The GWJ JRPG Club Version 2.5 HD Remaster: Announcing our Q2 2024 Game!

My choices:

  1. The Last Remnant
  2. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
  3. Breath of Fire IV
  4. Persona 5
  5. Odin Sphere

1. Odin Sphere
2. Breath of Fire IV
3. Last Remnant

1-Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
2-Persona 5

Okie dokie, here are my rankings. Looks like we have a great lineup!

1. Persona 5
2. Fire Emblem Echoes
3. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
4. Breath of Fire IV
5. Xenoblade Chronicles
6. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
7. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
8. The Last Remnant

1. Persona 5
2. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
3. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

Fingers crossed for a whopper discount on P5 come January.

Tother two are on the Vita pile.

1. Xenoblade Chronicle
2. Persona 5
3. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
4. Fire Emblem Echoes

brokenclavicle wrote:

1-Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
2-Persona 5

Adding a third pick/vote:

3-Xenoblade Chronicles

Quick update on NON FINAL results:

With the current votes, Persona 5 is the winner! I have tried compiling the results by hand in an Excel spreadsheet and with a Python script I wrote, and both have the same results. I will keep compiling the results by hand for now until I am 100% certain that my script works (I'm not a Python expert).

For those interested, it takes three iterations to get to the final result. Here's the output of my script (spoilered so those of you fine folks who don't give a damn about the detail can skip over):

Spoiler:


======================= START OF PROCESSING ========================
==================> Iteration 1
Removing Breath of Fire IV with 0 votes
Removing Fire Emblem Echoes with 0 votes
Removing Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC with 0 votes
Results for iteration 1
{'Last Remnant': 1,
'Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel': 2,
'Odin Sphere': 2,
'Persona 5': 5,
'Xenoblade Chronicles': 1}
No winner found in iteration 1
==================> Iteration 2
Removing Last Remnant with 1 votes
Removing Xenoblade Chronicles with 1 votes
Results for iteration 2
{'Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel': 2, 'Odin Sphere': 2, 'Persona 5': 5}
No winner found in iteration 2
==================> Iteration 3
Results for iteration 3
{'Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel': 3, 'Odin Sphere': 2, 'Persona 5': 6}
Persona 5 won!
======================== END OF PROCESSING =========================

Small observations (that probably nobody cares about):

  • Games that don't appear in first rank have absolutely no chance of winning with ranked voting
  • I could probably optimize things by removing both games with no votes and games with the lowest number of votes on the first iteration, since games with the lowest number of votes (1 in the current case) are removed on the next turn.

This was brought up in the previous page, and I thought I could bring it up again: Persona 5 is currently 50% off on PSN for the next day or two.

I'm happy you guys will be playing that awesome game, unfortunatelly I'll sit that one out as I'm not ready to go through it again, but it actually works out as I'm currently hooked on Witcher.

Fastmav347 wrote:

I'm happy you guys will be playing that awesome game, unfortunatelly I'll sit that one out as I'm not ready to go through it again, but it actually works out as I'm currently hooked on Witcher.

Nothing is decided yet! We'll see how votes go this week!

Looks promising for me so far! Waiting on that final drawing.

I kind of hoped that it would be another portable game and that most folks would have already played P5 too recently to be ready to give it another go around. Regardless, I have the PS3 version from a sale a while back so game on if need be.

If we do go with Persona 5, I'm curious how many will be playing it for the first time, and how many will be taking a second run through the game? It will be a New Game+ run for me. Looks like it's new for at least ClockworkHouse, Wembley, Godzilla Blitz, and bobbywatson (and maybe for others, but that's all I can tell from the posts).

LastSurprise wrote:

If we do go with Persona 5, I'm curious how many will be playing it for the first time, and how many will be taking a second run through the game? It will be a New Game+ run for me. Looks like it's new for at least ClockworkHouse, Wembley, Godzilla Blitz, and bobbywatson (and maybe for others, but that's all I can tell from the posts).

I haven't completed a playthrough. I started it, but after a handful of hours, never really went back to it, thinking to myself that I'll make time for it eventually. This would be the perfect excuse.

New Game for me.

Just out of curiosity, how far in did you make it?

I found that the opening scenes really gripped me, but once I was into the main game, the first (calendar) week really dragged. Things picked up once the game took off the training wheels and let me choose what to do with each day.

I've played through the first scenario/dungeon twice now and always gotten distracted by something else. So this would be my first time playing it through to the end.

P5 would be totally new for me, both to that game and to the series altogether. (I assume there are P1s, P2s, etc.?)

I'm very curious to give it a shot if it wins, as it's been recommended to me by a number of friends, both in real life and here on the board. I've heard great things about it. Well, that's not exactly true, but a handful of RPG conversations in the past year have ended with someone saying, "You should give P5 a shot. You'll really like it."

Count this as another vote for Persona 5. It's been sitting unopened on my shelf for more than a year now so this would give me a good excuse to finally play it.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

P5 would be totally new for me, both to that game and to the series altogether. (I assume there are P1s, P2s, etc.?)

Same. I did watch a playthrough of 4 and also the anime, so that counts halfway maybe?

I'd probably try New Game+ if I play it again. Does NG+ make the game shorter? I did enjoy most of my time with it, but not sure I can face another 100 hour playthrough.

Forlorn Hope wrote:

Count this as another vote for Persona 5. It's been sitting unopened on my shelf for more than a year now so this would give me a good excuse to finally play it. :D

Welcome! Just in case P5 doesn’t win, do you want to vote for any of the other candidates?

ComfortZone wrote:

I'd probably try New Game+ if I play it again. Does NG+ make the game shorter? I did enjoy most of my time with it, but not sure I can face another 100 hour playthrough.

I think it can make it shorter. You can probably skip a lot of dialogue if you like, and plow through the story elements. You also won’t have to spend as much time on little tasks to raise Joker’s social stats. And the first few palaces should be a breeze.

I’ve read that the following things carry over: social skills, all your gear, unspent money, your Persona compendium, and any confidant gifts that you received at the end of the game (some of which unlock late-game abilities). You also will have an optional boss fight and an optional Persona available to you. Consumable items don’t carry over (unless they’re gifts), nor do the persona you had in your stock at the end.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

P5 would be totally new for me, both to that game and to the series altogether. (I assume there are P1s, P2s, etc.?)

I'm very curious to give it a shot if it wins, as it's been recommended to me by a number of friends, both in real life and here on the board. I've heard great things about it. Well, that's not exactly true, but a handful of RPG conversations in the past year have ended with someone saying, "You should give P5 a shot. You'll really like it."

You liked SMT IV, right? Some of the mechanics will be similar, especially battle, demon negotiation, and fusion (though there are some differences that are key, especially a subtle difference in negotiation that makes the system less arbitrary). Persona 5 is a lot more story-driven and thematically tighter, though. It’s got style, it has great characters, and themes that stuck with me even after I played.

Of course, I’m incredibly biased.

Mechanically, one of the key distinctions between the Persona series and SMT IV is the makeup of your team.

In SMT IV, you have your main character plus three demons. Your MC's stats, vulnerabilities, and attacks are mostly determined by equipment and aren't easily changed. However, you can swap out any of your demons turn-to-turn.

In Persona, that dynamic is almost inverted. You once again have your MC and three partners in combat, but this time, your partners are fixed. Whoever you take into the dungeon is who you get into you leave. However, your MC has the ability to swap out his attacks, abilities, and vulnerabilities each turn without cost.

It's a small distinction, but it gives the gameplay a different feel. In both games you're trying to mix and match your stable of options to shore up your defenses and hit the enemy where it hurts, but your fluidity and flexibility is different between the two.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Mechanically, one of the key distinctions between the Persona series and SMT IV is the makeup of your team.

In SMT IV, you have your main character plus three demons. Your MC's stats, vulnerabilities, and attacks are mostly determined by equipment and aren't easily changed. However, you can swap out any of your demons turn-to-turn.

In Persona, that dynamic is almost inverted. You once again have your MC and three partners in combat, but this time, your partners are fixed. Whoever you take into the dungeon is who you get into you leave. However, your MC has the ability to swap out his attacks, abilities, and vulnerabilities each turn without cost.

It's a small distinction, but it gives the gameplay a different feel. In both games you're trying to mix and match your stable of options to shore up your defenses and hit the enemy where it hurts, but your fluidity and flexibility is different between the two.

That’s an important distinction. The other one is that Persona doesn’t exactly use the press turn battle system. You can get a full turn for your team before the enemy acts, but only if you ambush; otherwise, turns alternate between allies and enemies, with the order based on the speed or agility stat (whichever it is).

But, you can still get bonus turns by exploiting enemy weaknesses. When you get a bonus turn , you can either keep it for the character who earned it, or high-five your teammate and tag him or her in (a “baton pass”). That ally’s stats get a brief boost, and if he or she manages to exploit another weakness, you can get yet another bonus turn and pass it again. This maxes out at 4 turns (1 original, and three from baton passes).

Also, Clocky, in P5 you bring all party members into a dungeon and can switch them freely between battles. This might have been different in earlier Persona games, and I don’t think you got far enough in to see this change.

Good to know!

I played fairly deeply into Persona 3, and you could only swap party members if you returned to the entrance of the dungeon.

I’ve definitely heard there are some quality of life improvements in the newer game. You can even swap party members out mid-battle, later, though that’s an ability that must be earned.

LastSurprise wrote:
ComfortZone wrote:

I'd probably try New Game+ if I play it again. Does NG+ make the game shorter? I did enjoy most of my time with it, but not sure I can face another 100 hour playthrough.

I think it can make it shorter. You can probably skip a lot of dialogue if you like, and plow through the story elements. You also won’t have to spend as much time on little tasks to raise Joker’s social stats. And the first few palaces should be a breeze.

I’ve read that the following things carry over: social skills, all your gear, unspent money, your Persona compendium, and any confidant gifts that you received at the end of the game (some of which unlock late-game abilities). You also will have an optional boss fight and an optional Persona available to you. Consumable items don’t carry over (unless they’re gifts), nor do the persona you had in your stock at the end.

Thanks. That's actually pretty generous - it would be nice to play without the pressure to raise social stats, and just focus on the confidants. Being me, I'll probably just max out the ones I like again, but at least there's the option to try out some others

Also interested to try building more personas this time around since I missed quite a few the first time.

Persona 5 would be new to me.

I played some P4G but not a whole lot more than say half dozen hours. It fell foul of the usual intimidated feeling when faced with a 100+ hour game and getting distracted by other things combo.

Side note. I've not even started DQVII yet and not really feeling it right now. Again the time commitment and playing other things. However it's had another hurdle. Just before the voting began, back when it got picked I was really keen to play a DQ game and when asked where to start I got the overall impression that DQVIII was the best place to begin in the series. Turns out I kind of had my mind made up on 8 and it's quality of life changes and so it seems my heart isn't in kicking off with 7.

P4G collapse came down to time and discipline. I was enjoying what I'd played and just put it down and got distracted by too many things. Easy to do on the Vita when it's tucked away in a drawer now and again for longish periods.

Persona related... As soon as Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection is slotted into a PS4 sale, I'm getting it.

I'm actually not a big fan of 8, it was just really dull, although that goes back to the PS2 version. Currently 7 is vying with 9 for my fav.

I have finished P5 with 100% confidant completion, so if I do replay it will be for the story, I dont think Im ready to do so again.

  • Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
  • Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
  • Xenoblade Chronicles
  • Persona 5
  • Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
  • The Last Remnant

For me, P5 would be a NG+ run, as I did my first play through right when it came out. Cold Steel is lower on my list as I would want to play it on the PS4 and I don't want to lose a month of playtime waiting for it to come out.