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.
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You're probably right as to the dungeon stuff. Expanded social links are probably going to come.
@the office thing, I think it would be interesting, if done right. True you lose the high school, but trying a new setting would be a cool change of pace. I can see where you're coming from though. I would miss the school as well. college would be interesting, but I don't know if it would bring enough changes...
It'd be cool if they did the college thing and based on your course schedule, you'd meet different people or you could build your rank with your party members if you attend the same classes.
And I didn't think about course schedule, that would make things very interesting...
1up did ask them about the constant high school setting thing, and obviously they said that's what appeals in japan most, with coming of age and all that.
I agree that this could be changed, and still have the game be awesome, since in Phoenix Wright being about a lawyer, an adult profession, and yet that is still very popular. I also kind of hope Atlus develop Persona 5 for 360, which would be cheaper and easier to develop for. I want this series to continue, but for it to survive, changes must be made, but hopefully not too much.
Getting to grips with a better graphics engine, I'm sure would help them a lot too, an area where many japanese developers are lacking.
As for the leaving high school thing, I agree with Sigfreid--in my mind, the Persona series is about high school. A game done in that style where you play as a HS graduate could be very cool, agreed, but I don't think it'd feel like Persona.
Actually, ironically enough, Persona 2 had this going as well--your character was a 25-year old journalist. The story still revolved around events at a high school, though.
A good start to this feature, I'm looking forward to seeing more.
the end.
There is of course the mid-life crisis, but we all know there is no one in Japan between the ages of 21 and 63 :P
Having eroding S.Links would drive me fucking insane. That's shit I don't want to deal with. Grand Theft Auto IV proved that much. A better idea for having more complex S.Links would be to have them interact with each other. Events might change based on your S.Link status with characters who are related or friends. P4 approached that, by having different characters ask you out based on your level, or needing certain levels of a stat to begin or progress an S.Link.
A female lead might be nice, though Persona 2 had a female lead who was also working adult. The art book for Persona 3 had pictures that implied a choice between genders for your lead.
The randomized dungeon crawl had its place in the recent games because of the game's focused mechanic, centered squarely on daily life. Characters couldn't afford to go gallivanting off to distant places when they had housekeeping to do, so randomizing the dungeons and changing their aesthetic up reduced fatigue (in P4 at least). Further, the intimate relationship between a dungeon and the character trapped within made every floor slightly more interesting, with a short event happening each time. The static "waypoint" floors floors also had their own puzzles (albeit simple ones). One might teleport around in the Castle, or have the lights burn out in the Strip Club.
As a side note, please don't use the Dtoid C-blogs as your post dump. This was a good one to post, but you should generate new content HERE, not just copy-paste it from your home blog to get attention.
Yeah, that was kind of tacky of me. XD I deleted the link.