
is the aforementioned healing your party. You spend seven Twilight fragments in the main
lobby of Tartarists to get that full heel, or you can also else can
the chest. There are specific chests all throughout targets that you can only unlock
that you know normal treasure chests just walk out to it. For this,
it's like you need x amount Twilight fragments, and then the more fragments you
need to open usually the better the item is they get inside. Elizabeth is
still the best velvet room attendant right, like easily one thousand percent. Like
she is so goofy, she's so funny. Yeah, definitely, uh yeah.
So another thing too, though, I would say, is like I
do not recommend using spending twilight fragments on healing. I would suggest like finding
more in clever ways to heal your party and restore sp because there will be
times when you run out of Twilight fragments. Seven is a lot. There's
a lot, and then the deeper you get into this game, the more
of those special chests show up. And there's nothing worse than pulling up to
a three star special chest and you have two Twilight fragments and you're like,
damn, I know that the best weapon I could possibly get is in that
chest. Yeah. Yeah, to go to the pharmacy on Saturday your stock
up there, fragments? Yeah, that real quick, because IM wondering this
too. Does Elizabeth still have the social link from fests in this Yeah,
well it's not a social link, but you take her out to hang out.
Yeah, that's still there. It's it's the same as you remember,
and it's still very adorable. Nice, lovely, lovely. Well, speaking
about being adorable, is it an adorable group of folks we've assembled here today
to talk about an adorable swaggy game? Michael him, would you say it's
whimsical? It's probably light on the whimsy. I don't know what to tell
you. Man. It maybe quite as wisical as other RPGs, But uh
no, I don't know if I could say that. That's not the word
for persona. Don't paint the man into a corner like that. All right,
all right, well, okay for PERSONA six, when that eventually comes
out, what do you think the whimsy factor is here? It'll be higher
than this. Here's my question for for for Michael PERSONA expert, PERSONA three,
Blue, Persona four, Yellow, Persona five bread. What is the
key color for PERSONA six? Color right now? Purple? Yeah, colors
at some point they can't use green. That's soule hackers, that's ticking.
Also, green is kind of like half P three because of the dark hour.
True purple would be good. Yeah, might be an orange, pink,
hot pink, maybe those Barbie Barbie vibes, right, I don't know,
I'll be sick. P three p though, did pink for the pink
for the female route? Bute just took all the colors? Okay. Well,
last week when I had the panel describe uh like a dragon infinite wealth
with a series of emojis, I'm going to ask you gents to do the
same. Oh, the face emoji and then the gun emoji. Ill.
Yeah, I'll add a clock. Yeah, oh the midnight our little like
U. I animation, by the way, is very good. Yeah,
a lot and a scary ghost oh okay, speaker ghost. Is there specifically
a rapier emote or is that too specific? I think they have the cross
swords. I think that I need to represent ye. I know the other
games have it, and that's just just I know why they do, but
still always so funny. See Ukari just in her bright pink like jack it
in like the high school while every other person is wearing a uniform. It's
like, can you find the make here part of the party when they break
the dress code? Yeah? Ye, spot the anime protagonist who has colored
hair? Like who has the blue hair? Yeah? Oh? The funniest
is that yu Giah one of the oh my god, yeah in the crowd,
like who could it be? Uh? Well, damn, okay,
I've been convinced. I've been wooed to stick with PERSONA three, that is
until that is, perhaps until you know, we all need to devote some
more time to another gigantic rap. Yeah that remade right? Who knows?
I don't know. Yeah, my PS five can't take discs, so if
this is a multi disc joint, I can't fuck I don't know. Yeah,
uh, Michael him working, Folks. Find you on the internet these
days. You can find me and all my bullshit at Michael pw I'm on
Twitter and at hi am Michael on Instagram. You can find me writing words
and doing things and videos on gamespad dot com and IGN dot com as well.
Damn, damn, damn. Okay, Okay, Mikey, I was
gonna say apples. I'm not going to say it. Mikey meatballs, Mikey
meat monkey meatballs. That seems kind of that seems racially coded like meatballs.
I mean it's true. Hey, I want to really a real quick question
before the plugs. Mike, do you put breadcrumbs in a meatball? Or
is that yes? No? Okay, okay, yes, so no,
it's important for the for the right texture. You want to have some Uh
there's a whole video by Adam Orgucia where he did like experiments like ten percent
bread comes, twenty percent, fifty percent. He figured out the exact ratio.
I forget what it was, maybe like twenty five percent. You need
some bread comes in there to help absorb moisture to get a good texture.
Yes, they're important. Okay, Okay, you were I interrupted your thought.
You were going to shout something out. Just I want everybody to check
out the new Nineties Dizzy the podcast. It is about Castle Illusion. It's
about a video game, classic Genesis game, and it's many sequels and spin
offs and successors and things like that. So yeah, check out Nineties Disney
please. Un Last, but certainly not least, Turbo Sewan. Where can
Fox find you on the internet if you want to be found? That is
well, if people want to find me, I would be on Twitter dot
com as at Turbo Shawn Underscore and then Turbo Shan, s A Jawn everywhere
else, Blue Sky, Twitch, all you know the works, and then
professionally, hey you're all Ryan Right's place here a giant bomb editing doing social
media occasionally being on camera. As you can see, it's the best stuff.
It's the best stuff. Particularly check out the death stranding TikTok that Shawn
made. Oh yeah, that's popping off. I saw it this on when
I was like, oh, I feel light. Though, since I am
in the presence of Sean, I do want to formally thank you for representing
Octopath Traveler two in the Game of the Year. So helpful. I'm so
glad that that was awesome. Thank you for I want to thank you for
you know what I might give you ship for being a Disney adult, but
you know what you are true. You are true to yourself to the very
end, and I admire that and I think everyone can learn something from embracing
who they are. That's very true. Yes, Mike is are you good
on compliments for today? Are you good for till the weekend? Yeah?
I could still use a few more points from Dan the freaking whatever dash.
Let me just remove a point from your score. Go ahead and do it
preemptively. Dan's got to maybe jump on a plane this weekend. He has
no time to award or remove points. Right, we'll see, we'll see,
folks. That does it for this week's edition of bc R. Thank
you Sean, thank you Michael, and thank you Mike. Uh. Next
week on BCR, who knows what the heck we'll talk about. Maybe we'll
have another hot topic. If you want to suggest the topic, feel free
to shoot an email at bombcasta giant bomb dot com, at me on the
Twitter machine, or drop a comment. I rarely read the comments for my
own mental health, but I'll do it. I'll do it for you.
I do it. I'll see it. Thank you, Sean. There's been
some nice comments lately. I don't want to people are saying nice things about
us, Okay, see that That's what I was doing. Yeah, I
was fishing for them. I was fishing for the nice comments. I was
like, oh, well, I don't read. I don't read the threads,
I don't read the comments. I do I exhaustedly read. This is
why he's the producer. I just need to make sure that like I don't
know, like I didn't show my ass one week or so. That's that's
super premium that we're rolling out. I don't fucking know. But folks,
we'll see uh on Tuesday for an episode of The Giant BombCast. I believe
Greb is going to be back doing gm M. I don't know if on
Monday, but we'll see. We'll see if he's uh back from being here
and stuff. All right, I've been janned, he's been Sewan, he's
been Michael. He he has also been Michael. We'll see you next week. Goodbye,