Obscure Games you might not have heard of: Persona 3

So, Howell's back again for another obscure game.
Although I confess, this isn't hugely obscure. That is to say people might recognise the name at least.
But dammit Jim, it's not well-known enough!

So. Shin Megami Tensei.
More specifically, it's spinoff, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona.
More specifically again, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.

I'm sticking to the third one, just because it's the main one I've played.
Not to say I've completed it, but, well, I know what happens...And the only other one I've touched is Persona 2, and only briefly.

I don't half ramble at the beginning of my blogs do I?

Anyway, I thought I'd write about this one, as, well, I enjoy it. I even wrote an essay on it, which may get paraphrased in here in tiny bits. But yes. It, along with most RPGs, gets brushed under the carpet by Final Fantasy, and as much as I like the Final Fantasy games, I still think that's a shame.

So, on my fifth paragraph, it's about time I start.

Why yes, he did just shoot himself. Oh, I should mention, the game's themes are a little messed up. This is me, did this surprise you?

So, you're the new kid in school, your parents are nowhere to be seen, and you get put in a mixed-gender dorm. Hmm, this seems more like a dating sim setup. But surely this isn't one of those kinds of games?

Oh, sorry odd angelic girl, I'll just close the door.

Oddly enough, that gameplay does form a large chunk of this game. In fact, to cut this blog a few paragraphs short, this game is a *deep breath* Dating Sim/Monster Breeding/Dungeon Crawling/Japanese RPG, or DSMBDCJRPG, maybe. Do try to keep up.

You see, I'll come back to the dating sim idea. For now, monsters. In this game, you control a party of up to 4 characters at once, but each character has what is known as a Persona (Ahh, the title, it makes sense! Now what about Shin Megami Tensei? Oh, that just means True Goddess Reincarnation, let's ignore that).
A Persona is "another side to a person's character, behind the mask they put up for people in real life. Or simply, it's a summon. It's how you do magic or special skills. You, the main character, have a unique gift however. You can use multiple Personas (not sure what that tells us about his psyche...).
Early on, you meet Igor, the owner of the Violet Room. In there, you can merge Personas into (normally) a better, stronger one. And depending on the related Social Link to the Arcana of Persona you are creating, it can gain bonuses.

Woah, slow down Howell, Social Link? Arcana? Okay.
Every Persona has an Arcana, like those seen in Tarot cards, you know, The Priestess, The Heirophant, The Fool, The Devil, all of them.
Every Social Link you make has their own unique Arcana too.
So if the Persona's Arcana has a high level Social Link, it gets bonuses.

So what's a Social Link? Oh, that's the dating sim-like aspect.
You see, you're a school student. A new one at that. So what's something you might need to get? Friends.
The gameplay is actually split into several segments of the day. Morning, which is usually School Time, with lessons, which, unless relevant, are skipped. Afternoon, which is when you can socialise, or get jobs for money and stat boosts, and Night, where, like any normal student, you venture into the Tower of Tartarus, and go around killing monsters called Shadows. What, you don't do that?

I mean, this isn't weird, right?

So, you might be wondering. I mentioned creepy things. All you've seen is a weird tower, named after the pit of the underworld, and a guy shooting himself. Sorry, I should go into that.

You see, that's not a gun. Well, it is, but...

It's an Evoker. It looks like a gun, goes BANG like a gun, but doesn't kill you. It's explained that it gives the feeling of death to the user, which clears their minds completely, allowing their true persona to shine through, their Persona. That's just how you summon the monsters.

Old video, but relevant. And amusing. Don't try this at home.

So, suggested mental suicide, and the underworld. Still, it's Japan, so not so weird.

The Dark Hour. This is an hour between one day and the next. To the usual person, they either sleep through it, or they don't notice it happen. That'd be because this is what happens to normal people in the Dark Hour.

It's like a depressing Abbey Road isn't it?

Yeah, we get trapped in coffins, and likely blackout. Nothing big and creepy.

For those who are awake however, they have to fight the Shadows. That is, if they have a Persona, or know how to use it. The game suggests the others are killed by Shadows. So hey, you're lucky you can fight.

You might think, "I'd rather be in the coffin". Oh, the plot thought of that. You see, the Shadows have a bad effect on people. They make them all depressed and zombified. They call it Apathy Syndrome. The end results being coma, or suicide. Yup, suicide is apparently all because of monsters we never see.

So, you go around killing them, and then, on every full moon, BOSS BATTLE!

The game has an in-game calendar, which forces the progress in the story.

So, you kill the boss, and people return to normal. Then the next one starts showing up.
The initial stages do seem mildly repetitive, but the rest of the story keeps you from thinking that most of the time. You get to know people, you can even fall in love.

And even get scenes like this. I SWEAR IT'S NOT A HENTAI DATING SIM!

So, I've managed to skirt around the main plot, and avoided big spoilers. I'm impressed.

I could go into how the game's constant progression feels like the days ticking you closer to death, and other factors, but I'll be nice, and just leave you with the intro video to the PSP version I play.

And as an added bonus, a picture of one of the many Persona you can create. Maru.

I SWEAR IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF GAME!

Oh yeah, happy 99th post on the blog!

Puella. The creepiest anime about magical girls I've ever seen.

So, on an earlier post of anime, I thought I'd step in and talk about an anime I've recently finished watching, that could BLOW YOUR MIND...maybe.

Oh, pardon my manners, I haven't introduced myself. Howell here, and yes, I could be all cute and talk about Howl's Moving Castle, but no. (But seriously, you should totally watch that too if you haven't.)

Anyway, creepy anime. Whereas in Gaf's post, he mentioned the creepy side of anime in Dance of the Vampire Bund's lolicon style, fear not, there's nary a tentacle nor underage scantily clad scene to see here. Except some of the transformation sequences, but that's more of a flash of light clothes change thing that most people have seen before. I mean, Sailor Moon got away with about as much.

Right, distractions. I should probably tell you what anime I'm even talking about. It's called 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', also known as 'Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica'. Sounds innocent? And, looking here, it looks innocent. ((It's at this point that I mention, there will likely be spoilers of some description in here, but I'll try to refrain from character names (or descriptions) for the most part.))

Perfectly happy, colour coordinated magical girl anime, they're great for kids. Or not. Please don't show this to young children. They may have nightmares. As joky as I'm being, really, it scared me on occasion. And I laugh through most horror. So, what makes this anime so creepy? Oh, I'll get into that, but for now, I'll just show you an image from the first episode. Apologies if I'm putting a lot of pictures up, but in some cases, they're needed to give this anime justice.

Yes, that's right, thorns with scissors, and the most terrifying version of the Pringles guy I've ever seen. That's the thing with this anime, it lulls you in with cute characters, and magic, and then takes you to a horrible place, and breaks it all apart. It takes most of the usual tropes of Magical Girl Anime, and spits out pure terror. I should have seen it all coming of course. I mean, the opening theme begins as usual with a water droplet landing in the water, creating glowing ripples we've seen a million times in these anime, before the 'camera' shows that it's actually the main character crying. But aside from that, don't think of trusting that opening. It shows everyone happy (aside from the initial crying). And more importantly, it shows everyone alive. Yes, that's right, the first little spoiler. The anime is only 12 episodes long, I'll point out. So, you'd expect a death, if it were to happen, around episode 9 or 10 at the earliest. I'll keep you in suspense for a little bit, but I'll tell you the first death is in the first 5 episode. Oh yes, I said first death. And while I'm refraining from divulging the identities of the deceased, they are main characters. As in, one of the girls in the pictures seen in this post. And this isn't a namby pamby "they get better" death. They don't come back to life at the end of the episode.

I suppose much of the creepiness is justified. You see, the magical girls chase after witches, and the witches hide from the real world in these special dimensions. That's where all the creepy Pringles men, scissors, needles, body parts in jars, random cupcakes, and the monstrous witches are seen. Indeed, the witches aren't your pointy hat wearing warty women. Nor are they just carbon copies of the girls in darker colours (though they are linked). They are monsters that, in some cases, make the above Pringles men look normal. Apologies if this is putting you crisps for life.

So the girls become magical girls by making a contract with Kyubey. Everyone say hi to Kyubey!

Daww, ain't he cute? The little git. You see, everything seems nice. He even gives the girls a wish, and he'll grant it, in exchange for making the girls magical. Wait, isn't making them magical a good thing?

No. Not only does this mean they can hunt the Witches. It means they have to. They are given a Soul Gem, which contains their magic. They use it, and it get darker. If they kill Witches, they drop Grief Seeds, which can cleanse the darkness from their Soul Gem. If they don't cleanse them, the girls become Witches. I could go into more detail about the Soul Gem, but I shan't spoil that. Oh, and apparently, every good deed a ranger does, when they become Witches, an equal amount of bad happens. So there's that to worry about.

Next, I'll talk about one of the characters. Homura, for reference, is the black/grey ranger seen in the picture. Yes, I compared tis to Power Rangers, I really don't care. I might even just call them Homura Black and Madoka, the main character, Pink, to avoid confusion with Japanese names.

I should probably talk about the main character, but it's MY blog post, and I'll do what I want! I'll probaly just mix it up anyway. On that note, it's getting long, so I'll summarise. It might help avoid too much description in spoilers, so that's a plus.

Homura. First seen in a dream, then a transfer student in Pink's class. Then seen chasing Kyubey around to kill him. But he's all cute, and asks for help from Pink, who obliges. Kyubey is convinced Pink will be the strongest ranger ever. Black knows Kyubey's evil, tries to stop Pink from listening to him. So, she's seen as the series anti-hero. Later, you find out why she's trying to stop it. TIME TRAVEL. It's her power. Turns out, there's a big bad Witch coming, Walpurgis Night, who doesn't need to hide in the creepy dimensions, and is gonna destroy the world. And in every timeline, it wins. So Black Quantum Leaps back, and tries to stop her, fais, people die, leap.

Oh Boy...

And that's the basic tip of the iceberg. I won't spoil more. Go watch it. Enjoy. Be scared, feel sad, and all in all, feel more emotion than any anime has made me feel, even if the main one is 'creeped out'.

((NOTE: I've not watched Grave of the Fireflies.))