It's going to be 2D, this is a step in the right direction. This is great news as I am currently trying to slog my way through Sonic 06 to prove that I'm manly and to laugh at the awful cutscenes. (Protip: Sonic 06 is the worst game ever, distrust any outlet who gave it a score above 0)

This however, may be good. It may even be great. The point is I'm actually excited for a Sonic game for the first time in a loooong time. Let's hope the cycle doesn't continue.



P.S. Am I the only one who thinks that the SEGAAAAA at the beginning was the best part?

[i]West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

>open mailbox
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.

>read leaflet
(Taken)
"WELCOME TO ZORK!

ZORK is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it you will explore some of the most amazing territory ever seen by mortals. No computer should be without one!"[/i]

Leaflet in hand, I started my journey into the most dangerous land I had ever entered. I headed to the white house, to see if any people resided there despite its dilapidated appearance. No one answered my call, but as I searched the exterior, I found a window where the boards were loose. Yanking the boards free, I climbed inside.

I seemed to be in the house's kitchen, there was a passage leading to the west and a dark staircase leading upward. A dark chimney led downward and there was a table that seemed to be recently used for the preparation of food. The table had a brown sack that smelled of hot peppers and a glass bottle of water, I took both and ventured up the stairs.

As I went upstairs I was shocked at just how dark it was. It wasn't just dark, there was a complete absence of light. I groped about for a few minutes before hearing something. I stopped dead in my tracks and listened. The noise sounded like heavy breathing. I tried to edge back down to the stairs, but I felt a sharp pain in my leg as something sunk its teeth into me. It all went black after that.

Leaflet in hand, I started my journey into the most dangerous land I had ever entered. I headed to the white house, to see if any people resided there despite its dilapidated appearance...
....I headed into what seemed to be a living room. There was a wooden door with strange gothic lettering to the west, it appeared to be nailed shut. There was a gigantic oriental rug in the center of the room, and a trophy case on the wall containing an Elvish sword of great antiquity and a battery-powered brass lantern. I took the two items and decided to try to take the rug too, after all, it looked valuable. Moving it revealed a secret passage underground. Sword and lantern in hand, I went down.

As soon as I reach the bottom, I heard someone close and lock the trap door. I would have to find another way out. I turned on my lantern and noticed my sword was glowing an odd blue color. I headed north.

As I walked into the next room, I was horrified. Bloodstains and scratches marred the walls, and worst of all, a nasty-looking troll with a giant, bloody axe was blocking all exits. My sword began to glow very brightly. I lunged at the troll with my sword, I only managed to strike him on the head with the side of it, but it dazed him momentarily. Unfortunately, it wasn't long enough as he managed to dodge my follow up and he slashed me with the axe in the side as I lost my balance. Dizzy with the pain, my next attack failed to connect and the troll finished me off.

Leaflet in hand, I started my journey into the most dangerous land I had ever entered...
...As I wiped the blood off of my sword, it stopped glowing, I grabbed the axe and resumed my exploration, heading east. As I continued along the path I made my way to a small reservoir with a dam. Flood Control Dam #3 to be precise, it was quite a tourist attraction at one point, but no more. I walked inside of the Dam's Lobby to see if anything was about. Nothing much so I continued to the Maintenance Room.

Being an adventurer, I was adventurous and decided to try to do some maintenance on the dam. I pressed the blue button on the nearby control panel. There was a rumbling sound and all of a sudden the east wall of the room exploded. I suppose that wasn't the right thing to do. The water level reached my ankles as I desperately tried to fix my mistake by pressing the other buttons. The red one turned on the lights; the water was now up to my ankles.

I desperately hit the yellow and brown buttons but all they did was make clicking noises, at this point the water was up to my knees. I tried the red button a few more times but that didn't do much except flash the lights on and off. The water was up to my hips. Maybe hitting the blue button would fix this... it was jammed. I desperately mashed on the blue button over and over again. It wasn't working, the water soon reached above my head, and as I drowned, I decided I probably should have tried the yellow button again.

Leaflet in hand, I started my journey into the most dangerous land...
...with dread as the batteries died, leaving me in the darkness, alone with the grues. I had no hope of survival.

Leaflet in hand, I started my journey into the most...
...the room exploded. I suppose taking the torch into the tunnel filled with gasoline was a bad idea.

Leaflet in hand, I started my journey...
...again stabbing me with the stiletto as I fell, bleeding profusely. The thief then laughed at me as he took all my belongings.

Leaflet in hand, I started...
...as I waved the scepter again, I realized this was a bad idea. The rainbow disappeared from beneath me as I fell to my doom in the river below.

Leaflet in hand...
...cleaned off the troll blood from my sword and decided to head into that ominous looking hole to the west. The maze of twisty little passages, all alike. Why did I come this way? This was my worst mistake of all. No matter where I go I can't find my way out. I'm stuck here. It's been days and I'm out of water and food. I have nothing but a small amount of treasure; a skeleton key for something or other; my failing lantern; and a knife. This is all I've managed to protect from the thief. I'm going to die here.

There's nothing to do now but to wait for the end. There's no way out of here. No way out.

[b]
**** You have died ****

You clearly are a suicidal maniac. We don't allow psychotics in the cave, since they may harm other adventurers. Your remains will be installed in the Land of the Living Dead, where your fellow adventurers may gloat over them.
Your score is 18 (total of 350 points), in 93 moves.
This gives you the rank of Beginner.[/b]


[i]Maze
This is part of a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. A skeleton, probably the remains of a luckless adventurer, lies here.
Beside the skeleton is a rusty knife.
The deceased adventurer's useless lantern is here.
There is a skeleton key here.
An old leather bag, bulging with coins, is here.[/i]

I know a lot of us here are Persona fans, so I figured I'd upload these ringtones I made the other day. They're in MP3 form, so you need a phone that can use those. Someone else feel free to convert them for other phones and I'll edit the links into this post.

Every Day's Great at Your Junes - The commercial singer, Nanako singing, then the Junes theme.

Your Affection

Reach Out to the Truth

Tell me if you like/use them. I am currently using the Junes one.

Once again I have a new column, Dear Developers. This will be a wish-list of what I want in the next iteration of a franchise. Things that could be improved, things that could be removed, and things that would just be awesome. For the pilot, I figured I’d do what is now my favorite game series, Persona.

1.Better Dungeons With Puzzles


This is the major flaw of Persona, the dungeons just aren’t that interesting. They’re randomly generated and have no puzzles; which means every dungeon is about the same except the aesthetics are different. Persona 3 was the worst since it was one dungeon with the almost the same music. They don’t have to give up the random generation, just add some set pieces and maybe a few puzzles, because as it is now, getting to a new dungeon doesn’t mean all that much.

2.Female Lead


I love the protagonists of Persona 3 and 4, they’re great, but I would like some diversity. Now that the series has social links, seeing it all from a female perspective would be really interesting. Better yet, let us choose between male and female. That would be harder on the developer as several social links, many dialog options, and a lot more would have to be changed, but it would add a lot of replay value.

3.More Dynamic Social Links


The social links in Persona 4 added some new features, such as being able to do them with party members and being able to have non-romantic social links with the romanceable characters. They still have a problem though, they’re static, they don’t comment on story, change because of it, or comment on your other friends. If you could go hang out with a group, if they actually mentioned a few plot-relevant things, or if they had multiple paths, it would make them even better. Perhaps even making them part of the plot depending on your current rank, or even have certain ones awaken to Persona powers through social links. Having a giant ensemble of party members wouldn’t be feasible, but if a few could do it, it would work really well.

4.All Grown Up


The high school setting is great, but as a change of pace would be nice, such as being a worker at a large corporation. The time periods could be: train ride to work, work, lunch, after work, and evening. Lunch would be an easy place to get some social links in, as would the train ride, and you would get your money through your job. Your performance would affect how much you get paid. An interesting idea would to be related to the CEO as you would have jealous coworkers and suck-ups as some social links. A secret R&D division or something could be the cover for eliminating the shadows. This would be a great new setting for the series, and it would be really interesting if they went this route.

5.Junes


We all know that at Junes, every day is customer appreciation day. In fact, every day is great at your Junes. As such, it needs to be in the next game again. Heck, the aforementioned office could be the corporate headquarters. You could have a social link with that lady in the commercial. Nothing would be more epic. Unless at one point in the game you see the protagonist from Persona 4 take Nanako in to film a new commercial for them. I can’t imagine anything more epic than that.

I am now really wanting Persona 5, I really hope at least one of these ideas gets implemented. The Persona series is already wonderful, and I think with these changes it can be even better. Agree? Disagree? Got some ideas of your own? Post ‘em in the comments.