Hooray It's Persona Day!

I personally requested to write this article. I'm going to present you with all the known information then provide you with my personal thoughts and feelings on this matter.

Geoff has stayed pretty level headed on this matter while our very own Remy has flown off the handle. Me? I'm fairly happy about all of the news, but more on that after the announcements.

All in all a collection of new titles for a highly popular series. While I won't be touching the dancing title that honour will be for Geoff, I will talk about Persona Q! 

Persona Q: Shadow Of The Labyrinth

New 3DS crossover game involving talent from Persona & Etrian Odyssey

Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Dancing All Night is a Vita bound rhythm game along the lines of the Project Diva series. It is being developed along side Dingo who make the PSP Project Diva games. More info on this to follow in a later blog post .

Persona 4: Ultimax Suplex Hold! 

The follow up to Persona 4: Arena continues the story where it left off & reintroduces some old characters and stages! More on this in the coming weeks

Firstly a bit about me, iv been playing Shin Megami Tensei games for countless years. My first time was with SMT:III Lucifers Call (Nocturne everywhere else) and I was hooked from that. Since that game I have gone onto completing Shin Megami Tensei 1 & 2 SNES, Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2, Raidou Kuzunoah 1, Persona Revelation, PSP port of Persona all quests, Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, Persona 2 Innocent Sin PSX version, Persona 3, Persona 3 F.E.S, Persona 3: The Answer, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Ps2, Devil Survivor and Strange Journey. I have started a play-through of Devil Summoner:Soul Hackers, Devil Survivor:Overclocked, Devil Survivor 2 & DemiKids on GBA, I burnt out half way with P4:G and sold my Vita & I'm in the process of tracking down a copy of P4:Arena to finish that before the new version drops. Also I am eagerly awaiting the release of SMT IV on 3DS and due to being in Europe I only have the means to play Devil Summoner:Raidou 2 on PC which will happen once I have completed Soul Hackers. I even have a copy of Maken X for Dreamcast ready to play because it has the same art! 

Ontop of all that I have also watched the Persona 4 Anime, Devil Survivor 2 and Persona Trinity Soul & the Digital Devil Story OVA. Why I have listed all this is simple, so you know that my views are from a long time fan of the series who hasn't just gotten off the Persona 4 train.

So where to start with Persona Q, first thing that will strike you is the art style, Chibi art style doesn't really bother me too much, I got used to the anime art style of 3 & 4 after A while so I would imagine same applies here. It's obviously a spin off with this art style and the inclusion of a certain main character, a fun take on the detective storylines of 4 and to an extent 3.

I like the different interactions if you pick SEES or Investigation Crew. I'm interested to know what will happen with mix and matching characters and making your Persona dream team. 

Upon seeing a member of staff from Etrian Odyssey is working on P:Q peaks my interest greatly. For anyone who hasn't played any of them they are hardcore old school RPG Dungeon crawlers. 

What this says to me is hopefully it's going to be despite it's art style a more hardcore SMT style dungeon crawler. I would even be more than happy to see the first person exploring return, another nod to the previous Persona games. 

The fact it is on 3DS for me is personally a great move. Atlus has graced the 3DS with several titles already and all have sold well. As Persona has a huge fan base now it only makes sense to move it to a more popular and better supported console. In Europe I believe Nintendo has actually helped bring SMT IV over to our shores in 2014 which was a huge shock to everyone. 

I understand Persona has been near enough exclusive to the Sony platforms but considering how well Atlus titles do and the larger fan base why this is a shock to people is beyond me!. 

Fans didn't really seem to cheer up until the announcement of Persona 5, it's good to see they are finishing the story from P4:A with a sequel though hardly shocking. 

A large amount of complaints are from people who own the Vita and have come in from Persona 3/4 and have little to no experience with anything SMT barring Persona. 

Could it be that sense of entitlement that is causing such unwarranted feedback?, yes it blows that you invested so much time into P4:G and now the spin off is on a different handheld. For someone like myself I have to miss out on Golden because I can't justify the purchase for 1 game when I can own the 3DS and have access to more SMT titles than I would with the VITA.

Maybe it's the art style? I'm not trying to blow my horn here but iv been a fan for years and wasn't too taken with the anime art style brought in with 3. The key difference is I had enough faith in Atlus and SMT/Persona as a product to overlook this and go onto enjoy P3 in various incarnations. 

You can quote me on this, I for one am more than excited about Q. It looks to me like it will fuse the character development from P3/4 with the dungeon exploring and challenge from P1/2. Anyone who ignores this title due to art style, the fact it's a spin off or that it's on 3DS is being foolish and should think long and hard before they comment on Persona or SMT in general.

I don't know enough about Dancing All Night! though I will say i'm generally not a huge fan of those type of games but being Persona I will keep an eye out on info when it lands. Persona 4: The Ultimax Suplex Hold is another with a little bit of info but as it's releasing in the arcades very soon I'm sure i can speak to my Japanese friend and get a bit of info out of him!

As a leaving note i will say I am curious about Persona 5 & leave the teaser trailer with you here, my thoughts on this game I will keep till more is revealed about it! Till then i eagerly countdown the release of Persona Q!