Persona wish list

[klaynexas3]

Just like the Dark Souls 2 wish list thread, what are you hoping to see in the newly announced persona games?

As for myself, I want to see a return of stronger plot lines like what we had in P3. Not that the murder mystery was bad, but something just felt...underwhelming about it all and lacking in agency. Not to mention, I want them to back away from their generic plot twists that seemed to be in both P3 and P4.

I also want them to work on making the demon fusing more vital again. With P4, because I had the control over my team, I felt less a need to fuse a large variety of personas because I wasn't carrying the team. But I want them to keep the direct control.

Smaller things that I'd like to see would be opposite sex social links that don't end in the bed room. That's mostly for a touch of reality, because not everyone is going to want to bone you. And also some stronger punishments for having multiple girlfriends, and maybe even a way to break up with them after you start dating them.

So basically, I want a better done social Sim aspect of the game. Oh, and gay social links. And maybe even a possibility for open relationship social links. Okay, I'll stop rambling. Unless I think of something else.

 

[DeltaEdge]

Hm, you guys have pretty much gotten most of everything I could think of. One thing I might change though regarding the "not every opposite sex social link should end in the bedroom would be instead of that, make it possible for all social links, regardless of gender, but make it a side thing, rather than the end, so that you could max out your social link without it needing to end with sex, but be able to pursue it if you wish. Not that I particularly care about sex, but as far as that goes, it seems more realistic that way. And when I say all social links, I should clarify people around the same age. I don't want to think about the MC sleeping with whatever old man, old woman, grade schooler, or animal social link is in P5. *shivers*

Also, direct control over all your teammates would be nice, and I'm not sure how it would work out, but maybe if the other protagonists besides the MC had maybe a small pool of different personas to use, just to add a little bit of variety. Not as many as the protagonist mind you, but just maybe 1 or 2 others to choose from.

 

[The Wykydtron]

You dissing my Persona 4 punk? Come and say that to my face

As much as I would like to what what Labrys is like in traditional turn based combat, I want Persona 5 to be as far removed from 3 and 4 as possible. It looks like the Arena games are continuing that mystery story arc so it would make sense for 5 to be totally new.

Also I want Arena 2 to keep my darling Shadow Labrys on the roster. It's not going to happen, Shabrys is redundant to the story now that Labrys has Ariadne. *sigh* A man can dream...

[sub][sub]Also nerf Kanji.[/sub][/sub]

Above all, Atlus needs to sort their shit out when announcing what can laughingly be described as EU release dates. It won't be fun dodging both Arena AND 5 spoilers for a fucking year.

 

[Mister K]

Hmm... Probably ability to pick gender of MC would be nice. People liked it in P3, so why not?
Also, more slavic personas + Zeus and actual Jesus as a strongest persona of Justice arcana (P3's Messiah does not count).

Oh yeah, I'd like to see different types of physical damage again.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Well, I would like the ability to play as either male or female, like in the older SMT games. That feature kind of dropped out of the newer Persona games (at least, the original releases), and I would like it to be back in this one.

I also second Tizzy's request for gay relationships. The series has handled issues of sexuality and gender in the story, but in the relationships you can only date girls. Give us more options, yo!

Gameplay wise, I would like the series to keep the turn-based combat of 4, and the relationship managing of 3 and 4. I also day-night time-progression cycle stuff of 3 and 4, so keeping that stuff in would also be great. I would like them to switch up the dungeons a bit more though, and get more creative. Maybe avoid using randomly generated floors this time? Would also be nice if the game wasn't a straight dungeon crawl. More one-off side areas/events like in 3 would be cool.

I would also like the tone to be between 3 and 4. I don't want all the grim-darkness of 3, but I also don't want it to be a copy of 4, either. Basically, plenty of happy/fun moments contrasted with plenty of sad/dark moments. That would be cool.

 

[God's Clown]

I also second Tizzy's request for gay relationships. The series has handled issues of sexuality and gender in the story, but in the relationships you can only date girls. Give us more options, yo!

In Persona 3 Portable there is sort of a female female relationship. Between FeMC and Mitsuru.

 

[Grace_Omega]

1) Option to play as a girl, I really liked that in Persona 3 for the PSP.

2) I appreciate wandering around a fully realized 3D environment, but the 2D map drastically sped up the gameplay in Persona 3 on the PSP, so maybe implementing an optional version of that would be nice.

3) Gay romance options and friendships with the opposite sex that don't (or don't have to) turn romantic.

4) Fewer social links, but more depth to the ones that are there. Maybe have greater variety in the possible ways relationships can go.

5) Less grind. Persona games are pretty good at keeping me engaged even with a lot of repetition, but I'd like the option to not have to slog through endless battles to strengthen my character if I don't feel like it.

6) More of a western RPG approach to dialogue options, by which I mean you can talk to character at certain points to get into very detailed branching dialogue trees that you can't then repeat or a different outcome (earlier games might actually have had this, it's been a while since I played them)

7) More interesting dungeon environments. I understand there's only so much you can do with randomly generated levels, but maybe something with a little more variety than just lots of corridors and square rooms.

 

[Someone Depressing]

There's, like, a lot here, so I've cut it up into sections.

Spoiler: A-D

Spoiler: A

a) A homosexual relationship.. come on, gay innuendo was riddled in P3, and one was considered in P4 (there are lots of deleted audio files of Yosuke).

Spoiler: B

b) A better stat system.. ie, a human and persona's stats are seperate, and the protagonist's are decided. I preffered this system.

Spoiler: C

c) A female protagonist option. It doesn't matter if there are many Social Link differences this time, just the option would be nice.

Spoiler: A

d) I'd like it if Kazuma Kaneko did the art. but that's... unlikely, considering how he likes to draw grotesque and disturbingly detailed drawings. I just don't like Soejima's style very much. For a series that is considered weird and just downright odd, even in Japan, I preffer Kaneko's basque doll look. Here's a comparison of two characters, by the way

Spoiler

This is the ditzy Greek mythology enthusiast of the team. Sorry, but I couldn't really find a large image.

Her in Persona 1.

And this is when everyone's favourite weirdo found Photoshop.

Soejima's style is just too... generic, in its sheer animeness. I do like how he can make characters look how you'd expect them to be if you were described them, in an odd way, but it's just not as good as Kaneko's.

Spoiler: E-I

Spoiler: E

e) I want the series to decide which timeline it's taking place in, the Diva Machine timeline, or Persona 3/4's Dark Hour timeline.

Spoiler: F

f) I liked P1-4's 3D enviroments, but I thought P3P's was quicker to navigate... maybe, having both (like an overhead and 3rd person/1st person camera).

Spoiler: G

g) Instead of having a bunch of social links that don't go anywhere, have more characters representing a single Arcana, and give them more indepth stories.

Spoiler: H

h) Less grinding. In Persona 4, every dungeon, you'd have to grind about 10 levels in order to fight the boss without dying. Yes, that's about 1-level every floor. No, there are not enough enemies to justify it.

Spoiler: I

i) Protagonist can equip any weapon. I liked this in P3 (but ironically not a gun, or... knife. Guess who uses the knives? A dog.) but I was sad that they took it out of P3P. I also used bows a lot in P3 because they were just really usefull. Infact, maybe a "skill with each kind of weapon" system could be implemented.

Spoiler: Other

Spoiler: Level Up+SP Cost

Basically, I'd like a level up and Persona system used in Persona 1 and Persona 2, but with the Personae becoming quickly outclassed removed, and the shared SP cost being changed (ie, a character's ultimate Personae has MahaMediarama, a middle class healing spell, and that Persona has a Soul of 71. Because that character is "Great" with the Persona, it's reduced to about 50, whereas an early-game persona you taught Mahamedia, a low-class healing spell, with a Soul of about 6, can heal the entire party fully for half the SP cost... now, which are you honestly, really gonna choose? Yeah, that should be removed.)

Spoiler: Anime Hitler

I'd like a plot like Persona 2, except it doesn't speed up for no reason at one point, leaving me confused as I cast debuffs on Hitler who is killing me with the Spear of Lognisus before turning into the main characters' father held together with spit and bondage gear, why that is happening, or why the token blonde girl is talking about night fevers through the whole thing or something.

Spoiler: Multiple Personae per Character, switch in battl

I also hope that every character has more than one Personae, like in P1 and P2. For those unaware of the system:

Every character has one Arcana that they specialised specifically in: This increased the Persona's stats and lowered their "Soul", which affected the SP cost of using it. If a character was bad with a Persona, then their Soul was increased considerably, and their stats were lowered.

This basically meant that every character had access to a long list of different Personae, from healers to status-effect inflictors, to damage dealers. Even if the party members only have a few extra Personae (like Initial, two or three other ones, so on so forth).

Spoiler: the main character's Persona

I also don't want the main character's intial Persona to become outclassed... maybe deciding what skills it gets, or something. Basically, not have a Persona with two weaknesses, three skills, and ok-ish healing skill, and and no resistances, and have it stalk the player around until they get a better one, which isn't for a while.

Oh God, I don't know how to use HTML without murdering someone's eyes in the process... I-I'M SORRY?! IS THIS EVEN HTML?! I DON'T KNOW!

 

[Strain42]

They do definitely need to upgrade the social link system if they're going to keep it. Not that it isn't fun, but it's pretty flawed. Especially in P4 where the social links where were most of your party members got the vast majority of their development, but also because of that fact you could like rush Yosuke's before the second dungeon in the game and it feels like he regresses.

Personally I think if they could come up with a system that sorta blends the SL system we have now with the Fate System from Devil Survivor 2, I think they could make something pretty great.

Anyway, I feel like this topic is more sort of just asking "What do you want to see in Persona 5?" because lets face it, Persona Q and Dancing All Night probably aren't gonna be these revolutionary things in terms of series progression. Fun and interesting, sure, but it feels weird to put your Persona wishes onto those particular stars.

As tired as I am of Persona 4 being milked dry and how I want them to move onto other stuff, I will confess I would still kinda like to see a game starring Teddie. Even if it's just a very simple PSN platformer sorta like the Prinny games for Disgaea. Just SOMETHING that focuses on Teddie and maybe tells us a bit more about where he came from, whose Shadow is he? WHY is he so different from the others?

And anyway, obviously this will never ever ever happen in a million years, but I am gonna throw out my dream Persona project.

-The plotline, characters, and themes of Persona 1's Snow Queen Quest
-The dedication to pacing, plot development and story of the Persona 2 duology
-The graphics and gameplay equal to or above Persona 3/4

That would just be incredible.

 

[Strain42]

Sorry for the double post (assuming this is a double post and someone didn't comment while I was busy typing this)

Character Art Snip

Sorry to be that guy, but I actually wanna throw out a correction here. That pic of Eriko from P1 wasn't Soejima. Kaneko did the artwork for the original P1, and if I recall correctly the P1PSP port were actually just the studio that did the animated cutscenes using computer models on the artwork (and if I'm wrong on this, I apologize, that's just what I remember reading)

A more apt comparison of Kaneko and Soejima's art would be like this

Spoiler

And even with Kaneko having done the initial concept art of the characters, in the Persona 2 games all the in game art was Soejima (save for the Eternal Punishment port were Doi took over)

I mean don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Kaneko, he's one of my favorite artists, but I think when it comes to human designs I actually prefer Soejima's touch. I think Kaneko's best work is in his monster designs. I mean I think the work he did on the P2 party member Personas is the best stuff he's done. So at the very least I wish he'd do the artwork for like the Personas themselves and the bosses and stuff, but I like what Soejima does with humans.

The one thing I do really love about Kaneko's human designs though is this...and it's such a weird compliment, but it always sticks with me. With only a couple of exceptions (mostly from P1) Kaneko always uses real hair colors for his characters. He doesn't do crazy anime hair colors like blue or green or like majenta. He sticks with a lot of dark browns, blacks, the occasional blonde. Real hair colors that characters of their respective ethnicity would have.

And when a character comes along who does sport a more crazy hair color (the shown above Eikichi, Ulala, etc.) it's a character where it is completely in character for that person to have dyed their hair. I mean we know for a fact Eikichi does, that's confirmed in the game, and it makes sense that Ulala would.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

1) Better dungeons.
Look at the dungeons of Lucifer's Call and Digital Devil Saga. Now look at the dungeons of Persona 3 and 4. Do you see the problem?

2) More freedom.
Not necessarily in gameplay, but in locations. I always get a very cramped feeling when I'm playing the newer Persona games.

3) The ability to adapt everyone's persona.
It's possible that this would break the game, but one of the reasons that I still think Lucifer's Call is the best game within the SMT franchise - apart from visual style, atmosphere, locations and story - is the whole demon recruiting thing. Having a team decked out with demons of your own choosing, is what drew me into SMT to begin with. Plus, it would be awesome if they let you bargain with the demons again.

4) Maybe a bit more mature?
Even though the stories are at least decent and the sim-aspect is a nice way to offer extra information about the world and characters... The dialogue and characters themselves can get a bit "kiddy" at times. Like I'm watching some anime series for teens. Then again, that's probably the target audience for these games.

 

[deserteagleeye]

As long as Persona 5 has little to no connection with the events and characters to P3 and P4 I think I'll be happy with whatever story they come up with.

Also I want Arena 2 to keep my darling Shadow Labrys on the roster. It's not going to happen, Shabrys is redundant to the story now that Labrys has Ariadne. *sigh* A man can dream...

She's there and the circumstances of the new story allow it to happen.

 

[Strain42]

Also I want Arena 2 to keep my darling Shadow Labrys on the roster. It's not going to happen, Shabrys is redundant to the story now that Labrys has Ariadne. *sigh* A man can dream...

I mean it's already been confirmed that she's still in the game, despite being canonically...y'know...I think they just did the same thing with BlazBlue where they were like "Yeah, I know it makes no sense for that character to not be around anymore but...eh, we already made her, and this game runs off the same engine so...why not. Let her be available for free play and junk."

 

[Someone Depressing]

Snip

I know, sorry. I just didn't word the sentence properly. Thanks. But yeah, my internet's having a bad day, so I couldn't get any good pictures. But yeah, I was unaware of Soejima doing the final art for P2.

But I preffer Kaneko's art style. It just gives you an odd feeling, perhaps due to the fact that it has a certain effect of minimalism. The characters rarely customise their standard uniform of work/school often, and their hats, if any, are usually very plain. I also like how he can make cute English fairies creepy.

 

[Kingjackl]

I had one wish for Persona 5 and it's already apparently been broken, namely that I want it to be multiplatform. I hate console exclusivity in general, but since P3, the Persona games have always been a bit weird about what platforms they're out on. They're all Sony exclusive, save for Arena, but it looks like Persona 5 is going to be a PS3 exclusive at a time when the new consoles are coming out that aren't backwards compatible. I love these games, but I'd like it if I could play the next one in the series without having to borrow a friends console to do it. I mean, the two best versions of P3 & P4 were on Playstation Portable & Vita. Who owns those?

Of course, this is all just a problem unique to me. Regarding the actual game, a proper gay option for the social links would be nice. They had a good thing going with Kanji, it's a shame they left it ambiguous. On that subject, I'd like it if the romantic social links had a bit more bearing on the plot outside of the special events like Christmas and Valentine's Day. Even if it's just a couple of dialogue changes, that would be grand.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I'd like to see Labrys show up in Persona 5. And to those that don't want connections to 3 and 4, you don't need her to be there for a heavy story connection, I certainly didn't know anything about the Velvet Room, Igor, and certainly not Philemon (Haven't played Persona 1 or 2 and have only dabbled in 3) and I wasn't completely flummoxed by not having that information. I'd just like to see the character get to experience a normal day to day school life.

 

[klaynexas3]

Hm, you guys have pretty much gotten most of everything I could think of. One thing I might change though regarding the "not every opposite sex social link should end in the bedroom would be instead of that, make it possible for all social links, regardless of gender, but make it a side thing, rather than the end, so that you could max out your social link without it needing to end with sex, but be able to pursue it if you wish. Not that I particularly care about sex, but as far as that goes, it seems more realistic that way. And when I say all social links, I should clarify people around the same age. I don't want to think about the MC sleeping with whatever old man, old woman, grade schooler, or animal social link is in P5. *shivers*

Also, direct control over all your teammates would be nice, and I'm not sure how it would work out, but maybe if the other protagonists besides the MC had maybe a small pool of different personas to use, just to add a little bit of variety. Not as many as the protagonist mind you, but just maybe 1 or 2 others to choose from.

In Persona 4(at least golden, haven't played vanilla) you can not have sex with people of the opposite sex. Though, I still find it unrealistic, because for the most part, you still can have sex with all of them. I guess maybe I just see that as too simplistic. I mean, not every girl is going to like the same one guy; there's no way he is just that desirable that no woman can resist him if he so chooses.

And the direct control is something also in Persona 4, I only brought it up as a reason for why I found demon fusion to be rather limp in this one, as I wasn't carrying the whole team. Though I do like the idea of them having different personas, thought I'm not sure how well that ties in with the lore about personas though, due to you only being able to do it as the wild card.

A gay relationship was in Persona 2 Innocent Sin, the main character (a man) could be in a relationship with a dude if you chose to do so.

So wait, do the older games still have a bit of a social sim to them? I thought that it was only introduced in 3(I've only played 3 and 4, though I bought 1 and am going to play the two 2 games and arena when I get the chance).

 

[balladbird]

P5 has been rumored to be the conclusion of the overarching storyarc, so there are a lot of expectations I have for it... as far as actual wishes... eh, most of mine are story based:

-Since Igor's VA has died, rather than leaving all conversation to the velvet room attendant, bring back the original Velvet Room cast, and have Philemon directly interact with the player again. I want to punch him in the face again.

-since it's a requirement with Philemon coming back, bring back Nyarlathotep. considering the bet was the catalyst behind everything, he and nyx will both need to be addressed before the series can conclude.

 

[Strain42]

So wait, do the older games still have a bit of a social sim to them? I thought that it was only introduced in 3(I've only played 3 and 4, though I bought 1 and am going to play the two 2 games and arena when I get the chance).

Yes, and No. There are certain dialogue options you can make throughout the game that can create Demon Negotiation Team-Ups.

Like one example is near the beginning of the game, Eikichi will ask Tatsuya who he thinks is better, himself or Eikichi. If you pick Eikichi (which I did because I do like Eikichi a lot more than Tatsuya) then nothing happens. But if you pick yourself, you'll get like a Rivalry thing, which is just a bit of interaction they'll have in battle that is helpful when negotiating with certain monsters.

A few other examples I can think of are one where you can form a band with Eikichi, Jun, and Tatsuya, and in Eternal Punishment you can get one where Katsuya and Baofu argue about baseball.

It is true that you can be in a relationship with Jun (in fact Kaneko himself has said it's the one relationship he believes fits the best, and really with the symbolism between the two characters, I can't disagree) but really the entire relationship aspect of that game comes down to a single moment where Lisa asks you flat out "Who do you like?" and you can pick Lisa, Maya, or Jun. Obviously Lisa is a bit surprised if you pick Jun, but it does just become another negotiation team-up rather than a major thing.

Oddly enough, the relationship team-up with Jun often charms female demons, but disgusts males.