I posted this on a Persona message board but I though The Escapist community might appreciate it. I kept it pretty much spoiler free if you're worried.
While most everyone seems to agree Persona 4 has improved on the formula of P3 in about every way possible there has been one common gripe attached to it. I am referring to the opening. As you probably know the opening last about 3-4 hours (depending how fast you read the text). Now this is a fair chunk of time but I found it to be very good in the end, especially in comparison to Persona 3. Since I played 4 then 3 here were my impressions on the opening.
The main problem people had was that most of the intro was exposition or just a build up until the real meat of the story started. While this is completely true I feel like it was a very important introduction into the game. It was a bit long but it didn't rush anything and it made sure everything you were supposed to understand was explained well. Moving in, meeting your friends, and the beginning of the murders were a nice set up to the story. From there you were introduced to the idea of the Midnight Channel, the other world and types of Persona. Out of all those things I think how the Midnight Channel works is the most important of the set up. It basically gave you a driving force to play the game. Just in reference to beating the first dungeon, you are literally fighting for your friends life. Also with this is the fact that this place is such a mystery and you learn more about the killer and the other world with every person saved. To sum up my impression of the Persona 4 opening, it was long but did a good job of explaining everything while setting up a definitive purpose for doing your actions. Once again this took about 3-4 hours.
Now for Persona 3. This intro took me about an hour and a half. The problem here is that it felt rather rushed. The fact that the crap hits the fan as soon as you arrive had a negative effect on my connection with the characters. They were allies before they were friends and thus their development suffered. Also nothing was really explained. I had gathered that The Dark Hour was bad but it was never really explained why it was bad. There are a few reference to Apathy Syndrome and the Lost which I had to assume were caused by The Dark Hour. I feel as if that should have been explained in a cut scene rather then mentioned in passing. Now my biggest problem here is motivation. After you find this power you're basically told to climb a tower. Now if I had a goal at the start I might be fine with it, but the fact I'm seeing how high I can get just to see if I can possibly learn something about Tartarus bothers me. Unlike 4 which reward me for beating a dungeon right away I have to wait for full moon for story events to take place that don't even relate to the tower I have to climb. Now I'm sure this will come full circle in the end but at the beginning there was just a general lack of interesting story going on. Now the story does eventually get more interesting with the introduction of Shinjiro(sp), the "rival gang" and the reason why The Dark Hour exists. That would be fine if it hadn't come 20 hours into the game.
So in conclusion Persona 4 had a long intro but was interesting right off the bat with a 3-4 hour start while in comparison Persona 3 which had and hour and a half start but didn't really pick up will 2o hours in.
Now I'm sure someone has an argument as to why P3 picked up sooner then where I'm saying and I'd like to hear that opinion. So, thoughts?
While most everyone seems to agree Persona 4 has improved on the formula of P3 in about every way possible there has been one common gripe attached to it. I am referring to the opening. As you probably know the opening last about 3-4 hours (depending how fast you read the text). Now this is a fair chunk of time but I found it to be very good in the end, especially in comparison to Persona 3. Since I played 4 then 3 here were my impressions on the opening.
The main problem people had was that most of the intro was exposition or just a build up until the real meat of the story started. While this is completely true I feel like it was a very important introduction into the game. It was a bit long but it didn't rush anything and it made sure everything you were supposed to understand was explained well. Moving in, meeting your friends, and the beginning of the murders were a nice set up to the story. From there you were introduced to the idea of the Midnight Channel, the other world and types of Persona. Out of all those things I think how the Midnight Channel works is the most important of the set up. It basically gave you a driving force to play the game. Just in reference to beating the first dungeon, you are literally fighting for your friends life. Also with this is the fact that this place is such a mystery and you learn more about the killer and the other world with every person saved. To sum up my impression of the Persona 4 opening, it was long but did a good job of explaining everything while setting up a definitive purpose for doing your actions. Once again this took about 3-4 hours.
Now for Persona 3. This intro took me about an hour and a half. The problem here is that it felt rather rushed. The fact that the crap hits the fan as soon as you arrive had a negative effect on my connection with the characters. They were allies before they were friends and thus their development suffered. Also nothing was really explained. I had gathered that The Dark Hour was bad but it was never really explained why it was bad. There are a few reference to Apathy Syndrome and the Lost which I had to assume were caused by The Dark Hour. I feel as if that should have been explained in a cut scene rather then mentioned in passing. Now my biggest problem here is motivation. After you find this power you're basically told to climb a tower. Now if I had a goal at the start I might be fine with it, but the fact I'm seeing how high I can get just to see if I can possibly learn something about Tartarus bothers me. Unlike 4 which reward me for beating a dungeon right away I have to wait for full moon for story events to take place that don't even relate to the tower I have to climb. Now I'm sure this will come full circle in the end but at the beginning there was just a general lack of interesting story going on. Now the story does eventually get more interesting with the introduction of Shinjiro(sp), the "rival gang" and the reason why The Dark Hour exists. That would be fine if it hadn't come 20 hours into the game.
So in conclusion Persona 4 had a long intro but was interesting right off the bat with a 3-4 hour start while in comparison Persona 3 which had and hour and a half start but didn't really pick up will 2o hours in.
Now I'm sure someone has an argument as to why P3 picked up sooner then where I'm saying and I'd like to hear that opinion. So, thoughts?