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Forum - View topicANNCast - Programmed To Feel Pain
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EricJ2
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A week after upgrading to Playstation 4, I happened to find a used copy of Persona 5 at the local Gamestop, which the employee claimed took him by surprise as well. (Seeing as the new game would have only been out two weeks by that point.)
I suspect the previous player hadn't actually finished the game, but just gave up on first few hours of it as too "dark" or "depressing" or "negative" compared to the virtual-dormitories of Persona 3 & 4. Those felt like welcoming places to the new player, while in P5, the "Youth-in-rebellion" premise of the story is initially determined to play EVERY adult as a reprehensible jerk and EVERY teen as unfairly martyred by grown-up society. Instead of a gruff-but-welcoming police detective and his adoring daughter letting you boarder, you're on the run from an unfair probation, the concept of "listening to rumors" at school are all whispering about the New Psychotic Transfer Student who they heard probably killed somebody, and the crabby old cafe' owner who lets you use his attic reminds you almost every other quote at first that he can call the police and have you kicked back out of school and into the gutter at the first wrong step. Even the elegant Velvet Room has now been turned from a limo into a jail cell, and Elizabeth replaced by two cute tsundere prison wardens. Umm, yeah. Greatness Awaits(tm). 
Having gotten a few hours in, I can caution similar new-player victims: Stick with it. Yes, the first adult "boss" villain is so excessively slimy an M-rated Snidely Whiplash, and the story dialogue spends so much time analyzing it, reminding us of it and punishing him for it, you may want to pack up the game right there, but once you've got the main three friends, it's back in tradition P3 & 4 style again, and even the cafe' owner turns traditional Gruff-But-Lovable. Have patience, it gets better. 
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doctordoom85
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I mean, I guess Persona 5 is a bit darker than 3 and 4 but it hardly felt THAT depressing in its opening chapter. Plus, 4 does start with one of your new buddies spoiler[having to deal with that a good friend that he had feelings for was just murdered, and that maybe she despised him deep down all this time], so at least 4 also was hardly all sunshine and rainbows at the start either.
Of course, this may also be that I had just finished Nier prior to playing P5 so yeah nothing in P5 so far has come anywhere close to some of the dark moments in THAT game. And for the record, while I haven't yet finished Automata, so far I don't agree with the general notion that it's perfectly fine to skip the first game before starting Automata. You can follow it, but there are certain elements to Automata you'll appreciate more if you've played the first game plus it will ruin certain elements of the first game should you ever play that later which is a huge disservice to its incredible story IMHO. So yeah, I strongly urge people to play the first game first and if that's not an option for you then at least watch a LP (Best Friends Play's LP of it is a solid pick as Liam knows a good deal about the behind the scenes info such as the director's comments and certain material that was cut from the game). |
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lunaswav3
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Sorry about the thread-bump. I just got around to listening to this episode and... I haven't heard a podcast this good in years.
I was on the fence about NieR：Automata until I heard you three wax poetic about the philosophical themes in the game. So I went out & bought it. As a side-effect, my SSD is full of non-pornographic doujin illustrations depicting 2B and 9S in uncharacteristically romantic poses not limited to dating, hugging, and/or kissing. Good job, you made me buy an astronomically amazing game. And, for better or worse, now I wanna go back & play Drakengard. 
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