F&H2 Termina makes me question how the indie horror scene has managed to completely eclipse whatever the AAA scene has put out in the past decade. With a distinct art style and innovative gameplay it impresses even further by being a mish mash of genres that have no business working this well together. A turn based RPG survival horror with team building mechanics is such an avant garde idea. Combat that is usually replaced with insta-kills in the RPG maker horror subgenre is what gives Termina its identity. Even notable exceptions like Peret em Heru heavily dumb down the combat and give the player items to circumvent the tedium of combat. Termina however doesn't shy away from item starvation and RNG, It is a survival horror game through and through and one that is executed to perfection.

Its relationship with its prequel F&H is also one that I've rarely ever seen before, the prequel is used like a loose historical event that twists and turns depending on what source you get your information from, which is a fascinating depiction of how time corrodes and perverts stories and people that once were very real have now been reduced to mere retellings of idealized characters.

What Is Going On In Finland.

I went into P5T with mixed feelings. This is the 4th or 5th spinoff and it's been about 6-7 years since we first met the cast. For a game that was originally about 'taking your time' and letting time and experience change you, every new release aside from Royal has flattened the characters more and more. I wasn't expecting a ton of character development, nor is there any to be found.

As a Persona game there's a requisite amount of storytelling and visual novel elements so even when there's not much to say, half or more of the game takes place in dialogue exchanges. The character interactions hit all the familiar beats and the humor is there, but it never feels fresh. Ryuji and Morgana are at each other's throats, Yusuke is aloof, Haru is naive, etc. All of this feels like it's weighing the game down a bit, and I don't think the new characters or their troubles particularly carry the game. I like Erina and Kasakube well enough but there's not much substance to work with.

As far as gameplay, this game is very easy on Hard, and on Merciless it just seems to add more enemies to the point where it feels tedious instead of like a real challenge. Each character gets a "1 More" every time they knock down an enemy, and additionally you get an overpowered triangle attack, so it feels very easy to exploit these things. The only real challenge comes from beating these little puzzleboxes in as few turns as possible. It never feels like you're in any danger of actually getting killed or a game over. Instead its like the game wants you to eventually win, and come back later to get a better score. I understand some people may like gameplay loop but I think it takes the stakes out of the game.

Even if a character gets KO'd there's a baton pass so that they get replaced by someone with full HP and SP, so it can be advantageous to kill your own character. The game also has a cool spin on elemental attacks, where they work as status effects, so things like Bufu freezes, Garu knocks enemy back, and Psio hypnotizes the enemy... but it doesn't really get more complex than that and adding a few exploding barrels to the maps.

It's a very generous game if it's what you're into, and I can see why some people would love it, but it's just missing the stakes I am looking for from a strategy game.