Finished up ep. 01
Not sure what to think of this one.
I haven’t played any of the Persona games since the PS1 Revelations game, so I’m not familiar with the storyline.
However, I guess it wasn’t too bad.
Just seemed really awkward and too conveniently setup and contrived.
Well Ive played the game, and the thing is they really moved the story faster in that first episode, but I can understand why, because getting to that point in the game takes about and hour and a half, it doesnt seem that long on your first run through, but on later ones it really drags out.
P.S. I LOVED IT!! 
But the one thing that I didnt like, and I dont even really mind cause it fit it fine, was that he got his Persona like a day before hand, he wasnt supposed to get it while Chie was there. And to anyone who is mad about the MC’s name being Yu Narukami and not Souji Seta, All I say is “what Yu mad?”.
I haven’t played the game and I liked the episode. It was really good.
I finally got the first ep watched myself. It’s following the game very closely. They actually used the same opening sequence with Igor and Margaret as the game, and the song that was playing while Yu was on the train was straight from the game. The ‘demo’ song that plays if you let the game idle on the title screen for a bit. And then for the commercial break they actually showed what Yu’s current ‘Social Stats’ were. In addition even did the ‘Changing Day’ sequence, ‘Changing Location’ sequence, and the ‘Entering the TV’ sequences the same. The only thing that they changed is the introductory fight when Yu first uses his Persona, Izanagi. In the game that happens when he has the strange dream his first night at his uncles place. Also, the first time he fights the Slipping Hablerie (the monsters that he fought, gotta love a good strategy guide for quick references) is slightly later in the story (the next time him and Yosuke enter the TV, after the next victim, which from both the preview and going by the game’s time line should be the next episode). One thing though, beautiful rendering of the Zio spell for taking down that last Slipping Hablerie. Another thing, that spinning Tarot card (specifically that was 0 - The Fool) is used in the game when you either establish a new Social Link or strengthen an existing one, complete with the “Thou art I, and I art thou.” dialog.
And now for some miscellaneous trivia. This is a small mythology reference about Izanagi, from the offical strategy guide by Double Jump books:
"With his spouse Izanami, the god Izanagi created most of Japan and the human race. These acts of creations exacted a heavy price, and the goddess Izanami died in childbirth. When Izanagi sought to rescue her from Yomi, the hellish underworld, she begged him to wait in the darkness while she negotiated with its ruling powers. Izanagi tried, but his curiosity and thirst for the truth overwhelmed him.
Izanagi lit a fire and saw the horrible sight of Izanami’s rotting corpse. Shamed and betrayed, she flew into a rage and chased Izanagi from hell with an army of devils and monsters, but failed to kill him. Izanami swore to have her vengeance on her husband by destroying one thousand of the lives he created every day. Izanagi vowed he would create 1500 new lives every day, so that she could never end the world."
Just for those of you who don’t know, in previous Persona games they’ve stayed away from most of the deities of Japanese mythology. They’ve used several of the various ‘demons’, but rarely used a deity. In P3 and P4 only the main character can change Personas (well, I don’t know about P2: Eternal Punishment, never played it), instead the others only have one Persona throughout the game (although that one Persona eventually goes through a special change and becomes stronger). In P3 the allies Personas were mostly Greek and Roman deities. In P4 they exclusively used Japanese deities. Unless someone else beats me to it I’ll post the small mythology reference from the strategy guide after each ep for the new ally Persona(s) introduced. If the second ep doesn’t have 3 of them, which it could depending on how they handle the Social Link activities, the following ep should have the remaining ones. The first time Yu and Yusuke set off to rescue someone they instead end up rescuing two people, and both join the ranks to stop the Shadows. The question is how much of a gap there will be between Yusuke acquiring the power to overcome lives hardships, his Persona, and doing the first rescue run. We’ll definitely get to see the next Persona in the next ep, since the ep’ll definitely cover 4/15 and that’s when it makes its first appearance.
And as a strange side note, I’ve gotten use to Firefox’s dictionary not liking Japanese names, but it doesn’t have a problem with Izanagi or Izanami, so I’m now I’m curious which of the other Personas it’ll like. This’ll be an interesting few months.
Since you posted before I finished typing mine I’ll state this here. Actually he gets his Persona on 4/11, the first day, but he doesn’t realize how to use it until after they flee from the Slipping Hablerie’s on that initial excursion and they’re encountered again on 4/15 when it’s just him and Yusuke. They also have some weapons with them on that run, which if you ever check once the main menu becomes available you can’t remove your weapon, the games combat engine requires one to be present. If the combat engine allowed you to be weapon-less then it’d make more sense for you to start using Izanagi during that initial excursion. As such I consider the change completely correct, as it’s effectively fixing a flaw that was inherent to the game. Remember different medium slightly different rules apply. Personally I don’t mind the change in the name, since in the game you could put in your own name if so inclined.
Watched the first episode earlier and thought it was fantastic. Looks like all my worries, at least in regards to the beginning, was unfounded. A very good job of adapting the game was done. A few things were left out and the ordering was a little different but the spirit and all the important dialog remained. Wish they had gave a little more attention to a certain something as it’s rather foreshadowing but overall very well done.
Honestly had me really revved from the start with the opening song. The game music being used was great, the way days moved like the game was great, the social stats being shown, and the battle all did a really good job of adding elements of the game.
Watching really got me in the mood to play again which I’ll probably do. Unfortunately I think my last save is about half way though on my 2nd play though so I’m not exactly going to be following along with the anime unless I finish and push for a 3rd go.
Anyway, the first episode was not only excellent but helped a lot in alleviating any worries about the anime being good or not. Still, really trying not to get my hopes up too high. Have a long way to go so it could still easily get messed up. Haven’t seen any social link aspects and the like yet, after all.
You do remember that you can’t start on any of the Social Link activities (other than a couple of chances to raise Social Stats in class/dialog) until after the events on 4/15, and the anime isn’t that far along yet. With displaying the Social Stats during the commercial break it’s a given that the Social Links will be shown to some extent (heck, if they dropped that they’d barely manage to make ten eps).
Yes, I’m well aware of that which is why we’re not going to get a really good idea of how the series is going to play out until we do get into social links territory. The first episode did make me go from worried to cautiously optimistic, though.
Of course as important and time consuming the social links aspect of the game is that isn’t everything either. Boss fights are also going to be another element that we have yet to see but I imagine we will at least get a taste of that in the second episode. There are so many elements to the game it’s going to be interesting to see how they are handled, if at all, if nothing else.
Can tell it’s going to be a long wait between episodes but playing the game should not only make for a good distraction but give a good refresher on the story and game in general.
On a side note, will be interesting to see more reactions from non P4/Persona fans. Imagine stuff like the music earns huge nostalgia points with them, think it has with me, so my assessment probably isn’t nearly as objective as it could be.
Well yes I know that but im trying to avoid spoilers for the folks that havent played the game, so try to avoid talk about 2 certain people, one of whom youve brought up. And also his name isnt Yusuke its Yosuke, but im going to assume just a minor error in your spelling, then again you can always call him Brosuke 
[size=16]We have Spoiler Tags use them![/size]
@Psychopuppet: Yeah, I probably should’ve used them, if I had the slightest clue how to do so. The last time I was heavily active on a forum and had spoiler grade knowledge the things didn’t exist. Also, if you’re going to go and ad the tags to someone’s post (as a moderator you do have that power) please try not to tear the post to shreds in the process.
Aha! Found the spoiler button, not something I’m used to yet. Okay, couple of additional changes updates, I finally got around to doing a restart to verify these. First, in the game they don’t show either of the bodies, let alone a face. Second, I’d misremembered, but they don’t encounter any of the Shadows on the first trip, that was on the second one. Now for a miscellaneous note, before doing this restart I’d never noticed that when you were in the TV World they added a slight bit of snow around the edge of the screen like an old CRT TV, of course this is the first time I’ve played the game on a flat screen instead of a CRT.
@Tanrim: I know there’s a fair bit of content outside of the Social Links, but with approximately 20 mins. per episode to fill you could easily through in a boss fight an episode (Unless they want to portray the characters having a harder time with bosses than I have on Normal difficulty. Actually, I’m good enough for Expert difficulty, but I want to be able to enjoy the story without getting all stressed trying to keep things moving. Games are my stress reliever, like some people smoke, drink alcohol, or use recreational drugs, just without being bad for your health or endangering others and frequently costing far less.) and still have enough time to get a decent chunk of story in. As I’d said, they’d barely make 10 eps (they’d probably be able to stretch it out to 13, but it’d take effort) without including a decent portion of the Social Link events.
Now to go and fix the shredded spoiler fix. At least the others are all still there, and undamaged from a quick glance (if it isn’t undamaged PM me and I’ll get it fixed, since I wrote it I can manage to puzzle out what I’d originally written so long as it’s all still there). Barring a noticeable amount of postage I’ll probably be quiet until after watching the next ep.
I believe all psychopuppet did was put your whole post in a spoiler tag, he did not edit your post in any way. So there was no ‘shredding’ involved.
Actually, the one post was shredded. It had a portion of the middle bumped to the end, roughly half of a ‘shorter’ post, and even had a word broken up by it (the main reason I noticed so quickly and was able to get it fixed before you were able to go back, review it, and see that it had been shredded). Thankfully it was a single Copy and Paste fix, good thing since I don’t do the best at remembering exactly what I wrote at times and don’t keep backups on my computer(s).
Not really sure how anything I wrote in the post of mine that got edited has anything even close to resembling a spoiler. I kept it ambiguous for a reason but whatever, I’ll mark stuff from now on.
Wouldn’t count on it. The game has well over 20 bosses and that doesn’t even include any of the extras. They could easily spend half of every episode just on that. We’ll see but considering a lot of static in game choice dialogue was already cut (Yu meeting Dojima, for example) I’m not really going to get my hopes up in regards to Social Links. Really hard to say if the pace in the first episode was the standard until the next episode, though.
That said now that some time has passed, the fanboy haze has lifted, and have been able to think about the first episode a bit more I’m actually not as satisfied as I was. Don’t really have a problem with the pace per se and didn’t really care about Yu talking to begin with but I think some bad choices were made in trying to condense things. Best example I can come up with off the top of my head is the meeting between Yu, Dojima, and Nanako. Rather then use one of the options the game gave you to speak he just stands there and says nothing, why? It’s not like him saying a one liner would have taken any more time then the camera focusing on him looking stupid and not saying anything. Makes me wonder if they are even going to try and give him a personality. Guess future episodes will tell.
Don’t forget, his personality was determined by the players actions. Also, different Personas cause different personality traits to manifest, that’s the reason why if you have a matching Persona with you when doing a Social Link you get a bonus to the points gained. Because of that his personality was always slightly vague, and frequently shifting around almost as if he’s crazy (I actually relate rather well, what with having a fluidic reactive personality myself).
You do realize that they can’t do a stellar job because of just how massive the game is, don’t you? It is an RPG after all, and those are predominantly based on story and not gameplay. Heck, with FF X, if you recorded a ‘movie’ that was all of the cutscenes and ingame FMV’s strung together it’d be over 3 hours in length (I know, I actually saw a pirate import where someone in China had made one without the fights included, and it was actually listed as having a length of around 180 to 210 mins if I remember correctly, but that was in 2002 when I saw it so I could be mistaken on the time factor). Include all of the major fights, but skip most of the little ones, and you could easily get it to over 6 hours (360 mins) with ease. P3 and P4 both have 4+ times the amount of story content to them (the advantage of being able to use dual-layer DVD’s to single-layer DVD’s, thank you Monolith), and it’s probably a lot more even than that, so imagine just how little they can manage to show in a 25 ep series. I believe it was you who said you weren’t interested in playing P3P because you already had 200+ hours in on the game. Considering that would barely be enough for 3 full playthroughs I think that says plenty about how much they have to attempt to cover, and it’ll probably work best if they focus on just the major elements of the core story.
Of course that just brings us back to the primary bone of contention here, the Social Links aren’t truly a part of the core story. But they do comprise a very major portion of the game, and not including them is cutting out an absolutely massive amount of the game. Since they use the Social Stats screen for the commercial break they’d need to include a few bits from the Social Links (or at least from a few of them) or they’re going to get a lot of complaints from the fans in Japan alone, forget the scattering of them from around the rest of the world. The reputation backlash from such a blunder can potentially ruin companies that rely on reputation to function (such as film/animation studios). Without being big enough to withstand the hit to their reputation I saw that it’s a given that they’ll be at least partially included, but we’ll have to wait until ep 3 or 4 to know how much they’re going to include. Of course the other thing is that they could go the Star Ocean EX route and only cover about half of the game (at the rate they’re going that might be about all they manage to cover in just 25 eps anyhow…) so that they can give more attention to some of the details and avoid giving away the entirety of the story. Oh well, we’ll know for sure just how things go in January, as at that point we’ll know whether they’re maintaining a sufficient pace to cover the entire game or not anyhow.
Mm, I did have a really long reply written out but since it was so incredibly wordy and the majority of it was about games I’m not going to post it. The long and short of it was, though, that I seriously doubt that P4, as a game, is any longer then most other RPGs. Take away Persona Fusion, which is a massive time sink, then I don’t think my play time would have been more then any other game. In some cases, probably a lot less.
Anyway, Yu’s personality. I’m well aware that most of the choices made by the player is what shapes his personality. That was the point. The fact that they are already skipping those choices is reason for concern. What exactly was the point of giving him a voice if he’s never going to use it? The in game choices far and away make the most sense for times he would talk since that was what it was suppose to convey. Don’t get why you’d ignore them unless they are trying not to alienate anyone by picking choices that people might not like. If that’s the case then why would Social Links be any different? They are all about choices like that. Ultimately I don’t really care what kind of personality Yu has because I didn’t care about him speaking in the first place but it is a flaw with the way things are being done. The stuff at the train station should have had Yu saying something instead him standing there looking stupid while Dojima says everything. I’m not really sure how anyone who even saw the way the scene was in game could think otherwise. And that’s just one scene. I know it’s only the first episode but, again, it makes me worried for how the rest of the show could play out. Not really much more to say about it then that. It’s a bit like beating a dead horse at this point as is. Really need to see more of the show.
Regardless, if they are trying to avoid criticism by keeping Yu a blank slate then they haven’t really done a very good job so far. Seen a lot of people talking about him not talking so far. There were a couple times in the first episode he very well could have but just didn’t so I get it. The strange place now of him being able to talk but doesn’t isn’t working. Would have liked it more if they had kept him silent myself but they gave him a voice so maybe he should use it? Just saying.
I agree that they should have him talk more, but the spot you’re referring to in the game you do get the option of just being silent (and that option exists at a lot of the earlier conversation points), so it’s a ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’ situation. Actually, it seems to me that they’ve avoided a lot of the spots where in the game he was supposed to have said something, at least as far as they’ve covered anyhow.
I have played through and beaten FFX before, and I can tell you that at the same amount of time spent playing I am only around October in P3, and I’ve spent far of the time in battle in P3. My point was that P3 and P4 have a relatively larger portion of the game being conversation/event (and thus story content) than any other RPG I’ve played, and they take far larger time investments to complete as well which translates into a significantly larger game than most. Because of that it just isn’t possible to thoroughly cover everything (and barely decently do so) in 25 eps where you have roughly 20 mins to tell anything (that means 500 mins of story told) and there’s just too much to cover.
The real question is does it manage to capture the spirit of the game and do a decent job of covering what it attempts to cover. So far I say that it’s making a valiant effort to capture the spirit of the game (not great but hardly bad) and appears to actually be doing a fair to decent job of covering what it’s supposed to cover. It’s lot like the time I attempted to watch the Xenosaga anime, after 4 eps I was so sick of how they’d thrown things together without regard for how it actually fit that I couldn’t stand to watch any more of it. This one is reminding me more of Star Ocean EX, which will be the primary standard I hold it up to anyhow. If you’ve played Star Ocean: The Second Story I suggest making an effort to watch Star Ocean EX so you’ll at least have an idea as to what my idea of doing a good job of basing an anime on a game is. I should probably attempt to watch the Blue Dragon anime some day, but I haven’t played the game yet (no Xbox 360 yet, although I do have the game) so it’s no big hurry to me. Also, since I have Disgaea: Hour of Darkness I should probably watch the Disgaea anime, but I haven’t found it available for streaming yet so I’d need to go with DVD’s from Netflix (and now the company isn’t splitting into two branches, I was of mixed feelings about it splitting and I’m of mixed feelings about it remaining just a single company). Then again, I trust whomever Nippon Ichi Software would trust to make an anime based on their game, as it’d be more about telling the story in a different manner then just making money, and the game already had a canon ending anyhow.
posted on 2011-10-12 18:30 EDT
Episode not slated to air in Japan until Thursday
Poor KZPlay, someone just lost a job, if a company didn’t just lose all of their licensing rights and get black listed from getting them back any time soon. So long as TAN plays by the rules we should be fine, but for those French who don’t speak Japanese they just got a very rough time handed to them. Well, I hope that TAN doesn’t have any direct business connections to them, or we could get caught by the splatter since the shit has hit the fan and we’re just waiting to see where the fall out lands.
Oh wow!
Someone posted this in the ANN thread about this.