Hello, everyone, and welcome to Nikpicks, where I talk about little tidbits of some of my paborito games out there, weather they be lore and stories of the world, little thoughts that run through my mind, or just things that I either really pag-ibig or... for lack of a better word, dislike, little pieces of it. And what better way to start this new series off than with immediate negativity... Now you all know that this is clearly an artikulo created sa pamamagitan ng me. Now, before I get into the subject, let us discuss the game. Persona 3. Or rather, the FES version that I played. Now, Persona 3 is easily one of the best RPGs out there. Sure, I will always pag-ibig Persona 4 madami because of how much pag-ibig I have for it's joyful setting, well made characters, and a setting that I got personally attached to, but Persona 3 still manages to be good on it's own. I never felt tired when going around Tartarus, since I never went there to grind, I went there to get some new weapons or Personas, so I felt like most of my time there wasn't spent killing enemies for experience so I could get to a high enough level to beat the dungeon boss. I always had some objective to accomplish other than reach a specific level in a specific number of days. I also really loved the story and the symbolism that Persona 3 presented itself. And don't even get me started on that soundtrack. I will not hesitate to say that Mass Destruction is the best song in the whole series. But, that's only in the main story, The Journey. And we're here to talk about the little side story, the aftermath of The Journey, The Answer, and why it's..... Ewww.



WARNING! SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 3 ARE IMMINENT! SKIP THIS ENTIRETY OF THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT PERSONA 3 SPOILED FOR YOU! So, Persona 3 is know for touching on a rather serious subject: Death. Persona 3 is a game that is always reminding you that, not only are the characters going to die one day, but that you yourself, will die one day, and there is nothing you can do about it, other than live life and do what you can to enjoy it while you can. And again, not even the characters are ligtas from this fact, as those close to them begin to die around them. And in the end of the game, they must face the God of Death, a being named Nyx, who, after the main character of the game uses all of his strength in the battle, he is able to selyo away Nyx to prevent the fall of human kind. Though he survives, it's not permanent, as he was only able to keep strong enough to stick around for some time. After he met his mga kaibigan on their school graduation, he was finally able to pass away, having fulfilled his promise of meeting them to be sure that they had truly succeeded in defeating Nyx and saving the world. It's a sad, but otherwise, satisfying ending, at least, I think it was. It sticks to what the game was trying to tell us and I think it works well... So tell me why The Answer needed to exist?



Okay, okay, so maybe I am being a little too harsh on this game before I start describing. Surely, there has to be one good thing about this game, right? Well... I'll give it the benefit of the doubt... For now. So, the game takes place shortly after the ending of the main game. All the characters are trying to continue with life, but find it hard. Yukari, a character who seemed to have a serious connection with the main character, is being madami distant than usual. Mitsuru is trying to keep the group together, while Junpei, Fuuka, and Ken are trying to keep everyone happy. Akihiko is continuing training, despite everything. And Koromaru is... Well, he's just being a cute puppy. The game now follows Aigis, the android who was a party member before. Having Nawawala her purpose when the main character died, she plans to leave school and return to the lab she was made in... Why? Isn't the point of the ending to have finally allowed her to choose her own life aside from protecting him? Now she see's she has no purpose in life now. Okay, okay, I know, getting a little to critical from the start. I'll try to refrain myself as best as I can. So, the group has ibingiay up their Evokers, the device that allows them to summon their Personas, and they are planning to ilipat out of the dorm they have been in for the entirety of the main game. On their last night, when the clock strikes midnight, they are attacked sa pamamagitan ng another android that is like Aigis, named Metis, who calls herself Aigis' sister. After a boss fight with her, she agrees to help, only for the sake of Aigis, and tells them that, underneath the dorm lies The Abyss of Time, a plane that is like Tartarus that was created some time and is not only trapping the group in a time loop that causes them to repeat the same day, March 31st, but they are also unable to leave their dorm until they best the Abyss. And so, the struggle to escape the time loop begins... And it SUCKS!



Alright, so, I get it, if you enjoyed the battle system of Persona 3, maybe you'll get some enjoyment out of this... The problem with it is the fact that, without choice, you are placed and the hardest possible difficulty. The game will mostly have you fight grouped up enemies with different weaknesses and strengths. Let me explain. In Persona 3, there are enemies that have different weaknesses, immunities, and things that help them. One enemy could be incredibly weak to fire, another could take less damage from it, another could be immune to it, and another could be healed just from it. In The Answer, there will always be enemies that are teamed up with an enemy that is weak to fire, while another is either immune or can be healed with it. This isn't too much of a problem... If you could manually control your party. Persona 3's biggest issue is the lack of manual control for the entire party. You are only able to give some orders to your team and make your own actions. This is a real problem when your teammates use the ability the target is immune to because it's a waste of a turn and just annoying. It's not bad in the main game, but in a mode where a single mistake will honest to god fuck you turns into a real pain. And that's the problem. If you could control the entire party on your own, it wouldn't be so bad, but because they are run on their own AI, it becomes a pain. Thank god they gave you the option of manual control in Persona 4. Oh, and you kids don't know how lucky you have it with turn based RPG's today. Back in the good old sixth generation, when your protagonist character died... That was it. Game over. It didn't matter how much revival items you had, it didn't matter how much health your party members had, if you, the protagonist, the party leader died, the whole part would just have a puso attack and that was it. All your experience, items, and ginto before your last save are now forfeit, you have to do all that again, go back to your last save, fuck you! It's really annoying here. I mean, yes, the main game had it too, and it was annoying there as well, but at least you had the option of a difficulty instead of being forced one here. And while a better challenge is fine, getting hit with a one kill spell and dying because the boss just got lucky is kind of, sort of, fucking bullshit. And in the main game, I was motivated to have another try at the boss. The Answer... Not so much? And why? Well, I just hope that you really like the battle system of Persona 3.... And I mean really liked it... Like borderline addicted to it, because other than story bits, that's all you're getting in The Answer.



The turn based battles are just a piece of a Persona game... Granted, it's a pretty big piece, but still not the whole thing. Persona also has a calendar with changing days and weather, going around town to increase different attributes that would allow you to talk to other people, and socialize with other characters inside and outside the party, also known as Social Links, which is probably one of the most recognizable things in a Persona game. Well, in The Answer, you get none of that. No new days, no exploring the town, no going to school, no exams, no attributes, no goddamn Social Links. Just grinding and story. Because when I think of Persona, I think of the sweet, sweet grind. And now, I actually do have to grind, since the bosses can range from hard to total bullshit luck. And also, this is just a few weeks after the main game. Where's my goddamn levels? Where's my goddamn items? They just screw around for a few days and now all my high grade equipment's just gone? Alright, I know, that's a nitpick (A Nikpick, if you will), but seriously, at least other JRPGs, when you lose your stuff in a continuation, it's over the span of years. Here, it's just a couple days. What the hell happened? Okay, so the gameplay isn't exactly the best, but hey, I can still enjoy a game if the story's good. So, surely, The Answer must have a good story.... You know, whenever I say that, you know that it's obviously sarcasm and it usually leads to me talking about the worst possible thing in a game... The story is that worst possible thing in the game.



Okay, so, for whatever reason, despite the main character sacrificing himself for his mga kaibigan so they could stay alive and continue to live their lives to the fullest, they already start out falling apart and becoming distant from each other, already making this a complete 180 from the main quests ending. And throughout the time in the Abyss, we are shown the characters backstories of what's going on. I've heard people defend this, saying it gives them madami character development. And I would agree, if not for the fact that we've already been told this sa pamamagitan ng them. Was a whole flashback for each character necessary. We already know of the death of Ken's mother, we already know about Mitsuru fighting Shadow's as a child, and we already know of Junpei's alcoholic father. So now it's just ipinapakita us this in backstory. I guess them just telling us wasn't enough. Now they're throwing these flashbacks at us like crazy. There's enough flashbacks in this game to rival that of Citizen Kane... Did I really just compare this shit to Citizen Kane? Hesus Christ. But nothing will prepare you for the complete debacle that is at the halfway point. Around this point in the game, there are eight keys, one handed to each member of the team. They are told that, if all keys are used at once on the front door, they will be able to head back to the present. But, if they use it on the main characters door, they can go back to the past right before they fought Nyx, with a chance of reviving the main character. So, at this point, everyone is deciding on what to do? Junpei, Fuuka, and Aigis are not sure what to do, while Akihiko and Ken have decided to head to the present, because they don't want the main characters sacrifice to be in vein, and that he would want them to continue with their lives... Now, before I continue, I just want to say this... I was perfectly fine with everything, up to this point. I was fine with the difficult gameplay. I was fine with the lack of anything but the grind and the story. I was even fine with the team constantly referring to the main character as "him" or "he", as awkward as that would get... But this moment... This very moment is the moment that assured me that this was... probably one of the worst things about the Persona series, and not just Persona 3.



I was once asked sa pamamagitan ng a friend of mine if there was any Persona character I hated. And having played a total of... two Persona games, I didn't really find any that I could hate. I liked some madami than others, but didn't really hate any... And then I saw Yukari in The Answer. Hesus Christ, what the hell happened to Yukari. I heard from many that she was possibly one of the worst characters in the series, and while going through the main game, I didn't really hate her. Sure, she was pretty uptight some times, but I enjoyed her character, I could understand the struggle she went through, and her Social Link was enjoyable, because of all she went through. But in The Answers... Oh my god. What happened? She's a fucking asong babae now. She went from a character with understandable issues to someone who would constantly judge and antagonize other's who didn't agree with her. Yukari was the only one who wanted the protagonist to come back, and even though everyone was best mga kaibigan with the main character, and Yukari knows damn well that they were best mga kaibigan with the main character, she calls them out, calling them selfish, weak, and are now an enemy to her. And then she gets the wonderful idea that, if you aren't with her and her crazy dreams, you're against her, and she will have no problem with taking your key sa pamamagitan ng beating you within an inch of your life just to revive him. The only reason I can think of Mitsuru helping Yukari is because of how much Yukari did for Mitsuru when she needed help the most, after her father died. That is honestly the only reason I can see her doing such. Yukari quickly becomes an understandably tragic character to practically the villain in a matter of hours. And I have heard others say that she is doing this because, now that she has a chance to revive the person she loves, she won't let anyone stop her. Well, first off, that's still pretty selfish, because she isn't doing this for him, it seems. It seems she's doing this for her own happiness, while the other's just want to live and continue their life, since they know that he sacrificed himself so they could be happy. And two, I'd be willing to accept this sudden change if it wasn't for the fact that she has been behaving distant from the group before, treating them poorly and constantly criticizing them. It wasn't incredibly bad before, but this was the moment that really showed just how awful she can truly be. Not that most of the characters get a free pass. They decide to take their friendship, the very thing that the main character died for, his friends, and just throw that shit in the big ol' trash. And for someone who doesn't want to fight her friends, Aigis seems to have no trouble with fighting her friends.... Huh.



Okay, so, is there one thing- One thing- I liked about this game... Well, the music's nice.... But, in fair criticism, the only character who actually seemed to get better with The Answer (Shocking, I know) was Junpei. He started out in the main story as a guy who was just looking for a way to be different. He was immature, kinda selfish, and always thinking about what was best for him, even getting jealous at the main character for being the hero, stealing his chance from him. But, as the game goes on, he learns to accept his position, and even after he deals with a serious loss later on in the game, he learns to accept himself, thus making his Persona madami powerful. And in The Answer, he doesn't know what to do. He doesn't want to return to fight Nyx again for fear of losing in the battle this time and thus causing the world to perish as it once was close to, but he also can't stand losing his friend. He's slowly becoming a mess throughout not just this little bonus, but the entirety of Persona 3. Junpei is easily my paborito Persona 3 character, if not my paborito character in all of Persona, just for how much he changes, and I pag-ibig that. So, good job, Answer, you did one- ONE- character not just right, but better. Hey, maybe that's where all the effort for making Yukari's character went. Because I sure as shit don't see it. Oh, fuck you, Yukari. You... dumpster apoy of a waifu.



Well, there you have it, my opinion of The Answer... I don't like it. I actually hate it. It's awful. And here I was, thinking Persona Q was awful... It is, but at least that's tagahanga service-y enough for me to forget about the awful writing. This is just... crap. I'd rather play Persona Q while I wait for my Vita to recharge so I can get back to the equally as stupid Persona: Dancing All Night. Basically, The Answer is just a mess. It doesn't have the charm that Persona 3 has. In fact, it is so bare bones, that if it wasn't for the awful characterization and just Yukari in general, it would just be a boring bonus. I guess a dumpster apoy of a bonus is better than something with no impact at all, but still. If anyone of you want's to play Persona 3, than please, play Persona 3. It's an amazing game. It has some of the best story and characters I've seen. But please, I beg you, don't play The Answer. It's bad. It will most likely ruin your perception of the characters... Like it did me..... #YukariisWorstWaifu...................................................
#JunpeiisBestWaifu