Try out Honkai Star Rail here: hoyo.link/adhTDDAd & redeem 50 extra stellar jades with code BTN5EL69P6K3 What's your favorite Atlus game guys? p.s. I focused only on Muse's symphonic rock tracks, but my actual favorite of theirs is New Born :P yes to ALL the neoclassical! (also apologies for the wonky sound effects not matching up with the animations in the final minute 😅) 🎮TWITCH: www.twitch.tv/ladyvirgilia 🐤TWITTER: @VirgiliaLady twitter.com/VirgiliaLady 🌟PATREON: www.patreon.com/LadyVirgilia
Well the only mainline SMT game I have played is SMT Nocturne so I can't say wich of those I like best, I have played all the mainline Persona games except P2IS, but I really love the two Digital Devil Saga games.
spiritually, Persona 1, something about the Lovecraft imagery, the characters, the music and vibe really caught the attention of my 7 year old self, stealing my older brother's psp while he wasn't looking. I hope it does get a proper definitive edition/remake like P3R but that's probably wishful thinking. but my actual answer has to be P5R, i remember visiting my uncle's and my cousins let me use their PS4 so i grabbed whichever game interested me most and saw Persona 5, i was like "this sounds familiar" put the game in and the rest is history.
Character stories. I love being there alongside these characters and being the catalyst that pushes them to grow into fully realized, powerful agents of their own fates.
If I had to pick just one thing to love about Atlus's MegaTen games, it would be the integration of mythological figures. I'm pretty sure I still have a massive printout from when I first played P1 that just dives into the mythological roots of all the Persona. Although the games can vary widely in style, that is a solid through-line.
I feel sad how little was shown of SMT If (the foundation of the Persona Series) and a lot of SMT entries aside from Nocturne and V. Atlus game philosophy goes beyond the Persona franchise. The two pillars of Atlus are Philosophy and psychology which are tackled in a gorgeous manner.
If we are talking atlus in general I keep coming back for the storytellings thats mixed with philosophical but for strictly persona it’s the characters arcs/growth. Both reasons has changed me helps me be a better version of myself and be a more open person to all things
For me it's similar, though I probably would combine the storytelling and character development together, as they're both a major component of writing, which is my passion. I love writing stories and creating interesting and fun characters. And thanks to Persona and my Psychology classes, I'd like to believe that I am decent at making my characters relatively believable, even ones set in a fantasy world. I mean, there's some anime esk logic here or there but that's more my writing style talking than anything I think. 😆
If you haven’t already, I would greatly recommend listening to the Octopath Traveler OSTs. They mix the classical and modern so cohesively :) Also!!! What you said about gameplay not being a deciding factor for you is something I relate so hard to! Unless it’s noticeably inaccessible or fun, gameplay is almost never something I actively care much about when playing a game. The atmosphere, narrative, and actual artistry is what really hooks me.
The number one reason I keep coming back to Atlus games is probably atmosphere. From the original Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei duology all the way to Persona 5 Royal, each and every installment in this incredibly vast series has its own special atmosphere, and whatever it is Atlus goes for, they absolutely nail it with each game. I love each and every one of these games.
I think what made Altus stand out is the psychological aspect and the idea of testing society norm. They’re good at addressing issues in their unique way.
Speaking of Atlus distinguishing itself, I recently played a fansub of SMT1, the first 90s Atlus game I've dug into. It has its issues, but I was amazed at how ahead-of-its-time it felt. It came out alongside Final Fantasy V, Dragon Quest V, and Lunar Silver Star - all very good but very conventional RPGs - while trying to be a modern-day adventure, with 'dungeons' based in real-world architecture, delving into Miltonian ethical choices, and with a semi-nonlinear format that allows a lot of player control over the story. Just WOW. The only contemporary game even close to it in terms of design ambition was Romancing SaGa 1, and even that didn't have the depth of systems SMT1 had, like demon recruitment. It's definitely rough to play from a modern perspective, especially knowing how polished those systems would be 30 years later, but it truly didn't feel like a 1992 RPG. It was like a video game OOPArt from some other dimension.
The reason why Atlus games are my favorites is... literally everything 😂. Engaging Stories, Addicting Gameplay, Amazing Music, Lovable Characters, Deep Themes, and Captivating Artstyles. Being set in the modern world is definitely a factor, but I'm open to change.
The art style, as someone who grew up Catholic and comes from a religious family. It blew my mind the first time I saw shin megami tensei angels and demons.
I was about to mention Pokemon always having done contemporary settings... but none of those were set in "our world", just a fantasy world with a "slightly-ahead-of-modern-day" tech level. Ah, there's the sponsorship that inspired the video and... while it's not quite what I expected, it's also really cool you got sponsored by them since you play the game and are a huge fan of Genshin! I've been thinking of checking out Star Rail, I just have worries about "committing" to live-service games without a definitive end point, since I have a lot of games to play. Yay FFXII reference! What I like about Persona, and this is probably the English student in my talking, is that the paranormal elements in the world are always metaphors for the real-world issues they're exploring. Persona 4's TV World is a reflection on para-social relationships, sensationalized mass-media obfuscating the truth, and rumour/conspiracy culture. And that's just one example. Excuse me for one second while I go and listen to "Rage Beneath the Mountains". Okay yeah that was amazing. I do agree that I always come out of a Persona game feeling empowered and I guess loving life more. But what keeps bringing me back to the series is the gameplay. Atlus is one of the few big JRPG developers who still does turn-based combat, and it's easily some of the best turn-based combat on the market. Press Turn is maybe one of the most genius inventions for the genre.
I was gonna do this video about Metaphor's developer interview regardless, but HSR just happened to fit narratively into "why do we love Atlus games?" considering how its producer has confirmed he's a huge fan of Persona in particular :P But yeah definitely understandable! These live service games are the definition of "in it for the long haul" lol. Yeah that's a great point about Persona! In general, even the supernatural elements feel grounded in how they're based on "the sea of souls/human unconscious" ala Carl Jung's writings. Glad to share more of Genshin's amazing ost when I can haha Press turn is really fun once you get the hang of it! I'm glad Atlus is still doing turn-based while still experimenting with other gameplay styles in the spinoffs :)
I keep coming back to the persona series in particular because it always feels like catching up with a group of friends you don't see eatch other too often but when you do all the time spent apart just melts away and your just happy to be together again no matter what the futre holds
I generally like the kind of dark urban fantasy backdrop and aesthetic that you see in anime or light novels and i think Atlus is a big reason why. The Persona games directed by Hashino having the social sim aspect enhances that kind of setting for me. What i like about urban fantasy is how the line between whats normal or abnormal gets blurred and with these games you can really feel that because the supernatural just becomes part of the characters daily lives. I also really resonate with the whole motif of connecting with others being the thing that will help you get through a lot of the hard things in life and that they showcase this is in such a literal way because of how its connected to the mechanics of the games and world.
Modern supernatural/fantasy setting is such an interesting contrast but also just the level of character development and interaction in Persona especially 😁
Your taste in games, music, and interest in history and anthropology is too relatable. I never realized what I loved in atlus games was before other than "i like this character". PS. The Genesis and the P3 tactics system are great.
I got into SMT via Nocturne. At the time I was really getting into JRPGs, and I believe I first heard of it either on RPGamer or by browsing through Gamespot reviews. The "darker Pokémon" angle, as well as the inclusion of mythological deities and creatures was what caught my interest. Then when I played the game, I found myself really absorbed by its atmosphere and gameplay. Since then I've been really into Atlus games, and I love the real world settings they usually feature, as well as the occult elements. Plus I'm huge mythology dork.
Missed the boat on this community post, because I've been trying to use the internet less. Persona 3 came out exactly when I needed it. Been with ATLUS ever since.
Atlus seems to have mastered metaphor-as-text rather than subtext (which is more typical), and the fact that they use mythological images and figures so frequently in those metaphors is probably the biggest reason I keep coming back to Atlus games. I love metaphor, and I love mythology, so seeing them used together in clearly thought-out ways that are thematically appropriate to a particular game just hits me in a way few other media does.
3:00 So Steins;Gate actually did this. Answering and declining calls, your text/pic responses or what you ignore can and will effect your endings. Hell one of the bad endings you get is a horrific text.
It stood out a lot at the time though, and also in the following years, not to mention it's even less of a traditional video game than P5. Speaking of series that involve humans interacting with high-tech gadgets, what if the metaverse access point in Persona 6 was VR app?
p5r and smt3 are my favorite games of all time because they just feel so unique and fun. I love basicly everything about megaten, the stories, characters, worldbuilding, gameplay, music, etc
This might be an unpopular take but I think the reason I still stick with Atlus games is the gameplay. I have yet to play any JRPG with a system as indepth or fun to exploit as the Press-Turn system, and the fact that enemies can exploit this system too can make even random encounters feel very intense and force the player to actually adapt to the game and it's mechanics. I think another reason I love the games is because of the worldbuilding and characters, like you pointed out in the beginning of the video, whereas other RPGs prefer to use more high fantasy settings (or dark fantasy if you're a Dark Souls game). SMT and Persona prefer to use more Urban settings that allow for the games to have much more realistic and relatable stories than other games in the genre. There's also the fact that instead of simply creating generic monster designs and enemies from scratch, SMT instead prefers to pull from actual mythologies and cultures for demon designs. Like people like to complain about how Persona and Megaten aren't diverse enough but the fact that Atlus has pulled monsters from almost every culture on Earth is very diverse and inclusive imo. Sorry if that was too much rambling, I've just been wondering lately why no other JRPG has been able to scratch the same itch I have for Megaten and writing this out has been able to help me see why.
I've been thinking about this lately, and while Atlus stories and characters are amazing, it's kinda sad that these days liking a game for its gameplay is a "hot take". That's the one thing games have separating them from other media like books of tv shows. I agree that Atlus' gameplay is incredible, and one thing that keeps you on your toes is the systems work the exact same way for the enemies as they do for you. Nothing is really "cheap" as anything they can do, you can also do.
@@BigKlingy I completely agree, people like to rag on SMT for being "too hard" but that's only because most of these people have only played games with extremely simplistic combat that doesn't require much thought process. I guarantee you, your average Pokemon player probably wouldn't make it past the first or second boss in a game like Strange Journey or SMT 4
@@peronafanman I've always seen SMT as the "next step" for Pokemon players. Similar concepts, but much more involved and difficult gameplay. It's like Pokemon, but if the competitive mechanics actually mattered in single-player. So I disagree that Pokemon fans wouldn't be able to do well. But it did bother me that the Okumura boss fight in P5R got so much hate. To me, it's the only well-designed boss in the game, requiring you to actually engage with the mechanics. But the rest of P5 is so easy, even on Hard, that it never prepares players for it. So people get mad when they hit a wall and didn't learn the tools to get past it.
If you want other fantasy/medieval setting from Atlus try either Etrian Odyssey or Radiant Historia. Plus from the music side Meguro has at least semi background of orchestra style try to listen the SMT Strange Journey musics.
I know it's a cheaty answer, but it really is hard to separate out just one element! Persona 5 was my first Atlus game, and it was the blend of the character dynamics, the Personadex drawing on such a huge range of myth and history and folklore, and the oodles of aesthetic and musical style that pulled me in and got me seeking out other Person and SMT games! And then yes, your content examining the elements of Japanese culture that are so intrinsic to the narratives only made me appreciate the games more!
Yeah I loved atlus especially for SMT and Persona series because they give me lesson about actual society (modern or historical) and mixed it with myth and lores .. it's fascinating and wonderful... And they managed to show me how much a simple feeling could effect lots of things (not just in game story wise, but also just from flavor text about their demons/persona)
My favorite overall has to be P3FES, as it strikes the right balance in all things, but P2 has some of the most beautiful writing in the series. Hey LadyVirgilia, I know you're really busy in general, but I really loved your P3 mythology videos and your P5 cultural analysis videos, and I have an interesting question that I'd like to hear your take on. In Persona 5, Joker's starting Persona is Arsene Lupin, but sometime earlier in development, it was originally intended to be Mephistopheles. In one of the Persona Stalkers Club interviews, they said that the writers were going forward with Mephistopheles in mind, but the devs lobbied to have Arsene instead, because they thought he'd be a better fit. My question is, was Arsene actually a better fit? There's a whole lot of symbolism still in the game that I'd argue fits Mephisto and Faustian mythology better than Arsene. The emphasis on contracts with both your Personas and your Confidants, the line about committing *blasphemous acts* for thine own justice, being chained to hell itself (and the eventual severing of those chains), your Persona being a shapeshifting trickster, the moral dilemma of manipulating the hearts of others, the lyrics of Beneath the Mask, it pairs nicely with the Gnostic mythology, the role of freewill vs fate, and especially the rigged divine game you're forced into, where the only intended outcome can be damnation or submitting to God's will. The bad end in particular connects a lot better to Faustian myth, specifically Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and even the good end of P5 has parallels to Goethe's Part 2 of Faust, where Faust uses his wits to create freedom and world peace in spite of Lucifer's plans, then is saved from having his soul taken by Mephistopheles, despite God never approving of his methods.
I have a lot of thoughts. What draws me into the Persona games are how grounded and real the characters are particularly in Persona 5 Royal and Persona 4 Golden. I really love how the game blends social simulation with JRPG elements cohesively, where what you do in the real world has an effect in the cognitive world. Even reflecting on storytelling what I have come to realize is that the reason I feel engaged in the storytelling of Persona compared to some other JRPGs I have played is in the interactivity and visual novel feel of it. This is especially true with Persona 5 where it feels so polished. Aside from Persona, I love the post apocalyptic atmosphere of Megami Tensei and I love how they have mythological characters. Its so awesome to have a game series with Hindu Gods that you can have as party members. I am also a sucker for atmospheric storytelling which allows players to exercise their imagination with the lore on their own. I am really interested in Atlus's take with High Fantasy since a lot of fantasy RPGs usually have you going from town to town on a quest, but the vibe I am getting from Metaphor ReFantazio is that it is giving a more mundane down-to-earth look at fantasy characters. I can't wait for the game to release! Love your analysis videos btw!
The artstyle and the mysticism in the games keeps me going in for more. Nocturne being my favorite SMT game because it was the first Atlus/SMT rpg i ever played. When i started making my own money i bought a PS2 and bought all the niche RPG's i could get my hands on, but none of them scratched that Nocturne itch. Untill SMT4 came out and brought with it an insane story with weird twists and turns which blew my brain all over the wall. The way the stories tries to push the main character(s) into a certain direction and you, the player, going against that and do it your way is a strong aspect not a lot of other games have. You're never the legendary protagonist, a prince, or a decendant of a god or ancient hero, just Bob from across the street that took a left turn where he should've made a right and now we're fighting Satan to become that one guy. How friggin cool is that!?
I'm looking forward to the game and Atlus taking on a fantasy game because of the one instance I can point to of them doing so in the past which is Radiant Historia. I absolutely loved Radiant Historia and I'm bummed it hasn't gotten as much attention as it deserves, maybe if Metaphor goes well they'll consider bringing it back.
This is really good timing since I have recently convinced my dad to try out P5R, he has NO experience with anime beyond not being a huge fan of the art style and hasn't really played any RPGs, so I want to see if he actually enjoys it at all first and if he does, why he enjoyed it as someone without any experience with two of its biggest aspects. The only problem is that the chunk of the game I'm having him play at a bare minimum (even if he doesn't want to continue), ends after the first trip to Kamoshida's Palace. In other words, it focuses on story, has little free gameplay, and doesn't do anything with Confidants. I'm hopeful the story is interesting enough he continues at least a bit though, because then he'll actually get to see the more free aspects of the game. As for me, I haven't played any SMT games other than P3-5 (and a couple Perosna spinoffs like Arena Ultimax and Strikers), but just from those games, the main thing I adore about each game are the characters. There's a reason P4G is my favorite of the series and my favorite game of all time, and it's in no small part down to the Investigation Team being a group of friends that I adore and at the very least liking every member, even if I don't adore Teddie he's still a high B tier character personally, and if someone disagrees with that it's a bear pun SO I WIN HAHA! P4 is what made me realize that a good plot is always important, but a good plot isn't anywhere near perfect or all that engrossing if it doesn't have good and relatable characters. If you have the greatest narrative known to man, it'll still be pretty good at worst, but if the characters are as basic as white bread it won't be anywhere near as good as it could be nor would it be all that immersive. A story is more often than not a journey for the main cast, and if that cast sucks, the journey itself could fall completely flat. I love pretty much everything about P3-5, don't get me wrong, the gameplay is great, the story (not characters) is always pretty interesting, and the two things that made me interested in Persona to begin with were the art style being so cool and (the main one) the music. The first time I ever HEARD of this series was Joker in Smash and hearing iconic bangers like Last Surprise and Rivers in the Desert does stuff to you. But as good as all that is, it's the characters that drive it from a great series to one of the best series I've ever experienced. Heck, the only game series that tops Persona at this point is probably Splatoon because I genuinely love EVERYTHING about those games bar none while I have a few minor issues with Persona (like how each game has pacing issues at some point), and Splatoon is my perfect comfort game so I'm a bit biased.
The reasons are : 1) ideals that hits directly into my daily life n make me a better person, best example persona 4 about accepting oneself with its good and bad aspects cuz we r not perfect . 2) dark theme , mythology, apocalyptic vibe , thinking abt whats right n whats wrong, best example smt nocturne . 3) style n music ! Basically all atlus games have this type of charm but i'll choose persona 5 as best example here even tho i still think all games have fire sounds n special style
Another possible reason for why people get drawn to Atlus games, in particular Persona, is that their main characters are easier for normal audiences to identify with, making it easier to get drawn into the story and world. I don't know anyone who at any point in their lives was a badass sword-weilding mercenary from a cyberpunk city on an un-named planet with dragons and magic and whatnot. Pretty much everyone I know was once a high school student, or will be at some point. Atlus usually makes games where an ordinary person gets drawn into extraordinary circumstances.
Oooh, that's a tough question, if I had to pick JUST ONE thing?? I really like the world design, I guess? That was a big draw in SMT3, even tho the combat is so tough and the socializing is almost non-existent compared to P4G, which I had just watched a playthru of at that time... And the puzzles are TOUGH, I am NOT a big puzzle-lover XD But that really unique design just pulled me back in! And wandering around Inaba and Yongen-Jaya, it just feels so REAL, and comforting, compared to the average high-fantasy RPG with the wood-houses and taverns and such. There's definitely a place for those, like you said, LOTR is such a huge beloved franchise for so many for a good reason! But the combination of the known and the unknown, I guess, that makes even a small rural Japanese town so INTERESTING to explore! That's the biggest attractor, in my opinion :)
I'm no expert, but my take on ATLUS is that even if they reach a mainstream audience, something about their work feels niche yet accessible? I hope that makes sense.
If I had to pick just one thing, it would be the dungeon crawling. It's what first got me into RPGs, and since the 90s, very few games engage with that style of gameplay. And even though some more companies have made games in that vein recently, no one does it as well as Atlus. I do love the other aspects of Atlus games, but I can get deep Jungian philosophy or good characters from books or movies. I can only get dungeon crawls from games.
I really don't know what to do with that final question, since the biggest reasons P5R successfully drew me into the Megaten franchise in the first place is precisely _because_ it successfully accomplishes so many different things at the same time. Starting with the gameplay mechanics, I have to say I'm usually a proponent of what is often called design by subtraction. Which is to say, of the idea thant if you don't absolutely need a feature in order for the game to make sense, you shouldn't include it in most cases. I love the work of Fumito Ueda (games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus), and I'm one of those freaks who un-ironically believes that Doom II from 1994, *unmodded* , has more compelling gameplay than modern Battlefield and Call of Duty, and that in fact modding its weapons and/or engine with modernized "improvements" tends to make the game worse instead of better. Persona 5 Royal, at first glance, has the completely opposite philosophy. It has an absurd number of different gameplay mechanics for them to be contained within a single game, so much so that some are still getting explained via tutorials three quarters of the way through. Only... what I objected to earlier isn't a given _volume_ of mechanics, but rather an excess of superfluous ones. As it turns out, few to none of the numerous gameplay mechanics in P5R are truly superfluous. The only thing I can think of is having to listen to the Leblanc customers once or more before they leave for no in-game benefit, especially since whenever you have to do it multiple times, it's the exact same conversation each time. I really don't know what they were going for with that one. And mechanics aside, we have: an emotionally gripping and well structured story-line, sincere and mostly successful attempts at social commentary (contrast that with a lot of recent western media), excellent visual and audio presentation that is not just high quality, but also oozes personality of its own, and helps immersion a lot along with the location's almost amusing fidelity to the look and structure of real life Tokyo. Also the game is legitimately educational, whether it's all those class questions which are some serious general knowledge stuff, or the information contained therein about myths and legends, or the implied symbolism behind the mythological content and the Jungian Arcanas, or, as you've touched on in other videos, how faithfully it portrays the society and culture of real life Japan. Also discusses abstract philosophy... A single piece media shouldn't be able to attempt so many things at once without collapsing in on itself, and often that does happen. But somehow, here, it all works. P4G turned out to be more of the same regarding all these aspects in its own different way. Its moments of narrative levity are infamously hurt by their over-reliance on some of the more vapid clichés in Japanese pop culture, but those moments account for a much smaller portion of the overall game than detractors would sometimes have us believe. Also, the combat is less forgiving than P5's, which I personally appreciate. P3... well I don't have proper access to FES, and the P3P re-release comes with its fair share of issues, but what I've experienced of it so far feels the same, if noticeably clumsier. I don't know, overall I think of all those elements more so as an intricate, self-contained alchemy rather than as separate pieces that just happen to co-exist in one product.
Looking at the Final Fantasy series can say a lot. They clearly have no passion for the genre that made their games big. Meanwhile Atlus is continously innovating what an RPG is.
I always come back to Megaten because scratches the itches of mine to play a really good turn-based JRPG. I originally got into the series in 2020 after falling out with Pokémon. I have not been liking the direction GameFreak had been going since Gen 6 and it’s especially clear now that they do not care about putting in effort with their games because they’ll know the games will sell well. There’s no incentive to be innovative and provide unique experience anymore. This where Atlus is different. They innovate and provide unique experience with each of their new releases. They have been doing ever since SMT 1. Now they have been indulging in some money hungry behaviors such as overpriced DLC and no PS5 free upgrade for P5R or an ability to transfer PS4 saves to the PS5 version. Which is concerning but they are are no GameFreak. Megaten also scratches my itch for a Pokémon experience that other turn-based JRPGs just don’t. This because 9 times out of 10 I do like the monster designs in these games. Pokémon for a long time where kings of monster designs but Atlus stepped up their monsters tend to be on par if not better.
I think I keep coming back to Atlus games because I always have a good time with them. Even Persona Q2 and Soul Hackers. Their DLC and rerelease practices can be exhausting, but whenever I pick up one of their games, I'm never disappointed. Granted, I haven't played much of pre-2000 Atlus, I'm sure there were some growing pains when they were putting out stuff like Last Bible II.
Reason why i keep returning to Atlus games? 1. Psychology and Mythology - MegaTen has it. It's not just Persona this includes SMT main line, Digital Devil Saga, Devil Survivor (which i really really love the most), Devil Summoner, Soul Hackers. 2. Music - i've been listening to their tracks from SMT to Persona, even Radiant Historia's OST 3. They have a Live Action TV series adaptation of Devil Summoner, and also Anime adaptation of Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei.
What makes Atlus Special in my opinion is that their games have a diferent aura and make me think about topics like religion, society, politics (I have a lot of pasion for this) and psicology.
Atlus titles are a perfect balance between difficulty, maturity, and quality. The games don't baby you or hold your hand throughout. Most titles have a good challenge to them compared to how most rpgs, especially these days, you just kinda afk till the end.
I... there are a lot of reasons why I return to Atlus games but if I'm being absolutely honest with myself? I love the games that are dungeon crawlers. Atlus is a long time champion of that style of game and mode of play so I personally can't help but come back to their games for that atmospheric dungeon crawling experience. The monster and character designs, music and and overall presentation are just the cherry on top for me. If metaphor takes the best things from SMT and Persona and gives me that dungeon crawling vibe I won't have many if any complaints.
I used to be big on 90's/early 2000's anime back in the day and more or less stopped keeping up with modern productions. Somehow I found that ATLUS's RPGs scratch this very specific itch. There is something in the art direction of SMT, Etrian Odyssey and Persona (to a lesser extent) games that oozes early Oshii's anime's style, be it the music, the graphics, the atmosphere. There is something so very japanese about them that I can't really describe, but I absolutely love it.
Atlus games are I feel is trying to really highlight reality just if all the world's inner truth was on display and people were willing to open themselves up to more genuine experiences of the magic life is about, and how vast and yet impossible some deem it to be. Basically, I think they take the term fantasy and say "That's just reality but not often explored from the inside" They also don't fully disregard all types of people's emotions, like you said "Atlus doesn't always get it right" but someone out there may feel they did to your don't, and they expect that, but they still want you to spend time exploring those emotions because everyone is complex. They also showcase how you always grow, change, and find yourself in different ways. It's blending the truth of all the art, magic, science, and faiths of the world together to highlight reality and its spiritual power, and yet it still wants you to take your time and enjoy the small things in life, because that's what life is all about. Small and special things in the outstanding reality of right now.
I like atlus games for the stylish art, crazy ass plots, nostalgia, music, and the messages games try to give. Like persona 3 is a game that I can't get out of my head and it inspired the game I'm working on myself.
Definitely my biggest reason for returning to ATLUS games is the characters. Within their own source material (i.e. not the spinoff games), they are treated with a lot of depth and nuance. Given the modern contemporary setting, it is VERY fascinating to get such a deep perspective into how each character thinks and operates in different situations. I clarify that I don't include the spinoff games here though because they tend to have writing issues that devolve characters into stereotypical one-note characters. (Seriously, I will forever be pissed off that Akihiko turned into a meathead protein junkie when his desire for power stems from a place of loss, which is such a powerful and compelling trait that goes unmentioned and disrespected constantly.)
Persona games always encapsulate a time period in my life that’s memorable and I save my first experience with beating them when I’m in a point of happiness and content, persona 3 I haven’t played yet but I plan on after finishing my watch of one piece (I wanna 100 percent it and beat both campaigns)
For me, the main thing that drew me to play my first Atlus Game (that being persona 5 royal) was that at the time, i struggled finding a really good story in the media i enjoyed at the time. And having played persona thrusted all my interests into more story-focused games. Another thing i really enjoy is Atlus's character design, it's the main reason I'm trying out the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and its various spinoffs
Honestly, while I love many of the things you have mentioned about Atlus games and appreciate the unique style their art and sound create, I personally keep coming back for Atlus games' unique mechanical design. These are by far my favorite turn-based RPGs and the sheer amount of customization available to the player keeps me hooked for long after I beat the games for the first time. The simple joy of knowing even the standard (often useless) RPG status effects tend to be incredibly powerful in these games gives me life.
I'd probably say one of the key aspects that makes Atlus special, at least in Persona, is the characters. Based on my P5R and P3R experiences, there are characters with plenty of depth, and even those who may seem like tropes ultimately feel like real people. And the only video game I played that has a similar type of cast for me is Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions did the cell phone thing first. As for what I like most about Megaten, it is definitely the atmosphere and the mythology. My biggest fear as a kid was that I would grow out of RPGs(especially when I was playing Pokémon and didn’t know much about the genre)but Atlus RPGs are so dark and mature that I can play them until I am on my death bed and never feel like I am phoning in my interest and enjoyment for nostalgia’s sake. Some of the elements of Persona are too cheesy and childish for me as a man in my 30s but the rest of Megaten was created to appeal to people my age over 30 years ago.
Well, not that being dark and being mature are one and the same,see for example Elfen Lied. The heavier subjects present in the Persona games are generally handled pretty tastefully however.
Do you know what I just realised I can’t trust reviews of persona free even after one or two weeks because of how at least covered up how about so hackers two wars by buying out creators and reviewers only after a few months, did the floodgates to opening
#1 reason I play Atlus games is for the characters, just a big vibrant cast of folks that are a delight to spend time with (which means the SMT series is not my favorite, heh). Of course, that means the #1 reason I am leery of them these days, is the characters as well. They just make a number of writing choices that are very uncomfortable for me. I hope ReFantazio and Persona 6 can get to a point where they can at least be neutral, cuz I really miss how excited I used to get for these games. Currently, my favorite game of theirs is Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, which, outside of Barry (who is easy enough to ignore most the time) it's such a delightful game.
Yeah, no. You could also say FF10 is that... until the point where it's not. Anywyay, Got defeat Shadow Okumura, Shido or Lavenza on hard mode while only understanding elemental rock-paper-scissors lol.
why i like atlus becouse atlus makes jrpg games with nice art and design i love persona and smt with ages i stared hate Catholic so if play smt game i always play with chaos algiment
Try out Honkai Star Rail here: hoyo.link/adhTDDAd & redeem 50 extra stellar jades with code BTN5EL69P6K3
What's your favorite Atlus game guys?
p.s. I focused only on Muse's symphonic rock tracks, but my actual favorite of theirs is New Born :P yes to ALL the neoclassical!
(also apologies for the wonky sound effects not matching up with the animations in the final minute 😅)
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Well the only mainline SMT game I have played is SMT Nocturne so I can't say wich of those I like best, I have played all the mainline Persona games except P2IS, but I really love the two Digital Devil Saga games.
I've been planning to get into DDS soon! (tho probably not until next year 🥲)
I love Catherine. The bar, the story, the choices and the puzzle game.
spiritually, Persona 1, something about the Lovecraft imagery, the characters, the music and vibe really caught the attention of my 7 year old self, stealing my older brother's psp while he wasn't looking. I hope it does get a proper definitive edition/remake like P3R but that's probably wishful thinking.
but my actual answer has to be P5R, i remember visiting my uncle's and my cousins let me use their PS4 so i grabbed whichever game interested me most and saw Persona 5, i was like "this sounds familiar" put the game in and the rest is history.
Well, if I didn’t keep playing Atlus games, I’d miss out on a bunch of LadyVirgilia’s content, and that’s simply unacceptable.
awww ty I really appreciate it! 🥲 🙏
Character stories. I love being there alongside these characters and being the catalyst that pushes them to grow into fully realized, powerful agents of their own fates.
If I had to pick just one thing to love about Atlus's MegaTen games, it would be the integration of mythological figures. I'm pretty sure I still have a massive printout from when I first played P1 that just dives into the mythological roots of all the Persona. Although the games can vary widely in style, that is a solid through-line.
I feel sad how little was shown of SMT If (the foundation of the Persona Series) and a lot of SMT entries aside from Nocturne and V. Atlus game philosophy goes beyond the Persona franchise. The two pillars of Atlus are Philosophy and psychology which are tackled in a gorgeous manner.
If we are talking atlus in general I keep coming back for the storytellings thats mixed with philosophical but for strictly persona it’s the characters arcs/growth. Both reasons has changed me helps me be a better version of myself and be a more open person to all things
For me it's similar, though I probably would combine the storytelling and character development together, as they're both a major component of writing, which is my passion. I love writing stories and creating interesting and fun characters. And thanks to Persona and my Psychology classes, I'd like to believe that I am decent at making my characters relatively believable, even ones set in a fantasy world. I mean, there's some anime esk logic here or there but that's more my writing style talking than anything I think. 😆
Nothing can ever surpass Square Enix on their JRPG titles with the consumers coming back for more than Final Fantasy
If you haven’t already, I would greatly recommend listening to the Octopath Traveler OSTs. They mix the classical and modern so cohesively :)
Also!!! What you said about gameplay not being a deciding factor for you is something I relate so hard to! Unless it’s noticeably inaccessible or fun, gameplay is almost never something I actively care much about when playing a game. The atmosphere, narrative, and actual artistry is what really hooks me.
The number one reason I keep coming back to Atlus games is probably atmosphere. From the original Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei duology all the way to Persona 5 Royal, each and every installment in this incredibly vast series has its own special atmosphere, and whatever it is Atlus goes for, they absolutely nail it with each game. I love each and every one of these games.
I think what made Altus stand out is the psychological aspect and the idea of testing society norm. They’re good at addressing issues in their unique way.
Speaking of Atlus distinguishing itself, I recently played a fansub of SMT1, the first 90s Atlus game I've dug into. It has its issues, but I was amazed at how ahead-of-its-time it felt. It came out alongside Final Fantasy V, Dragon Quest V, and Lunar Silver Star - all very good but very conventional RPGs - while trying to be a modern-day adventure, with 'dungeons' based in real-world architecture, delving into Miltonian ethical choices, and with a semi-nonlinear format that allows a lot of player control over the story. Just WOW.
The only contemporary game even close to it in terms of design ambition was Romancing SaGa 1, and even that didn't have the depth of systems SMT1 had, like demon recruitment. It's definitely rough to play from a modern perspective, especially knowing how polished those systems would be 30 years later, but it truly didn't feel like a 1992 RPG. It was like a video game OOPArt from some other dimension.
Wow, can't wait for the SMT 30th anniversary to get started....maybe next year.
The reason why Atlus games are my favorites is... literally everything 😂. Engaging Stories, Addicting Gameplay, Amazing Music, Lovable Characters, Deep Themes, and Captivating Artstyles. Being set in the modern world is definitely a factor, but I'm open to change.
The art style, as someone who grew up Catholic and comes from a religious family. It blew my mind the first time I saw shin megami tensei angels and demons.
I was about to mention Pokemon always having done contemporary settings... but none of those were set in "our world", just a fantasy world with a "slightly-ahead-of-modern-day" tech level.
Ah, there's the sponsorship that inspired the video and... while it's not quite what I expected, it's also really cool you got sponsored by them since you play the game and are a huge fan of Genshin! I've been thinking of checking out Star Rail, I just have worries about "committing" to live-service games without a definitive end point, since I have a lot of games to play.
Yay FFXII reference!
What I like about Persona, and this is probably the English student in my talking, is that the paranormal elements in the world are always metaphors for the real-world issues they're exploring. Persona 4's TV World is a reflection on para-social relationships, sensationalized mass-media obfuscating the truth, and rumour/conspiracy culture. And that's just one example.
Excuse me for one second while I go and listen to "Rage Beneath the Mountains". Okay yeah that was amazing.
I do agree that I always come out of a Persona game feeling empowered and I guess loving life more. But what keeps bringing me back to the series is the gameplay. Atlus is one of the few big JRPG developers who still does turn-based combat, and it's easily some of the best turn-based combat on the market. Press Turn is maybe one of the most genius inventions for the genre.
I was gonna do this video about Metaphor's developer interview regardless, but HSR just happened to fit narratively into "why do we love Atlus games?" considering how its producer has confirmed he's a huge fan of Persona in particular :P
But yeah definitely understandable! These live service games are the definition of "in it for the long haul" lol.
Yeah that's a great point about Persona! In general, even the supernatural elements feel grounded in how they're based on "the sea of souls/human unconscious" ala Carl Jung's writings.
Glad to share more of Genshin's amazing ost when I can haha
Press turn is really fun once you get the hang of it! I'm glad Atlus is still doing turn-based while still experimenting with other gameplay styles in the spinoffs :)
I love Atlus for the histories and characters that they make. As well as their philosophical themes in the games
I keep coming back to the persona series in particular because it always feels like catching up with a group of friends you don't see eatch other too often but when you do all the time spent apart just melts away and your just happy to be together again no matter what the futre holds
Will see the video later, but here is a little donation for your efforts.
thanks for the support! 🙏
I generally like the kind of dark urban fantasy backdrop and aesthetic that you see in anime or light novels and i think Atlus is a big reason why. The Persona games directed by Hashino having the social sim aspect enhances that kind of setting for me. What i like about urban fantasy is how the line between whats normal or abnormal gets blurred and with these games you can really feel that because the supernatural just becomes part of the characters daily lives.
I also really resonate with the whole motif of connecting with others being the thing that will help you get through a lot of the hard things in life and that they showcase this is in such a literal way because of how its connected to the mechanics of the games and world.
Modern supernatural/fantasy setting is such an interesting contrast but also just the level of character development and interaction in Persona especially 😁
Your taste in games, music, and interest in history and anthropology is too relatable. I never realized what I loved in atlus games was before other than "i like this character". PS. The Genesis and the P3 tactics system are great.
Characters, Story, Music, Voice Acting, Sound Effects, Art Design. My Favorite JRPG Series of All Time with Persona
I got into SMT via Nocturne. At the time I was really getting into JRPGs, and I believe I first heard of it either on RPGamer or by browsing through Gamespot reviews. The "darker Pokémon" angle, as well as the inclusion of mythological deities and creatures was what caught my interest. Then when I played the game, I found myself really absorbed by its atmosphere and gameplay. Since then I've been really into Atlus games, and I love the real world settings they usually feature, as well as the occult elements. Plus I'm huge mythology dork.
Missed the boat on this community post, because I've been trying to use the internet less. Persona 3 came out exactly when I needed it. Been with ATLUS ever since.
Atlus seems to have mastered metaphor-as-text rather than subtext (which is more typical), and the fact that they use mythological images and figures so frequently in those metaphors is probably the biggest reason I keep coming back to Atlus games. I love metaphor, and I love mythology, so seeing them used together in clearly thought-out ways that are thematically appropriate to a particular game just hits me in a way few other media does.
3:00 So Steins;Gate actually did this. Answering and declining calls, your text/pic responses or what you ignore can and will effect your endings.
Hell one of the bad endings you get is a horrific text.
It stood out a lot at the time though, and also in the following years, not to mention it's even less of a traditional video game than P5. Speaking of series that involve humans interacting with high-tech gadgets, what if the metaverse access point in Persona 6 was VR app?
p5r and smt3 are my favorite games of all time because they just feel so unique and fun.
I love basicly everything about megaten, the stories, characters, worldbuilding, gameplay, music, etc
This might be an unpopular take but I think the reason I still stick with Atlus games is the gameplay.
I have yet to play any JRPG with a system as indepth or fun to exploit as the Press-Turn system, and the fact that enemies can exploit this system too can make even random encounters feel very intense and force the player to actually adapt to the game and it's mechanics.
I think another reason I love the games is because of the worldbuilding and characters, like you pointed out in the beginning of the video, whereas other RPGs prefer to use more high fantasy settings (or dark fantasy if you're a Dark Souls game). SMT and Persona prefer to use more Urban settings that allow for the games to have much more realistic and relatable stories than other games in the genre.
There's also the fact that instead of simply creating generic monster designs and enemies from scratch, SMT instead prefers to pull from actual mythologies and cultures for demon designs.
Like people like to complain about how Persona and Megaten aren't diverse enough but the fact that Atlus has pulled monsters from almost every culture on Earth is very diverse and inclusive imo.
Sorry if that was too much rambling, I've just been wondering lately why no other JRPG has been able to scratch the same itch I have for Megaten and writing this out has been able to help me see why.
I've been thinking about this lately, and while Atlus stories and characters are amazing, it's kinda sad that these days liking a game for its gameplay is a "hot take". That's the one thing games have separating them from other media like books of tv shows.
I agree that Atlus' gameplay is incredible, and one thing that keeps you on your toes is the systems work the exact same way for the enemies as they do for you. Nothing is really "cheap" as anything they can do, you can also do.
@@BigKlingy I completely agree, people like to rag on SMT for being "too hard" but that's only because most of these people have only played games with extremely simplistic combat that doesn't require much thought process.
I guarantee you, your average Pokemon player probably wouldn't make it past the first or second boss in a game like Strange Journey or SMT 4
@@peronafanman I've always seen SMT as the "next step" for Pokemon players. Similar concepts, but much more involved and difficult gameplay. It's like Pokemon, but if the competitive mechanics actually mattered in single-player. So I disagree that Pokemon fans wouldn't be able to do well.
But it did bother me that the Okumura boss fight in P5R got so much hate. To me, it's the only well-designed boss in the game, requiring you to actually engage with the mechanics. But the rest of P5 is so easy, even on Hard, that it never prepares players for it. So people get mad when they hit a wall and didn't learn the tools to get past it.
If you want other fantasy/medieval setting from Atlus try either Etrian Odyssey or Radiant Historia. Plus from the music side Meguro has at least semi background of orchestra style try to listen the SMT Strange Journey musics.
I know it's a cheaty answer, but it really is hard to separate out just one element! Persona 5 was my first Atlus game, and it was the blend of the character dynamics, the Personadex drawing on such a huge range of myth and history and folklore, and the oodles of aesthetic and musical style that pulled me in and got me seeking out other Person and SMT games! And then yes, your content examining the elements of Japanese culture that are so intrinsic to the narratives only made me appreciate the games more!
Yeah I loved atlus especially for SMT and Persona series because they give me lesson about actual society (modern or historical) and mixed it with myth and lores .. it's fascinating and wonderful...
And they managed to show me how much a simple feeling could effect lots of things (not just in game story wise, but also just from flavor text about their demons/persona)
I really miss trauma center... I loved trauma team (specially the forensics). This is how I got into atlus, Catherine and persona..
The first thing i noticed when i first saw Atlus games was how much I liked the art and designs. So that has and always will be the main draw.
My favorite overall has to be P3FES, as it strikes the right balance in all things, but P2 has some of the most beautiful writing in the series.
Hey LadyVirgilia, I know you're really busy in general, but I really loved your P3 mythology videos and your P5 cultural analysis videos, and I have an interesting question that I'd like to hear your take on.
In Persona 5, Joker's starting Persona is Arsene Lupin, but sometime earlier in development, it was originally intended to be Mephistopheles. In one of the Persona Stalkers Club interviews, they said that the writers were going forward with Mephistopheles in mind, but the devs lobbied to have Arsene instead, because they thought he'd be a better fit. My question is, was Arsene actually a better fit?
There's a whole lot of symbolism still in the game that I'd argue fits Mephisto and Faustian mythology better than Arsene. The emphasis on contracts with both your Personas and your Confidants, the line about committing *blasphemous acts* for thine own justice, being chained to hell itself (and the eventual severing of those chains), your Persona being a shapeshifting trickster, the moral dilemma of manipulating the hearts of others, the lyrics of Beneath the Mask, it pairs nicely with the Gnostic mythology, the role of freewill vs fate, and especially the rigged divine game you're forced into, where the only intended outcome can be damnation or submitting to God's will. The bad end in particular connects a lot better to Faustian myth, specifically Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and even the good end of P5 has parallels to Goethe's Part 2 of Faust, where Faust uses his wits to create freedom and world peace in spite of Lucifer's plans, then is saved from having his soul taken by Mephistopheles, despite God never approving of his methods.
I am so excited for Metaphor!
That sponsorship spot was so smooth, I’m over here taking notes 💀
I have a lot of thoughts. What draws me into the Persona games are how grounded and real the characters are particularly in Persona 5 Royal and Persona 4 Golden. I really love how the game blends social simulation with JRPG elements cohesively, where what you do in the real world has an effect in the cognitive world. Even reflecting on storytelling what I have come to realize is that the reason I feel engaged in the storytelling of Persona compared to some other JRPGs I have played is in the interactivity and visual novel feel of it. This is especially true with Persona 5 where it feels so polished.
Aside from Persona, I love the post apocalyptic atmosphere of Megami Tensei and I love how they have mythological characters. Its so awesome to have a game series with Hindu Gods that you can have as party members. I am also a sucker for atmospheric storytelling which allows players to exercise their imagination with the lore on their own.
I am really interested in Atlus's take with High Fantasy since a lot of fantasy RPGs usually have you going from town to town on a quest, but the vibe I am getting from Metaphor ReFantazio is that it is giving a more mundane down-to-earth look at fantasy characters. I can't wait for the game to release!
Love your analysis videos btw!
The artstyle and the mysticism in the games keeps me going in for more. Nocturne being my favorite SMT game because it was the first Atlus/SMT rpg i ever played. When i started making my own money i bought a PS2 and bought all the niche RPG's i could get my hands on, but none of them scratched that Nocturne itch.
Untill SMT4 came out and brought with it an insane story with weird twists and turns which blew my brain all over the wall.
The way the stories tries to push the main character(s) into a certain direction and you, the player, going against that and do it your way is a strong aspect not a lot of other games have.
You're never the legendary protagonist, a prince, or a decendant of a god or ancient hero, just Bob from across the street that took a left turn where he should've made a right and now we're fighting Satan to become that one guy.
How friggin cool is that!?
I'm looking forward to the game and Atlus taking on a fantasy game because of the one instance I can point to of them doing so in the past which is Radiant Historia. I absolutely loved Radiant Historia and I'm bummed it hasn't gotten as much attention as it deserves, maybe if Metaphor goes well they'll consider bringing it back.
This is really good timing since I have recently convinced my dad to try out P5R, he has NO experience with anime beyond not being a huge fan of the art style and hasn't really played any RPGs, so I want to see if he actually enjoys it at all first and if he does, why he enjoyed it as someone without any experience with two of its biggest aspects. The only problem is that the chunk of the game I'm having him play at a bare minimum (even if he doesn't want to continue), ends after the first trip to Kamoshida's Palace. In other words, it focuses on story, has little free gameplay, and doesn't do anything with Confidants. I'm hopeful the story is interesting enough he continues at least a bit though, because then he'll actually get to see the more free aspects of the game.
As for me, I haven't played any SMT games other than P3-5 (and a couple Perosna spinoffs like Arena Ultimax and Strikers), but just from those games, the main thing I adore about each game are the characters. There's a reason P4G is my favorite of the series and my favorite game of all time, and it's in no small part down to the Investigation Team being a group of friends that I adore and at the very least liking every member, even if I don't adore Teddie he's still a high B tier character personally, and if someone disagrees with that it's a bear pun SO I WIN HAHA! P4 is what made me realize that a good plot is always important, but a good plot isn't anywhere near perfect or all that engrossing if it doesn't have good and relatable characters. If you have the greatest narrative known to man, it'll still be pretty good at worst, but if the characters are as basic as white bread it won't be anywhere near as good as it could be nor would it be all that immersive. A story is more often than not a journey for the main cast, and if that cast sucks, the journey itself could fall completely flat.
I love pretty much everything about P3-5, don't get me wrong, the gameplay is great, the story (not characters) is always pretty interesting, and the two things that made me interested in Persona to begin with were the art style being so cool and (the main one) the music. The first time I ever HEARD of this series was Joker in Smash and hearing iconic bangers like Last Surprise and Rivers in the Desert does stuff to you. But as good as all that is, it's the characters that drive it from a great series to one of the best series I've ever experienced. Heck, the only game series that tops Persona at this point is probably Splatoon because I genuinely love EVERYTHING about those games bar none while I have a few minor issues with Persona (like how each game has pacing issues at some point), and Splatoon is my perfect comfort game so I'm a bit biased.
My reason for coming back to Atlus games ? Well put simply, the vibes. The aesthetics, atmosphere, aura... the vibe.
The reasons are : 1) ideals that hits directly into my daily life n make me a better person, best example persona 4 about accepting oneself with its good and bad aspects cuz we r not perfect .
2) dark theme , mythology, apocalyptic vibe , thinking abt whats right n whats wrong, best example smt nocturne .
3) style n music ! Basically all atlus games have this type of charm but i'll choose persona 5 as best example here even tho i still think all games have fire sounds n special style
I mean , 4) the gameplay lol thats too obvious that i even forgot to mention, best gameplay of all jrpgs series
Another possible reason for why people get drawn to Atlus games, in particular Persona, is that their main characters are easier for normal audiences to identify with, making it easier to get drawn into the story and world. I don't know anyone who at any point in their lives was a badass sword-weilding mercenary from a cyberpunk city on an un-named planet with dragons and magic and whatnot. Pretty much everyone I know was once a high school student, or will be at some point. Atlus usually makes games where an ordinary person gets drawn into extraordinary circumstances.
Oooh, that's a tough question, if I had to pick JUST ONE thing?? I really like the world design, I guess? That was a big draw in SMT3, even tho the combat is so tough and the socializing is almost non-existent compared to P4G, which I had just watched a playthru of at that time... And the puzzles are TOUGH, I am NOT a big puzzle-lover XD But that really unique design just pulled me back in! And wandering around Inaba and Yongen-Jaya, it just feels so REAL, and comforting, compared to the average high-fantasy RPG with the wood-houses and taverns and such. There's definitely a place for those, like you said, LOTR is such a huge beloved franchise for so many for a good reason! But the combination of the known and the unknown, I guess, that makes even a small rural Japanese town so INTERESTING to explore! That's the biggest attractor, in my opinion :)
I'm no expert, but my take on ATLUS is that even if they reach a mainstream audience, something about their work feels niche yet accessible?
I hope that makes sense.
Atlus has the most refined & fun turn based combat in gaming.
If I had to pick just one thing, it would be the dungeon crawling. It's what first got me into RPGs, and since the 90s, very few games engage with that style of gameplay. And even though some more companies have made games in that vein recently, no one does it as well as Atlus.
I do love the other aspects of Atlus games, but I can get deep Jungian philosophy or good characters from books or movies. I can only get dungeon crawls from games.
For Persona 3, it would be the character design
second would be OST
third would be story
I really don't know what to do with that final question, since the biggest reasons P5R successfully drew me into the Megaten franchise in the first place is precisely _because_ it successfully accomplishes so many different things at the same time.
Starting with the gameplay mechanics, I have to say I'm usually a proponent of what is often called design by subtraction. Which is to say, of the idea thant if you don't absolutely need a feature in order for the game to make sense, you shouldn't include it in most cases. I love the work of Fumito Ueda (games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus), and I'm one of those freaks who un-ironically believes that Doom II from 1994, *unmodded* , has more compelling gameplay than modern Battlefield and Call of Duty, and that in fact modding its weapons and/or engine with modernized "improvements" tends to make the game worse instead of better.
Persona 5 Royal, at first glance, has the completely opposite philosophy. It has an absurd number of different gameplay mechanics for them to be contained within a single game, so much so that some are still getting explained via tutorials three quarters of the way through. Only... what I objected to earlier isn't a given _volume_ of mechanics, but rather an excess of superfluous ones. As it turns out, few to none of the numerous gameplay mechanics in P5R are truly superfluous. The only thing I can think of is having to listen to the Leblanc customers once or more before they leave for no in-game benefit, especially since whenever you have to do it multiple times, it's the exact same conversation each time. I really don't know what they were going for with that one.
And mechanics aside, we have: an emotionally gripping and well structured story-line, sincere and mostly successful attempts at social commentary (contrast that with a lot of recent western media), excellent visual and audio presentation that is not just high quality, but also oozes personality of its own, and helps immersion a lot along with the location's almost amusing fidelity to the look and structure of real life Tokyo.
Also the game is legitimately educational, whether it's all those class questions which are some serious general knowledge stuff, or the information contained therein about myths and legends, or the implied symbolism behind the mythological content and the Jungian Arcanas, or, as you've touched on in other videos, how faithfully it portrays the society and culture of real life Japan. Also discusses abstract philosophy... A single piece media shouldn't be able to attempt so many things at once without collapsing in on itself, and often that does happen. But somehow, here, it all works.
P4G turned out to be more of the same regarding all these aspects in its own different way. Its moments of narrative levity are infamously hurt by their over-reliance on some of the more vapid clichés in Japanese pop culture, but those moments account for a much smaller portion of the overall game than detractors would sometimes have us believe. Also, the combat is less forgiving than P5's, which I personally appreciate.
P3... well I don't have proper access to FES, and the P3P re-release comes with its fair share of issues, but what I've experienced of it so far feels the same, if noticeably clumsier. I don't know, overall I think of all those elements more so as an intricate, self-contained alchemy rather than as separate pieces that just happen to co-exist in one product.
Another awesome vid! 👍
Looking at the Final Fantasy series can say a lot. They clearly have no passion for the genre that made their games big.
Meanwhile Atlus is continously innovating what an RPG is.
Looking forward to this!
Lady, I'm happy to announce that I just played my first Atlus game: Jack Bros. on Virtual Boy. I hope that game gets ported to modern consoles.
I always come back to Megaten because scratches the itches of mine to play a really good turn-based JRPG.
I originally got into the series in 2020 after falling out with Pokémon. I have not been liking the direction GameFreak had been going since Gen 6 and it’s especially clear now that they do not care about putting in effort with their games because they’ll know the games will sell well. There’s no incentive to be innovative and provide unique experience anymore.
This where Atlus is different. They innovate and provide unique experience with each of their new releases. They have been doing ever since SMT 1.
Now they have been indulging in some money hungry behaviors such as overpriced DLC and no PS5 free upgrade for P5R or an ability to transfer PS4 saves to the PS5 version. Which is concerning but they are are no GameFreak.
Megaten also scratches my itch for a Pokémon experience that other turn-based JRPGs just don’t. This because 9 times out of 10 I do like the monster designs in these games. Pokémon for a long time where kings of monster designs but Atlus stepped up their monsters tend to be on par if not better.
I think I keep coming back to Atlus games because I always have a good time with them. Even Persona Q2 and Soul Hackers. Their DLC and rerelease practices can be exhausting, but whenever I pick up one of their games, I'm never disappointed. Granted, I haven't played much of pre-2000 Atlus, I'm sure there were some growing pains when they were putting out stuff like Last Bible II.
Reason why i keep returning to Atlus games?
1. Psychology and Mythology - MegaTen has it. It's not just Persona this includes SMT main line, Digital Devil Saga, Devil Survivor (which i really really love the most), Devil Summoner, Soul Hackers.
2. Music - i've been listening to their tracks from SMT to Persona, even Radiant Historia's OST
3. They have a Live Action TV series adaptation of Devil Summoner, and also Anime adaptation of Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei.
Megaten includes Persona. Anything involving the demons and the spells is a Megaten game(even TMS).
What makes Atlus Special in my opinion is that their games have a diferent aura and make me think about topics like religion, society, politics (I have a lot of pasion for this) and psicology.
Atlus titles are a perfect balance between difficulty, maturity, and quality. The games don't baby you or hold your hand throughout. Most titles have a good challenge to them compared to how most rpgs, especially these days, you just kinda afk till the end.
Honestly they are one of the few companies that use anime art style that don’t look super generic and boring
I... there are a lot of reasons why I return to Atlus games but if I'm being absolutely honest with myself? I love the games that are dungeon crawlers. Atlus is a long time champion of that style of game and mode of play so I personally can't help but come back to their games for that atmospheric dungeon crawling experience.
The monster and character designs, music and and overall presentation are just the cherry on top for me. If metaphor takes the best things from SMT and Persona and gives me that dungeon crawling vibe I won't have many if any complaints.
My #1 reason is because of the relationships. When I finish my favorite Atlus games, I feel like my best friends just moved away.
I used to be big on 90's/early 2000's anime back in the day and more or less stopped keeping up with modern productions. Somehow I found that ATLUS's RPGs scratch this very specific itch. There is something in the art direction of SMT, Etrian Odyssey and Persona (to a lesser extent) games that oozes early Oshii's anime's style, be it the music, the graphics, the atmosphere. There is something so very japanese about them that I can't really describe, but I absolutely love it.
Atlus games are I feel is trying to really highlight reality just if all the world's inner truth was on display and people were willing to open themselves up to more genuine experiences of the magic life is about, and how vast and yet impossible some deem it to be.
Basically, I think they take the term fantasy and say "That's just reality but not often explored from the inside"
They also don't fully disregard all types of people's emotions, like you said "Atlus doesn't always get it right" but someone out there may feel they did to your don't, and they expect that, but they still want you to spend time exploring those emotions because everyone is complex.
They also showcase how you always grow, change, and find yourself in different ways. It's blending the truth of all the art, magic, science, and faiths of the world together to highlight reality and its spiritual power, and yet it still wants you to take your time and enjoy the small things in life, because that's what life is all about. Small and special things in the outstanding reality of right now.
I like atlus games for the stylish art, crazy ass plots, nostalgia, music, and the messages games try to give. Like persona 3 is a game that I can't get out of my head and it inspired the game I'm working on myself.
Definitely my biggest reason for returning to ATLUS games is the characters. Within their own source material (i.e. not the spinoff games), they are treated with a lot of depth and nuance. Given the modern contemporary setting, it is VERY fascinating to get such a deep perspective into how each character thinks and operates in different situations.
I clarify that I don't include the spinoff games here though because they tend to have writing issues that devolve characters into stereotypical one-note characters. (Seriously, I will forever be pissed off that Akihiko turned into a meathead protein junkie when his desire for power stems from a place of loss, which is such a powerful and compelling trait that goes unmentioned and disrespected constantly.)
Persona games always encapsulate a time period in my life that’s memorable and I save my first experience with beating them when I’m in a point of happiness and content, persona 3 I haven’t played yet but I plan on after finishing my watch of one piece (I wanna 100 percent it and beat both campaigns)
Atlus did one of my favorite fantasy games of all time Radiant Historia
For me, the main thing that drew me to play my first Atlus Game (that being persona 5 royal) was that at the time, i struggled finding a really good story in the media i enjoyed at the time. And having played persona thrusted all my interests into more story-focused games. Another thing i really enjoy is Atlus's character design, it's the main reason I'm trying out the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and its various spinoffs
Honestly, while I love many of the things you have mentioned about Atlus games and appreciate the unique style their art and sound create, I personally keep coming back for Atlus games' unique mechanical design. These are by far my favorite turn-based RPGs and the sheer amount of customization available to the player keeps me hooked for long after I beat the games for the first time. The simple joy of knowing even the standard (often useless) RPG status effects tend to be incredibly powerful in these games gives me life.
I'd probably say one of the key aspects that makes Atlus special, at least in Persona, is the characters. Based on my P5R and P3R experiences, there are characters with plenty of depth, and even those who may seem like tropes ultimately feel like real people. And the only video game I played that has a similar type of cast for me is Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions did the cell phone thing first.
As for what I like most about Megaten, it is definitely the atmosphere and the mythology.
My biggest fear as a kid was that I would grow out of RPGs(especially when I was playing Pokémon and didn’t know much about the genre)but Atlus RPGs are so dark and mature that I can play them until I am on my death bed and never feel like I am phoning in my interest and enjoyment for nostalgia’s sake. Some of the elements of Persona are too cheesy and childish for me as a man in my 30s but the rest of Megaten was created to appeal to people my age over 30 years ago.
Well, not that being dark and being mature are one and the same,see for example Elfen Lied. The heavier subjects present in the Persona games are generally handled pretty tastefully however.
They consistently make good RPGs, it is as simple as that for me!
This is very unrelated but is your username in reference to Umineko?
I just found this channel and I love it already
I like the occult stuff. Atlus isn't the only one thats does this many JRPG devs do, like Monolith Soft, but Atlus does it in their own special way.
Not playing hajimari no kiseki?
Never Heard of this Metaphor Game until I watched this video... very Interesting to see. Do you know when it comes out?
Do you know what I just realised I can’t trust reviews of persona free even after one or two weeks because of how at least covered up how about so hackers two wars by buying out creators and reviewers only after a few months, did the floodgates to opening
God I have to but this soo bad
Just another comment that mentions the music 🔥
A weird feeling of nostalgia. Like I lived small parts in the game world.
#1 reason I play Atlus games is for the characters, just a big vibrant cast of folks that are a delight to spend time with (which means the SMT series is not my favorite, heh). Of course, that means the #1 reason I am leery of them these days, is the characters as well. They just make a number of writing choices that are very uncomfortable for me. I hope ReFantazio and Persona 6 can get to a point where they can at least be neutral, cuz I really miss how excited I used to get for these games. Currently, my favorite game of theirs is Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, which, outside of Barry (who is easy enough to ignore most the time) it's such a delightful game.
Barry Goodman is the best part of TMS.
@@westonmeyer3110 I dislike that idol obsessed fan archetype. It's very sketchy, imo. But whatever, glad you like him.
@@moonwhispers
His idol fan stuff is cringey but his training sessions are golden.
It's simple, Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Yeah, no. You could also say FF10 is that... until the point where it's not. Anywyay, Got defeat Shadow Okumura, Shido or Lavenza on hard mode while only understanding elemental rock-paper-scissors lol.
I'm learning japanese so I can play all the bajillion Japan only Atlus releases
Im honestly super happy atlus is putting smt and persona on Xbox finally.
i was just tired of pokemon games. + i love mytholgy
hello
I've never played a atlas game. Just watched people play some persona games haha
You should give it a try.
why i like atlus becouse atlus makes jrpg games with nice art and design i love persona and smt with ages i stared hate Catholic so if play smt game i always play with chaos algiment
I hate Temu.
I’m glad you’re a real female
Atlus is a joke in these days.
Not really.
@@westonmeyer3110 you mean that even the jokes are a DLC?
P3FES Gameplay enjoyers rise up🫡🫡