Will Wasteland 2 take down Persona 4 as The Greatest RPG?

[RetreatToLove]

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 has been widely regarded as the best RPG of the Last Decade.

RPGFan's 2nd RPG of The Decade

#2 - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2)

Chocolate is good. Peanut butter is good. Chocolate and peanut butter together is great, and whoever first combined the two is a genius. In much the same way, Persona 3 is greater than the sum of its parts, bringing together a dungeon-crawling RPG and a life/school sim. The main plot is already a cut above that of most JRPGs, but the storylines of the various friends that your character meets in school or around town further elevate the storytelling, adding a unique dimension of depth and genuine humanity that's missing from many RPG plotlines. That Atlus could deftly localize a very Japanese game such as this in a wonderfully authentic fashion speaks volumes. On top of the varied, addictive gameplay and darkly twisted storyline, Persona 3 has stylish visuals and a beautifully unique soundtrack by Shoji Meguro. Much like Final Fantasy VII did back in 1997, Persona 3 blew open the eyes of complacent RPG fans and completely shattered their notions and expectations of what to expect from a Japanese RPG and what the genre is capable of.

RPGamer's RPG of The Decade

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

While many other RPGs had bigger budgets and others have had shinier presentations, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 shows that it's not all glitz and glamour that makes a great RPG. Persona 3 is an experience like no other before it. It blends a dark, edgy story with dungeon crawling, monster collecting, and social interaction in a way that is addictively unique and memorable.

One aspect that sums up the RPGamer love for Persona 3 is the unique feeling that you had never played anything like it before. Shoji Meguro's soundtrack is one of the catchiest collections of tunes in some time and his techno style fit the game's diversity to a tee. One minute the game has you fighting your way through dungeons, battling powerful demons known as shadows, and the next you're in school taking quizzes, doing homework, and making friends. There is no one defining facet of Persona 3, but the blending of all of them is what makes this game an experience you have to play to understand. So whether you are wooing the sexy Mitsuru or just making friends with an elderly couple at a bookstore, Persona 3 is an RPG you just don't want to stop.

Whether you picked up the initial release or waited for FES, Persona 3 is an endearing experience. While Persona 4 no doubt made some major improvements to the system, Persona 3 is where it all originated from. For its story, characters, music, gameplay, and overall originality, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is not only our pick for RPG of the Decade, it's easily one of the top RPGs of all time.

Thunderbolt included Persona 3 in their Thunderbolt Remembers: 2000-2009 feature.

Persona 3

Persona and Shin Megami Tensei have been around for more than a decade, but it was 2006’s third installment that propelled the series to a more international popularity. Featuring a cast of troubled teens and a host of enemies that look like they were ripped out of the Bauhaus circa 1930, Persona 3 was an alternative to the typical JRPG fare that most people were getting from Final Fantasy and the like.

Oh, sure, the premise was still similar: a bunch of angsty teens team up to save the world. But where Persona 3 shined was the presentation of this classic setup. The atmosphere manages to make a 70-hour game feel intense, thanks to the foreboding darkness that is hinted at in the earlier sections of the game but doesn’t truly spring forth until the third act. The crushing sense of despair eats away at the sugary facade offered in the initial parts of the adventure; and by the end, it’s almost impossible to find breathing room. The game’s ending is bittersweet at best; and much like more mainstream games like Mass Effect, it’s hard to not get attached to the characters you guide through their perilous adventure, thanks in no small part to the amount of content there is to find in day-to-day conversations with your party. Building relationships with people is a necessity in Persona 3, and the Social Link system managed to provide an interesting outlet for that: away from the action entirely.

It’s also worth mentioning Persona 3’s presentation. The juxtaposition of the crushing weight of the main story juxtaposed with the sometimes-inane teenage chatter starts off as confusing, but ends up as heartbreaking. The music is a strange brew of electronica and hip-hop, and the urban environments cement the feeling that Persona 3 is still an RPG for the modern age.

Both RPGFan and RPGamer are affiliated to Gamerankings and Metacritic.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 contains enhancements , refinements , and expansion of already-an-already-winning-formula of Persona 3. 2 of the oldest gaming magazines , Electronic Gaming Monthly and Famitsu , included it in their Top 5 RPGs and Greatest Games of All Time list.

EGM Feature:Top 5 RPGs

Persona 4

Released: December 2008 – PS2
As much as I feel my choice should be the original Phantasy Star or Final Fantasy VI, my heart forces me to choose Persona 4. It was a game that not only rekindled my love for the Japanese RPG, but which also gave me hope for the future of the genre and the directions it could now dare to take. Why did Persona 4 work as beautifully as it did? Its creators understood how to develop characters and present situations that the player would come to care about—and care we did. Even after 100-plus hours of single-player gameplay, I still wanted more, and I long to see what Atlus will bring us once they finally unveil the inevitable Persona 5.

Famitsu's 5th Greatest Game of All Time

PC Magazine, the oldest computer magazine in the US, gave it 5/5 and an Editor's Choice emblem.

Does inXile , with 3 million dollars, have what it takes to take down Persona 4 from its RPG throne ?

[DRTJR]

I was under the mistaken impression that Best/Greatest were subjective term open to debate. Obviously I was wrong considering the vastly different focus of the JRPG and the WRPG, these two games will be easily compatible. comparing them is akin to comparing MGS 3D to super mario 3D land, or Halo 3, to Viva Pinata. the two genres their in are different and not easily comparable. The RPG is a nebulas thing, more so than any genre of video games. Even within the same sub-genre it gets difficult, take Oblivion and Fable (As well as the Lost chapters). One was had a quirky story with interesting characters, Beautiful design, and a memorable score. The other is big, really big, with a lot of items to loot. Yet the consensus is the bigger game is better. what other people think should not influence you all that much, so if Persona 4 is still your favorite game then so be it. Chrono Trigger is still my favorite JRPG and my second overall favorite game.

[Drool]

Does inXile , with 3 million dollars, have what it takes to take down Persona 4 from its RPG throne ?

The only game this needs to compare to is Wasteland.

[ffordesoon]

If you think Persona 4 is the greatest RPG, Wasteland 2 will probably not "take it down". But that has as much to do with what you want out of an RPG as it does the actual quality of both games.

[Bryce777]

I heard you like trolls so I put some troll in your troll.

Can this obvious troll just get banned already?

[Ekaros]

Does inXile , with 3 million dollars, have what it takes to take down Persona 4 from its RPG throne ?

The only game this needs to compare to is Wasteland.

If it's better than FO1/2 or comparable it's golden ;D

[Noelemahc]

If you think Persona 4 is the greatest RPG, Wasteland 2 will probably not "take it down". But that has as much to do with what you want out of an RPG as it does the actual quality of both games.

What he said. I'm a fan of the SMT franchise, and I don't even LIKE Persona games. The more old-school nature of the "core" games is better for me, sorry.

[doady]

The Persona games seem really cool, but the greatest traditional RPG of recent times is generally regarded to be Xenoblade Chronicles, which I have playing a lot lately. Persona games probably not what I would call "traditional".

It's interesting though to note the stuggles of the traditional Japanese RPG recently. It's generally agreed that the genre is dying, for the same reason that the traditional computer RPG died many years ago: rising development costs due to graphics. It's probably no coincidence that the arguably best traditional JRPG of this generation was developed on the most outdated console with the lowest graphics capability and therefore the lowest development costs.

I'm not a big fan of JRPGs or anything, but I tihnk it would still be sad if the genre died, especially considering we experienced the same thing with computer RPGs 10 years ago.

[Vryheid]

So Persona 4 got picked by an arbitrary group of non-authoritative gamers with an obvious bias towards archaic turn based gameplay and JRPGs. Big frigging deal. As far as I'm concerned Persona 4 doesn't even hit the top 10 compared to games such as Skyrim, Dark Souls, The Witcher 2 and Xenoblade. There are plenty of authors, including this writer on Forbes who feel like Skyrim could easily qualify as the best RPG ever made, let alone in the past decade. Does this make one particular group right simply for having opinions? No, but I think it would be prudent to compare Wasteland 2 with other classic open world CRPGS and not frigging cinematic console RPGs like Persona.

[RetreatToLove]

RPGFan is affiliated with Gamerankings and Metacritic and was established in 1997.

RPGamer is affiliated with Gamerankings and Metacritic and was established in 1995.

Thunderbolt is affiliated with Gamerankings and Metacritic and was established in 2000.

Electronic Gaming Monthly is affiliated with Gamerankings and Metacritic, and was established in 1989.

Famitsu is the main Japanese gaming magazine, established in 1986.

PC Magazine was established in 1982, not even a gaming magazine.

6 groups.For a site that profess to crunch numbers and stats , your math ability is questionable.

[Drool]

And video game critics inflate their rankings. Anything under a 7 out of 10 is viewed as crap. Just looking at the numbers is meaningless.

And, as I asked in the other thread, why are you here? You clearly don't like Western games and you clearly want Wasteland to be something it isn't going to be.

[BentSea]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.. there is no waaaaaaaaaaaay it could be better than Persona 4. I just don't see it happening. Persona 4 is perfect. I can't even imagine any game after it not using the Demon Fusion leveling system now that it's been invented. They probably wont even consider implementing the Demon Fusion system into Wasteland 2. If pressed on the issue, they'll probably just brush it off with some thin excuse like, "We didn't feel that the demon fusion system fit the style of game we wanted to create."

That is code, though, for "We are old and archaic people, and the demon fusion system is just too cool for us."

But it is very important that you play through Wasteland 2.. several times.. every single side quest... etc, etc, so that you can carefully inform inXile in a very long letter how they could have at least tried to be better than Persona 4 if they had considered your advice.

[ffordesoon]

And video game critics inflate their rankings. Anything under a 7 out of 10 is viewed as crap. Just looking at the numbers is meaningless.

It really depends on which site you're talking about, to be fair to the obvious troll. An eight from Destructoid, for example, is meaningful, because they really do use the whole scale. An eight from IGN, on the other hand, could mean anything depending on the reviewer.

Which the troll will use as ammunition, yes. I apologize in advance for that.

[falloutgod13]

*scratches head* Might as well go to a heavy metal bands forum and post asking if their new album will be a chart topper and take down Lady Gaga or Justin Beiber.

There are really amazing metal bands with huge followings across the world but they aren't comparable to pop or mainstream chart-toppers. They are simply consummate and brilliant in their own right. In many respects it's a subjective matter but I also have a high fidelity rating system of my own. That system being based on skill and creativity. Ergo in my mind InterPlay/Obsidian/Bioware(although stuff like DAII was dissapointing and sloppy) crpgs are the chart-toppers, the all time best. So I care nothing for your Justin Beiber and Persona being top ranking. I prefer my creativity and skill. It's still topping our charts. You're just not there to understand. http://youtu.be/Bwi5SJG3K5M Granted... Wasteland had a very small chart due to the limited release.

[RetreatToLove]

Except those are not charts, but lists that are compiled by experts, critics, and curators , making them a sort of counterpart of Sight and Sound Critics Poll in movie 0r 100 Best Books of All Time organized by Norwegian Book Club in literature more than any other.

Arch Enemy are garbage by the way, just like Trivium.

[falloutgod13]

Experts huh? I'm an expert at troll detection. What exactly constitutes an expert?

Let's take the conventional definition.

noun
1. a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority: a language expert.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expert?s=t)

So those people are experts at what exactly? Getting paid to promote big releases? Because they certainly aren't experts at making games.

Also, you probably wouldn't know talent if it slapped you in the face with sheet music. You'd probably stare at it and go "wtf is this alien language?".

[RetreatToLove]

One of Electronic Gaming Monthly's editor worked in a game company once as a localizer . If you don't know what that is, it's some sort of translator, but they take into account the honorifics, nuances, cultural aspects of the language,colloquial to the context , just like John Rutherford did when he localized Don Quixote into English, the translation had to capture the Spanish mentality and Spanish wit of that era. He gave Persona 4 an A+ on his 1Up review (the EGM editor and not John Rutherford)

That's an expert enough .

[falloutgod13]

Because translating languages, accurately or not, has correlation with knowing if a game is good or not? *facepalm* I'm getting out of this thread. I need to finish my coffee and start the day. Doesn't seem like you have any valid points to offer, just your opinions which are by their very own nature subjective.

[RetreatToLove]

If a person work for a game company , he has to know the nooks and cranny of every development process, be it as a localizer or level designer. They are mutually integrated. You cannot separate one with another.

Other experts like Shane Bettenhausen , who work for Ignition Entertainment, and James Mielke , work for Q Entertainment (the maker of Lumines and Child of Eden) gave Persona 3 : FES an A on their Electronic Gaming Monthly reviews.

And i also said critics and curators compiled those lists. Sites that are affiliated on Gamerankings and Metacritic count as such, if you haven't noticed it yet.

[ffordesoon]

Wait a second...

You're that troll on Destructoid that does this exact thing, aren't you? Every time they post about a new RPG, you always go, "But will it beat Persona 4!?" I knew I recognized that username!