Category: Sony

PS4 Sony

Persona 4

Completed Persona 4. For good, this time.
Getting True Ending is not as much pain-in-the-ass, as it’s not obvious at all. On the last day you need to visit a few locations without any good reason or hints in a particular order.
The final plot twists is good, though, I admit. Speaking of “playing the long game”. The real villain is the guy at the fuel station, the one you meet on your first minute of the game and shake hands with. By shaking hands he grants you the power to enter TVs. Only that’s not a “he”, but a “she”, death goddess Izumi. Yeah, the same death goddess you’ve been told about somewhere mid-game during a school trip to the school from Persona 3.
The final fight resembles Persona 3 a lot. Same grotesque female shape, same theme of unbeatable foe that falls to the Power of Friendship. I liked how the music themes are mixed to sound more epic.

I don’t like the Fusion mechanics much, but I still fused Belzebub for the final battle, one of the Personas that require 6 personas to fuse, and it’s epic:

As a visual novel, the plot has to many holes. As a dating sim, the sudden time skips are annoying and prevent enjoying it without a guide. And as a dungeon crawler, the fights are too tedious, with some enemies having no weaknesses or constantly healing, and the boss battles too unpredictable, and beatable only if you died multiple times and have memorized the phases.
But with all those flaws, it’s still a great game. Kind of what it tries to teach you: that you need to bridge the gaps to build something great.

Tags Persona

Emulation PSP PSX Sony

Persona 2 Innocent Sin

I’ve played Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, which uses the same engine and shares some of the characters, but not the original, probably because PSX version wasn’t officially translated. Luckily the PSP version is.
I decided to compare both versions, and it’s interesting that in order to accomodate PSP wider screen they distanced the camera a little. No 4:3 black borders, but the character sprites look a bit muddier, because the scale is not as precise.

PS4 Sony

Playstation 4

A year later, and Playstation 4 can be jailbroken up to version 11. If I sat on my PS4 Pro for a year, I could jailbreak it now, but I didn’t, opting to play Diablo 4 on it instead. I regret nothing.

PS4 Sony

Persona 4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 15, 2024

The Magatsu dungeon is just tiring. Full of enemies that have no weaknesses and tons of HP.

You can never clear a floor in Persona 4, new Shadows will continue to spawn. But this is where it gets ugly.
It’s also annoying how the game skips a couple of weeks after Ameno-sagiri fight. Because half of the game is basically a dating sim, and you have two actions each day, you miss a lot of interactions that way without being warned.

I also missed Marie dungeon, because my social link was 9 out of 10 😬
But I’ve read that it’s annoying as hell anyway.

Tags Persona

PSP Sony

Maverick Hunter X

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 3, 2024

Completed Maverick Hunter X.
They changed the locations of all body parts. So now you get the Legs upgrade on Flame Mammoth stage where you previously got Arms in that insanely difficult jump. Now it’s easy. Head is in Chill Pinguin stage in a new tiny room. And where head previously been it’s now Armor. So you get Armor before getting the Arms, which are the ones guarded by the boss now.
With Dash and Armor Eagle is doable. And I’ve got Mammoth even without Eagle’s weapon. Chameleon is also doable without the Boomerang now, I think his attacks are slower and spikes are more predictable. Armadillo is a bit harder than before, as you can’t stick to walls, he has a new rolling attack against that. With that, my two last bosses where Octopus and Kuwanger.
Octopus is easy now, as his fish fly in an arc pattern, giving an opportunity to dodge.
One interesting bit is that in Sigma’s Fortress, when you meet Launch Octopus, the first of the returning bosses, again, he speaks like a zombie, and X comments that Sigma brought them “back to life”. In the original game, there was no explanation given why you have to fight the bosses again after killing them once.
Also, the design of the location is more immersive, I would say.

It’s the first time I understood that you don’t just jump on handing platforms, those are stairwells that collapsed during Zero’s assault.

The only returning boss that isn’t a pushover is Armadillo. That “Sonic roll” is still an immense pain. The unique bosses are much easier, though. Especially notable on the spider: it’s slower, and the paths aren’t as favorable as in the original.
Sigma is also much slower now, making it for a fight that even a normal person could enjoy. And the final Wolf form, while still punishing, has saner hitboxes.

Despite the slightly more difficult start due to lack of Dash and new attacks for some bosses, Maverick Hunter X is a welcome remake, that enraged me far less than the original. What really makes this game outstanding in my eyes, though, is the voice acting. It’s great, a really brings the characters to life.

Tags Mega Man X

PSP Sony

Maverick Hunter X

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 1, 2024

This is a remake of Mega Man X, and probably one of the most impressive remakes I’ve seen. They got the designs, and the tone exactly right. So it’s sad that it was only ever released for PSP.

One thing that is “rigth but wrong” with transition to 3D, though, is X turning. With 2D model it was just the flipping of a sprite, the speed they kept with 3D, but now it looks strange.
Interestingly they changed the bosses quite significantly. It’s well known that the fight with Vile can’t be won on SNES. Here, you actually expected to beat him before he grabs you and Zero intervenes.

Another example is Storm Eagle. I mentioned that in the original game it’s quite harmless. Not anymore! Not only it can flow you off the ship easier to instadeath, but it now also throws homing pigeons at you as well rams you horizontally.

The upgrades were changed a bit as well. You don’t get Dash on Chill Penguin stage for free anymore.
After harder Eagle, I didn’t expect Mandril to be so easy. The original Mandril had invincibility after you froze him twice. So you had to dodge his dash attack. Not anymore. You can freeze the poor monkey to death now.

Tags Mega Man X

PSX Sony

Mega Man X4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 20, 2024

Since Zero playthrough went so well, I decided to give X a try, although I always found him more difficult. Maybe I was wrong. What you do need, though, is to remap your controls: I put dash on left bumper, regular attack on right trigge and special attack on right bumper. Because you need them all at the same time. How people play with default mapping is beyond me.

X’s regular attack is basically a peashooter, but his fully charged attack is quite good. And since his attacks are ranged, the bosses I struggled with as Zero, such as Spider and Stringray, are much more manageable. You still need to master the evade for the Spider, though.
The playthrough this time was Dragon, because always start with Dragon, then Walrus, as he’s still vulnerable to fire, unlike Peacock, then Spider, then Stingray, which is easy with Walrus’ weapon.
Colonel is still vulnerable to Ice, for some reason, just like with Zero.
Then both Mushroom is vulnerable to Spider’s web, and Lion to Stingrays. And Owl fight with Peacock’s weapon is laughable.
Overall, I feel like X gameplay is much easier than Zero, because his weapons realy exploit their weaknesses. During the General fight, which I found to be thoughtest with Zero, I literally took no damage with X.

First two phases of Sigma are also easy. Third one is just… long. Unlike the first two phases, this one doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses. So you just go through the annoying phases over and over until it dies.
It is more than 5 minutes of real time. I know, because I recorded only last 5 minutes of it.

I had to pause the game to give my fingers a rest at one point.
But now, I can say I’ve done it. Finished Mega Man X4, 28 years later 😆

Tags Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

PSX Sony

Mega Man X4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 18, 2024

Completed Mega Man X4 with Zero, fulfilling my childhood dream, one might say.
While Colonel is manageable, Zero against the General is another story. His only vulnerable part is the head, but touching it, or any other part of the body hurts Zero. I had to backtrack to get the second energy tank, and refill it in the Walrus stage, and beat Iris again just to be ready for this fight.

Then you need to beat the 8 animal bosses again. This sounds terrifying, but there are a few caveats to that challenge. You do get to replenish some life between the fights, and if you die, you don’t need to repeat the gauntlet all over, the killed bosses stay dead.

The final boss is all-in-all not that hard. First phase is extremely predictable. Second phase requires some well timed wall jumps, but still doable. The only challenge is to have enough life for the third phase. And the third phase is total random. I got lucky with the “alien” shooting above Zero’s head over and over.

Tags Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

Sony

Bouncer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 17, 2024

I remember I’ve seen Bouncer in one of the gaming mags around 2000, and was wowed by the screenshots and the art. It might have even been a preview, and the screenshots fake, but still.
Many years later, it seems I haven’t missed much by not playing it.

The only interesting bit is that I was created by the guy behind first Tekkens, so the movesets of some characters are taken directly from there.

I might still play it at some point, as I adore PS2 aesthetics. But feels I didn’t miss it for nothing.

Emulation Nintendo PSX Sony Switch

Mega Man X4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 17, 2024

I always had a special relationship with Mega Man X4. It was the first Mega Man game I’ve seen, because for a strange reason, it was ported to PC. But also, many years later, while trying Mega Man X3 and Mega Man X5 I understood that it hit the sweet spot of looking amazing, unlike X3 which still had SNES era visuals, but still having solid core gameplay, unlike X5.

What I didn’t understand as a kid is that Dragoon literally screams “hadouken” and “shouryuken”, because his moveset is basically Ryu/Ken from Street Fighter.

For some strange reason, Mega Man X Legacy Collection on Switch doesn’t have save states. I rarely use them nowadays, but Mega Man without them is still brutal.
My path is Dragon, which can be beaten with exosuit, and I think that’s the easy choice. Then Peacock, turned out to be easy as well with the fire sword. Then Walrus, for obvious reasons.

Then Lion, you just need to dodge the stomps. And Stingray, despite being weak to the Walrus weapon, can also be taked out with a saber, you can jump safely underneath.

The most trouble, I had with the spider. You need to dash-jump to avoid the homing webs, and even then, I feel that sometimes it’s very hard to do, as his position is quite random.

With Spider weapon, Mushroom is easy. And I left Owl for the last, although with Peacock’s weapon, I could have done it much sooner.

Tags Mega Man, Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

PS4 Sony

Persona 4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 3, 2024

By December things get dramatic. Nanako, the protagonist 7 years old niece, gets kidnapped. Her father and protagonist’s uncle gets badly injured chasing the suspect. Fog descends on the town. After being rescued, Nanako dies in the hospital.
Unfortunately, that’s where the game starts to get annoying too. In order to get the true ending, you need to pick not obvious dialogue lines, such as “I don’t know about that”, while the gang discusses if they should lynch Nanako’s kidnapper by throwing him into the TV World.
Teddy disappears, but Nanako recovers. Turns out that the first two victims where kidnapped by someone else. And Nanatame, the suspect, was throwing people into the TV World because he believed they’d be safe there from the real killer.
The problem with those investigation mechanics is that there are long dialogs preceding them. And if you fail, you get one of the bad endings, and endless credits, so I just end up restarting the game every time that happens. And I don’t remember 20 characters by their Japanese names, so that did happen.

Tags Persona

PS4 Sony

Persona 4 Golden

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 19, 2024

I don’t mind school kids fighting demons inside the TV. But a schoolkid detective helping the police is a bit too much for me. Although that’s as a staple as a TV idol coming to a small town and falling for the protagonist. Detective Conan and all that. Although people tend to forget that Detective Conan was an adult trapped in kid’s body.
But I must admit, the plot twist that Naoto is actually a girl dressing like a boy because otherwise people wouldn’t take her seriously is a good one. And they even managed to tell that story convincingly, instead of going for “you just need gender surgery!”

Tags Persona 4

PS4

Persona 3 Reload

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 2, 2024

Discovered that unlike Persona 4, which is a port with a few enhancements, Persona 3 was completely remade on PS4, apparently using Persona 5 engine.
It’s unlikely that will ever play this version, though, despite not remember much about the original game. I do remember that the choice of companions annoyed me immensely: a kid, a dog and a robot, to name a few.

Tags Persona

PS4 Sony

Diablo 4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 31, 2024

Getting a triple boss in a dungeon for the first time is fun. Getting the same triplets for the third time… not so much.

Speaking of fun, the story bosses drop junk, but the Treasure Goblin dropped an actually useful bow that randomly creates a pool of poison, and while you’re standing in that pool, your poison attacks are free. Finally a mechanic that is not just about shooting monsters in their faces.

Elias is supposed to be some kind of a villain, and he certainly gets a lot of people killed, but for a good reason, it seems? He’s cullying humanity, because invasion is inevitable. So only the strong will survive to fight the demons. Makes sense to me.

Tags Diablo, Diablo 4

PS4 Sony

Persona 4 Golden

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 30, 2024

By September maximized my relationship with Yosuke, which has double benefits: the character gets their ultimate persona to use in battle, and you get one of the ultimate personas to fuse.

The best storyline so far is by Yumi, a girl that tries to reconcile with her dying father whomlwft her family for another woman:

On a schooltrip we meet Chihiro from Persona 3, who’s now in her final year. Which means that the game is set a year or two after the events of Persona 3. I haven’t thought before that those games even happen in the same universe.

I was completely blown by the fact that they have special portraits for when the party gets drunk in a nightclub.

Tags Persona 4

PS4 Sony

Persona 4 Golden

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date June 16, 2024

A third body is discovered: sleazy homeroom teacher of the protagonist. This is surprising, since he never appeared on TV, unlike all the other victims, and apparently wasn’t even thrown into the TV-world. But then as the characters point out, since they managed to rescue the last three potential victims, the killer has decided that simply throwing them into the TV-world is not efficient anymore.
Another twist is that Teddie is not only able to come out of the TV-world, but also acquires a human shape in the human world.

The game tries to convince us that the killer is Mitsuo, a creepy teenager that approached Yukiko at the very start of the game.

His dungeon is literally a 80s JRPG dungeon, with pixelated walls, and the endboss is that cubic hero character. This boss is much harder that previous ones, attacking twice each turn.

Tags Persona, Persona 4

PS4 Sony

Persona 4 Golden

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date June 1, 2024

Second big dungeon is a men-only public bathhouse. Kanji is a though guy that is struggling with his homo/bi sexuality. A bold theme for a JRPG for teenagers.

After the rescue, Yosuke keeps making jokes about his uncertain sexuality throughout the game:

The next victim is Rise, a local teenage popstar. Her dungeon is a strip-club, because she gets to expose too much of her working as a model. And the boss is literally a huge pole-dancer.

The fight while not difficult in itself, turns out to be a double-boss battle, as Teddie discovers he also has a persona. This is interesting. Aegis from Persona 3, a cyborg, was given personality in order to acquire a Persona.

Tags Persona

PS4 Sony

Persona 4 Golden

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 20, 2024

That’s my second or even third time trying to play Persona 4. It’s not bad or anything, just long.
The only bit that annoys me is the fact that character mouths are not moving.
The premise is that people start to get sucked into their TVs at night, where they have to face their Shadow, the dark self. And if they die, they die in the real world too.

The problem with the game is same as Persona 3. And honestly, with most shin Megami Tensei games. When your entire combat system is built around exploiting enemy weakness with magic, once you run out of mana, it becomes boring. And since characters are designed to compliment each other, once one character runs out of SP, you may as well end the run. Although SP recovery items seem a little less of a problem than in PS4 version than in the original PS2 release.

Tags Persona

PS4 Sony

Nier Replicant

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 15, 2024

Completed Nier Replicant.
As I already mentioned, OST of Nier is something else:

Being grown up means mostly you revisit same locations again, and with the Junkyard, I think even twice.
Some of those are better, like the Octopus Girl boss.
https://youtu.be/0dZfR-LhLO0Some of them are meh, like the Wolf boss.
Devola and Popola, the town major and her twin sister, turn out to be evil witches. And everyone turns out to be android, while the Shades are the real humans. This is all explained in a sneaky burst of images at the very end of the game. Not a real surprise, as the subtitle of the remake is “Replicant”. Akin to “The Island”, the plan was for people souls to return into the android “shells” after the pandemic is over, but souls turned into monsters, while shells developed conscience and rejected their owners.
There are 4 more endings, achieved by playing the second half of the game 3 more times, and then the entire game again from the start. But I think I’ll stop there. It’s great the Nier has a sane difficulty: unlike Bayonetta or Revengeance, nor like Souls games, not once I wanted to break my gamepad while playing it for 20 hours. But I played it for 20 hours, and I think that’s quite enough. No amount of post-irony and self-humor about boring dungeons and quest can hide the fact that those are indeed boring.

Tags Nier

PS4 Sony

Nier Replicant

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date May 12, 2024

A game makes a timejump 5 years. Timejumps aren’t new: Ocarina of Time pulled it, Breath of Fire 2 pulled it too. But I still respect every game that manages to do it properly. This one does.

Now our hero isn’t a teenager anymore, although that makes him resemble Dante now much more. I was also wondering why the game mentiones that the sword you find are “one-handed”, since they all were one-handed. This is why. As an adult, the protagonist can also weild two-handed swords. Nice.
Emil, the kid that is able to petrify with his stare, discovers that his mansion has a laboratory underneath (another Resident Evil reference), and there his sister, turned into a huge monster, is kept. And he was given his capabilities to stop her. The game perspective switches to 2.5D isometric ARPG-like for a while.

The siblings merge, Emil receives magic abilities, but now looks like a skeleton, a miniature version of his sister. I always thought that the skeleton on the cover is Grimoir Weiss personified.

With that, Kaine is un-petrified, and the monster she held sealed finally beaten.

Tags Nier