Only three weeks of summer and now I assemble a solid stack of turn-based, Japanese role-playing games? Dangit. And I still have books to read and essays to write...

Persona 3: FES
Progress: Five doors completed

The Answer is certainly a slow burn. A slow, laborous, tedius burn. And yet, I can't bring myself to just watch the encounters and cutscenes on YouTube. I feel compelled to see this through to the end.

At first I was excited about Persona 3's epilogue, but now I think it's a poorly-concieved, watered-down version of vanilla Persona. With no Social Linking to do, the only carrot stringing you along is the five minutes of cutscene you get for an hour of grinding. As I understand it, the story kicks into high-gear once I finish the seventh door. In fact, I'm sure it does, because I scrolled down one page too far in an FAQ, and spoiled the turning point of the plot. Oh well.

There are plenty of other ghetto elements, namely the Velvet Room. You don't have access to a Compendium, which makes fusion a much more tricky process. It's hard to fuse away a Persona you had to manually level and get a bunch of skills, only to be able to pass on three or four at the most. In addition, you don't get bonus S. Link XP. What's up with that? Surely they can find an excuse in the lore for getting a free Rank 10 bonus each time, or at least having your bonus Rank increase over time.

Wild ARMs 4
Progress: Fifteen hours

This is funny, because I bought this game two years ago, fell off instantly, only to pick it up a few days ago and get hooked on it again. It's not the story; I don't care for its whimsical "coming-of-age" story or all its talk about war and government. I'm just skipping over the plot and the character interactions; I'm about halfway through the game anyway, so I'm fine with not knowing what's going on.

It's the battle system I'm way into. I think the HEX system is interesting, and really something different. I actually looked forward to all the minor bosses the game throws at you. The bizarre platforming and object-based puzzle-solving is still hit-or-miss, though. Most likely my mood is a factor. Sometimes I'm in the mood to hit switches to open doors, and sometimes I'm not.

It's also nice to play an RPG with a fixed party, where each combatant has develops in a specific way. I'm not interested in arguing about which is better; I'd rather just play games that have both. There is a problem with uneven leveling, however. Characters gain handsome XP bonuses for finishing off enemies, which causes your healer girl to lag behind occasionally.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Progress: Somehow left the Hospital

This game is just goofy. I get the idea that all the SMT games, especially the original, more "traditional" ones, are insane. Within a half an hour your character has been unwittingly transformed into a shirtless, tatooed, humanoid "demon," and he just rolls with it. As you punch gingerbread men and Hua Pos, you pay enemy demons to join your ranks, all against the backdrop of muffled grunge metal. That game is just goofy, lemme tell ya.

This is only the third SMT game I've played, and like Digital Devil Saga 2, it's pretty different from the Persona games. Besides the significant lack of dating elements, this game uses Press Turns, which are less forgiving than Persona's "One More!" In addition, Tarukaja and Makakaja are separate abilities, buffs affect all cohorts or demons, you've got the Zan element to think about, and you have to freaking manually scan every enemy.

I couldn't tell you much about the game yet, since most combat encounters have involved that magic Triangle button. The game certainly isn't compelling me to continue on, but I will anyway, because I trust that it will get more interesting. Maybe...

Final Fantasy X
Progress: Starting over

Why would I ever want to play this game again? I don't do. Blame pangs of nostalgia. That game was great, chiefly for its creative boss encounters. The story and characters are less stupid than Wild ARMs's, but still pretty stupid.

I never actually finished FFX. Braska's Final Aeon was too much for my characters to handle, which is too bad, considering I aced the boss right before (Seymour Omnis). The fact that it took twenty minutes to activate the encounter didn't help either.

There's no way I'd hunt for all the ultimate gear, and dodge 200 lightning bolds, or... snowboard... to get all the best loots. But, maybe I can play smarter and bother to equally level my characters and such. Then maybe I can finish that game.

It's only forty hours to get where I got, but it remains to be seen if I can play the same game again. Hey, it's been two years, like Wild ARMs; what's there for me to remember?

Persona 2
Progress: None

Three of these five games are borrowed for the same person. We went to a GameStop seeking Persona 4 to no avail. I suspect we read the website wrong.

Also interested in this game, to see how much it's like Persona 3, and how much it's like the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Not much else to say, as I haven't even put it in. But, oh no! It has multiple discs! How will I ever finish it if I have to get up every once and a while to change discs?!