'SUP, NERDS?!
Oh, why yes hello! It's been a while and I've had some time to experience life after the holiday season. During my blogging absence I made a point to read novels, practice piano and get caught up on photography projects. I've been wanting to practice bass guitar, but by the time I'm home and deep into these activities I'm just too tired to work on another instrument. I swear, I'll get to it soon.
In addition to trying to be a more well-rounded and happy person, I'm in early stages of sewing new cosplay and I've recorded a slew of episodes for two podcasts I'm hosting. I'm trying to have plenty of episodes to upload in the event I'm busy for a week or two.
Enough about me, let's talk about the Persona Dancing series. You're here to hear me blab about that.
Rhythm Nut
I wouldn't call myself a music aficionado, but I'm deeply invested in rhythm games.To best describe my gaming tastes, I look for a combination of retro, horror, eclectic/weird titles, not-shitty RPGs, choice driven games and of course rhythm games. This all started with begging my mother for quarters to play DDR at the movie theatre as a kid and to most recently haggling a neckbeard for a complete in box copy of Taiko Master on PS2 for $5.
Without repeating myself much, you should all know I'm obsessed with Megami Tensei games and the Persona series. You shouldn't be surprised given my interests, but I went through a Project Diva phase when the Hatsune Miku games came to the PS3. I almost dropped a few hundies on acquiring a Project Diva arcade controller, but the thought occurred that having food to eat during my poor college days was much better.
After Persona 4 Golden released and Atlus announced more sequels and spin-offs, Persona 4 Dancing All Night boldly mentioned the inclusion of staff who worked on the Project Diva games. As a fan of both series, this was a dream I didn't even know could come true.
Persona 4 Dancing All Night
Upon pre-ordering the "Endless Night" combo pack that contains the P3D & P5D discs, I didn't realize it came with a downloadable copy of P4D on the PS4 until I received my copy. This gave me the opportunity to revisit a game I haven't played for three years.
A lot of fans viewed P4D as merely a cash in on Golden's success, but I found the game to be just as good, but more challenging than any of the Miku games. The directional buttons mirror and function the same as the right hand buttons on a PS controller in Miku whereas Persona Dancing distinguishes the d-pad and right handed buttons as different notes.
As a testament to how much I enjoy the P4D playlist, I listen to the soundtrack on a regular basis and I've shared it with a countless number of people who don't play video games or know what Persona is. P4D has a groovy disco vibe, a genre I sort of hate admitting to enjoy.
My favorite song has to be "Time to Make History", but more specifically the Akira Yamaoka remix. For some reason, I find it hilarious to dress Kanji only in his swim briefs to dance to this song (and I'm so glad others share the same sentiment). This particular remix is very intense and really epitomizes the rhythm game genre when it comes to a healthy mix of fun and challenge.
The only negative which is specific to P4D is the godawful, unnecessary story mode. I just want to play the game and I have no care or need to know why our protagonists suddenly have an urge to dance. However I think Kanamin is a cute character who I would in fact would love to cosplay one day. Aside from her and Rise's idol designs, there's nothing good to come of story mode but hours of pointless composition and zero challenge.
Persona 3 Dancing In Moonlight & Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight
I felt naturally inclined to play P3D before delving into 5. The biggest change between P4D and the new games is the removal of a story mode. P3/5D focuses on individual characters and a progression in their growth as dancers. For example, you need to wear 20 new costumes to unlock one of these segments or rack up a few thousand note streaks for another character. So by playing the game enough you will naturally unlock these storylines.
Overall these segments are more fan service than anything else, but I frequently found myself laughing and occasionally cringing. No, not a good cringe, but the sort of "this hurts because these games are sexualizing teenagers and that's totally not cool." For example, Last Surprise has a really fun burlesque theme to it. However, these are high 👏 school 👏 girls 👏. Gross. Yeah, I love dressing Kanji in his swim trunks because it's hilarious, but intentionally making this song super sexy with minors disturbs me.
The most important part about these games would be the music. It's hard to say which playlist I like more, but P3D has more of a techno/synth vibe that provides a lot of awesome, creative remixes. When people ask why sort of music I like, I often find it hard to answer. Not only do I listen to pretty much everything, but I deeply love synth, chip tune, etc. which I feel like aren't very popular genres.
I often found myself giggling during the "Mass Destruction (Tetsuya Kobayashi Remix)" because it makes me think of the music my boyfriend listens to. Cute widdle Ken-kun's so chipper as he dances to a weird mishmosh of rave music combined with high-strung Dark Throne-esque bullshit black metal drumming.
My favorite song to play in P3D would have to be "Time (Atlus Kitajoh Remix)". It's just light and makes me think of fond summer memories... Puts me in a good place.
When it comes to P5D, I would say I like the original game soundtrack more than P3's. P5 has a jazzy and quite sexy soundtrack as is but I don't think the Dancing remixes excited me as much as P3D's remixes. I don't want to say the mixes are bad, but maybe I'm too much of a purist and just prefer the originals.
My favorite song in P5D is "The Days When My Mother Was There (Atlus Kitajoh Remix)", a song I feel is often underrated and forgotten when people talk about the Persona 5 soundtrack. Even though Futaba is my least favorite character in the party, my favorite palace is her's...
I don't think they remixed "Price" at all, but it's a very alluring tune. I enjoy the bassline and the highs to the music itself.
One of my favorite songs from all of Persona 5 is "Rivers in the Desert" and I love the Mito Remix. I get glowstick feels from this mix. I wish it were a little it longer, but it would be really cool to see this tune dropped in a club or rave.
CONCLUSIONS, YES?
I don't have many more comments about these games aside from "omg plz make the vinyls reasonable to obtain." For some reason they only pressed 100 copies of a combined P3/5D vinyl primarily for the press and gaming industry people. It's a shame because most video game vinyl is so overpriced and too few are made. I began collecting vinyl since there's a lot of cheap music, but I've been eyeing video game vinyl for years and it's just never been reasonable enough for me to invest in...
Anyway, if you enjoy the Persona soundtracks at all, I would pick these games up. It's really worth the giggles you can come up with in how you play the game. The difficulty levels are tolerable enough for even beginners to get into.
LATER, DWEEBS!
Loverly Liz
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