PolaroidJack
BACKER
2002
I hate this game, probably the worst 3D Mario game. I play it nearly every year and it might be my favorite.
Nothing short of masterful. I cannot think of a narrative that has put so many emotions into one package as these arcs. It's equal parts absurd, stressful, tense, playful, heartfelt, troubling, etc. yet everything remains genuine, passionate and -cheesy as it sounds- magical. My sincerest thanks and respect to Ryukishi, an utter madman of a writer.
i really don't care about the zombie game
2013
I played this one time at the recommendation of a friend and he is now in prison for (allegedly) possessing images you should not have
2017
I'm glad I get new designs of characters i enjoy but like its a gacha, its whatever. Biggest gripe is mostly that a lot of the new modes they've added over time aren't that interesting. I mostly just go in for daily orb rewards, the new banner free pull and then every once and a while i'll do the chapter stuff. Rarely will i touch any of the new modes or train new 5 stars. I'll add a 1/2 star when Marianne gets added in.
Edit: Marianne was added
Edit: Marianne was added
I remember my sister and parents having a conversation on the way to church discussing what Mama's 'accent' was supposed to be because we were dumb westerners/kids that couldn't recognize a japanese accent
2009
It has "In Too Deep" by Sum 41 in it, so that's good.
Imagine Path of Radiance but more annoying map designs, most of the Dawn Brigade characters blowing and a really obnoxious structure overall. Nearly everything after part 3 chapter 6 felt like a really bad joke and I still can't believe the game dropped not only in quality of plot but also map quality.
Still, it retains a lot of the cool mechanics from PoR, adds forging, gives you more time with OP units like the royal laguz and some of the lore diving is neat. But a good chunk of this game could have been removed entirely with little consequence.
Nephenee is still cool though
Still, it retains a lot of the cool mechanics from PoR, adds forging, gives you more time with OP units like the royal laguz and some of the lore diving is neat. But a good chunk of this game could have been removed entirely with little consequence.
Nephenee is still cool though
Bugged the game and my hp wouldn't hit zero so YHWH (praise be his baldness) didn't stand a chance
A very interesting and hoaky game courtesy of Uchikoshi. I enjoyed this game a lot but encountered a few bugs during my play time including one that had me reinstall the game (along with VLR). Definitely has a lot of braindead easy puzzles for most of it with most of the thinking coming from figuring out what hasn't been interacted with yet in the escape room. Thankfully the conveniences added to the most recent editions are very much appreciated and save the hassle of having to redo certain sections, escape rooms included. The character designs are super great but stylistically everything else is either just fine or unmemorable. The voice acting however is super fun mostly because of how nonchalant or over-the-top some of the performances can be at times. A super enjoyable experience especially when you hit the final route, although im worried whenever I hear this is the best in the series.
Junpei a real one though ngl
Junpei a real one though ngl
I don't really know where to begin with 13 Sentinels, mostly because hinting almost anything on the narrative side would spoil anything major. The most I can say is that 13 people summon robots to fight kaiju. I really don't want to say much because this is something where the less you know the better.
Instead I'll talk a bit about the RTS sections since those a bit more general. They're pretty fun on Intense but overall pretty simple with maybe a few interesting parts coming from the bonus objectives that might limit who you'll want to bring in. I like the visual designs of these section a bit although it can be a bit overwhelming in certain sections and later missions did tank the framerate a bit (especially the final mission). There's also a few QoL changes that I wish were present like knowing what the limit on turrets out was (I actually didnt realize you could send out more than 1 until late in the game admittedly), knowing what the max upgrade on weapons was, if there was even a limit on how many sentinel upgrades you can have, etc. Despite this, I enjoyed the combat sections a lot more than I thought and by that I mean I didnt realize interceptor and turret spam could trivialize a lot of maps until the last few battles. Still its fun to figure out what combos work best and min/maxing your sentinels for the final battle was incredibly satisfying. I'll also say that Area 2-10 will probably live in my heart as one of the best moments in the game imo; the music in this game is super good and that map exemplifies just how well Basicscape handled the music.
Everything I wrote basically accounts for not even 20% of the game, and not even the best parts of it. The other ~80% accounting for the narrative is insane and the way 13S handles it's structure, characters and the way you solve the mysteries are super satisfying. I don't want to say anymore than that because I would rather people interested in getting this find out for themselves what kinda game/narrative 13 Sentinels is. I had been distantly interested in seeing what Vanillaware was cooking up since seeing teaser trailers for it but after hearing rave reviews when it dropped last year had my interest piqued. I'm incredibly happy to say that 13 Sentinels not only satisfied my interest but surpassed them. I think a game like this deserves the praise its gotten with regards to how much ambition and love for the sci-fi genre went into this narrative, even with its RTS sections seeming weaker. I gushed about this game for this long and didn't even realize I never talked about the art, kind of the trademark accolade of any vanillaware game. It's great. More than great, even. All I can say is that I highly recommend picking this up, Vanillaware did a really good job and I loved every second of it (although area 3-10 was a pain on my run).
Instead I'll talk a bit about the RTS sections since those a bit more general. They're pretty fun on Intense but overall pretty simple with maybe a few interesting parts coming from the bonus objectives that might limit who you'll want to bring in. I like the visual designs of these section a bit although it can be a bit overwhelming in certain sections and later missions did tank the framerate a bit (especially the final mission). There's also a few QoL changes that I wish were present like knowing what the limit on turrets out was (I actually didnt realize you could send out more than 1 until late in the game admittedly), knowing what the max upgrade on weapons was, if there was even a limit on how many sentinel upgrades you can have, etc. Despite this, I enjoyed the combat sections a lot more than I thought and by that I mean I didnt realize interceptor and turret spam could trivialize a lot of maps until the last few battles. Still its fun to figure out what combos work best and min/maxing your sentinels for the final battle was incredibly satisfying. I'll also say that Area 2-10 will probably live in my heart as one of the best moments in the game imo; the music in this game is super good and that map exemplifies just how well Basicscape handled the music.
Everything I wrote basically accounts for not even 20% of the game, and not even the best parts of it. The other ~80% accounting for the narrative is insane and the way 13S handles it's structure, characters and the way you solve the mysteries are super satisfying. I don't want to say anymore than that because I would rather people interested in getting this find out for themselves what kinda game/narrative 13 Sentinels is. I had been distantly interested in seeing what Vanillaware was cooking up since seeing teaser trailers for it but after hearing rave reviews when it dropped last year had my interest piqued. I'm incredibly happy to say that 13 Sentinels not only satisfied my interest but surpassed them. I think a game like this deserves the praise its gotten with regards to how much ambition and love for the sci-fi genre went into this narrative, even with its RTS sections seeming weaker. I gushed about this game for this long and didn't even realize I never talked about the art, kind of the trademark accolade of any vanillaware game. It's great. More than great, even. All I can say is that I highly recommend picking this up, Vanillaware did a really good job and I loved every second of it (although area 3-10 was a pain on my run).
Man I really wanted to like this but jesus christ this just feels silly a lot of the time
30 hours of regugitating similar scenes, bad models, constant map transition scenes, bad effects, hit or miss puzzles just for the last 5 or 10 hours to have actual things happen isnt worth it. 999's structure made for a super enjoyable and fairly clever trip down alternative paths (with some pseudoscience) fun but the way this game attempts to accomplish that is obnoxious it feels like a good chunk of the game is just meandering through similar scenes to maybe get 1 or 2 useful pieces of information only for it to reach a final point in which its nothing but a nonstop of new, complex information to process. After a certain point in the final stretch I seriously wondered why this even really needed to be made? It's got some neat character moments, some puzzles are alright, its at least fairly forgiving with some QoL features (the flow chart/skip button). By the end the game gets interesting but would I say it's really worth the constant back-and-forth of the previous 30 hours, not really. Also god this game looks ugly like really, like christ this game would go up a point if I didnt have to stare at models that looked worse than mid-aughts gmod videos.
30 hours of regugitating similar scenes, bad models, constant map transition scenes, bad effects, hit or miss puzzles just for the last 5 or 10 hours to have actual things happen isnt worth it. 999's structure made for a super enjoyable and fairly clever trip down alternative paths (with some pseudoscience) fun but the way this game attempts to accomplish that is obnoxious it feels like a good chunk of the game is just meandering through similar scenes to maybe get 1 or 2 useful pieces of information only for it to reach a final point in which its nothing but a nonstop of new, complex information to process. After a certain point in the final stretch I seriously wondered why this even really needed to be made? It's got some neat character moments, some puzzles are alright, its at least fairly forgiving with some QoL features (the flow chart/skip button). By the end the game gets interesting but would I say it's really worth the constant back-and-forth of the previous 30 hours, not really. Also god this game looks ugly like really, like christ this game would go up a point if I didnt have to stare at models that looked worse than mid-aughts gmod videos.
It is nearly inarguable that this is worse than Virtue's Last Reward as far as many aspects are concerned. However, it is also inarguable that this is way funnier than VLR and I probably had more fun going through this. My reasoning is very complex.
Final Fantasy 1? Fine. Very archaic dungeon design and story but a neat intro for the series with customizing a basic but (hopefully) effective party and building it out as the game progresses. Found it surprisingly easy and didn't die outside of not paying attention during minor grinding sections, admittedly. It's a solid 6 out of 10 imo, too mindless to pique my interest but nothing offensive, one of the better classic rpgs of that era.
Final Fantasy II? Played for about an hour or two. Didn't understand how strong I needed to be so I kept grinding in the starting area. Stumbled on an encounter at the very bottom peninsula of that area, apparently way higher leveled enemies spawn there so I got one shot, losing all my progress. Dropped it, so i guess this is half completed idk.
Edit 1: I now understand the concept of a "Peninsula of Power"
Edit 2: Actually went ahead and finished it so I'll give something a bit more in-depth.
The most obvious thing to talk about when discussing FF2 is the progression system and in this case I can see what they were going for and its neat considering this was though of during the NES era but man is is not as focused as normal exp. Compared to something like the elder scroll games (which Im not a fan of in these games either but i digress), at least in those games you have standard level ups after a given amount of skill level ups in which you can up your base stats like HP/MP. In FF2, those two and stats like evasion, stamina, intelligence are also gained through acts like getting hit, using spells, evading, using more than half of your MP in battle, will increase stats. This way of fighting might make for a more dynamic way of building your party by the end but firstly, stat ups in this feel so random and sporadic it doesn't really make me think "hmm yes i should use up all my magic in every battle so i can get a bunch of mp stat ups", I just want to get through the battles as i would normally and any stat ups i do get just happen. Secondly, this all feels undermined by the fact the game just gives you a bunch of 1-shot spells (thanks toad) and that pretty much every boss fight in this is a cakewalk (including the final boss, even Chaos in FF1 needed some form of team buffing, HP recovering, standard RPG faire). Also its incredibly weird to me why the skill max is 16 but by the end of the game you'll barely have skills over 10 or 11. There doesn't seem to be any reason or need to have any skills maxed out and the 'rank' of enemies doesn't go over 7, not even half of the skill cap. Also with how spells work there's so many specifics with how you get 'gains', like how using a bunch of mana on the field (like when casting cure or life), I don't know and I don't think you earn any points toward raising MP. Also because buffs and other white magics can miss and are very situational these just sit at fucking level 1 (or 2!!!) and that once in a blue moon moment you do use Berserk or Basuna it just misses because they're spells you don't use frequently like Cure or Life. Im glad this is a lot more refined than the original NES game was but man there's still a lot of ironing out that would need to be done here. At the very least with how easy this game is to cheese it's not a super hard game by any means (except those Death Knights in the final dungeon that do about as much damage as the final boss and regularly appear in multiples, with giants accompanying them). Also, at least in this version certain stats don't decrease when other stats increase like in the nes version. Any 'fourth' character gives you is just the biggest jobber, I felt no need to give any of them any attention whatsoever because there's no reason to give them anything- your main team of 3 is all you need to focus on. The dungeon crawling is almost a lot more obnoxious as FF1 but with deadend rooms with nothing in them and higher encounter rates. Don't feel bad if you want to use online maps, honestly. Lastly, man- money almost felt like a joke after the first few hours? After you buy you're starting equipment there's nearly no reason to buy anything else in the game and a lot of other equipment is either gifted or dropped by others. And any tomes you get more than 4 of (really 3, those fourth party members can be ignored for all i care) can just be sold off for even more money.
Overall it's a good port but man its not a good game and while the story has interesting bits to it, its not really neat enough to really grab my attention other than 'man this is darker than the first game'. At least chocobos and dragoons (kinda) were introduced in this game. It's a 2 out of 10, there's nothing really here I can say I liked and while its not painfully bad, it boggles my mind as to why they left this progression system (almost) as sloppy as it was on the NES.
Final Fantasy II? Played for about an hour or two. Didn't understand how strong I needed to be so I kept grinding in the starting area. Stumbled on an encounter at the very bottom peninsula of that area, apparently way higher leveled enemies spawn there so I got one shot, losing all my progress. Dropped it, so i guess this is half completed idk.
Edit 1: I now understand the concept of a "Peninsula of Power"
Edit 2: Actually went ahead and finished it so I'll give something a bit more in-depth.
The most obvious thing to talk about when discussing FF2 is the progression system and in this case I can see what they were going for and its neat considering this was though of during the NES era but man is is not as focused as normal exp. Compared to something like the elder scroll games (which Im not a fan of in these games either but i digress), at least in those games you have standard level ups after a given amount of skill level ups in which you can up your base stats like HP/MP. In FF2, those two and stats like evasion, stamina, intelligence are also gained through acts like getting hit, using spells, evading, using more than half of your MP in battle, will increase stats. This way of fighting might make for a more dynamic way of building your party by the end but firstly, stat ups in this feel so random and sporadic it doesn't really make me think "hmm yes i should use up all my magic in every battle so i can get a bunch of mp stat ups", I just want to get through the battles as i would normally and any stat ups i do get just happen. Secondly, this all feels undermined by the fact the game just gives you a bunch of 1-shot spells (thanks toad) and that pretty much every boss fight in this is a cakewalk (including the final boss, even Chaos in FF1 needed some form of team buffing, HP recovering, standard RPG faire). Also its incredibly weird to me why the skill max is 16 but by the end of the game you'll barely have skills over 10 or 11. There doesn't seem to be any reason or need to have any skills maxed out and the 'rank' of enemies doesn't go over 7, not even half of the skill cap. Also with how spells work there's so many specifics with how you get 'gains', like how using a bunch of mana on the field (like when casting cure or life), I don't know and I don't think you earn any points toward raising MP. Also because buffs and other white magics can miss and are very situational these just sit at fucking level 1 (or 2!!!) and that once in a blue moon moment you do use Berserk or Basuna it just misses because they're spells you don't use frequently like Cure or Life. Im glad this is a lot more refined than the original NES game was but man there's still a lot of ironing out that would need to be done here. At the very least with how easy this game is to cheese it's not a super hard game by any means (except those Death Knights in the final dungeon that do about as much damage as the final boss and regularly appear in multiples, with giants accompanying them). Also, at least in this version certain stats don't decrease when other stats increase like in the nes version. Any 'fourth' character gives you is just the biggest jobber, I felt no need to give any of them any attention whatsoever because there's no reason to give them anything- your main team of 3 is all you need to focus on. The dungeon crawling is almost a lot more obnoxious as FF1 but with deadend rooms with nothing in them and higher encounter rates. Don't feel bad if you want to use online maps, honestly. Lastly, man- money almost felt like a joke after the first few hours? After you buy you're starting equipment there's nearly no reason to buy anything else in the game and a lot of other equipment is either gifted or dropped by others. And any tomes you get more than 4 of (really 3, those fourth party members can be ignored for all i care) can just be sold off for even more money.
Overall it's a good port but man its not a good game and while the story has interesting bits to it, its not really neat enough to really grab my attention other than 'man this is darker than the first game'. At least chocobos and dragoons (kinda) were introduced in this game. It's a 2 out of 10, there's nothing really here I can say I liked and while its not painfully bad, it boggles my mind as to why they left this progression system (almost) as sloppy as it was on the NES.
2019
Prior to playing this, I admit to having played through the vanilla version 3 times already, having platinumed it. Essentially this is to say the persona games are my kind of crack. It should go without saying that if you don't have a penchant for slow, 100+ hour long rpgs with daily life elements, this isn't a game i recommend. With that out of the way I can gladly say that even 4 years after first going through vanilla, this cast and narrative still manages to charm and entertain me. There's a ton to talk about since vanilla was already a pretty hefty game and Royal adds quite a bit but I'll at least start with some of the negatives.
-The bad news is that in Royal a lot of the pacing/character/gag-scene pitfalls still exist as the plot beats still remain mostly the same. Some of these are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things but others can be pretty eye rolling to plain bad (e.g. the gay couple scene, Ann being used as a sexual distraction literally right after the dungeon about outing her predator, etc.). Also while its not a complaint the final vanilla dungeon kinda hammers in a very "we live in a society" type feel that- I get it. But man is it funny reading some of the dialogue and trying not to laugh while thinking about comics you see pop up about how "everyone isn't seeing the big picture and just ignores our societal issues, man" or stuff like that. Thematically this fits in the game and I understand it but its hard not to think about.
-Daily life Gameplay-wise, there's still some QoL stuff I kinda wish the series had. Stuff like seeing the amount of affinity you have in between confidant ranks would help. Also having a better means of marking who's available what days throughout the week (like 2 days from w/e date your on). Maybe that gets in the way of the realism aspect of daily life but also you talk to cats and get along better with people if you have the Roman god of double penetration in your heart so idk a better calendar would be nice.
-RPG-wise, there's also some QoL that'd be nice. Stuff like a filter in your compendium to see what skills registered personas have would be nice. I also wish the stealth aspect was a bit better? Early on its good but by the end of the game (moreso vanilla endgame) it kinda seemed a bit whatever. Also this kinda ties into the fact that I think later dungeons are a bit on the easy side so if you grabbed the instakill mechanic, if youre overleveled you basically just sweep through a good bit of dungeons (the final FINAL dungeon somewhat excluded in my playthrough). I also kinda wished the mementos party dialogue was a bit better. Im a sucker for dialogue thats just shooting the shit but all of these instances are just a single line of text for two characters (e.g. Yusuke says something about mementos, Ryuji responds with something normal, end of dialogue) when I feel like even just having a third piece of dialogue would at least lead to maybe some punch-line or more interesting back-and-forth but thats just me (also this stuff gets interrupted whenever you open a door/find the next floor/find a chest which kills the mood). Lastly, wish stamps are a bit of a pain to collect. Moreso if you're dying to get every last one, but at least its not completely necessary unless you want to unlock a secret.
Im bringing all this up because this was pretty much everything I wrote down over the course of the ~125 hours I played of this game in the span of a month. I already loved vanilla but its astonishing to see how much stuff was added in this package. The changes made from Persona 4 to Golden were pretty neat in hindsight but here you have a very different game from the last even with the 'new' content relegated to the tailend of the game. Not only is there just new stuff but a lot of the fixes from vanilla are deeply appreciated.
Stuff like:
+guns being reloaded after battle rather than after each mission
+rebalancing of certain confidant ability unlocks (thank you Chihaya)
+technical damage overhaul
+new confidants and confidant progression changes
+new personas (although a greedy part of me wanted more)
+new craftables (thank you perma pick)
+gun customizables
+will seeds, the grappling hook and new dungeon designs making minute but interesting changes from vanilla
+altered boss fights (somewhat mixed on this but some bosses are more interesting to fight this time around)
+WAY less morgana dragging you down to go to bed
+the new Kichijoji area with all of its new and pretty neat features (big fan of the sooty clothes seller)
+new music and new visual changes that are great as always
+the thieves den, allowing for a lot of throwaway but always welcome in my heart dialogue between party members about previous events/elements in the game (this feels like an improvement upon that mementos lack of 'back and forth' i mentioned earlier; it feels a bit more substantial here)
and lastly, + the third semester of the game
If I hadnt already enjoyed the previous improvements/add-ons of the game enough to give this a 10, this third semester would have cemented it. Not only do i feel like its a lot more interesting than the persona 4 golden third semester but it also feels like an improvement upon characters that I feel were shafted in vanilla. On top of this and the added time benefit, the actual plot surrounding this third semester is extremely intriguing, with probably my favorite dungeon in the game, some very excellent character moments, and a finale that feel not only much more satisfying than vanilla's but might be one of my favorite moments in the series as a whole (including megaten). I don't want to give too many spoilers however it was incredibly refreshing to see the third semester not only feel like a 'hey we gave you more leeway in completing stuff' bonus but also a personally more satisfying climax to the game than the 'satisfactory' ending vanilla had in my opinion.
I have my complaints about the game but I can't in all honestly act as though I didn't just love this game. I loved vanilla alot but I'm so glad Royal that both fixed and overhauled on the already charming game vanilla was. I love its cast half to death, perhaps one of my favorite in gaming on average. The soundtrack is incredibly good and its visually stunning. The character designs and classic megaten demons have remained some of my favorites in gaming without a doubt. I really cant sing enough praise about this game. Vanilla itself kinda stuck to me as a game Im glad I bought my PS4 to play along with high school friends and other people that caught a new found love in the series from good word of mouth. I have fond memories of that version but its faults do become a lot more glaring over time. Royal fixes a good chunk of this and the added bonuses only elevate a game I already appreciated into something that I could not put down despite having already kind of played it 3 times prior. I could talk a lot more about this game if I wanted since this is a lengthy enough game but I'll just leave it at that.
-The bad news is that in Royal a lot of the pacing/character/gag-scene pitfalls still exist as the plot beats still remain mostly the same. Some of these are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things but others can be pretty eye rolling to plain bad (e.g. the gay couple scene, Ann being used as a sexual distraction literally right after the dungeon about outing her predator, etc.). Also while its not a complaint the final vanilla dungeon kinda hammers in a very "we live in a society" type feel that- I get it. But man is it funny reading some of the dialogue and trying not to laugh while thinking about comics you see pop up about how "everyone isn't seeing the big picture and just ignores our societal issues, man" or stuff like that. Thematically this fits in the game and I understand it but its hard not to think about.
-Daily life Gameplay-wise, there's still some QoL stuff I kinda wish the series had. Stuff like seeing the amount of affinity you have in between confidant ranks would help. Also having a better means of marking who's available what days throughout the week (like 2 days from w/e date your on). Maybe that gets in the way of the realism aspect of daily life but also you talk to cats and get along better with people if you have the Roman god of double penetration in your heart so idk a better calendar would be nice.
-RPG-wise, there's also some QoL that'd be nice. Stuff like a filter in your compendium to see what skills registered personas have would be nice. I also wish the stealth aspect was a bit better? Early on its good but by the end of the game (moreso vanilla endgame) it kinda seemed a bit whatever. Also this kinda ties into the fact that I think later dungeons are a bit on the easy side so if you grabbed the instakill mechanic, if youre overleveled you basically just sweep through a good bit of dungeons (the final FINAL dungeon somewhat excluded in my playthrough). I also kinda wished the mementos party dialogue was a bit better. Im a sucker for dialogue thats just shooting the shit but all of these instances are just a single line of text for two characters (e.g. Yusuke says something about mementos, Ryuji responds with something normal, end of dialogue) when I feel like even just having a third piece of dialogue would at least lead to maybe some punch-line or more interesting back-and-forth but thats just me (also this stuff gets interrupted whenever you open a door/find the next floor/find a chest which kills the mood). Lastly, wish stamps are a bit of a pain to collect. Moreso if you're dying to get every last one, but at least its not completely necessary unless you want to unlock a secret.
Im bringing all this up because this was pretty much everything I wrote down over the course of the ~125 hours I played of this game in the span of a month. I already loved vanilla but its astonishing to see how much stuff was added in this package. The changes made from Persona 4 to Golden were pretty neat in hindsight but here you have a very different game from the last even with the 'new' content relegated to the tailend of the game. Not only is there just new stuff but a lot of the fixes from vanilla are deeply appreciated.
Stuff like:
+guns being reloaded after battle rather than after each mission
+rebalancing of certain confidant ability unlocks (thank you Chihaya)
+technical damage overhaul
+new confidants and confidant progression changes
+new personas (although a greedy part of me wanted more)
+new craftables (thank you perma pick)
+gun customizables
+will seeds, the grappling hook and new dungeon designs making minute but interesting changes from vanilla
+altered boss fights (somewhat mixed on this but some bosses are more interesting to fight this time around)
+WAY less morgana dragging you down to go to bed
+the new Kichijoji area with all of its new and pretty neat features (big fan of the sooty clothes seller)
+new music and new visual changes that are great as always
+the thieves den, allowing for a lot of throwaway but always welcome in my heart dialogue between party members about previous events/elements in the game (this feels like an improvement upon that mementos lack of 'back and forth' i mentioned earlier; it feels a bit more substantial here)
and lastly, + the third semester of the game
If I hadnt already enjoyed the previous improvements/add-ons of the game enough to give this a 10, this third semester would have cemented it. Not only do i feel like its a lot more interesting than the persona 4 golden third semester but it also feels like an improvement upon characters that I feel were shafted in vanilla. On top of this and the added time benefit, the actual plot surrounding this third semester is extremely intriguing, with probably my favorite dungeon in the game, some very excellent character moments, and a finale that feel not only much more satisfying than vanilla's but might be one of my favorite moments in the series as a whole (including megaten). I don't want to give too many spoilers however it was incredibly refreshing to see the third semester not only feel like a 'hey we gave you more leeway in completing stuff' bonus but also a personally more satisfying climax to the game than the 'satisfactory' ending vanilla had in my opinion.
I have my complaints about the game but I can't in all honestly act as though I didn't just love this game. I loved vanilla alot but I'm so glad Royal that both fixed and overhauled on the already charming game vanilla was. I love its cast half to death, perhaps one of my favorite in gaming on average. The soundtrack is incredibly good and its visually stunning. The character designs and classic megaten demons have remained some of my favorites in gaming without a doubt. I really cant sing enough praise about this game. Vanilla itself kinda stuck to me as a game Im glad I bought my PS4 to play along with high school friends and other people that caught a new found love in the series from good word of mouth. I have fond memories of that version but its faults do become a lot more glaring over time. Royal fixes a good chunk of this and the added bonuses only elevate a game I already appreciated into something that I could not put down despite having already kind of played it 3 times prior. I could talk a lot more about this game if I wanted since this is a lengthy enough game but I'll just leave it at that.