Going through the motions

Day 400

This is day 400 on Everything  All of the Time but I don't have anything special planned. Honestly, I probably won't do another themed entry until the end of the year or the beginning of the next. If I was in higher spirits, I might do them more frequently. As it is, I haven't felt much in the mood for this project. I don't dislike writing these entries but I find I don't have as much passion for it. I'd very much like to reclaim that passion. I'm not certain what I'm doing differently than before.

I really enjoy a lot of aspects of Persona 2: Innocent Sin, but I don't care for others. The demon negotiation system is interesting, but the most irritating aspect of it is that it doesn't save what techniques were successful in the past when negotiating with certain demons. I either have to make some note of it or consult a walkthrough online. This would be fine if demon negotiation was a puzzling optional diversion, but it's actually quite important for progression in the game. Unlike Persona 3 and Persona 4 where new personas can be collected from cards randomly obtained after battles (and then subsequently fusing said personas), personas in this particular entry must be created from tarot cards belonging to certain types. These cards are collected through demon negotation. As far as I know, there's no other way to get them.

Creating and fusion personas is a big part of any Persona game and that's a big part of the reason they're fun. Although both the original title and this sequel feature persona fusion (in which multiple personas can be combined to create something new), Persona 3 and Persona 4 expanded on the mechanic greatly and made it a primary focus. For the most part, I prefer that system--although I would take much less issue with the mechanic on display in Innocent Sin if the process involved in collecting them wasn't so tedious. On the other hand, creating new personas with the cards you've collected is still fun and interesting.

I'm also a fan of the fact that each of your five person party is capable of adopting any persona--although they'll have varying compatibilities with them. This does require more micromanagement on the part of the player, but I can't say that's something I mind. It would have been interesting if I could have completely switched out which personas my party members had access to in the later games in the series--although I did enjoy being able to cycle through a whole list of different beasts on my main character.

I get the feeling it's going to take me a long time to trek through Persona 2 which is not in and of itself a bad thing--but I've played a lot of long games recently. I wouldn't mind tackling a few shorter ones before I move onto the PS2 as my primary backlog eradication console. Games like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga are likely even longer than this game. It might not be a bad idea for me to consider finishing up my Steam library next. That shouldn't be too tough, since there's only two games left unfinished for me on that front, both of which wouldn't take me very long. I think I might do just that.