More Persona 3 today, finally made the BIG DECISION, which on a second playthrough, is obviously not a real decision. I mean, absolutely every NPC has stated what decision they want you to make, and the only reason to make the opposite decision, the “bad” decision, is to see the game end in an interesting way. Now, I really liked the tone of the bad ending, it’s darkly effective, but it’s also not something that anyone is going to see accidentally, that they are going to misstep or lose a crucial battle and have to suffer through it. You have to intentionally decide, “you know, despite all the build-up and character development and intense emotion about what should be done here, I’m going to do the exact opposite of what’s been asked of me. I’m perfectly fine letting the story end here, in this way.” No one will make that decision. The bad ending boils down to being just a mere curiosity, a what-if that no one who has gotten this far into the game would possibly want. Just a sad little package that says, “Come on stupid, what did you think would happen?” Worse yet, the haunting effect of the true ending is only felt IF the player has seen the bad ending. It is requiring the player to have a morbid curiosity of what happens when you screw up. I don’t know, I’m really divided on this, and I may save my save and go back to see if there’s any big difference this time around.
But! A difference I did see is the addition of a bonus level! Apparently the threat of the big bad descended and killing everyone just wasn’t enough tension, but they added some real fanwank, a secret door that leads to a region that was last seen in Persona 3: The Answer (which is the desperately difficult semi-sequel to this game that was included with the FES release), and featuring an appearance by one of the not-very-well-used character from Persona 4. I was really excited to see this, and immediately dove in. It’s the usual boss rebattle deal, but they twisted it by making the bosses HARD. The boss that I killed in five shots at the beginning of the game took me a good ten minutes to defeat here, and while I wasn’t in any real danger, it is nice to see that this part isn’t going to be easy. There are also six extra doors, all labeled with an attribute, and I can only imagine how tough those fights’ll be.
Also tried a game that has been sitting on my counter for about a month, Nostalgia. I saw this at PAX 2009 and was…underwhelmed, mainly because it seemed like a very slow and basic RPG. I did not know how right I was, it is a huge pile of clichés from the start, with the only thing to save it is having an interest in steampunk. But within the first thirty minutes of play, I was confronted with a magic girl of mysterious origin, a missing father, a fucking “go kills rats in the sewer” mission, a scrappy young thief who just won’t play by the rules, and half an amulet that is connected to a character’s past. Ug. I just cannot care, I do not want to slog through this stereotypical crap just to see if airships are interesting. So…I guess I can return it, get something else. Apparently Dead Rising 2 was released when I wasn’t paying attention.
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