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- The Hague
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- He/Him
Controversial gaming opinion: video games are good.
What are controversial gaming opinions you have?
De3ta
Mae
- Location
- The hellish pit known as New Jersey
*kicks the door down covered in bear pelts and reeking of booze from monster hunter*
HOLY THE FUCK SHIT THANK YOU! OH MY GOD P5 IS SUCH A SPORRADIC MESS OF BULLSHIT ITS FUCKING INCEDIBLE. LIKE I GET THE OVERALL PLOT FOR P4 WAS WEAKER THAN 3's BUT GOD DAMN YOU DIDN"T HAVE TO KEEP DIGGING DEEPER,
Its 10:25PM and I'm gotta go to bed but fuck I've got a looooooot to go on about this game.
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I actually think Persona 5 is good overall with some occasional dips and some concessions due to its overall structure, but stylistically and thematically it's very well constructed and interesting. Just for an alternative view. 
There are a couple of moments which make me go 'no stop STOP' but like taken as a whole it's storytelling is staggeringly beyond ... most video games.
There are a couple of moments which make me go 'no stop STOP' but like taken as a whole it's storytelling is staggeringly beyond ... most video games.
Hykal94
Orange Estus Kitteh
- Location
- Firelink Shrine
No it's not. I have bought like what? 2 pistols for my main for the entire game and maybe 4 guns for the rest of my crew? Not counting all the money I had to pay for medkits either. God forbid if you want to cyber up.
It's not good design, it's frustrating. Dragonfall with it's "get money to pay for info broker" was better than this.
If other RPGS gives you 3 meals a day then Hong Kong makes you eat cup noodles once a day.
Go ahead and try it if you're skeptical.
Exterminatus
Tsukumogami User
- Location
- Southern California
I know Trails in the Sky did a thing where you had a core set of characters (Estelle and Joshua) with a rotating cast of supporting characters for each chapter until literally the final dungeon. I found it worked pretty well for introducing the other characters outside of the two protagonists.
Reveen
Castro-Trudeauist
Almost like the game takes place in super-capitalist cyberpunk Hong Kong or something lol.
Having to worry about money is way better than not having to worry about money as it means you have actual choices to make. Sure, you can take it too far and be overly limiting but frankly that's still more interesting than the "whoops, dropped a billion dollars, oh well no point in picking it up" that most RPGs fall into.
Hykal94
Orange Estus Kitteh
- Location
- Firelink Shrine
Dead Man's Switch din't have this problem and neither does Dragonfall.
How about you play the game instead of talking about things you know nothing about.
The problem is that it isn't fun. Hong Kong screws over the players by not giving enough money to upgrade yourself. It makes the game needlessly hard. And unlike some games, there's no thematic-mechanic way to show the extremes of capitalism either.
I'm all for RPGS being tougher but not the way Hong Kong handles it.
I never really felt it was needlessly hard? I think I played an Adept so it might just be run dependent; plenty of games kind of break down on one type of class run over another. Really the big problem (which was very evident in Dragonfall) was having no clue if a skill would be useful or not in the future.
Then again, I like making hard choices about resources; it's part of why I loved earlier Fire Emblems and think the modern ones are trash.
Hykal94
Orange Estus Kitteh
- Location
- Firelink Shrine
The Shadowrun games aren't hard, I played on ... I think the second hardest or medium difficulty? Something like that.
But in Hong Kong, it's really bad. This is mostly because everything in Hong Kong is pointlessly expensive. If you do a quick google search on the subject, you'd get results like:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/346940/discussions/0/523897277911421383/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/346940/discussions/0/528398719802389323/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/346940/discussions/0/371918937264273403/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/346940/discussions/0/2592234299528032923/
It's no fun. Again I'm all for that resource management. But the missions simply do not pay enough to be able to upgrade that many times. And this is speaking as someone who hacked religiously and did all the side missions.
There's hard for the sake of themes. Then there's Hong Kong.
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Cold Steel had a ridiculously large main party but typically you were given different parts of the class in different parts of the game, meaning you had to experiment with party comp. and in classic Trails fashion there was an almost equally large cast of side characters that you sometimes got to play with. The sequel had more flexibility through most of the game, but it presumed you were familiar with each character and their strengths (ie. That you knew that Laura + Fie = the future).
Of course, they're JRPGS so they know what the main character is like, even accounting for customisability, so the overall party is easy to balance.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
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- They/them
Well duh the game only had a plot for like 10% of its overall runtime, that's easy to concentrate all the quality into
The Social Link system and general lazy writing forces the characters to become vapid, shallow shells of their former selves once their recruitment arcs are done and every awakening scene after Yusuke's is both measurably worse in quality and devoid of 90% of the cathartic context because post-Madarame the game makes a very harsh thematic shift away from Real Shit to much more vague, broad-strokes, abstract evil. Fuck we don't even know what Shido wants. We don't get so much as a word about his actual policy and why it's so bad, it's kind of amazing how much he comes off like a shallow parody of Trump despite the game having been in development since the Stone Age, and yet the game has the balls to reveal that he was secretly behind like every single target because don't you get it that makes him seem more evil and threatening to the player (and just gloss over the fact that it accidentally erodes the theme of "systemic nationwide corruption that must be fought" to "the machinations of this one fuckboy"). Haru is introduced so late it's actually laughable how obvious it is the game is running through a hacked-to-shit version of her arc that runs on plot-hole level convenience and Akechi gets a fucking bridge dropped on him offscreen after being a shallowly-written genuine idiot in so many capacities. And just in general the quality of writing starts steadily, noticeably trending downwards after... well shit just after Kamoshida but more aggressively after Madarame and it only picks up speed until finally sort of petering out at the eleventh hour when it decides to copy P3 and P4's endings. God and the fucking rallying scene after the public forgetting about them erases the Thieves is sooooooo protracted and flaccid that what should be a hype moment becomes insufferably boring because you're just running back and forth back and forth in the Velvet Prison's halls trying to find these numbskulls and every cheer-up scene amounts to "I feel sad." "..." "Well when you put it like that Joker..."I actually think Persona 5 is good overall with some occasional dips and some concessions due to its overall structure, but stylistically and thematically it's very well constructed and interesting. Just for an alternative view.
There are a couple of moments which make me go 'no stop STOP' but like taken as a whole it's storytelling is staggeringly beyond ... most video games.
And also yes The Gay Agenda is coming to kidnap Ryuji and and Turn him because it's really funny watching adult men try to buttfuck a male highschooler. But go ahead and have your 16-year-old Joker pound Takemi or Ohya or whatserfuck the fortuneteller or his homeroom teacher that's not creepy at all, Looking Good Joker!
I genuinely don't recall money troubles in Hong Kong, but that might have had something to do with the fact I was a melee street samurai that MADE PEOPLE EXPLODE WITH MY BARE CYBERCLAWS so just do that
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He wants to be prime minister for the rest of his life.
Like I don't want to invalidate you or anything, but you're complaining that the game doesn't explain why he's bad while also complaining about how the game shows he's a corrupt manipulator, which is one of the key reasons why he's so bad. He represents the highest level of corruption in modern day Japan: corruption of members of the Diet. He's not behind everything to make him more sinister, he's behind everything because the worst of Japanese politicians leverage personal networks to manipulate public opinion and distort democracy, right down to having links to organised crime. I don't think it really had to go into his political program - and the game makes it pretty clear that Shido is populist elitist who doesn't actually have a political program, just the conviction that he is best suited to helming the country while everyone else is basically useless without him.
I definitely agree this is unacceptable, however.
Akumetsu game when???
- Location
- New Delhi, India
I agree; this is legitimately repugnant behavior from the writers and developers and they should know better.
It's bad enough that the above content was in the base game in the first place, but P5 should be the last game to encourage this kind of behavior when one considers it's themes of social inequality and rebellion.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
There's a difference between what a character wants and what a character wants. Like, Akechi wants to murder Joker. But what he wants is for daddy to say "you did good my insane son". I'm complaining about the game 'not explaining why he's bad while also showing he's a corrupt manipulator' because he has no motives. He's evil because he's evil because he's evil. He has no depth, which is a huge letdown when the game builds up to him so much and streeeeetches out that insipid little mini-arc where for some reason Joker doesn't remember that the guy ruined his life even though the guy has a very distinctive look (just like Hideki Kamiya he BLOCKED Joker at the first sign of trouble) and voice and it's pretty dumb to play coy about a character being important when you go and give them a dialogue sprite.
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In the words of Werner Herzog, there is such a thing as the bliss of evil.
More seriously, he wants to rule the country. He does everything he does in order to obtain the highest office in the land. Obtaining that office is his motivation. He has an unshakable belief that he is uniquely and ideally suited to that role.
- Location
- Just passing through.
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- He/Him
I love P5 but that's mainly because I'm a slut for SLs, but at the same time, they're the reason the characters can be very... bleh,I actually think Persona 5 is good overall with some occasional dips and some concessions due to its overall structure, but stylistically and thematically it's very well constructed and interesting. Just for an alternative view.
There are a couple of moments which make me go 'no stop STOP' but like taken as a whole it's storytelling is staggeringly beyond ... most video games.
most if not all of their development are in their social links, that's were you get more of their life, their personality, that's were you get to really know them, but you only get that there, if you were to play the game without doing any SL and focusing only on the story, you would barely care about the cast if at all.
...Except for Shiho, she's too pure for this world.
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Frankly if someone told me they played a Persona game without delving into the slinks I'd probably look at them funny.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
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- They/them
But the problem with all that crucial personality, backstory and development of your own party members being consigned to S-Links is that now they might as well not exist because as 'optional content' it's all off-limits to the main story.
Like yeah in P3 it was kinda weird how SEES rarely ever hung out and Minato/Makoto was apparently deathly allergic to socialising with any of the male members but at least they got damn character arcs.
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That's fair, but also like, given that you're playing the slinks that shit is all there in your mind. It's not actually contradicted by the main story (except for that glimpse of Haru's fiance in the very late game but whatever). Like you call that shit optional, but it's Persona. If you're not playing the slinks then what are you here for?
e: and like ffs they actually DO get arcs in the main story because they're all linked to a different palace.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Yeah it is. Because it's optional the main story cannot be written to account for it, so it might as well not matter. See, for example, Ryuji steadily maturing and reconnecting with his old friends over the course of the Chariot link, only to continue being a raging jackhole that screams "FUCK I SURE DO LOVE BEING A P H A N T O M T H I E F" at the top of his lungs at every opportunity. Or Yusuke struggling with the fact that the extent of Madarame's abuses seem to have completely sapped his passion for and ability to create art which leaves him feeling lost and useless which eventually forces him to draw on his experiences as a member of the Phantom Thieves to revitalise his work, while in the main story he...
... shit does Yusuke do a single thing after the Madarame arc? Aside from being the butt of lazy jokes about him being odd like wasting all his food money buying a pair of live lobsters which, much like the jokes about beating up Ryuji or forcing Ann to model for Yusuke, are really awkward and uncomfortable because they're making light of something that earlier in the game were kind of psychologically scarring for them.
Yeah and then those arcs get quickly forgotten about too
rip in rip Makoto you were cool for a single scene and then you went right back to doin' exactly what you were doin'
- Location
- US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Silent Hill 4 (the Room) is an awful game, way worse than Origin, Homcoming, Shattered Memories, or even Downpour. Being a Japanese production doesn't make it good.
The apartment cleaning minigame is super dull and really unintuitive. The game has you rerun each level a second time with a totally useless escort character that makes me want to apologise to Maria for every time I complained about her. The games single boss is an utter anticlimax. The "puzzles" are essentially fetch quests. The game has exactly one interesting monster. The randomly appearances of "Walter" aren't scary, just annoying. Likewise the ghost enemies. The sexualization of the female NPCs is gross. But the worst part is the villains motivations, which are painfully stupid, in a Zoolanderesque "the files are in the computer" sort of way.
More annoyingly, he's handsome and you get to see him as a kid, so there is a chunk of the fandom that decided a multiple child murderer is just a troubled, brooding romantic and write shipfics about him. The attempts to name drop random elements from SH2 to try to attach it to the rest of the series is really weak, too.
APPARENTLY, I HAVE STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT EARLY 2000S HORROR GAMES!
The apartment cleaning minigame is super dull and really unintuitive. The game has you rerun each level a second time with a totally useless escort character that makes me want to apologise to Maria for every time I complained about her. The games single boss is an utter anticlimax. The "puzzles" are essentially fetch quests. The game has exactly one interesting monster. The randomly appearances of "Walter" aren't scary, just annoying. Likewise the ghost enemies. The sexualization of the female NPCs is gross. But the worst part is the villains motivations, which are painfully stupid, in a Zoolanderesque "the files are in the computer" sort of way.
More annoyingly, he's handsome and you get to see him as a kid, so there is a chunk of the fandom that decided a multiple child murderer is just a troubled, brooding romantic and write shipfics about him. The attempts to name drop random elements from SH2 to try to attach it to the rest of the series is really weak, too.
APPARENTLY, I HAVE STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT EARLY 2000S HORROR GAMES!
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- The Hague
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- He/Him
Nothing you list is a contradiction, dude. And all those things from the social links happen.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
To be fair, that isn't really something you can blame on the game. Shippers do that with basically everyone.
- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Exactly!Yeah it is. Because it's optional the main story cannot be written to account for it, so it might as well not matter. See, for example, Ryuji steadily maturing and reconnecting with his old friends over the course of the Chariot link, only to continue being a raging jackhole that screams "FUCK I SURE DO LOVE BEING A P H A N T O M T H I E F" at the top of his lungs at every opportunity. Or Yusuke struggling with the fact that the extent of Madarame's abuses seem to have completely sapped his passion for and ability to create art which leaves him feeling lost and useless which eventually forces him to draw on his experiences as a member of the Phantom Thieves to revitalise his work, while in the main story he...
... shit does Yusuke do a single thing after the Madarame arc? Aside from being the butt of lazy jokes about him being odd like wasting all his food money buying a pair of live lobsters which, much like the jokes about beating up Ryuji or forcing Ann to model for Yusuke, are really awkward and uncomfortable because they're making light of something that earlier in the game were kind of psychologically scarring for them.
Yeah and then those arcs get quickly forgotten about too
rip in rip Makoto you were cool for a single scene and then you went right back to doin' exactly what you were doin'
But to be fair to Makoto, she wasn't supposed to be like that, that's what happens when you had to end fusioning 2 characters for lack of time.
And man I love NicoB let's play: "Hey guys what a wonderful day to be a PHANTOM THIEF! Right? Nothing makes me more happy than *grabs a megaphone* BEING A PHANTOM THIEF!