Tag Archives: persona

Gateway Games: How I Got Into The Shin Megami Tensei Series

Welcome to Gateway Games. This is a series where I talk about games that either got me into a series or an entire genre. For a series, I had to have played a later game in the series lifespan. For Genre, any game of said genre would do (except if they were the genre starters).

Like many of us on both The Wired Fish and beyond, most of the gaming populace spent most of their gaming lives knowing next to nothing about Shin Megami Tensei (MegaTen or SMT for short). Sure we’ve played Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Phantasy Star, but nothing on the then Japan-Only SMT. The series had some of its entries make it over here, like Persona, Last Bible (under the name The Demon Slayer), Jack Bros., and DemiKids, but they were part of different sub-series of SMT, and all of them except DemiKids didn’t have the Shin Megami Tensei name in it. The first mainline game to make it over was Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, followed by the sub-seires Digital Devil Saga, and the series’ big break in the West, Persona 3. This is where we begin this first entry of Gateway Games.

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Clicking the Boxes on p-ch.jp Site Now Flashes Teddie

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And so the plot thickens. Previously on the p-ch.jp website, the site barely told us anything, and only alluded to it being Persona related when checking the html sheet under page source. With 5 days left to go before the date shown, the site has been updated with Persona 4′s beary own Teddie (I had to do it). Clicking on the boxes each reveals a different facial expression of Teddie. It you get each box to show the same expression, each box will shake and randomly show a different expression. Before this update, these boxes showed nothing and only vibrated.

What about the cities at the bottom? Well nothing’s changed down there, and they all still vibrate. but Teddie’s addition to the site brings this even closer to definitely being Persona related, specifically Persona 4. But is this truly about just Persona 4? This is Atlus we’re talking about, and they like to fake people out sometimes.

5 Days left. What will come next to this site as Sunday nears?

[p-ch website]

Is p-ch.jp Persona Related, Or Is There Something More To It?

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Destructoid‘s Dale North recently reported on an “accidental slip” that a redditor picked up on regarding p-ch.jp. For a while now this site’s been suspected of being related to Persona. The image in question on Destructoid reveals that the website is for the release of Persona 5. So some are psyched up while others are suspicious as to what this site is for. However many are pointing out that the image is a fake. Since then the site has reverted back to the above image — or maybe it’s been like this the whole time since the image from reddit has been deemed fake. Regardless, let’s go ahead and analyze what this site is about anyway.

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SEGA Sammy Has Bought Atlus, Process To Begin In November [UPDATE]

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[UPDATE 2] And it’s official. SEGA Sammy has bought Index Holdings (Atlus’ parent company). It looks like Nikkei simply reported something too early, and SEGA Sammy attempted to curb some of the damage. You can read the report and see for yourself. SEGA will not take on Index’s debt, but instead their properties.

[UPDATE] SEGA Sammy is reporting that they have not made any moves regarding the acquisition of Index Holdings and are denying Nikkei‘s reports. Although it is true that they did bid on the company. The original article will follow below. Any further updates will be added up here.

I’m a little conflicted here, but first the news. It’s been reported in Nikkei that SEGA Sammy has successfully bought out all the assets from Index Holdings that involved Atlus (currently a subsidiary of the company). Earlier this year Index was in a bit of trouble when it was discovered that the company was performing some illegal activities with its finances and unable to pay off its debt. It got to the point where police stormed the offices and was under investigation for fraud. Since then things never improved Index filed for a form of Bankruptcy in Japan, putting itself up for auction. SEGA Sammy was the highest bidder and has bought them. Etrian Odyssey Untold: Millennium Girl is currently the only prior engagement to not be affected by the acquisition.

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Persona 5 Domain Registered by Index Corp.

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Fresh off of the Japanese release of Shin Megami Tensei IV, it’s been confirmed via NeoGAF that Index Corp., the parent company of Atlus, had registered persona5.jp. Currently the domain leads to the domain registrar’s site, Onamae (think Japanese GoDaddy in terms of function). However when you pass the domain through a whois, The registrant is Index Corp. The last game in this Megaten sub-series, Persona 4, released in 2008. The Vita version, Persona 4 Golden, was released in late 2012.

The Persona team tested the waters of making games on HD consoles with Catherine, a puzzler that followed the exploits of Vincent and his fear of being unfaithful to his fiance. Following the successful release of Catherine, it was said that the team began work on the next Persona game, but not much was heard since.

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Top 50 Most Wacky Bootleg Boxarts: PS1 Edition

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After about three months of waiting for the SyrianGames website come back, I’ve now returned with even more wacky bootleg boxart, this time from their PS1 catalog. Now, an odd thing occurred after that last article was published. After some gaming outlets posted articles about how crazy their boxarts were, SyrianGames went into a sort of Admin mode where only the site runners could access it. Afterwards, the syriangames.com URL redirected visitors to their Facebook page. This probably meant that 1) they wanted to hide their shame, and 2) they took the site offline.

So how do I have more boxarts to show? Well, for some odd reason several weeks back, their old site was back online. I found this out I checked out my old article (for kicks) and wondered if the site came back. I took the opportunity to look at their PS1 catalog and pick out the funniest ones from the bunch. Good thing I did it too since their URL is once again redirecting to their Facebook page.

Anyway, let’s end this little tangent. Hit the jump and check out the PS1 Edition of the Top 50 Wacky Bootleg Boxarts.

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Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Week of 9/24/12

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Another Weekend is here, and it’s time fro another Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up. This week we covered originals and remakes. The way it worked was that I talked about the first appearance of a song and put it together with its most recent version. Only the recent versions got the embeds, so I can still showcase the originals on their own in the future. This week we met Gilgamesh on the Big Bridge. Then we had a Deadline to meet in Revelations Persona and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSP). We explored an endless battlefield in the World of Mana with Final Fantasy Adventure and Dawn of Mana. We went underwater in Mega Man X2 and X5. And finally, it was a throwback day with Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM

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Atlus Teasing A Persona 3 Movie

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Persona 4 got a lot of love from Atlus. It got an anime, a Vita remaster, and even a fighting game. But Persona 3… well, there are four characters from it in that fighting game. Not much love… until now. Atlus launched a website teasing Persona 3: The Movie. It’s shows the protagonist of Persona 3 and a countdown timer with “Coming Soon” sandwiched between the time and title. The countdown timer is weird though as it seems to count upward. Maybe it’s not a countdown, but just a visual asset. In the original Persona 3, time was a crucial element as everyday at midnight, the Dark Hour would begin. Those with the ability to summon Personas experienced the Dark Hour, and everyone else were placed in coffins and remained safe. When it was over, those in coffins came out of it and resumed their lives (or kept sleeping since it was midnight). Think of it as time freezing for everyone except hose with the gift and the occasional regular person wandering into the Dark Hour.

I wonder what this movie will cover. Like its sequel, Persona 3 is a hefty game. Not sure if a movie would be enough to tell this story. Maybe it’s planned OVAs. Or might serve to bridge the gap between P3 and P4 (since P3 characters are in the canon P4A). Only thing we can say is that, according to the info at the bottom, it’ll be done by Aniplex. Lots of questions, little answers. Stay tuned.

Persona 3 The Movie Website [via Tumblr]

First Gameplay Footage of Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Surfaces

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Spotted at NicoNico Douga, we now have the first real gameplay footage of the new Persona 4 fighting game. As expected, the action is fast paced, and somewhat BlazBlue like (given this is being made by Arc System Works). And to answer fears of gamers thinking all the characters play like Carl Clover in BlazBlue: No, they do not play like him. Instead they simply come out to perform special attacks and super attacks. For those wondering how the button layout and configuration will be for this fighting game, it’s hard to tell. But from the little bit we can see on the lable below the screen, it seems to use a 4-button layout. The super meter seems split into three parts and counts from 0 to 200, so maybe some supers probably consume different amounts of bar.

Big thanks to Lewis, aka l-slick, for the tip!

［AMショー2011］「ペルソナ4 ジ・アルティメットインマヨナカアリーナ」直撮りプレイムービー [NicoNico Douga]

Persona 4: The Golden Screenshots

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While we at TWF have been going nuckin’ futs over the news of Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena (or P4U… god that sounds dirty), screens of the other Persona 4 gameing coming out, Persona 4: The Golden, has surfaced. Slated for release on the Playstation Vita, this will be an enhanced port of the PS2 entry and will retain everything from that version (unlike P3P, which made some dramatic changes), and add on some more features. The features include new cutscenes, more voices than the original, a new character by the name of Marie, and the still-mysterious ability to call your friends for help in a dungeon when the shit hits the fan. From a graphical standpoint, it looks like they’ve toned down the heavy yellow hue that seemed to dominate the town of Inaba like god farted down there (and we’re talking about non-fog days). Well, I guess this means I have to hurry up and finish P4 on the PS2 then. I feel so behind…

Screens after the break.

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PSP Persona 1 Does Not Count Play Time Correctly

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While we’re talking about Persona, I thought I’d share something that I haven’t noticed until recently. This is regarding the enhanced port of Revelations: Persona for the PSP (under the name Shin Megami Tensei: Persona). I looked around to see if anyone else has reported on this, but it seems to have gone over everyone’s head. If you look at the image above, you’ll see that my play time so far is 276 hrs, 37 mins. To some, this may look par for the course for a Persona game, let alone a MegaTen game. Except I don’t think that’s the case. I’m up to Deva Yuga, and so far it didn’t feel like I invested over 200 hours into the game. Then it hit me: The game counts the time you put the PSP system into Sleep Mode!

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Atlus to make P4 for Vita and a Persona Fighting Gam–WAIT A PERSONA FIGHTING GAME!?

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First, the smaller news. Atlus has announced that Persona 4 will be ported over to the Playstation Vita, following in its predecessor’s, footsteps (it being Persona 3 Portable). Under the name Persona 4: The Golden, it looks like it’ll retain everything the original PS2 version had (and not losing things like P3P). It will be gaining new features, including new animations, new opening, more voices, and a new character.

Now about that fighting game. Called Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena, the game takes place two years after the events of Persona 4. It will have characters from Persona 3 and 4 (no word on 1 and 2). So far we’re not sure if it’s canon or not, but this sounds awesome. Even better is that Arc System Works (the makers of BlazBlue) will be making the game. Now P3‘s MC can finally kick Mituru’s ass for gravely undermining her healing duties. It’s slated for release in arcades, then 360 and PS3 in 2012.

Finally, the staff has been assembled for Persona 5 and are ready to go.

Atlus Announces Persona 4 Vita, Persona 4 Fighter, and Teases Persona 5 [andriasang]

A Few Catherine Cutscenes… In English!

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I wish I could go ahead and post these suckers as embeds, but GameSpot’s crazy ass coding ain’t cooperating here. So I’ll just link you guys to them. Be cautious though, as some of these might be spoilerish, especially the first one. But this is pretty early in the game so it ain’t that much of a spoiler. Also, that first link is NSFW

Making a Mistake

Can’t Chain Him Down

Cheating Discussion

So far so good. The voice acting seems pretty good. It’s a bit rough, and kinda jarring to hear Akihiko’s voice as someone else, but it’s all good. Also, I’m certain the syncing will be worked on afterwards (as most Japanese games getting English voices get the sync work done when the acting is finished). As a reminder, Catherine is getting released in the US on July 26th for both the PS3 and 360.

Catherine Gets Voice for Katherine

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We first got the voice for Vincent. Then we got the voice for Catherine with a “C.” To round out this holy trinity, Michelle Ruff will be voicing Katherine with a “K.” Ruff has done voices for C. Viper from Street Fighter IV and Yukari from Persona 3. To our Anime people out there, she’s also done voice work for Bleach, Code Geass, Haruhi, and Durara!!

And so that’s the main cast. As Destructoid pointed out, Vincent, Catherine, and Katherine are being voiced by Persona 3 and 4 veterans. They’ve done some great work on those games, and I’m certain they won’t disappoint for this entry.

via Destructoid

Get Your Persona 2 Wallpapers

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While there’s no news of the PSP version of Persona 2: Innocent Sin coming to the US (yet), we can get a hold of some Persona 2 wallpapers in the mean time. There’s only one right now (it’s the above image), but there is more soon to come.

To those wondering about what this iteration of P2:Innocent Sin is, it’s basically a remake of the entry that appeared back on the PS1. There’s actually two Persona 2 games: Eternal Punishment and Innocent Sin. What we originally got was Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, which is more or less a parallel dimension story. In other words, it’s an alternate retelling of the overarching Persona 2 story. What the PSP is getting is Innocent Sin, the original story of Persona 2. I don’t know much about the story per se, being another one of those people that got into Persona through P3P and P4, but the story sounds good and I’ll be anticipating this entry. To the purists out there, there is an option to switch between the original’s soundtrack and the new one. Here’s the intro scene to give you an idea on what to expect from the new Persona 2.

Persona 2 Wallpaper Download (via Andriasang)