No City (Day 118)

I finished Persona the other day. The final boss was satisfyingly challenging, as so often seems to be the case in the series.I was surprised by just how short a game it was. I think I finished at around 26 hours, whereas P3 and P4 both ended up at somewhere around 100. I guess it's not surprising since it's a much older title, but I was expecting something a little long regardless. If you cut out all the grinding and backtracking in dungeons you'd have far less than half that duration.

I spent at least four or five arrows just gaining levels to take on the final boss. The first time I tried it I pretty much got destroyed--and spent about an hour doing it. After rearranging my personas and fusing a couple new ones, I finally ventured into the monster infested dungeon surrounding the final boss once more. With personas that resisted, absorbed, or completely nulled magic and/or ice elemental spells, the fight was so much easier, although still incredibly time consuming.

The game certainly doesn't rank on the same level as the later games, which are indisputably some of my favorite games all time, but it was certainly worth playing. After defeating the final boss I was excited and triumphant, a feeling that has been somewhat lost to me over the years. It was satisfyingly difficult and really felt like a real struggle. Most final bosses that I take on these days elicit more of a "Huh, that's cool" kind of response. It's nice to play something that's relatively difficult and feel accomplished when you conquer it.

I've played the first hour or so of Persona 2: Innocent Sin and the upgrades in gameplay and aesthetic are immediately apparent. Some familiar faces (like Saeko the teacher and Yukino) have shown up already. There are even these neat combo spells that combine spells from different Personas. I have to wonder why Atlus declined to include the combo system from future titles. Admittedly, I love P3 and P4 to death, but combo spells would have spiced up an already enjoyable battle system.

Anyway, I've been playing LoL all day so I'll cut this particular entry short. More Persona stuff tomorrow, probably.