09:59:26
AIGIS: GRRRL POWER!~
Okay, I completed Persona 3: The Journey 2 days back, and I know I mentioned that I wouldn't want to invest my time in The Answer so quickly, but the epic-ness of Persona 3's ending/overall conclusion blew me away enough to want more. Compared to Persona 4 (well, I can't help the comparisons, it happens), P3 ate about 30 more hours of my time and I think it was the first time I actually braced myself through 120+ hours of gameplay - I usually end at worst, 80, and average about 40. So, P3 definitely had something good going on.
I know, on the contrary most gamers prefer P4 mainly because of Atlus took away the "flawed" AI system and the tired/sick statuses in P3, but I actually sort of liked these flaws: it made grinding slightly more interesting and intensive (since you have to work around your group's flaws and be tactical) and it made the AIs seem more human since they appear to fight/defend on their own (I think it actually deluded me into investing more emotions in the characters since their personality flaws (Junpei = reckless and brash young fella) showed in their fighting (Junpei = superb on Knock Down). Hmm, okay lame. BUT there are many other things I liked about P3 and I can go on forever about why I felt that P3 was much better, but I shall not digress - and to think I played P4 first!
So back to The Answer. I am almost 4 hours into the game (discounting the couple of times I died and had to replay), and it has been so far so good. I was bracing myself for a MUCH worse experience since I came across a gazillion negative comments about The Answer before I started yesterday. Okay, admittedly, it wasn't blow-me-away excellent, but the present plot developments justified the endless and tedious grinding - and oh how I hate thee, meaningless grinding, ARGH! And is it just me or is Yukari acting like a prissy b***h doped on Prozac? Oh, and that Robot Sister is kind of annoying. But strong, lol.
Bottomline, if The Answer was an extension of Persona 4, I definitely wouldn't be playing it. Haha. OH, SHUT UP, ME!
Other news: I think I might get a copy of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Shadow Hearts: From the New World soon. I am new to both series so I thought I should just try them out. I can't find a decent copy of SH 1 & 2 online, so I will have to wait and see.