I don't know how much you know about rambling, but I'm an expert.
Well, this game has certainly eaten my brain. In the past two weeks, I've put in over a day of playing in Persona 4 and I think I can definitely say this:
As a game, I find it far better than Persona 3. I believe that the individual pieces work together far better than they did in P3, with a few exceptions. And honestly, I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
I don't mind the other two social stats that were added, since it seems that they all level up faster than in P3 (I'm in August, which is four months after you start, and I've already Maxed one stat and am at Level 3 in all the others). I quite like that you can work on relationships with other Social Links in certain other Links (Off the top of my head, Dojima and Nanako come to mind), and I like how the party members grow and gain abilities based on your social link with them, so you can pick and choose who you really want to focus on in your party.
With all that said, the negative portions kind of annoy me. First off, the characters in the Social Links don't really grab me like before. Dojima is excellent and I wish he was around more often so I could go through his link faster, but such is life. I really rather like Chie, but it hurts me at how painfully boring and... uneventful her link is. Honestly, I chose her for my (potentially first) girlfriend, but god, her link is fucking boring. Yosuke's is more exciting, though he seems to be becoming more of an asshole to Kanji, which bothers me at some level. Kanji's entertaining, but I'm almost afraid he's more of a one note character. Though he did have the best line of the game. "I mean, I'm going to tear down your place and build it up better. I'm gonna RENOVATE your ass!" Honestly, the social links are rather... dull this game. I dunno, maybe one of the others I haven't gotten much in will end up grabbing my attention more, but it kind of bothers me.
Another thing that's bothered me is the pacing. It's absolutely atrocious. I can forgive a long start up time, after all, I played Metal Gear Solid 4. But by moving the dungeoneering time to the afternoon, where the majority of social links take place, the developers seem to be sending mixed messages. Obviously, you'd want to have higher levels for better Persona, but there's really no reason to do that when Social Links are by and far better overall for the game (After all, grinding takes a stupidly long time for very little reward). However, if you wait until only the rainy days to explore (What I've been doing), you'll invariably run into some difficulties and feel rushed. And then you get the huge walls of text bookending huge exploration segments. It just feels very awkward.
That being said, I still enjoy the hell out of the game, though I hope I haven't figured out the mystery (Seriously, Adachi is too suspicious to not be a murderer). And now that I've rambled for a bit, I can finally finish off at least one ap for Lost Paradigm.
As a game, I find it far better than Persona 3. I believe that the individual pieces work together far better than they did in P3, with a few exceptions. And honestly, I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
I don't mind the other two social stats that were added, since it seems that they all level up faster than in P3 (I'm in August, which is four months after you start, and I've already Maxed one stat and am at Level 3 in all the others). I quite like that you can work on relationships with other Social Links in certain other Links (Off the top of my head, Dojima and Nanako come to mind), and I like how the party members grow and gain abilities based on your social link with them, so you can pick and choose who you really want to focus on in your party.
With all that said, the negative portions kind of annoy me. First off, the characters in the Social Links don't really grab me like before. Dojima is excellent and I wish he was around more often so I could go through his link faster, but such is life. I really rather like Chie, but it hurts me at how painfully boring and... uneventful her link is. Honestly, I chose her for my (potentially first) girlfriend, but god, her link is fucking boring. Yosuke's is more exciting, though he seems to be becoming more of an asshole to Kanji, which bothers me at some level. Kanji's entertaining, but I'm almost afraid he's more of a one note character. Though he did have the best line of the game. "I mean, I'm going to tear down your place and build it up better. I'm gonna RENOVATE your ass!" Honestly, the social links are rather... dull this game. I dunno, maybe one of the others I haven't gotten much in will end up grabbing my attention more, but it kind of bothers me.
Another thing that's bothered me is the pacing. It's absolutely atrocious. I can forgive a long start up time, after all, I played Metal Gear Solid 4. But by moving the dungeoneering time to the afternoon, where the majority of social links take place, the developers seem to be sending mixed messages. Obviously, you'd want to have higher levels for better Persona, but there's really no reason to do that when Social Links are by and far better overall for the game (After all, grinding takes a stupidly long time for very little reward). However, if you wait until only the rainy days to explore (What I've been doing), you'll invariably run into some difficulties and feel rushed. And then you get the huge walls of text bookending huge exploration segments. It just feels very awkward.
That being said, I still enjoy the hell out of the game, though I hope I haven't figured out the mystery (Seriously, Adachi is too suspicious to not be a murderer). And now that I've rambled for a bit, I can finally finish off at least one ap for Lost Paradigm.