[PS2] Shin Megami Tensei Series/Persona 3

I just finished DDS2 two weekends ago, and the DDS games rank very high on my list of RPGs. The first game seemed to start out pretty generic, and slowly added more mystery and questions. Then the second game did such an excellent job of bringing everything together and managing to consistantly surprise me more than any other game I've played in recent years. Honestly, I think after the flashback to see "real" Serph he was my favorite.

Spoiler:

I just loved seeing the leader of the group turn out to be a maniacal genius who was the cause behind everything that went wrong. If only he had kept his ability to talk after that flashback.

Heat had the best VA though, and the same guy voices the main character in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.

I still have Nocturne sitting on my shelf, so I might get back into that. I bought it long before DDS, but I got stuck early on against Thor and quit playing. Continuing that would be good, if for no other reason than to get Luceid to stop mocking me. I've gone back to a few of my other RPGs, but I miss the strategy battles in DDS required and I can't help but feel disappointed when critical hits don't give me an extra attack.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Enkidu

As for Heat:

Spoiler:

While the real Heat tried to be more of a big brother to Sera, the AI Heat was just confused. Does he love her like, well, a lover and is that why he wants to protect her, or is his affection for her a product of the memories of the real Heat? This gives Heat a surprising amount of depth, which makes him a cool character. Too bad that the way he died was so damn shitty though.

On Heat and Cielo:

Spoiler:

I thought Heat had one of the cooler deaths though. He turned into that massive hulk of a boss, and then Serph ripped out of his stomach! Certainly better than Cielo's death, since even Cielo said on the Sun that he probably could have survived if he'd just used his laser again.

Speaking of Cielo though, he got completely gipped out of his origin story. The only way to even find out why he's with you is by talking to an out of the way NPC, and it isn't even voice acted! Before I started DDS2 I accidentally read about Cielo's death in the old SMT thread, so I thought it was funny when he turned out to be the LAST one to die.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Enkidu

Tri:

Spoiler:

Serph bursting out of monster Heat's stomach was pretty cool, I was more disappointed that he just died in a chair in the control room. It still was kind of sad though.

As for Cielo, I never found out how he died in the game, it wasn't until I read about it on Nirvana, that I found out that he was also one of the cyber shaman. Speaking of which, even though he was weak, shouldn't it give him some of the same powers Sera had?

I LOVED Gale and Angel's final scene though, especially since the woman who did Angel's voice is just awesome. It was really one of the defining moments in the game, and I've already watched it like 10 times. Argilla's and Roland's fight against Meganada was also rather cool, especially since they were slaughtered so brutally by Meganada.

Speaking of him, is it ever said in the game who he was? I know that he showed up after real Serph went on his demon rampage, but I don't know if he's also a transformed human, or if he was sent directly by god?

Spoiler:

For Cielo, wasn't he just a Cyber Shaman candidate? I don't think he had undergone any of the actual experiments yet, which is why he couldn't use Sera's stuff. As for Meganada, I wondered the same thing. Since we never saw a human form for him even on the sun I assume he's meant to be some kind of pure demon sent by God.

I agree with you about the scene between Angel and Gale. That was an excellent way to end both of their stories and tie up David, and just a great moment overall. I watched it three times. =p I don't know about you, but I was all geared up for a second fight against Angel, and then that took me a bit by surprise when they both stabbed each other.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Enkidu

Spoiler:

I'm actually glad that there wasn't a second Angel fight. I would have thought it to be really lame if you had to kill her with your party. The scene with Gale was brilliant because it was so simple. No big attacks or flashy effects, just Angel stabbing him out of anger and sadness, and Gale looking at her with a caring look in his eyes when he kills her was amazing.

I think that Cielo was a candidate who died during the tests or during some of the experiments like Real Serph performed on Sera. And to be a Cyber Shaman candidate, I think that it would be necessary to possess some special powers, so I would have thought that there would have atleast been some that were activated during the tests.

As for Meganada, the most likely option is that he's a same deity like Shiva and Vishnu. I believe that there was some mentioning about it when you first see the coccoon that contains Meganada.

And offtopic, what's that avatar from Tritoch? It reminds me off Heero frm Gundam Wing, but it's someone else obviously. What's it from?

Spoiler:

This is exactly why it would have been nice to get a good background on Cielo as well. I started off not liking him much, probably because I thought the accent was kinda goofy at first, but since he ended up being one of my best party members in both DDS games I liked him quite a bit after awhile. Maybe to use the Cyber Shaman abilities you have to complete all the tests and such, especially since even Sera had a hard time with it. Plus, it could also have something to do with the Junkyard being Sera's creation.

On a side note, I like your sig. That was one of my favorite scenes in DDS2, because you just know how hopelessly screwed those measely guards are by trying to take on the final boss of the first game.

My avatar is Akito Tenkawa, the main character of Martian Successor Nadesico (credit to AniMechanic for creating the avatar). The series is sort of a parody of Gundam, so it's not surprising he looks similar. I was actually going to use my Argilla avatar again since her toothy bosom weirded people out last time, but the size was too big for the newly lowered byte limit.

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Originally Posted by YoMan

Obviously, you haven't played Star Ocean: Till The End of Time. Hear the voice acting of a girl named Farleen, then come back and tell me what is worse, Cielo or Farleen.

Don't forget... Well, EVERYONE in Popolocrois. I was listening to the voices while my brother played it last week (I don't own the PSP and he was visiting), and that was some of the worst voice acting I've heard.

How ya doing, buddy?

Your 3rd, 5th, and 7th links don't work. Judging from the rest, Persona 3 looks pretty nifty. I like the shifts between the normal everyday settings to the creepy mystical ones. The presence of cards worries me a bit, but hopefully it won't be one of those games where cards have a heavy impact on battle.

I haven't played Persona or Persona 2; are they roughly the same as other SMT games? I've heard both that it's a spinoff series and that they're translations of early SMT games, and I don't know which is true.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by ZeroSlash

Now, that's some interesting news. I'm now really tempted to pick up that copy of Persona 2 I saw at the mall last week.

(Before you call me an idiot for not picking it up, that's because the mall is a 30-40 min drive away and that was the day I got DDS2)

I saw the same copy, but the case was cracked all to hell. I can't imagine the game discs were much better, and it was still $30. I'd rather take my chances on trying to find it at a random flea market.

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I'm pretty sure the "Special Edition" refers to the art book and soundtrack that are packaged with the game. EB/Gamestop is the only store I've seen call it that, and they're the ones with the pack.

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